A Very Crafty Month

My yard still looks exactly the same as it did in the photo from my last post, only there's more snow. A LOT more snow. We had a little January thaw in the middle of the month, and most of the snow on the ground melted. Sunday's nor'easter dumped 14 inches in my town, and it's been so cold there's no hope of melting. We're still waking up to mornings near or below zero this week with daytime highs in the teens. Perfect sewing weather!

The second little Courthouse Steps mini got finished earlier this month. The fabrics are mostly the same as the first one, except where I ran out of the original fabric or changed my mind. I hang my minis down my hallway wall with the Command strips, which work perfectly, and this one has been hung.

I finished quilting the big Courthouse Steps yesterday afternoon. Once I settled down to work on it, I was surprised how fast the blocks went--they're 14 inches finished. The quilt will finish at 56 x 70 inches, which is a fine size for a lap quilt. This one will be donated to Maine Veterans Home after I get the binding on. 

I used a pantograph called Two Fold Feathers by Lorien Quilting. I love this design because it's easy and not too dense, and because I love feathers. The large scale of the pantograph worked well with the big blocks, I thought. 
 

With the last of this hunting print stripped into the middle of the backing, I had just enough green to finish it off. More fabric out of the stash, my quilt chapter's stash, that is. 

It would be nice to get another finish for the month of January; but with only two days left in the month, I doubt that will happen.  

At our second chapter meeting this month, we did a square in a square workshop for charity. The blocks are set 7 x 7 and finish at 7", so the quilt should finish at close to 50" square. 

These block were pretty fast to make, and I especially liked them because the on point squares are floating; that is, after the seam allowance is taken, the point of the square is back from the seam line. That means nothing to match when you sew them together. 

There are plenty of patterns out there for square in a square blocks and variations, so I could see another one of these in my future. 

 We cut 5" squares for the centers of these blocks, but you could substitute a pieced square if you wanted. Coincidentally, Studio 180 just came out with a brand new ruler for nine patch blocks in nine sizes or something, so for example you could put a nine patch block in the center. Or you could change the dimensions of the outer triangles so you didn't have to deal with crazy math. 

The Tango top has been finished for a little while and will be the next quilt to go on the frame. This was from a workshop I took with Diane Harris, the Stash Bandit, last summer at Maine Quilts. It was a fun class, but I changed up my methods a bit when I got home. The fabrics are all from my Lori Holt collection. Because like 30s repros, they just all go together, lol. 

This is another pattern I've seen around the web in different sizes and variations. SewCanShe has one called Fancy That, 1 and 2, I think. 

The block size was pretty big, and I took all my cutaways from the corners of the big blocks, turned them into half square triangle blocks and sewed them together this way, which will turn into a nice sized baby quilt. 

I'm hoping I can find a backing fabric in the stash big enough to quilt both of these tops at the same time.

I have large scrap bins with lids in every color squirreled away in another part of the sewing room. The organization of said scraps occurred several years ago, here, one of the most sensible things I ever did. Additionally I had a big drawer full of scraps, also sorted by color, that I could dive into for something quick or throw in a few handfuls left over from some other project. It was handy to have that drawer full so accessible right in the sewing room. When it got too full, I'd move some scraps into the larger bins. 

Last month I guess, the triangles got out of control; so I moved all the scraps out of the drawer and replaced them with these containers of triangles. These are baby wipe containers I saved from when my granddaughter was still in diapers, because what good quilter doesn't save all kinds of containers? 12 of these containers fit perfectly in the drawer, all sorted by color. Brilliant.   

Then I had nowhere to throw a few scraps before I either sorted them into the big bins or used them. So I cleared everything off my countertop, and I am making these small bins in rainbow colors for a quick toss of a handful of scraps. 

I am loving these containers. The pattern is the medium fold up basket from SewCanShe, and they finish at about 5-3/4 x 7 inches, plenty big enough for a few good handfuls of scraps. After the sewing is done, the flaps allow you to fold it up into a basket. 

These fold up baskets are available in three sizes. The directions are free on the website, but you have to contend with ads; so the patterns are also offered as pdf files for $5. 

You need two fat quarters to make the medium size basket, so that's another half yard out of the stash! 

The best part about these containers is that they're easy to sew, there's no hardware to attach, and they unfold to store flat. This is what it looks like unfolded. 

I have three made so far and trying to get two more made this week. 

Two more ornaments were finished this month. This one is called Bethlehem Star....

... and this one is called Reflection and was given to a friend for Christmas. 

I finished this little cross stitch last week too. This design hung in the bathroom in my friend's quilt studio for years. When she passed away, it was given to our other friend Sherry. 

I hunted in vain for the pattern online and never found it, so I borrowed it from Sherry and duplicated it. At long last it is finished. The cost of having it framed like Koleen's original is stupid, so I want to make it into a small quilt. I haven't a clue how to do that right now, so I'm trying to find out something about that online. Blue Pip Designs has a little tutorial on how she finishes her small cross stitch pieces, so there's a starting point. 

Somewhere in there, a dishcloth got finished this month too, but I didn't take a snap of it. 

More fun next week! 

**Linking to Alycia's  Finished (or not!) Friday

 

 
 

January WISP

WISP--that would be Works in Slow Progress (otherwise known as UFOs), which is the name Kris is using for her One Project a Month Challenge; and this quilt will be my project for January.

Does anyone make watercolor quilts anymore? Watercolor Bars is one of two watercolor quilts I made back when I was living overseas, so it's probably 9 years old. This one was made square by square, as opposed to the second one which was made with strips which were then cut apart to make four identical blocks. I really enjoyed making this one, but was it ever time-consuming to choose each and every square. I'd really like to make another one.

It started out life as a round robin. At the time, I couldn't fathom how a watercolor round robin would work.... and apparently neither could any of my four swap mates, because what I got back was a mish mash of squares with no discernible pattern whatsoever. I'm pretty sure theirs were no better. I took all the squares apart and reassembled them into this bar pattern, the goal being to reuse every single square that had been part of the original project. I remember now I only had a very few squares left over that I simply couldn't find a place for.

Probably the main obstacle to completing the quilt back then was indecision about how to quilt it. This morning I made the monumentous decision to simply quilt diagonal lines through each square. The second obstacle was deciding to use either invisible nylon or regular thread. I'm really not crazy about invisible nylon because of the shine, but in a quilt with so many colors like this one, it would probably work very well.

In any case, I have the entire month of January to finish it and fulfill my challenge obligation, so I'll spend the rest of this week choosing backing, creating the quilt sandwich, and choosing some thread. No need to rush into it, is there?

My pillowcases to go with the Tug of War quilt are finished, and I put together the little chickadee ornament last night. The glue is dry, and it's finished! The back of it looks just like the one on the right, which is a little nutcracker I made long time ago. I want to work on some other ornaments this year, mostly but not all crosstitch--the list of things to do in '09 is growing! I also finished sewing another strippy top but haven't loaded it for quilting yet. I'm going to do that probably this evening.

It's snowing in Maine today, and the weatherman has predicted 4-8 inches. The weathermen are rarely correct up here, and I'll be surprised if we get four inches, especially since right now it's sleeting. Soup is perfect for supper tonight!

Sunday Stash Report

I am exhausted from working so many hours this month; and as the month wears on I find I have less and less energy to do anything including sewing. Beginning the week after Christmas though, my schedule will get back to normal. I have lots of things to get caught up with.

In the meantime, I've been chipping away at a few little odds and ends in the sewing room and finally got the binding done on this quilt, which you've seen before here. This is my fourteenth finish for the year.

Next up is the binding for the Tug O' War quilt, which I've already started on. This is the biggest quilt I've ever made, about 95" x 110", so it'll take some time. I almost have the second side finished.

I also took the time to throw a little pink and blue strippy on the longarm to practice the bubbles pantograph I want to use on the Orange Crush quilt. I'm still hoping to get these two quilts finished before year's end, but I'm rapidly running out of time. If I could just get a day off somewhere, I could do it!

In the last couple of weeks, I've added a grand total of 3 yards to the stash. Not bad, eh? Haven't used anything though. The backing for the pink and blue strippy was a flannel sheet from the thrift shop that looked pretty new, and I never counted it into the stash.

Here's the Stash Manager's report:

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 196-7/8 yards
Fabric added this week: 3 yards
Fabric added year to date: 354-7/8 yards
Net year to date: - 158 yards

Years ago before I began quilting I was passionate about crosstitch, but I haven't done it for a long time. I started this small piece a couple of years ago as a Christmas ornament. All I had left to do was add a few musical notes, but I put it away and never finished it. I dug it out a few days ago, as it's a perfect thing to work on when I'm too tired for anything else.

I've also given some more thought to what I want to do in the sewing room next year. I never make New Year's resolutions because I never keep them, but the New Year still represents a new beginning and new opportunities. Besides focusing on scrap quilts, I'd like to spend more time learning my Electric Quilt program and learning machine embroidery. I recently found a new blogger who does some machine embroidery and enjoyed browsing her site. She made a free standing lace ornament of an ice skate that I really liked. My good friend Barb made some lace segments which she then draped over a glass Christmas bulb, and it was lovely. Inspiration abounds!