Where in the world did the last week go? I knit a little and hand quilted a little and finished the samples for my little demo about the "Crazy Squares" (next weekend at the TRPQG meeting in Rocky Mount, NC). Our family also celebrated the 30th birthday of our daughter .... so I guess I WAS busy with a variety of things.
On May 15, on the blog "String Thing Along", P. showed an adorable rick-rack-trimmed table topper that she had made. It took me a little bit to get everything rounded up, because I had to order the EZ Dresden ruler, but today I was ready to go. I cut and sewed strip sets in red, white, and black. I'll cut the wedges and put one together tomorrow. If I'm happy with the results, watch out, there will be more!
On Saturday, the Artrageous Quilters met at the store once again. Our topic was "cityscapes" and Pat C. generously shared ideas and had lots of samples for inspiration. Here's the beginning of mine, just rough shapes.
To really define the shapes, I decided to couch black yarn on the outlines. Here it is in progress.
Here's the back.
When the couching is done, I'll add the back. Then I'll do some machine quilting and finish up with the really fun part - embellishment! Beads and ribbon and maybe a couple of surprises.
I took a long weekend away from the sewing machine, so all I have to show today is the table runner with binding on and cat off.
As so often happens, I have a few other ideas to explore with these blocks before moving on ... kind of like the string quilts I've made lately. I'm giving a demo on this "method" in two weeks, so it wouldn't hurt to have a couple more samples.
This quilt top is made entirely from scraps on hand. NO new yardage was cut. I had to do a little figuring when it was time to add borders. A plain border would be boring. I didn't have enough left of anything to do that anyway.
I think that there IS enough left of the darkest purple for binding.
The same idea was applied to the blocks I made for the green and gold table runner. It was machine quilted yesterday and when I came back to work on the binding, this is what I found.
When the hand work is finished on the binding I'll try to get a picture of it without a cat!
No, I haven't put the border on the purple quilt yet. I had another idea! I cut squares 3", 6" and 9", mixed them all around and began to make blocks for a runner. Here they are, just as I am getting ready to sew the smallest squares in the centers.
My original plan was to find a variety of yellow and green scraps and make something that looked like "spring". Then I found the multi-print that looks more fall/winter. I shifted from yellow to gold in my search and that's how I arrived at this selection. I just finished the slice and dice part of the operation and have sewed the new blocks together.
Here's a close up of one of the blocks.
I found yardage in the closet of a nice dark tone-on-tone green that will serve as borders, binding and backing. With a little luck, I might finish it today.
I'm here to tell you that cleaning only leads to trouble. Yesterday, I was sorting through a box of very miscellaneous sewing items like magazines with patterns marked, sample blocks and more when I came across a paper pieced block that I originally made for a class. I would have ignored it, but it was packed away with all the fabric for a fictional project, some of which was pre-cut. I thought that if I would make three more blocks, I could make a little wall hanging or something.
If you like paper foundation piecing, be sure to check out www.paperpanache.com. They have loads of great patterns including some free downloads. That's where I went to print the extra patterns, and while I was there, I couldn't help doing a little browsing. There is a nice eagle pattern and a cute turtle, but what caught my eye was this:
Everything came to a halt while I made my round "TUIT". Everybody is always saying that they will get around-to-it and now I have one of my own.
Way last March (2011), I was playing around with some batik scraps left over from another project. I made up a little pattern and put four blocks together. The whole thing was only about 20" square.
I wasn't that excited about it so it stayed that way until this weekend, when I layered and machine quilted it.
Here's what I made.
I like making the little zippered bags. I also put one together to showcase one of my pull-tab flowers.
Thanks to Sally, Teresa and Pat C., who brought me more drink tabs. No telling where the flowers will turn up next.
Oh, NO ... look what happened! I guess it was inevitable, since I titled that post "Purple Haze" and I had all of these purple scraps piled everywhere.
Lately, I have been a lot better at starting things than finishing things and I had just said to myself "I wonder what I could finish today?" I'm not doing very well with that thought. Well, I might finish a book ... The Empty Chair by Jeffery Deaver. It's a real page-turner. I have an idea for the pull-tab flowers, too. Must sew faster, must sew faster.
