Fabric Tuesday

Well, my design wall didn't stay empty for long!  

This is the first block for my new quilt tentatively named, "Shiloh" - more on the name soon.  I can't wait to share, since it's a beautiful story!

This block is a traditional 1930's Dogtooth Violet block.  The historian in me really would like to know more about the pattern and how it originated, but there just doesn't seem to be any information out there on the web.  Does anyone know of any good sources?

I'm really enjoying working with Barbara Brackman's line, Lately Arrived from London.  As I mentioned yesterday, this is the first Civil War Reproduction fabric I've ever purchased.  Originally, I toyed around with making a quilt with a classic 19th century block to really showcase the fabric, but I just kept returning to this block.  I'm really pleased with how it's turning out!

When I originally mapped the pattern out in EQ6, I had planned on using two of the lighter background-ish type prints in the line for the sides of the setting triangles ... but then I spent all my fabric allowance for the month on a beautiful fat quarter stack ... so I decided to throw caution to the wind!  I used my go to white-on-white print that I already had on hand.   It's definitely not traditional, but so far I'm loving how the white just makes the dark, Victorian-ish colors pop! 

After struggling with all the triangular points on my Robot Roulette quilt, I decided to give foundation piecing a shot with the setting triangles, and boy, am I in love!  Granted, the fabric waste is much higher with this method of piecing, but man - absolutely perfectly pieced blocks are so worth the waste!!

Ummm ... quick tangent for a minute: has anyone else experienced difficulties with foundation patterns printing from EQ6 in the WRONG SIZE????  After making several test blocks, I just couldn't figure out why my block wasn't working out.  I checked my math several times, because surely the error was my fault ... and not the fancy computer program's fault.

Sure enough, my math was right, thank you very much ... and the foundation pattern printed directly from EQ6 was over 1/4" too small!  Unfortunately, I already printed the foundation pieces for the entire quilt already and had to reprint them in the correct size ... so this pattern will be responsible for the death of not one, but two small trees.  Won't be making that mistake again!

So, now that everything is all worked out - and little man and his Dad are happily enjoying some male bonding time this evening in the front room - I'm off to enjoy a glass of CG Di Arie's Primitivo Block 4 {YUM!}, watch some trash TV, and piece my little heart out!

Be sure to stop by Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story to see all the other awesome projects going on in blogland!

Waste not, want not ...

... or how to use every last scrap of fabric while making your Full House quilt for the January Schnibbles project.

I don't know about you, but I'm one of those quilters who absolutely hates to throw any scrap of fabric away unless it's less than 1/2" wide or is damaged somehow.  I know that sometimes, especially when trying to tailor block construction to be charm-square friendly, scraps are inevitable ... so what to do with the leftovers?  And once you've finished a quilt, do you really want to go through and sew together a million little triangles left over from those flying geese blocks to actually make something, or are you much happier just saving those bits for a rainy day that might never come?

So ... why not make two projects at once?  Thus ... the "Lumber Scraps" mug rug was born out of the scraps of my Full House quilt!

When I was constructing my flying geese blocks, I drew two lines on the back of my "sky" square.  The first (in blue below) was from corner to corner and was the line I sewed along per the construction instructions.  The second line (in red below) was drawn 1/4" away from the blue line.  I stitched a seam a 1/4" away from the far side of the line.

After sewing both seams, I cut the block along the red line ....

... and then pressed the blocks open before repeating for the second side.

That way, once I was done with all of my flying geese blocks, I had 36 - 2" half square triangles already assembled!  I laid them out in a pinwheel pattern ....

... sewed the blocks into columns, and then sewed the columns together and ended up with a 9.5" mini-quilt.

After a little bit of straight-line quilting ...

... and some binding ....

... I had made myself a little mug rug!  I suppose you could also hang it on your wall as a little mini-quilt, or use it as a little place mat for when you eat your lunch at your desk ... or you could even use it as a little Barbie doll quilt!

The best part was that because I had pre-assembled the little half square triangles as I was working on my Schnibbles quilt, I was able to finish this little project in one nap-time, and I;ll be able to add 1/4 yard to my list of busted fabrics for the week!  It's a good thing too, since that might be my only bust of the week!

Happy Sewing. :)

Pin It

{Warning} MEGA-blog-post ahead!

I'm not sure why, but I've had a mega case of "blogger's block" over the last couple of weeks.  While I seem to have manged to write and re-write my growing list of things I wanted to share with you, I haven't managed to write a single word here.

So, when I read Rachel's post over at p.s. i quilt about "indecisive blogging" this afternoon, I decided to take her advice and "just do it" already!  Without further ado, here's what's been going on in Poplun-land lately.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

A little bit of shopping ....

Stash Update: February 1 - February 17, 2011

• Purchased:  13.5 yards including a Lollipop fat-eighths bundle for this month's Le Petite Project, and a whole bolt of my favorite white-on-white polka dot fabric.
• Used: Zip.  Unfortunately, no finished projects in the last two weeks.

YTD: + 18 yards

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

A little bit of sewing ...

So, I've finally been able to clean up my sewing room and have organized my works-in-progress back into their five little boxes.  This month, I've been working on:

Box #1: The February Le Petite project, "Sweet Spot," a Schnibbles Pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  

We have three baby boys expected in the (extended) family between May and June, so I've been on the lookout for boy friendly patterns and fabrics lately.  When Burgundy Buttons, one of my new favorite online quilt shops, had a great sale on Lollipop fabric bundles, I poked that "purchase" button like lightening and immediately cut it up for this pattern.

I'm really happy with my progress, so far, but also know that I need to get my butt in gear if I'm actually going to finish before the 28th!  I'm not sure why, but for some reason I made the HST border blocks first, and then started on the center stars.  Maybe I was inspired by my "Lemon Taffy" quilt ... who knows!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  

Tangent Warning!!

I just realized that I never posted pictures of my "Lemon Taffy" quilt.  Yikes!  So, since this is a "just go with it" post, I'd better share them now ... because at the rate I've been blogging lately, if I don't, it might be next October before I remember.

 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  

... and back to the 5 Boxes update ...

Box #2 contains another Miss Rosie's Quilt Co pattern called "Eventide" and my stash of Martinique leftover from last August's "Twin Quilts".  

Ever since I purchased my sewing machine almost 4 years ago, I've either sold or gifted every quilt I've made.  I have been wanting to take the time to make a quilt for myself to keep at home and share with my family for awhile now, but haven't been able to find a pattern I was in love one, and hadn't taken the time to design one.

When I started the "Twin Quilts" last August, I went ahead and splurged on a whole Fat Quarter stack just so that would have enough fabric left over to make a quilt for me too.  I happened to stumble across the Eventide pattern around Christmas time over on Thelma's blog, but a couple of days ago, I saw that Thelma is hosting an Eventide Quilt-Along!  Since I'm already waaaaaayyyyyy behind on my prospective projects for the year, I initially had some reservations about committing to the project ... but as you might have guessed, I decided to say "What the Heck!" and signed up to participate.

If you're interested in joining up, there's still time!  Just hop on over to Thelma's blog to let her know that you want to sign up, and post your quilt progress every Tuesday!

Box #3: is breaking the rules this week.  I'm 95% done with last month's Le Petite project - embarrassing, I know!  I really only have to put on the final outer border and then that baby is done!!  However, I ended up with an awkward number of leftover 2.5" squares, so technically, this box is also holding my first forays into Hexagon English Paper Piecing.  I have to tell you, I think I'm addicted!  I totally understand why they're so popular!  I've found that it's really nice to have some hand-work to do in front of the TV.

If you're interested in giving it a try, I found my templates here.  For me, the 1" hexie works great with a 2.5" square of fabric.

Boxes #4 & #5: contain my two spring patterns.  I'm hoping to having them available in my etsy shop soon, but in the meantime, here's a quick sneak peak!!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

And {finally} a little bit of knitting!

I've finally finished the first of my Embossed Leaves socks.  Hooray!  The pattern is a great one by Mona Schmidt in Favorite Socks and it's really easy to follow ... but I'm the world's SLOWEST knitter ... so they're taking forever.  Let's hope that the second one doesn't take quite as long as the first one took me!!

{Raspberry Noises}

So, Saturday morning I was all excited to unveil my new posting strategy for 2011 - my Weekend-WIP, or "Weekend Work-In-Progress."  In an effort to spend more time working on my Process Pledge this year, I'm trying to make a weekly effort to take a picture of whatever is on my new design board (thanks hubby!!).

First project of the year was the January Le Petite Project: Mon Ami (Schnibbles patter by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co).

To be 100% honest, this isn't a pattern I would have chosen to make on my own, but part of the whole point of joining a club like Le Petite is to branch out and try new patterns, methods, and fabrics.  I had a Moda 1974 by Urban Chiks jelly roll in my stash ...

... and since I love the colors and they have some great coordinating light and dark prints, I thought I'd do some early stash busting and use it for this quilt.  Before even untying that precious "Moda" band from the jelly roll, I took the time to plan everything out in EQ6 and even went so far as to order two matching prints off Ebay for the border and binding ...

... I'm sure you can see where this is going.  I spent a lot of time on Saturday and Sunday putting together about 15 blocks in four of the six color-ways ...

... and I HATE it!  I've tried most of my usual tricks: walking away for the evening and starting with "fresh eyes" in the morning, playing around with the color combinations, making a few more blocks to see if it makes a difference ...

I just plain old don't like it.  I think that the colors appeared softer in the EQ6 mock up, but on the board the lights and darks blend together and the quilt is just too ... noisy.

After sitting and staring at it for probably a half hour, I even asked my hubby who stopped in my sewing room to iron a shirt.  He suggested that rather than staggering the colors to just have rows with all the same colors ...

... so I rearranged the blocks for the 100th time (PS - hubby says I exaggerate all the time, so he takes any number I tell him and either multiples or divides by three.  I guess in all honesty you could say that I rearranged the blocks for the 33.33rd time) ... slept on it again last night,  didn't even look at it before I went back to work this morning, came home hoping to see it with "fresh eyes" ... and still HATE it.

I really hate doing this, but I think I'm going to scrap the project and start fresh, or at least put the blocks aside to be pulled apart later and used for something else.  What do you think?  Is is salvageable?  Would you scrap it?  Would you do as hubby suggested while I was complaining about it earlier and re-purpose them as individual mug rugs so as not to waste anything?  What would you do?

For now, I have to put them away 'cuz I can't stand to look at them.  After playing around in EQ6, I came up with this design, using Moda's Aster Manor by 3 Sisters, which I already have in my stash.

I'm thinking it's a much better alternative, and it definitely looks a lot more like something I'd do, but at the same time, I'm disappointed because the 1974 line was a different color palette and I was hoping to love it ...

{Raspberries, again}

Ok - thanks for listening to me whine. :)

Le Petit Project for November

Hooray!!  Today is the Novemeber Le Petite Parade over at The Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life.  As always, everyone did a beautiful job.  I love seeing all of the different results that come from the same pattern. 

This month's pattern was Butter Churn by This and That Patterns:

I really liked the "Greek Square" and ribbon ends blocks, but for some reason, I just wasn't feeling the HST blocks around the border.  After playing around with the blocks in Electric-Quilts-6, here is my take on the quilt:

I just mirrored what were the "Ribbon V's" so that were "X's" instead, and then added a couple of extra Greek Square blocks so that everything was symmetrical.

I had originally planned to use the cream color background print in the middle of the Greek Square units again, but my Awesome layer cake came with so many great cream prints that I decided to include a few to offset the squares and break up the white a bit.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to quilt and bind it before today's submission deadline ... (hopefully this isn't going to become a habit with all of my Le Petite projects!!!!), so I can't count it towards my stash busting.  Bummer! Especially since my stash report is about to get out of control with all the post-Thanksgiving-Day sale fabric that is headed my way this week.

I'm taking a little break from my sewing machine this weekend, before I have to hunker down and finish all my super-secret Christmas gifts, but I'm hoping to start a new knitting project today (or two ... darn Ravelry has way too many cute projects!!!!), so maybe I'll have some new pictures to share soon.  Until then, happy sewing!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2010

Amy's Creative Side is hosting a fantastic Blogger's Quilt Festival showcasing the many talents of our fellow quilty bloggers.  I was so inspired after looking at all the beautiful quilts that I decided to add my latest finish to the parade.

If you're interested in participating as well, Amy is accepting submission through Friday, November 5th.  All the details are here!

Our family and friends have been blessed with an abundance of babies lately!  Last count, we have 7 babies who are happily on the way or who have just been born.  As my absolute favorite gifts to give at baby showers are baby quilts, there have been a number that have left my sewing room over the past couple of months.  While I've loved them all ... this latest quilt is turning out to be my absolutely favorite!

This quilt is for a little guy who should be making his debut in just a couple of weeks.  I knew that the mommy-to-be was planning her nursery in shades of blue and brown, so I seized the opportunity to get my hands on that Pure layer cake and matching brown polka dot yardage I'd had my eye on for awhile.  I had been finishing up my Cherish quilt when I ordered the fabric online, so it wasn't until I actually had it in hand that I began to get an idea in my head of what I actually wanted to do with it.

I've really had a thing for quilts with a crisp, white background as of late, so I knew that I wanted to use my favorite white-on-white polka dot print behind some sort of a pinwheel-ish block.  After seeing all the 10" blocks laid out side-by-side in their colorways, I decided to pair up the blue/white prints and the brown/cream prints into two-tone double pinwheels.  With a little bit of chain piecing, the blocks for this quilt really flew together!!

One new-to-me technique that I used while piecing the blocks was directional seam pressing, as opposed to my normally favored method of just pressing the seams open.  I know that there is a lot of debate out there over these two methods and that there are pros and cons to both.  I've always personally just pressed my seams open because I felt like it gave me more control over precisely aligning my seams.  After having given the "other" method a shot, though, I have to say that I was very happy with the results and will probably (occasionally) use the method again.

In my mind, I had originally planned to set the blocks with white polka dot sashing and only use the brown polka dot print for the interesting squares at the corners.  Once I had all the blocks finished and laid out, the white was a bit over powering and almost made the quilt a bit feminine.  I set the blocks against the brown polka dot sashing instead and that was it - I was in love!

I've named this quilt Puppy Dog Tails, not only because "... that's what boys are made of ..." but also because when my little pups are happy, their tails wag a-mile-a-minute, kinda like pinwheels.

Luigi 

Lily

Thanks so much for stopping by on your Blogger's Quilt Festival parade!

If you're interested in making your own version of Puppy Dog Tails, please visit my etsy shop or my bigcartel shop to purchase the pattern.  Right now, it's on sale for $4.49!

Table Runner Palooza

I really enjoy making table runners.  They're quick weekend projects that equally feed my love of design and finish projects.  I was looking through my closet the other day and began to count the number of runners I've made, but never sold and I was so surprised!  Way too many!

So, rather than list them a few at a time, season by season, I decided to celebrate my runners with Table Runner Palooza - a giant table runner and pattern sale!  Over the next few weeks, I'll be introducing my runners and patterns and sharing my design process here on the blog as I list them for sale in my etsy shop.  I hope you enjoy!

First up is my Two-Fat-Quarter-Table-Topper:

Back in 2009, when my mom and I went on our first shop hop, I won two fat quarters from Moda's Allspice Tapestry line from one of the local quilt shops.  I really liked these prints, but didn't have enough money in shop-hop-budget to purchase coordinating pieces.  These sat on my shelf for a couple of months until I was looking for a weekend project and decided to sit down and figure out how to make the biggest table topper -- including binding -- possible, using solely these two fat quarters.  The finished piece measures 21.5" square.

The table topper is on sale for $16.50 (regularly $32.99) in my etsy shop. And just in case I forgot, I wrote down the directions so I didn't have to figure out all the math again.  The pattern is also now available for sale in my etsy shop ... in case you don't want to have to figure out the math either.

... Random Thoughts on a Gloomy Afternoon ...

I'm trying not to count the number of minutes left until the end of my work day (103, if you're curious)  ... especially since this is a four day weekend for me!  We've had plenty of gloomy weather in Sacramento lately ... which is not helping me get through the monotonous task of pushing a button ... waitingggggggggg ... and then pushing another button ... waitinggggggggg ... that I have ahead of me for the next (now) 96 minutes.

I have big plans tonight to curl up with a good book, a warm blanket (which seems so weird to be saying at the end of MAY), and a couple of snuggly pups -- hubby will be happy to have the big TV to himself to play his latest game (my way of saying thanks for dealing with soggy walls, a parade of construction workers, and multiple hospital trips over the last three weeks).

While I'm waiting to make my escape, I thought I'd share some fun finds with you!  My new favorite (non-crafting-related) blog is THX THX THX: A Thank You Note A Day.  Author, Leah, practices gratitude for things big and small with daily handwritten thank you notes.  When I first stumbled upon her blog, I happily expected a fair amount of snarky humor, but was quickly and pleasant surprised with the genuine way she finds something sincerely worth appreciating every day.  I definitely recommend adding her site to your daily blog roll ... and if you feel up to the challenge ... taking time to genuinely appreciate the little things in your life.

So, here is my exercise in gratitude for today!

So, with my new toy, I've been experiment with quarter-circle blocks and the Old Maid's Puzzle layout, inspired by this Amish Quilt mentioned in this post.

I started out with just a modest table-topper to try and figure out the gist of things.  I was going to wait until I had a finished product to show before blogging about it, but have since been inspired by Rossie's challenge to blog more about the design and quilting process that goes into making projects instead of just blogging about the finished product. So, without further ado ...

I, Shelley, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can't quite put them in words or be sure I'm being totally clear.  I'm going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.

There.  I did it.  And if you're so inspired, you can too.

Tune in tomorrow for "Autumn Maid's Puzzle" - WIP.

P.S. - A second thank you goes out to the wonderful co-worker who provided us with sugary goodness in the form of CAKE!  It definitely help the next 18 minutes go by quickly.