Butterfly doll quilt

I felt my new kitten needed an accessory. My mom had the idea to make her her own baby quilt that matched her dress. First I picked out the dress materials I wanted to use, and then I rummaged through my stash for complimentary calico squares.

I came up with a 10 inch square quilt design and a little butterfly drawing to hand embroider in the center. I used a satin stitch to fill in the butterfly. I hand quilted the doll quilt too, with cotton batting sandwiched between the quilt top and a square of one of the dress materials.

I used my second dress fabric for the binding, which I slip stitched by hand to the back of the quilt. It all got a bit labor-intensive, but I like to quilt. So, I got carried away. It's the cutest thing in person. It's so tiny. I'm still fussing over it, but I should leave it be to make her dress.

Blue and Yellow Quilt, November Block

I took the weekend to just goof off and I did my quilt homework too. I thought I might have trouble with this block because it looked intimidating, but hand piecing really levels the playing field as far as difficulty goes. It is great for accuracy since you have more control than you have with a sewing machine.

Figuring out how to draw the templates was a bit of a brain twister, but once I realized it was just a twelve inch square divided into fifths, it came together. The only frustrating thing is that twelve inches doesn't divide so conveniently into fifths, at least not for me :) This is when I go metric. Metric is so much easier. A fifth of a twelve-inch square is 6.1 centimeters, which is 2 3/8 inches. It's just easier to do the math that way for me. Once you draw out a grid of five by five 2 3/8 squares, you can see how to draw the design. The long pointy blue triangles in the center part cross the span of two squares on the grid, with the longer diagonal line going from one corner of one square to the corner of the second square. The shorter diagonal line just spans one square on the grid. The block is assembled using the same techniques as the previous one.

I also made vegetable soup. This is when I take all the leftovers that are reasonable to use for soup stock, and dump them in a couple pots of water some onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and bay leaves. It is not an exact science. I let it simmer for a couple of hours, and then I strain it. I took about five cups of stock, a big can of diced tomatoes, 28 ounces, I think, and about five cups of sliced vegetables. I used carrots, celery, peas, green beans, corn, and parsley. I meant to add the parsley to the stock too, but I forgot. Now I have half a bunch of parsley in the fridge, and I'm not sure what to do with it. That kind of negates some of my satisfaction at using up the leftovers, but what do you do with parsley? I also added some macaroni to the soup. I added everything according to how long I thought it would take to cook, and let it boil until it was done.

Other than that, we have been editing more cat art doll photos of Max's. We have more to do. I've let the web site updating go because I can only spin so many plates at once, but I really have to get going on that too. Sigh. Oh, I won't even mention all the other things I have going. We'll see what I get done!

Blue and Yellow Quilt, October Block

I'm still moving along on this Block-of-the-month quilt. Every month, I think I will slip behind, but I've managed to keep up with my class. I drew out templates on poster board and template plastic and hand pieced this block, as I have most of the blocks for this quilt. If anyone wants to follow suit and make templates, the blue and white corner squares are based on 4 1/2 inch finished-sized squares, with an diagonal line drawn corner to corner. The center white square is 3 inches, finished size. And the yellow and white rectangular sections are based on 4 1/2 by 3 inch finished-sized rectangles with lines drawn from corner to corner in both directions.

Cut out your templates and lay the templates on the wrong side of your fabric. Try to line up the outside edges of the main sections of the block and the outside edges of the block itself parallel with the straight of grain of your fabric. Draw around the templates with a pencil (the mechanical kinds work best, especially with a piece of sandpaper under your fabric to keep it from slipping around), and the cut out the pieces 1/4 inch outside the lines to create a 1/4 seam allowance. The pencil lines become your sewing lines. You just match them up by inserting a pin through both layers, and hand sew the pieces together with a small running stitch. Press your block once all the pieces are assembled.

Where did June and July go?

I realized yesterday that I had posted seven blocks-of-the-month, and that September made nine. I fished around and unearthed June and July. How did I miss both June and July? I must have been in a time warp again.

So, here they are, June and July, no worse for the detour.

Blue and Yellow Quilt, continued

This is the September block from the block-of-the-month class I've been going to this year. I'm glad to say I've been keeping up with my homework this time. I know I will get behind as soon as it is time to put it together, as I have reworked the entire layout, adding two extra blocks, a big hand appliquéd center piece, and I don't remember how many little squares all along the outside edge. I'm sure it will be glorious, if I finish it before I am elderly.

I have been very busy lately, editing photos of art dolls and scans of art for Max, who is coming out with a new line of prints. I still have much to do, including finishing some dolls who have been extraordinarily patient about receiving their wings, clothes, paint, etc.

Hopefully soon I will get a gazillion projects of my own finished. Well, that is always unlikely, as I start ten while I'm working on any given one. Hope is good though.

Slow Motion Quilting

I haven't been feeling well and missed my quilt class this past weekend. I rallied and got my homework together in time for the midweek class instead. I was going to just pay the five dollar penalty for not doing my homework, but I wanted to get back to my normal routine as much as I could.

I sewed this block all by hand, using templates I made from poster board and plastic template sheets. The finished block size is 12 inches square, and 12 1/2 inches square including the seam allowances.

The yellow and white portions of the block are based on a 3 by 4 1/2 inch rectangle. The yellow triangle is formed by drawing a line to the center point of the opposite short side of the rectangle.

The blue and white portions of the block are based on a 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch square. Trace one out on plastic, draw two lines dividing the square into quarters, which divides the square into four smaller squares. Drawing a line from corner to corner of the smaller squares forms the triangle, and the trapezoid.

Once you cut all the template pieces out as I have above, flip them over right side down on the wrong side of your fabric and trace around them with a pencil. A mechanical pencil works best. It also helps to lay your fabric over a piece of sandpaper to stabilize it.

Once all the shapes are traced, cut them out leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance around each one. (The block's center white square is 3 inches by 3 inches without seam allowances, and 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 with seam allowances.) I then piece them together by hand using a standard running stitch. It takes longer, but I find it is much more accurate and less frustrating than joining small pieces by machine. It is also calming and, I think, fun to do since you can do it anywhere, even while in bed watching TV.

"The Cow Jumped Over the Moon" One-of-a-kind Art Quilt

Over the weekend I took out a couple of projects that were in need of a small amount of work to be "finished". I made this nursery quilt back in 2004, when we were having another hot August. It was entirely done by hand. I drew the illustration, traced it onto freezer paper, hand appliquéd the pieces on, and then hand stitched all the blocks and strips together. The one thing I stopped short of doing were the hand-embroidered eyes and nostrils on the cow, and my hand-embroidered signature. This is what I finished over the weekend. It is a glorious thing to behold really, so colorful and cheerful.

Weekend quilting

Over the past couple weekends, I've been catching up a little with my quilt projects. Above is my progress so far on my (mostly) blue and yellow quilt. I'm assembling it as I go it won't get out of control.

This is the latest block that I did for this weekend's class.

These two blocks are from Lori's class. I've got three more blocks to catch up with on that quilt. We are now at the putting it all together stage, or some of us are :)

I was also repotting my African violets and saw their bowls and pots made an interesting color combination that I might want to use for a kids' quilt design I'm working on. I've wanted to put a free pattern, or set of patterns, on my site, for charity quilts. I've been looking at the Project Linus sites in particular, working out the preferred sizes and materials. I have my drawings done, but I haven't made up my prototypes yet. I also need to figure how to make up the PDF files and put them on the site.

My experiments with color these past couple weeks expanded to my hair color as well. I'm seeing what life is like as a redhead now. I've been blond all my life, except for a brief period after birth when my hair was black, oddly. But since it fell out and the blond grew in, I've been blond. I've only been out and about a couple times since the change, but I have noticed that women I have never met before seem to feel quite comfortable walking right up to me and asking me for advice, so far on such things as calcium supplements and the age-appropriateness of certain articles of clothing. I'm wondering if I suddenly look more knowledgeable. It's a little startling, but kind of nice.

Still another quilt class for me

I finished my quilting homework today for another quilting class. In spite of the fact that I am usually behind on Lori's class, I signed right up for more. This one is supposed to be a yellow and blue quilt, but I bought a pretty pink fabric to make a dress for my poor doll who is still waiting for me to give her some new feet...pink fabric that looked so appealing to me next to the blue and yellow, that I think I may have to use it for my quilt instead. Perhaps there will be enough for both projects, or perhaps I will have to pick out another doll dress fabric, which, in turn, may end up in yet another project.

"I really do have love to give"

That's from "Magnolia". I love the movie and the soundtrack.

Happy Valentine's Day! I cut out about a gazillion of these heart blocks, and hand appliquéd about, um, well, some of them. My friend, Linda, made a wall hanging of appliquéd hearts, and I got a little overly inspired. I have them in two colorways, reds and tans, and blues and greens.

Catching up with my quilt homework

I'm only one class behind now. I even thought I'd try to get ahead. The next class is a paper-pieced block. Being convinced I couldn't match any of the seams up without drawing the whole block out to size and then cutting it apart, I started drawing, and erasing, and drawing, until the block was too complicated to be paper-pieced. This is why I am always behind. I am not happy if I don't make a thing more complicated than it has to be. My worst offense so far has been our bow tie block. Once I was done, mine had eighty individual parts that I put together to make a twelve inch square. But...it looks really nice. I'm not sorry. Lori, who has been teaching us, based her design on a quilt in Making Scrap Quilts To Use It Up. She made up the directions because it had none for that particular quilt, and simplified some of the blocks to save our collective sanity. Disregarding all potential threats to my own sanity, I got a copy on eBay and I have been happily re-complicating the blocks ever since.

Traditional quilting

Sometimes I like to just sit and sew by hand. It's relaxing and meditative. This is a hodgepodge of pieces from Lori Mann's quilt class. She volunteered to teach a group of us, and her patterns and instructions have been great. (Thanks, Lori!) I am embarrassed to say, even with the time we had off for the holidays, I am still behind!