Another Mini Quilt?

Of course I won't start on it until I've finished the list but I just saw this quilt this morning on the purlbee and think it's way too cute not to share!

The End of Week One

I've stuck to it for one week, at least! No new projects were started and I even finished 2 "old" ones. Sure, neither of these had been sitting around for all that long but they were still on the list.

Trip Around the World Doll Quilt. Continuing my efforts to amass a collection like this one.

Flower Seeds pillow. I just love this fabric and how it matches the curtains in my craft room so it had to be a pillow. And, as an added bonus, this wool on the back is one that I love and have had for years and years (since my gung-ho rug hooking days in about 2004) but have never found a use for. Now I've used a bit of it at least!

Finishing Things

Everyone who knows me very well at all knows that I'm not too good at finishing projects. Especially when I have places to store these projects (as I now have in my house versus my 1-closeted apartment in Brooklyn) and so they're not staring me in the face at every turn. So, now that I'm working more frequently (for the best letterpress printer), I've decided that I need a list and a little accountability to get my list of UFO's under control. My goal is to have everything on this list finished by the end of October. I know that the list looks daunting but, just so you don't think I've lost my mind, I'll just point out quickly that quite a few of these projects are very very nearly finished already. Also, I'm not going to start any new projects except for those for people outside of my household until the end of October. Hold me to that one especially!

Here we go!

Throw Quilts:

Redwork Bitty Blocks

Patrick's Medallion

Blueprint Bento Box

Lumiere de Noel

Doll Quilts:

Around the World

Sunbonnet Sue

Woodland Bitty Blocks

Bed-Sized Quilts:

Either Rectangles and Squares Quilt

OR Sleepy Hollow Quilt

Daybed Log Cabins

Pillows:

Master Bedroom Pillow Shams

String-Block Daybed Pillow (using blocks like the top one from this post)

Pink Flower "Seed Packet" Craft Room Toss Pillow

3 Koigu Granny Square Crocheted Pillows

Painting:

kitchen cabinets

furniture to be charcoal grey (small dresser in study, kitchen chairs (3), Thea Table)

Curtains:

last study curtain

living room porch-window sheer

Clothing Sewing:

Amy Butler Tunic

Grey Linen Dress (from the same pattern as this dress)

Liberty Summer Blouse (from the same pattern as this one)

Knitting:

Patrick's Brown Cabled Sweater

Seaming for my machine-knit pullover

Black Kim Hargreaves Dress Sweater

Blue Sweater Vest for Patrick (ravelry link)

MadTosh Ink Socks (ravelry link)

Rosamund Cardigan (ravelry link)

Mosaic Throw

Misc Sewing:

Chesterfield Pincushion (like this one)

Cross Stitched Tiny House & Flowers

quilted potholders

Back to the sewing machine with me!!!

DQS10 Finished

On my end it's finished, anyway. I've still not received my quilt and that is a big part of the swap. But I like most doll quilts so I know that I'll love whatever comes my way. Most of my nervousness in the swap comes from worrying about whether my partner will like her/his quilt that I made. And she did!

This little quilt made it to Dena (here's her blog, complete with the photo I used for the house on this quilt there in the header) and I heard from her today so now I can talk about it freely (the doll quilt swap has secret partners so I couldn't post photos of it before for fear she'd see her house and know it was for her). I'm so excited that she liked it! It was a whole lot of fun to make, with all of the little embroidery details I so enjoy stitching.

Dena also likes to embroider so I just had to include a little embroidery/needle book. With some variegated threads. These swap packages are way too much fun to put together!

And here's the whole thing, with the 2 bits of fabric, some local tea, the needlebook, and the quilt, all smooshed into that plastic envelope to protect it in the mail. I hope the wrinkles iron out.

Now I can't wait for my quilt to come and then it's on to crossing my fingers that I get into round 11!!

Attack of the Doll Quilts

I seem to be addicted to doll quilts. They're just so much fun! A good place to try out new techniques that maybe I don't want to use for a full quilt. A nice practically instant-gratification project. Not to mention the fact that I've become a bit obsessed with these two photos.

My quilt for DQS10. I love this swap! Except for the fact that in this case, the secret partner thing is requiring me to keep that piece of paper over my favorite part of the quilt until I get it mailed out to my partner!

This one's backed and quilted now but this is still the best photo that I have of it -- at least it gives you an idea of the pattern.

This one's inspired by one of the ones in Hilary's photo (linked above). I do love this fabric!

But the unfortunate side effects of making this many doll quilts is that 1) a person eventually uses up every last little scrap of batting in the house and 2) the quilts all inevitably come to the part (and all at the same time if they're feeling particularly diabolical) where the binding needs to be hand-stitched onto the back of the quilt. Oops.

Bitty Blocks -- February

The theme for the 3.5-inch Bitty Blocks for this month is words/text. It's been interpreted a ton of different ways but here are my takes on it (I'm in 2 groups so I'm to make 2 sets of 12 to swap). The top set has 3 different fabrics printed with words and the bottom set has 1 fabric printed with letters and another that I freezer paper stenciled with the first initial of each of the quilters in the group. I'm excited for the other blocks to start coming in the mail!

Doll Quilt Swap 10: Begun

I've had enough time now to check my (secret) Doll Quilt Swap partner's information and likes / dislikes to develop a plan and actually get started. The deadline on mailing the quilts out is in about 2 months still but I plan to do a fairly complicated embroidery / applique piece for the center so the more I can get done prior to receiving my background piece of linen, the better.

Fabric choices for the Doll Quilt.

Inspiration mosaic for the center embroidered piece. All photos from flickr.

A bit of my scale schematics / sketches for the design and an (unironed / untrimmed) bit of the main border.

Back to the sewing machine!

Bitty Block Committee

Introducing my latest craze in flickr swapping -- the Bitty Block Committee! This is a swap wherein the participants can sign up by month to make 12-24 blocks in a theme to send to other swappers in exchange for different blocks, all measuring 3.5 inches square (3 inches finished). December's theme was "birds and owls", for which I made the little embroidered robin, 2nd up and over from the bottom left corner, and the stamped rooster, diagonally up and to the left from him. Also, not for the swap, but to try out paper piecing, I did the 2nd bird down from the top right corner, inspired by this wonderful mug rug. The rest of the blocks were made by my fellow swappers and I love all of them! More of the blocks were used for the pillow I showed yesterday and the last few are being saved for another project to be done in future. Perhaps after the DQS10 is over.

Speaking of which, in other swap news, I WAS ACCEPTED INTO DQS10!!!! How exciting is that? I had so much fun with the swap last year, I can't wait to get full tilt into it again this year. Good quilting on the horizon!

A Finished Project Explored

Bitty Block Committee Owls

I finished a Bitty Block Committe project! December's theme was birds and owls and, as I signed up to get 24 blocks, I had plenty to separate out just the owls which matched one another. Then, based on this pillow of Amanda's, I made little 4-inch HST blocks and add 1/2-inch borders around the 3-inch owls, sashed it all and made it into a pillow.

The photo of the finished pillow was "Explored" by flickr (thanks to Lynne for explaining all of that whole new thing to me!) How exciting!

One of Six

Well, after a bit of indirect prodding by a flickr friend (who is also making a French General quilt) I managed to (somewhat) conquer those diamonds and my new triangle-in-a-square template to complete one of the blocks for my quilt. I'm still hoping that I can make the "stars" in the corners (only half of which are there now) more prominent with my quilting but I am enjoying a pleasant overload of red, white, and beige for the moment. Five more (and 3 center block portions) to go!

Thanks for the Christmas fabric, Mom!

Because I Was Asked

I've been a bit too busy obsessing over Bitty Blocks to get very far with this project but, since I created a little bit of interest in the project, I thought I'd go ahead and share the (very) little I've done so far.

The Lumiere de Noel layer cake was a Christmas gift from my parents which I've supplemented with just a little bit of other fabric from French General (just 2 quarter-yards). The pattern was inspired by the sashing on this quilt.

As you can see, I've mostly only done the simiplest parts so far. And have a few mistakes in a few more blocks of those squares-in-squares which I need to pick and resew. Already! But maybe I'll feel inspired this afternoon to tackle a few of the triangle bits and make a completed block.

Since the Last Time I Saw You

Hello there! I'm sorry for my extended absence. It turns out that handmaking all Christmas gifts and then driving from Oklahoma City to Upstate New York (straight through) is both time-consuming and tiring. But I'm back now. And happy new year to you all!

I just love paperwhites. That's been a major event of the last few weeks is that the ones I bought from the farmer's market are blooming. And have to be continually re-staked because they are so tall!

Also in the past couple of weeks we spent New Year's Eve here at the house with a couple of friends, playing cards. The fire actually refrained from smoking and it was a cozy and lovely evening. We even had a potluck dinner between the 4 of us. ("Company chicken", toffee candy similar to 7-layer bars, and my favorite broccoli soup)

And finally, I'm happy to finally be able to reveal some of the Christmas gifts which kept me so busy throughout December. (Not pictured, I made several of Liesl's gorgeous little boats and 4 pair of Toasty Mitts.)

Perhaps the largest project was this throw quilt for my parents. It was actually completely finished (I am notorious for giving unfinished gifts, as perhaps are most crafters) and the largest quilt I've totally finished to date. I think it looks very nice in their living room so I'm happy that it got done, even if I had to go through 2 walking feet to get it there (I think the first one was just poorly made -- it only managed to quilt 3 potholders and half of this quilt before breaking).

Here I am wearing the hat I made for my husband's step father, Howard. I hope it fits him better than it fits me!

Snowmen from this pattern (found via 2MayBoys and the Trim the Tree swap). I love these little guys!

Sewing Overtime

Well, the Christmas gifts box went out the door this morning and most of the cards went yesterday. I still have a few more cards, one more batch of cookies (so far I've made these (with peach lavender jam from the summer), these, and these, all of which are quite tasty although the caramel didn't set up), and a few more gifts which I plan to carry on the plane to finish up but I felt this afternoon like I had a bit of time to sew some more on my Mystery Quilt.

I've been asked what a Mystery Quilt is and this seems like as good a time as any to explain a bit. So Bonnie Hunter posts these "hints" on her blog every Friday (basic quilt elements to put together, such as 120 half-pink-half-brown half square triangle blocks at 3.5 inches) and we all follow along blindly until we get to the last step (the past mysteries have had about 7 steps and we're now on 4) where we see what in the world it is that we're making! I know that it'll be a full-size quilt in pink, green, chocolate, cream, and red, but that's absolutely it so far.

Jessica (whose blog I found the mystery through) and I are muddling through together. Having someone to discuss with does make it a ton of fun. But I've been too busy with holiday preparations just now to get much done.

The photos above are, at top, my single 8.5-inch "neutral" block (I'm to make 60 of them but I haven't quite figured out the tricks to sewing onto a paper foundation with my machine), in the middle, 142 of 172 2-inch wide pink-and-green strips, and, on the bottom, most of the 120 pink-and-brown half square triangles (they're not actually to be pinwheels necessarily, I just like arranging them and admiring them as pinwheels). I've not even started on the 120 green-and-neural 2-inch strips and matching 2-inch green blocks. At least I've made a bit of progress though.

Big Progress on a Small Quilt Top

First, I must make a note that those little bits of Double-Wedding Ring in the front left corner are the quilt on the bed underneath my log cabin quilt. I know that they look funny.

Other than that, I'm happy to report more progress on this quilt which I've been piecing since July! It all came to a standstill when I couldn't find my rotary cutter to square up the blocks and has had insane progress made on it since I bought my new favorite cutting tool and found the cutter again last week. Now all of the log cabins are pieced, many of them are attached to one another, and I'm ready to go find a batting and a backing.

This quilt is for the daybed that I've had since I was 10, which has the same quilt to go with it that it has had since even before the bed was given to me. It's really time for a new quilt! We're planning to pick the bed up in Oklahoma at Christmas. It will become a new "sofa" in my craft room / sun porch. With a new quilt. All of this being here to explain why there are odd cut-outs on the corners of the quilt -- it's for a daybed.

I certainly hope that it goes well with my new curtains. But I still haven't painted in the room so I can pick a paint to match both and bring it all together. Must get back to work (and back to cutting pieces for the mystery quilt which I will show here soon).

Thanksgiving Doings

Happy Thanksgiving!

Busy busy over here. But not with what I should be busy with on Thanksgiving.

I wanted to wear my sugarplum pullover for dinner today so I finished working in all the loose ends.

The first snow of the year is falling.

I'm so obsessed with my new cutting tool (and newly rediscovered rotary cutter) that I can't stop working on quilting.

And the first of Mildred Pearce's eggs to be used is being made into dinner rolls by the bread machine.

I hope you have a good one too!

Woo Hoo!

And we're off on the quilt. I'll see you all in a month, after I find my rotary cutter (MIA since the move last February. . .) and cut out 172 "sections". I don't think I've cut that many of a piece of fabric for any project, ever. This should be fun!

Get Rolling Cotton Boll

I'm feeling very impatient to get started on my Quiltville Mystery Quilt. I found this whole mystery quilt business through Jessica's blog and felt intrigued by the mysteriousness of it all. But then I saw the Double Delight quilt from a previous mystery and looked at the holes developing in my two current quilts (which are both commercially produced quilts and both getting to be quite old, as far as commercially produced quilts go) and couldn't resist. But now I've gathered all of my fabrics (most of which came from my stash -- I had no idea that I had so much fabric!) and put them in pretty little piles and I am itching to cut!

A lucky thing for me is that I happen to really really love the color combo for this particular mystery quilt (which is likely why I had so many of these colors in my stash -- if she'd thrown in a blue I'd probably have had more trouble). I don't, however, have 1-3/4 yards of any single fabric in my stash so I'll have to order the red she mentions. Darn. I love this one. So much that I'm having to restrain myself from buying a whole lot extra so that I can have it around for future projects.

This is going to be great fun!

Great Steps in Quilting

This week I've had several quilting "breakthroughs". Which I suppose is really the fun in learning something new -- when I learn something new. When it's challenging. It's certainly tough sometimes though.

Everything's still a bit wonky but that's "handmade", right? At least that's what I like to tell myself.

To make those 3 little objects up there (the top one is a Dresden Plate doll quilt I made just because I wanted to try to make a Dresden Plate, and the bottom photo is of 2 potholders for PP5), I purchased and learned how to use a walking foot (how did I ever sew anything without one of these? It's the coolest thing ever!), really learned how to machine quilt in general (using this hugely helpful post), finally managed to make my square corners more pointy (reread Denyse Schmidt Quilts for info on that), and actually finished one of my own quilting projects (I'd finished quilting projects for swaps but not a single one of the projects I'd started for my house). Of course I still have tons of room for improvement but every little bit helps!

Dresden Plate Progress

I'm loving loving making this Dresden Plate. I never wanted a full quilt of these but I always loved them and wanted to try one. And it's so much fun! I see now that I'm making pretty slow progress but I think it's just because it won't be there to work on any more once it's finished.

I followed this tutorial, used a border like this doll quilt, and used this quilt as the inspiration for the treatment of the circle in the center (it's done, in my case, by applique of a blue-dot circle and then cutting out a square of the white fabric barely larger than the blue circle, folding it into quarters, cutting a curve out of the corner, and applique-ing the shape on top of the circle). It's not perfect but I like to just chalk that up to "handmade".

All that's left to do is to add solid-blue squares to the corners (I can't seem to find what's left of my solid blue fabric. . .), put on the back (which will be blue-green, rather like the color in that Denyse Schmidt square print there), and then bind it all with the white-with-aqua-dots fabric which is kind of out of focus but toward the top of the photo above. And then quilting. Which will be pretty minimal on this small of a quilt. Sadly. I do enjoy quilting.

The Swaps Continue

Continuing on with the Scrappy Pincushion Swap, I've decided to jump on the paper piecing hexagon bandwagon. I used this tutorial and the hexagon "graph paper" generator she links to, set on 0.75". The hexagons were indeed fun to piece. I don't know if I could do a whole quilt of these though. I pulled all of the fabrics from the pile shown on Tuesday. The sides of the pincushion will be an embroidered flower garden.

I've also just joined my first swap (ravelry link) on ravelry, which I've finally joined. My friends have all been after me to sign up for several years but I've only just now decided that I have a bit of time to devote to the infinite browsing everyone says follows signing up. It's not happened yet (honestly, I find the site a little bit difficult to navigate) but I'm still having fun with this swap. More on that to come!