WIP Wednesday: Priorities

Tags

cats, Frankie the Frenchie, Pooh, quilting, sewing, WIP Wednesday

First priority:  CUDDLES.

WIP = Work in Progress

Happy Wednesday!

I am a little tired and low on words tonight, but I do have a few pretty pictures for you, so let’s take a look.

I finally finished up the mini quilt for my sister’s birthday, only a little bit late.  I don’t know why I sometimes lose steam in the middle of projects, but I sure did on this one, so it took longer than it should have.

Pattern is Frankie the Frenchie from Sew Quirky.

This is about 13″ square.  Frankie is a bit smaller than he should be, simply because I had to print the pattern at 95% size to get it all on regular printer paper.  Other than that, this project went pretty smoothly.  I used Steam-a-Seam 2 again on this, and I think I may be moving along the learning curve on it–gets easier every time I use it.

I hand sewed the smallest pieces on there–just easier than trying to get the machine to navigate those little curves, though buttonhole stitch worked through three or four layers of fabric and fusible can also be hard work.  Rain was in the forecast when I did it, and my hands were not very happy about those layers.

I didn’t really plan on such dense quilting–it just sort of happened.  I did the outline and added a few swirls, but then it looked strange to have the area outside of that be unquilted, so I had to fill it in.

An important note on doing spiral quilting (which I definitely need to remember for next time):  for reasons that aren’t very clear to me, spiralling counter-clockwise, as I’ve done here, is significantly more difficult than going clockwise!  It’s harder to see what you’re doing when you’re going counter-clockwise, but I don’t think the difference is down to just that.  I can’t really explain it, but it just seems much easier, and looks much better, when done clockwise.

This past week I also did some work cleaning up and organizing my knit stash with the help of some new-to-me plastic drawers from Goodwill.  I also donated a plastic tote full of bags I sewed years ago for a craft show.  It made me a little sad to see them go–they represent a dream that I had that fell by the wayside–but it also felt like a step forward.  I’m trying very hard to work toward new dreams, and it’s time to let some old ones go.

I’m liking my new spacious sewing room, but I’ve run into a pretty big obstacle:

Yes, it’s the Mending Pile of Doom.  Or maybe Return of the Mending Pile of Doom?

Anyway, it actually toppled over the other day, so maybe that’s a sign that I should deal with it.  There’s some darning in there, another pair of pants that needs pockets, and a couple of the dreaded zipper replacements in ready-to-wear garments, everybody’s favorite mending job.

So this coming week should probably be designated as Mending Week, and I should probably try to be a responsible adult who tackles difficult challenges head-on and forgoes immediate gratification.

Well, I’ll take a stab at it, but no promises.  If I get halfway through the pile and decide to take a mental health break and sew something fun, I’m totally gonna call Mending Week a success.  It’s spring and I’ve got that fun knit with the bees and flowers on it, so don’t count on me being a responsible adult for too long.

Here’s another picture of my bestest buddy, just because.

Have a great week, and I hope you’re not being so responsible that you don’t have time for a little spring fun.

STH

 

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WIP Wednesday: On the Road

Tags

Oregon, Pendleton, quilting, Richland, sewing, Social Justice Sewing Academy, travel, Washington, WIP Wednesday

Somewhere near Pendleton, Oregon . . . .

WIP = Work in Progress

Hello, everybody!  I’ve missed you!

I’m still here, still on the right side of the dirt, as they say.  Just busy with family stuff, car stuff, whatever stuff, but not doing much sewing.  But I have a few things to show you today and a few stories to tell, so let’s do it.

First, I did finally finish the second block for the Social Justice Sewing Academy, and both blocks are now back with them to be included in one of their quilts.

I decided to stay away from the blanket stitch on this, as I don’t think it has the right vibe for these blocks–too cute, too down-home, too neat and tidy for artwork this sharp and cutting.  So I’ve been doing running stitch, that zigzag backstitch I like so much, and a little chain stitch.

It occurs to me that you could use these blocks for a sort of research project–choose a book on the topic of the block and read along (or maybe listen?) as you do the stitching.  I don’t know that I have the time to devote to something like that right now, but I should think about it some more.  Doing this needlework has pointed out to me some gaps in my education.

Second, I made cat toys!  A member of my Buy Nothing group was getting a donation together for the local animal shelter, so I took the opportunity to purge some old sheets and towels and make a few toys (it’s kitten season, you know).

At first, I tried to make some fish shapes, and, um, well . . . then I came to my senses and remembered I DO NOT DO TINY.  If I’m going to attempt something small–these are about 1 1/2″ across–it’s gotta be simple.  So I did a shape that I know I can cut and sew accurately and have it actually come out looking more or less like what it’s supposed to be.  They have a few catnip pellets inside, so hopefully the shelter kitties will like them–I know mine were certainly interested.

Third, we took a road trip to the Hermiston/Pendleton part of Oregon in order to check the route for a 300k bike ride.

Lots of rolling hills, cattle, and tumbleweeds out there.  And a little snow.  That’s a cattle guard just visible at the bottom of the photo there; lots more cattle than cars on these roads.

I’m trying to get out for more walks.  This is the walking path along the Columbia River in Richland up near the National Lab.  Behind me just a few miles up is the Hanford Reach, including the National Monument, and a lot of perfectly preserved shrub-steppe landscape.  It’s preserved because it’s owned by the U.S. Department of Energy and it’s full of nuclear waste.

Living here can be a little strange.

I also apparently found “where the sidewalk ends” out here.

And, finally, my latest project, a mini quilt for my sister’s birthday.

I’ve got the pieces all sewn down except for the eyes, which I’m doing by hand (I DO NOT DO TINY, well, at least on the machine).  I kept to more or less the colors used in the pattern picture because they are bright and goofy and perfect.  I hope she loves this as much as I do!

I hope all is well with you and you are moving along the road to wherever you would like to be.

STH

WIP Wednesday:

Tags

embroidery, quilting, sewing, Social Justice Sewing Academy, WIP Wednesday

Around and around and around . . . .

WIP = Work in Progress

CW:  Self-harm

So quilting is underway on my Maybe Quilt!

I got out my “Divide and Conquer” book to refresh my memory on how to do Quilt As You Go.  The book discusses several ways to do it, but I’m using Method 1 here; basically, you quilt each section, leaving an unquilted border on the edges you’ll need to join later, then sew the tops together, trim the batting to fit, and hand sew the backing.  So I figured out which edges will need to be joined and ran a line of hand basting about 2″ from those edges.  You can see a bit of the basting at the center bottom of the picture above.  Note: if you do this, be smart and don’t make my bonehead mistake–your basting should only be through the top of your quilt!

On the first panel of the quilt, I started in the middle and did one big spiral–easy and fun!  As you can see in the picture above, I just eyeballed it; I tried to keep the left edge about a presser foot’s distance away from the last line of stitching, but I didn’t obsess over it.  I LOVE quilting you don’t have to mark.  You’d be surprised at how neat and even it looks, though it really isn’t!

As you can see here, the effect is pretty subtle, which is fine, since there’s already a lot that’s happening in this quilt.  The rainbow fabric shows off the quilting, but it’s nearly invisible on much of the quilt.

I wanted the quilting to be a little more interesting than one big spiral in each panel, so I tried to do a couple smaller spirals in the second section.  And ran into this:

I think where I went wrong here is that rather than starting in the middle, I more or less ended there, so I basically pushed the excess fabric in toward the center as I went, resulting in those nasty folds there.  😦

I’m not sure how I’m going to go about fixing this–maybe rip out most or all of one spiral so that I have somewhere to push that excess fabric?  Rip out part of each and hope to ease that excess in?  I’ve put this in the naughty corner for the moment so that I can ponder what to do and grumble about the unfairness of life.  One thing’s for sure–on the other two sections, I am DEFINITELY doing a spiral close to the middle, then working out from there.  Harrumph.

While I’m being grumpy about that, I’ve been putting in some time on my embroidery for the Social Justice Sewing Academy.  It’s a nice portable project to work on while I’m waiting for my mother at her various appointments.  Almost finished with this block:

Blanket stitch gives a nice finished look, but it takes so long on all these letters!

Tried to use Lazy Daisy to suggest drops of liquid here.

I did a backstitch in a sort of zig zag pattern on these letters, which I really liked.

I’m hoping to get these packed up and in the mail next week.

Then I need to get going on a little something for my sister’s birthday next month.  So many things to make!  Note to self–less time reading up on the John Grisham (or maybe Mario Puzo?) novel that U.S. politics is currently inhabiting means more time for making things!

Have a very excellent week and I hope you’re able to set aside the craziness and focus on making lovely things (at least until it’s time for the next march).  Take care.

STH

WIP Wednesday: Drama

Tags

Kittitas Valley, Leslie Groves Park, quilting, Richland, sewing, Washington, WIP Wednesday

YOU MAY TAKE MY PHOTOGRAPH NOW, HUMAN.

WIP = Work in Progress

Happy Wednesday (and, yeah, that other thing, too, if you’re into it.)

I encountered this very regal goose at Leslie Groves Park the other day and thought I should share the magnificence.  (We won’t mention the fact that its call sounded like the whiniest baby imaginable:  WAAAHHH)

We could also probably talk a little quilting while we’re here.  Specifically, this:

My baker’s rack and a couple of binder clips:  essential photographic gear.

If you recall, this quilt top is now in four pieces for quilt-as-you-go purposes.  In preparation for quilting it, I set about making a scrappy backing from the leftover fabric from the top.

Like most things, it’s easier said than done, but this is what I’ve got for that section:

 

I started the process by googling–there must be a tutorial someplace on how to do this, right?  Well, there may be, but I didn’t find it.  Lots of quilters do things like inserting a finished quilt block into a plain quilt back, but I didn’t really find anything on making a totally scrappy back.  So I spent about three days–and nights, as I tend to dream about problems I’m working on–thinking about how to turn a pile of scraps into a quilt back.  My goal was to use up as much of that fabric as possible without using a quilt pattern or spending a huge amount of time on it.

The method I came up with was to cut my pieces into squares and rectangles as efficiently as possible.  All the resulting strings were sorted into piles by length and each pile was sewn together, then trimmed.  That gave me larger string blocks to work with; I laid out the section of quilt top, then moved around my string blocks and larger pieces of fabric until it was completely covered.  Then I sewed the whole mess together.

Here’s the front of the second section I worked on:

And the pieced back:

This was the perfect opportunity to use that Sylvester and Tweety fabric!  I got it in a huge Freecycle box of fabric several years ago and have been saving it for just the right project; I only had that one strip and the design is huge, so it wasn’t the easiest scrap to use.

So, verdict?  This was really fun to do and I love how the backs turned out!  And LOTS of scraps found a home–almost all the fabrics you see here were completely (or almost completely) used up!  I only made two of the four backing sections I’ll need for this quilt, and I’m actually a little concerned that the blocks I have left won’t be enough to make the other two, so I picked up another fat quarter today while I was out with my mother.

Do you ever start a project for reasons other than “I love this and can’t wait to make it”?  Then your feelings about it change as you go along?  This quilt wasn’t one of those “true love” sorts of projects for me; I started it as an experiment to help me learn more about combining colors and fabrics, and as a way to use up a bunch of scraps.  The farther I get with it, though, the more I like it; I suspect it’s going to be the “good friend that became THE ONE” of quilt projects.  How appropriate for February 14th.  😉

In other exciting news, we were overjoyed to welcome this new addition to our family:

Thus ending almost three weeks of what my partner and I are calling The Dishwasher Saga.  I won’t go through the whole thing, but it involved (literal) fire and flood, two dishwashers, four installers, innumerable phone calls, a few tweets, and me stomping out of a large department store while swearing to TAKE MY BUSINESS ELSEWHERE.  The saga finally ended last night when I filled this with dirty dishes and ran it.  Then my honey and I found ourselves hanging around the kitchen, half expecting the thing to blow up or something.  It seemed impossible that it should just work without any drama, but so far so good.  [crossing fingers and toes]

I leave you with a picture taken at the viewpoint outside Ellensburg on our way to the Seattle Bike Swap.  Spectacular weather that day, and I was able to get this nice shot of the Kittitas Valley.  (Unfortunately, the weather for the rest of the weekend was, well, normal for Seattle in February, but we still had fun and unloaded a bit of our bike stuff stash.)

I hope all is well with you and all your projects are well-behaved and free of drama.  Unless that’s what you’re into.  I don’t judge.

STH

WIP Wednesday: Two Steps Forward

Tags

cats, clothing, embroidery, politics, quilting, sewing, Shelby, Social Justice Sewing Academy, WIP Wednesday

WIP = Work in Progress

CW:  Self harm.

I’m not exactly setting speed records here, but I’ve made a little progress on my projects since last week.  The combination of a lingering cold and gloomy January weather is so very un-great for your motivation to get things done.  😦

Above is a picture of my Maybe Quilt top–or 1/4 of it, to be precise.  I’ve been thinking about how to quilt it, and had to face the fact that there is simply no way to do it in two pieces.  It’s sort of grown in the making, and each half of the quilt is about 3 feet by 7 feet!  Sure, there are people who are willing to take on wrestling a quilt that size under a regular sewing machine, but I’m not one of them.  So I took a deep breath and cut each piece in half.  I’m not crazy about putting an extra seam in there, but it was the best solution I could come up with.  Next step is making a pieced back for each 1/4 so that I can finally sandwich and quilt this monster!

I’ve also taken in the sleeves on my PJ top and finished it up.  Pants are next, once Shelby is finished with them.

Also on the to-do list:  research new camera!

Poor little girl.  I accidentally trapped her in the cold garage last night, which led to a frantic search later when I was ready for bed and realized I hadn’t seen her in hours.  Cue the catastrophizing and visions of worst-case scenarios–YIKES–until she finally came out during my SECOND search of the garage.  I think she thought I’d abandoned her!  She’s been very clingy today; at this moment, in fact, she’s somehow perched on the back of my desk chair, so that she can keep an eye on me.

Anyway, I also acquired an interesting new project this past week.  I came across an organization called Social Justice Sewing Academy that holds workshops in which teens make quilt blocks about the social problems in their lives.  Those blocks are sent out to volunteers to be embroidered, then returned so that they can be combined into quilts.  I love the idea of high school kids having their concerns heard in this way (and seeing where they can take such an ancient art form), so I signed up to embroider.  These are the blocks I was given to work with:

There’s an interesting challenge here:  how to use embroidery to enhance a message that’s beyond the usual “here’s a pretty thing” point of embroidery.  How can I help the people who made these get their message across to the viewer of the finished quilt?  Between that and the actual issues dealt with in the blocks, I suspect I may learn a lot from this project.

Also in that vein, we had our local Women’s March this past Sunday; last year my partner and I went to Spokane, but this time I just drove across the bridge to Richland.

I just took a few pictures to give a size of the crowd–best estimate is about 1,000!  Not bad for such a conservative area on a drizzly, windy day.

Couple of handmaids showed up . . . .

If nothing else, it helped us all recharge our batteries a little bit, and I’m glad for that.  Because I suspect things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

And a song that we sang before we marched:

Have a great week, folks, and take good care of your lovely selves.

STH

 

 

 

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Cozy Colors

Tags

charity sewing, clothing, quilting, sewing, WIP Wednesday

WIP = Work in Progress

Hello again from the Land of the Everlasting Viruses!

Yep, I’m still recovering oh-so-very-slowly from my nasty cold, and still pretty low on energy, but I do have a few pretty things to show you today.

First, as you can see up above, I’ve made more charity quilt blocks–now up to 21!–and did manage to use up almost all the strings I had pulled out of my scrap stash.  I may yet churn out some more before the deadline, but I’m moving on for now, as all the half-finished projects in my sewing room are making me a bit squirrelly.

These blocks have led to a couple of positive developments, though (I mean, apart from the whole objective of contributing to a good cause).  For one thing, I like how these turned out a lot more than I expected to; I normally don’t like blocks that are totally random and scrappy like these, but they are undeniably fun and cheerful.  This has made me feel a lot more hopeful about how successful the Maybe Quilt will turn out to be.  That quilt has fewer colors and fabrics, and more qualities that tie the whole thing together, so I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll like the final product–and I’m anxious to get back to it!

Also, going through my scrap bins to find bright strings to use made me realize how many fabrics in there I just really don’t like any more.  They’re weird colors that don’t go with anything, or pastels, or little flowered prints, or whatever, but they’re fabrics that I just don’t want to use for my projects.  Rather than keeping them in those bins and considering and rejecting them every time I choose fabrics to use, I decided to pass them on to somebody who would appreciate them.

I posted this bag of scraps to my Buy Nothing group and wound up giving it to a woman who plans to make blankets and other things for new moms who don’t have much.  I liked the cause, so I went through my yardage, too, and found 10 yards of fabric to add to the bag.  She was thrilled to get it, and I was thrilled to have some more clutter out of my little sewing room.  This is what I love about Buy Nothing–every single exchange is a win-win for everybody involved.

Also, I have an update on my new flannel Pjs!

I’ve got the top mostly together.  I noticed before I cut that the finished length was way too short (about hip length), so I decided to take the opportunity to add a little interest to it in the form of a band at the bottom.  I used a flat felled seam to attach the band to the front and back, then added the sleeves (flat insertion), and did the first line of stitching on the (French) side seams.  I’m going to need to try this on again and take in the sleeves a little, as they’re a bit drafty at the moment.  Note that this is supposed to have 3/4 length sleeves, but they’re full length on stubby little me.

The full-length pants were just ridiculously long for me, so I cut the capri length.  If I need a little length, I may add a contrasting band to the hems; I also want to add a contrast pocket to the right leg of the pants, as that was an unexpectedly handy feature of my old PJ pants.

This London print is just so silly and fun–I love it!  I don’t mind being a goofy tourist every once in a while.  🙂

So I need to finish these up, then get back to that Maybe Quilt.  I keep on making all these quilts and I still don’t have a full-size one for my bed!

Have a wonderful week, and I hope you’ve got all sorts of cozy, colorful things coming to life under your needles!

STH

WIP Wednesday: Plague Month

Tags

cats, Covered in Love, embroidery, Pooh, quilting, sewing, Shelby, WIP Wednesday

WAKE US WHEN IT’S OVER

WIP = Work in Progress

So I started 2018 with all sorts of ambitions and plans and fresh-new-startedness and then . . . I got sick.

Actually, my honey got sick first, right after Xmas.  And he’s STILL sick, which will give you an idea of what sort of ugliness we’ve been dealing with here.

so . . . very . . . droopy

I SEEM to be getting better in a sort of two-steps-forward-one-step-back way, but we’ll see.  I’m hoping to avoid the second act–starring antibiotics and Prednisone–that my honey’s going through.  😦

I have managed to sew a bit during the plague, though, so let’s talk about that.

I had two Xmas presents to finish up, so those were my first priority.

The first was this embroidery for my buddy Heidi.

Terrible lighting on this is not doing it justice, but I was in a hurry.

Here’s a slightly less shadowy one I took before I bordered and framed it:

This design was a coloring page over here and it immediately made me think of Heidi’s lovely back garden with her cats peeking out of it.  I did this in more muted colors to (hopefully!) suit her taste; most is backstitch, with a little lazy daisy on the smaller leaves and outline stitch on the outline of the cat and the yellow flower.  Very fun to do, but I deliberated too long on starting it and so it wound up late.  She loved it, though!

And I also finished the wall quilt for my partner’s sister:

Finished size is about 16″ x 20″.

I did sort-of-but-not-quite matchstick quilting on this to enhance the sense of horizontal motion.  I skipped over the triangles with the quilting because I didn’t want to obscure the piecing in them, which is really my favorite thing about this quilt.  I used the tip here to start with drawn lines 2 1/2″ apart, then fill in the space between them.

Close-up on the piecing here, because I really need to try this again sometime.  I love the balance of simplicity and subtle detail in this quilt.

I finished the quilt up about the time I got sick.  So what to do now?  I wanted to make something but I didn’t trust myself to manage anything that might require brain power.

I decided to take a stab at some charity quilt blocks.

These are for the block drive happening over here for a charity called Covered in Love that provides quilts for the families of people who die in the hospital.  I’ve been wanting to do some charity sewing, and easy string blocks like these are a fun way to do that.  I’m using some old pillowcases (came in a box of random linens from my Buy Nothing group) as the foundation and lots of bright scraps for the piecing.  I’m up to eight blocks now and have barely made a dent in the box of strings I collected for this, so we’ll see how many I can churn out in the next six weeks or so.

There’s also been some progress on my flannel PJs, but I’ll leave that for next week.  Until then, wash your hands and stay safe, friends.

STH

WIP (Almost) Wednesday: Still Here!

Tags

cats, Pooh, quilting, sewing, WIP Wednesday

Yep, it’s this dork again.

(WIP = Work in Progress)

Yep, still kicking!

I’ve just been sick, and have had a hard time getting over it.  Many things that needed to happen the last couple of weeks just haven’t, because I haven’t had the energy to get them done.  Hopefully that will not be the situation for much longer!  And so many apologies for not responding to your lovely comments for so long–I do always appreciate them so much.

I have various things in process–Xmas is looming!–but I’ll just focus on one project today in order to avoid writing a massive tome of a post.

This project started last Friday, when I asked my partner what we should send his sister for Xmas.  Well, he says, maybe you could make her one of your wall quilts?  Hmmm . . . okay.  But I don’t know her very well; what’s her style?  He says she likes modern things, minimalist, dark colors, and Asian influences.  I did some googling and showed him a variety of quilts that I thought might work; that wasn’t a very helpful exercise, but he did say that one of them that I liked was boring because it wasn’t very “dynamic.”

Okay, I can work with that.

I eventually came up with this as inspiration:

Free Stylin’, Spiralin’ & Flyin’ Geese from Piece, Love & Happiness

I love the asymmetry of this, the motion, and, of course, the colors.  But she used ombre fabric, which I don’t have.  What to do to get some depth and complexity in the triangles?

I wound up combining this idea with a second piece of inspiration:

Beads on a String from Orange Dot Quilts

Scrappy triangles, of course!

I pieced strips of fabric together, trimming each one into a rough triangle before adding the next strip.

I chose pretty similar scraps to keep the variations subtle.

Then I used Steam a Seam to cut out my triangles and fuse them to my backing fabric, a piece of white linen from the stash.

And here is the top assembled:

Well, more or less, as this was the point at which Pooh decided he was being neglected and needed to roll around on all my handiwork.  #BearsGonnaBear

I did eventually get everything in place and fused down and I started to sew on the appliques . . . and half of them promptly fell right off.

Harrumph.

And then my sewing machine decided to go on the fritz.

Sigh.

I’ve cleaned and oiled it, but it’s sort of sticking, then releasing, over and over, as I sew.  Which is kind of a pain on these teeny weeny little triangles (the larger ones are 2 1/2″ square), and is not going to be workable when I try to quilt this thing.

I’m headed out of town tomorrow, but will fiddle with the machine next week and see if I can’t fix the problem.

Have a great week, and I hope you’re getting full cooperation from all your mechanical friends.

STh

 

 

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Chaos Management

Tags

cats, quilting, sewing, Shelby, WIP Wednesday

WIP = Work in Progress

There has been progress in various areas this week, largely due to me being irritated by the chaos of unfinished projects all around my sewing room.  Black and white quilt pieces over here, Maybe Quilt pieces over there, towering pile of mending in the corner, unfinished Xmas presents next to them–YIKES.  I needed to feel like I was getting a little closer to having some of these things actually DONE, so I channeled my crabbiness into a little productivity.

As you can see above, the green blocks for my Splash of Color quilt are done, though not trimmed.  Purple, red, yellow, and turquoise blocks still to do, then the mountain of trimming.

I’ve also started working on the oversized Pusheen sweatshirt that my sister passed on to me because it didn’t fit her.

Here’s the über-fabulous before picture:

Great, huh?

I’m honestly not actually that short–5’4″, last time I checked.  But some clothing manufacturers seem to think that if you’re big around, you’re also tall; I regularly cut 6″ of fabric off ready-to-wear pants, while thin, slightly taller friends of mine can’t find pants that are long enough.  HEY CLOTHING MANUFACTURING PEOPLE, SHORT AND FAT IS TOTALLY A THING.

So I cut the bands off the bottom, sleeves, and neck, and marked what I need to do on this to hopefully make it a little less sad.

Better!

I’ve got some coordinating scrap fabric (because of course I do), and the plan is to cut off the excess on the hem and sleeves and use the fabric to bind the raw edges.  I’m also going to add a slit to the neckline and bind that as well.  Oh, and there will be hem vents, too, because I never have enough room for my hips in RTW.  Seriously, this is why I tend to make my shirts too big at the hips–I’ve got a thing about fabric grabbing me there.

And the Maybe Quilt top is almost done!

I’ve got it in two pieces at the moment, as the plan is to do Quilt as You Go on it.  So this is half of it on my dining room table.

I laid out both halves on the bed because I’m just having a terrible time getting a sense of it as a whole, and I hoped that would help.

The colors are awfully washed out in the pictures, but they are plenty bold in person.   I hope the quilt police aren’t watching, ’cause this thing has not only cotton, but also rayon, a wool blend, and whatever “linen look” fabric is made of.

Cripes, how did this get so big?  You can’t see it, but it extends over both sides and the bottom of the mattress, too.

I need to find a wall somewhere, somehow stick this top to it, and step back 20 feet, I think.  I still can’t figure out if the whole thing works or is too busy.  I love all the fabrics in it, though, so I suspect I’ll love the whole when it’s finished.

I’m setting the top aside for the moment so that I can work on Xmas presents.  I’d love your input on how you think I should quilt it, though.  My inclination right now–and this changes several times a day–is to do several large spirals.  I’m leaning toward something to break up the linearity of it rather than emphasize it, and spirals sort of bring out the over-the-topness of it, you know?

Anyway, the goal for next week is to focus on Xmas presents.  I should probably also prioritize that fall sweatshirt, considering how we’re rapidly running out of fall.  (I have this thought running through my head now about WHY DON’T I HAVE A WACKY XMAS SWEATSHIRT, but I am diligently ignoring it, as that’s the kind of nonsense that gets me in trouble.)

Have a wonderful week, and I hope all your colors are working well together.

STH

 

WIP Wednesday: Too Much and Too Little

Tags

cats, cross stitch, quilting, sewing, Shelby, WIP Wednesday

My assistant put in some time this week.

(WIP = Work in Progress)

Happy Thursday!

We’re having a chilly, gray day here, so let’s all ignore that nasty business and look at some pretty fabric!

I made some progress on my Maybe Quilt this week.

I wound up with 40 strips, each 42 to 45 inches long, of my colored fabrics, the most I could get without having a lot of repeats.  I sewed the short ends of each strip to a strip of black fabric, making a tube.  Then I laid my tubes out on my dining room table to put them in order.

Needless to say, there’s a LOT happening here!  I think all this lively color will be balanced out by the black border in the finished quilt, though.

Then it was time to cut the black strips more or less randomly so that the colored sections would be staggered.

This whole process was a bit nerve-wracking because it was impossible to get a good sense of how it all would eventually look.  I finally told myself firmly to STOP FRETTING and trust the process!  The whole quilt is an experiment after all, and if I don’t like it, I can take the damn thing apart and have a bunch of strips all ready for another project.

I’m now working (slowly) on sewing the strips together and spending the time thinking about ways to quilt this.  The question is whether I want to do something that continues all the straight lines or something that breaks them up.  Hmmm . . . .

While I mull that over, I’ve also gotten started on Christmas presents.  I recently joined a new Facebook crafting group and it has inspired me to go back to counted cross-stitch.  I’ve decided that this will be the Christmas of rude cross-stitch.  😉

Amazing work so far, I know!

And I have learned two things doing this.

1.  WOW, has my eyesight ever gone downhill since 2009, the last time I cross-stitched.
2.   I really, really need some new glasses, ’cause this stitching with white floss on cream fabric is about to kill me.  That cross-stitch I made for my mother years ago on linen with all those subtle shades of cream and pale pink would totally do me in now.

 

Have a fabulous week and I hope all your projects are just humming along and you’re not wondering where that damn hole in the fabric got to.

STH