Grey Cat Quilts

Back to the Farmer's Wife

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:33:00 +0000

Last night, I treated myself, since it was just me at home. Sushi, solitude and sewing! Well, not so much sewing, but cutting. Stitch N' Bitch was today, so I spent the evening cutting fabric so that I could just spend today piecing.

And piece I did!

#064 Peace and Plenty

I really need to vary up my grays in these blocks, but I love this particular gray and white print!

#089 Steps to the Altar

More new fabric. Lots of strip piecing.

#098 Water Wheel

This is one of the few white background blocks that I've done so far for the sampler. I need to make a few more to ensure that they don't look like holes in the top.

#103 Whirlwind

An ultra modern print combined with some fussy cutting and I'm happy!

#069 Practical Orchard

I really like the citrus-y fabric I used here, but I'm almost wishing I'd fussy cut those squares... I might yet go back and do that.

#091 Strawberry Basket

Very similar in construction to Steps to the Altar, so I cranked this one out. I'm really digging the mustard and the raspberry color together.

So, now I'm forty-five blocks in. A few more white background blocks, because I need more blocks that are brighter. There a good range of medium value blocks to dark blocks, so that's good. I'll probably end up re-making the Basket Weave block again, because I don't like the cream in it. Same with Basket Weave. I want this quilt to be crisp.

I Fail at Fabric Dieting

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:35:00 +0000

It's that magical time of year, far better than Christmas or birthdays or anniversaries (at least for me).

It's tax rebate time!!

Now, I was a good adult and paid off all of the credit cards and got caught up on the bills. I bought a (truly awesome) dining set for a steal because we needed a real place for us to gather as a family and eat together. We bought our son a new Cars bed and a Cars toilet training seat, because he's currently obsessed with Lightning McQueen. We replaced headlights in cars.

So, in short, we've done all the things we should have done with our refund money.

Then, because there was a little money left over, and I really, really, really want to make Erin Russek's My Tweets (the link leads you to Erin's Etsy shop for the patten for the center). This was Erin's Block of the Month for last year, and I faithfully downloaded all of her patterns (which are now also available in her Etsy shop).

Anyway, I digress from the point of this post, sort of. In my quest for the perfect fabrics for this pattern, I went on a little buying fling... Well, more of a spree.

Okay, honestly?

I went crazy.

I started at Joann's:

And found this really nice blue solid, a whole bolt of it. And I had a 50% off coupon. So I bought everything on the bolt. There was something like 9 3/8 yards. I also found the print on the right, which I decided went perfectly with the solid, and bought three yards of that.

There was a 30% off the cotton prints sale about a week later. I treated myself to a half yard each of the fabrics pictured above. There's sort of a plan emerging here.

But it wasn't enough!!

Because I realized I was super low on white thread. Connecting Threads to the rescue:

Ten spools of white in my cart later, and I still needed more in the cart to make the minimum for free shipping. So I hit up the clearance fabrics:

I ended up with a half yard of each, except for the last fabric. I got a full yard of the gray and yellow scroll fabric.

And, still, not enough!!

I paid a digital visit to Fat Quarter Shop. BIG MISTAKE! Not that I could be dissuaded from hitting the 'Buy' button. I've never purchased so much designer fabric in my life:

The orange is Happy Mochi Yumyum. The two on the right are from Joel Dewberry's Heritage Line. I can't remember what line the gray came out of.

Everything else pictured below, I got a half yard of. Apparently, I'm experiencing an obsession with Pat Bravo at the moment, because I ended up with a ton of her prints.

There is now a ridiculous amount of fabric on my table waiting for me to get busy and start cutting.

I can't wait to get home!

Back Again, With a Finish!

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:38:00 +0000

Hello, everyone! It's been a while...

I've been swamped, and haven't had much writing time. This whole working out thing is stealing three to four evenings a week from me. I work out for two hours, and then I'm ready to pass out by ten o'clock! Still, I can't really say that I'm willing to cut back.

I get to sew, but not nearly as much as I would like, obviously.

Still, I haven't stopped being productive (and I even got some furniture shopping in):

Obligatory cat photo, because Demon is obsessed with the new table. Throw a quilt on it, and it's home.

The back. From these photos, it's tough to see just how much quilting went into this thing... The quilting lines are spaced half an inch apart. The finished size is approximately 65" X 65".

Yeah, that's a lot of quilting. I spent three eight hour days working on the quilting, plus another two or three shifts of a couple hours a piece. All told, I spent 26 to 30 hours shoving this beast through my sewing machine.

As if that wasn't enough insanity...

...I cross-stitched a quilt label. It's edged with bits leftover from the scrappy binding (my first scrappy binding).

And, yes, I actually did finish it in January, despite posting about this quilt today. I put the last stitches into the binding just before midnight on January 31st

This Christmas Eve...

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:58:00 +0000

I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas, and that we are just a week away from a New Year. Happy Holidays, everyone, and thank you for sticking around while I figure out sewing around my schedule.

So, anyway, today is Christmas Eve. Guess what I was doing?

That's right ;) I finished a quilt top!

Actually, I finished this last week Saturday, along with the binding. I even got a portion of the backing done. It was an AWESOME sewing day.

Everything in this quilt is from my stash - I'm starting to see a desperate need to start stockpiling again. My Double Wedding Ring top denuded my stash of oranges and lime green. This Bento Box quilt top has eliminated most of my aquas and purples.

I used some of my absolutely favorite fabric in the backing - Alexander Henry's "flora de los muertos" from 2004. (Yeah, I've stashed fabric for seven years. Haven't you??) I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but there are skulls interspersed through the fabric.

I bought almost a full bolt of this stuff. I wanted to quilt with it, and my husband wanted a Hawaiian shirt made of it... I can tell you which one actually happened ;)

So, anyway, the stats on this quilt.. the top measures 64" X 64", with sixteen 16" finished blocks. I couldn't tell you how many different fabrics are actually in this thing. I just cut until I thought I had enough strips. I spent two and a half hours this morning pinning the hell out the quilt sandwich. My goal is to be done quilting this by Monday evening, and, yes, I do have a plan for quilting it.

I'm determined to have a finish this year!

Cheating on the Farmer's Wife...

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:17:00 +0000

...and using up stash at the same time.

After making Bright Flowers for the Farmer's Wife Sampler:

I realized that the block is, in essence, one quarter of a Bento Box Block. I then decided that this would make a nice, quick, and easy project.

I was right about easy, it's been a couple of weeks, and I've only made eight full blocks as shown in the top photo. I'm refusing to purchase anything for piecing this top, so when I'm out of aqua and purple strips, I'm out. The top will be done at that point. I've think I've decided to quilt this with circles, to contrast the very strong straight lines of this top.

I've also decided that I'm ignoring where seams don't match up exactly. This is my 'easy' project for the year, which means it's the one the project where I just let things happen as they will.

So, this is where I've been for the last couple of weeks. I'm going to finish this top as soon as possible. I want to start actually quilting something soon.

More Farmer's Wife Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:06:00 +0000

I made another bunch of Farmer's Wife Blocks this past week. Big surprise, no?

#111 Wrench

I love the background fabric in this block. Unfortunately, I only ever found this fabric in fat quarters at Joann's. The black fabric is from one of StudioE's Essentials lines. I love those lines, though I don't buy much of them. Black and white fabrics in beautiful designs - total crack for me.

#053 Jackknife

I resisted the urge to paper-piece the corner units. Instead I pieced strips and cut from there. I'm not a big fan of the black and white fabric, but it gave this block some much needed breathing space, so I'll live with it.

#049 Honeycomb

I desperately need to get myself some more of that delicious yellow fabric, I really do... But anyway, #049 Honeycomb. I actually used my Tri-Recs ruler for this one, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Also, I pieced this without looking back and the book and actually pieced this incorrectly. The block as presented in the book looks like sheaves of wheat to me... I'm happier with this layout, so it's staying this way.

#072 Railroad

Another super easy block in which strip piecing methods made this a breeze. I'm really happy with the contrast of the strong aqua with the black and white fabric.

#073 Rainbow Flowers

Kind of a boring block, in my honest opinion. Of course, looking at it, I realized that it's essentially 1/4 of a Bento Block and that with strip piecing, I could whip out a Bento Box top in a weekend. *sighs* Another project on the to-do list.

#092 Streak of Lightning

Far more dramatic than my last attempt at this block. And, of course, it's in red, white and black. I really do have an obsession with that particular trio of colors.

#051 Hovering Birds

And, of course screaming bright green fabric had to make an appearance. Pretty easy to piece, though I did manage to avoid paper-piecing the quadrants with those big green HSTs.

#054 Kitchen Woodbox

More orange peel fabric! And I love the red/orange fabric here.

That brings me to a total of 38 blocks. I am officially over the one-third mark.

Some Steps to Health

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:38:00 +0000

I've talked a little bit about my health here before... Not much, because I've always wanted the focus of this blog to be my sewing, not my personal life. However, I've recently started feeling a lot of internal pressure to make better choices for myself.

As you all know, my mother-in-law recently had her left knee replaced. What you don't know is that my father has had a lot of health issues in the last couple of years, involving everything from having his gall bladder removed to a diagnosis of COPD. He's been getting his high blood pressure under control and is eating better...

Which is all great, and wonderful, and I'm proud of him and desperately happy to know he'll be around longer to see his grandson grow older...

But these health issues in the ones I love have just been making my anxiety over my own health just skyrocket. I've had a couple of anxiety attacks and have been growing steadily more morose over my body image. So, rather than let this drag me down some more, I took things in hand...

I purchased two-year memberships at a local fitness center for myself and my husband Wednesday afternoon.

Hubby is thrilled, which is surprising to me, and has reached out for this chance to feel better about himself with both hands. He's especially happy that there is a pool available for him to swim in.

For myself, I went both Wednesday afternoon and today after work. I'm taking things slowly - it's been a while since I had access to fitness equipment, and I don't want to cause an injury to myself that would discourage me from returning. Wednesday I simply took advantage of the treadmills and walked a mile. Today, I biked two miles, and walked another two.Not sure if I'll go Friday evening - my head cold is becoming worse, and I'd rather not spread the disease.

Hubby actually questioned the number of small colds I've had this fall so far - the answer seemed fairly obvious to me. I've been working in IT now for just under six months. That's six months in which my physical activity has been reduced to practically nothing. I have always been less likely to catch something the more physically active I am. Now I sit at a desk for eight or more hours a day, just to return home and veg on the sofa for a while. I think my limited access to people is the only thing saving me from a bout with the flu!

So, anyway... As cheesy as it sounds, I'm finally giving myself the gift of health. I'm giving myself permission to take an hour or more each day and focus on truly feeling better. This isn't about losing weight - this is about feeling my age and being free to run around with my son without getting winded. This is about being able to take stairs and not have my knees twinge with every step.

This is about giving myself a healthier future, where my body is working with me, not against me.

This Two Jobs Thing...

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:58:00 +0000

... is cramping my style.

Don't get me wrong. I am absolutely agog that I can, for the first time in forever, pay rent and have money left over. Admittedly, I'm still doing the oh-so-adult thing and paying off credit cards and utilities with that 'extra', but I'm not stressing finances the way I used to.

Still, working fifty plus hours a week seriously digs into my 'free' time. Not to mention, my mother-in-law is still in the nursing home undergoing therapy for her knee replacement. So, that one, precious evening 'off' that I used to have each week has been missing for about six weeks. And Zeb is in a serious 'attached at the knees to mommy' phase. Thankfully, my mother-in-law will be home on Thursday, but no word yet if she'll be cleared for driving or baby-sitting any time soon.

I'm sewing when I should be sleeping, but to make the most of that time, I'm pre-cutting at odd, free moments. I'd hand-sew something on the way to and from work, but I need to prep more fabric for hexagons and I just haven't felt like doing that.

My general lack of time means that I'm practicing project monogamy, which is frustrating in the extreme. I want to get something big done, like my DWR top. I want to quilt my baskets top. I really, really want to get caught up on the Test Your Skills Sampler. I'm seriously jonesing to see how that one comes out. I'm only able to post this because I promised my son some quality time with the PlayLand in our local McDonald's.

I'm sure you all have figured out what project is currently reaping the benefits of my enforced project monogamy: the Farmer's Wife Sampler. Six inch blocks are super easy to prep and zip through my sewing machine quickly. I am, however, getting to a point in which the remainder of my blocks will be paper-pieced. I've already decided that I'm going to switch out some of the blocks, because I really don't want to make all of the 5-grid blocks that require me to cut at 1/5th of an inch, when, really, they're basic shapes and shouldn't require paper-piecing. But, dang it!, I haven't found a quilting ruler that marks inches out in fifths.

So, anyway, enough whining. The whole point of this ramble was to point out that I have more Farmer's Wife blocks made.

#007 Birds in the Air

I ended up giving in and paper-piecing the 1" HSTs. I had actually successfully strip pieced these, but then I made a mistake and actually sewed on a half square triangle to the bottoms of the strips, which mean that I was piecing on a bias edge... I ended up throwing those attempts away. I'm glad I did though, as I'm much happier with my fabric selections this time around.


#025 Cups and Saucers

More of that grey fabric combined with a lovely poppy print from my stash. I actually cut off a couple of points in this block, but I'm not really seeing them from afar, so I'm ignoring them.

#038 Four Winds

I actually had a really hard time distinguishing the pattern in this block when I looked at the illustration and photo in the book. I deliberately tried to pick out fabrics with more contrast as a result.

#041 Friendship Star

Very simple, very quick block. I picked out a charcoal gray background fabric that's been in my stash for at least four years. I'd made one cut into it previously, and that was it, for my Grandmother's Fan top.


#081 Snowball

Another couple of fabrics that haven't been used in forever. I'm pretty sure I bought these fabrics back when I first started seriously stashing, which was seven or either years ago. This one is actually my second attempt at this block. I felt the first try came out too dark.

#084 Homeward Bound

I love these three fabric separately. I love them even more combined. I think I could argue that this is the most 'modern' looking of all the blocks I've done for this QAL.

#109 Windows

Okay, I am STUPIDLY proud of how nicely the points in my that QST match. I think I finally figured out my methodology for making them all so nice and perfect, which basically amounts to trimming, and then trimming again. And, I totally love the black and white dot fabric here. I seriously need to buy a bolt of this stuff.

Another seven blocks down. I'm up to 30! That's a whopping 27% of the blocks for this sampler done.

Happy Farmer's Harvest!

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:09:00 +0000

As I type this, my little boy is sleeping in my lap, exhausted from trick or treating for his first time, not having a nap, and having been in school today. He was Thomas the Tank Engine, and not entirely sure about the whole process of knocking on stranger's doors. He caught on pretty quick when he realized that candy was the reward though!

Tonight, I have more Farmer's Widow blocks to share. I cannot wait until I get some more sewing time. I really want to work on other projects, but right now, one block at each stolen moments session seems to be all I get to accomplish.

#010 Bowtie

More fussy-cutting fun! The butter yellow is a Jinny Beyer print. The white/blue print I found in Joann's nursery section. I thought it was too pretty and clean to put in an infant quilt.

#015 Buzzard's Roost

I ended up admitting defeat and paper-piecing this one. My original plan had been to make six flying geese units, but I kept losing triangle points, and that's just not acceptable.

#020 Churn Dash

I'm forcing myself to incorporate pink into these blocks. However, I must say I like the contrast of the more modern dot print against the very traditional tone on tone black print.

#026 Cut Glass Dish

So many freaking HSTs, and finishing at 1"!! I was very glad to sew the last seam on this one. I was going to use a more geometric print for the orange, but kiddo got to my pre-cut pieces with his own scissors. I'm just lucky he didn't attack the strips that were precut for the HSTs.

#031 Evening Star

I hadn't realized, when I was piecing these, that my Evening Star and Buzzard's Roost were going to come out so similar. I might re-do one or the other... On the other hand, there's a lot of blocks, and I can just place them far, far apart in the top.

#034 Flock

Aqua, raspberry, and paisley! Love :)

#084 Spool

Much happier with this iteration of Spool. I've had the gray background fabric forever, along with some coordinating prints. I've been collecting grays with pink and red in them for a Lone Star quilt.

That's it for this Farmer's update. I'm headed for bed.

Skill Builder Series - Leaders, Enders and Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:43:00 +0000

Waaay back in May, I wrote a small post on leaders and enders as part of the Skill Builders Series. In a recent post, Weekend Recap, I mentioned that I'd done my string blocks as leaders and enders and I received a comment from Lynne asking:

I am new to the concept of leaders/enders; I haven't used them and don't chain piece (yet). Could you please explain how you use the string blocks as your leader/ender project for this novice (who is always keen to learn something new)?

I thought about replying in an email to her, but then realized that it was clearly time for another tutorial, because of all the photos I would be taking anyway. So, Lynne, here is the tutorial I promised all that time ago. I'm just sorry it took me this long to find time to sit down and write this! And, I'm sorry that the photos are dark. Now that I'm working two jobs, most of my sewing time is stolen from those hours that I should be sleeping!

Let me preface the tutorial itself by saying that I typically use string blocks as the no-thinking portion of my sewing and to keep the machine running whenever I'm working on a block or series of blocks that require me to stop and start. When I took the photos for this tutorial, I was working on blocks for the Test Your Skills Sampler (which I have to photograph and catch up on, bad me!). This means that I have the pieces pre-cut for whatever my primary project is. Pre-cutting is the only that I've been able to maximize my time at the sewing machine lately, so this means that I have tons of time for string blocks too.

So, in addition to having my primary piecing ready to go, I have my components for the string blocks ready to go:

Because of the sheer number of string blocks that I'll need to complete a top, I simply bought a pad of lined notebook paper at my local office supply store while it was on sale for the start of the school year. At the same time, I went to the printing department there and had them cut the paper into 7" squares for me. They can do up to 250 sheets as once, which totally beats my one at a time. I know 7" seems like a weird size. I actually end up trimming the blocks down to 6 1/2", for a finished size of 6". There's a little more waste this way, but this way I'm certain that I have enough seam allowance.

As you can see from the photo above, I've drawn my initial sewing lines on to each sheet. That middle portion of each block is a 1" finished wide stripe of Kona White, to give the top some continuity (whenever it actually becomes a top). I pre-cut my strips of Kona to 1 1/2". I really should remember, next time, to cut them at 1 3/4", so that I don't have to be quite so precise when placing the fabric for these first two seams.

Some time ago, I reduced a bunch of my scraps to strips of various widths. I knew that I wanted to make a string quilt, but I didn't want every seam to match up. I wanted some variety, especially since I knew that my scraps wouldn't all provide the necessary width to produce, say, 1" strips. Some of my pre-cut strips start at 3/4", so that the finished size is only 1/4". Very little was too thin for this project. My favorite part about having all of these strips pre-cut is that I literally just threw them into a box. I blindly reach into the box, check to make sure the strip is long enough and sew it on if it's long enough. Randomness is not a problem with this 'organization'.

I had a caboose left in the machine from the sewing session previous to this one, so I started working on my primary project, which was the Test Your Skills Sampler Log Cabin Block:

Upon finishing that line of stitches, I lined up my white strip and sewed the first seam, right along one of those marked lines. Slight blurry photo below... Sorry!

You can just barely see the edge of the green strip blow the white one in the foreground of this photo. Right sides of the fabric should face each other, and the wrong side of the center strip will be flush against the paper. Oh, and speaking of the paper... I use the notebook paper for projects like this because it's cheap. I'm not going to waste the Carol Doak stuff on blocks that are this simple.

Once I had that first seam sewn on the string block, I continued with my primary piecing. In the photo below, I turned over the string block so you could see the way the two strips were laid on the paper. Not that it's especially descriptive, now that I look at it...

More alternating... Are you all getting the idea that this leader/ender thing is really good about cutting back on the waste thread that results from having to stop and start every time we rotate or add on to a block? This time, I sewed sewed down along the second drawn stitching line. Again, right sides of the fabric should face each other, and the wrong side of the center strip will be flush against the paper. And, yes, I did twist the blocks around to the front of the machine to get a good photo. The night I was working on this, I did everything on my computer desk, so directly behind the sewing machine (Bessie), is my computer monitor and keyboard. Stolen moments!

I sewed a little more on the primary project, and clipped my string block off the chain in order to iron down the strips. I always iron before adding on to the block, so that I know that I won't have any puffiness in the block, and thus preventing any pleating to take in any extra. I know they're scrap blocks, but I can't help myself.

As you can see, there's extra fabric running over the sides of the paper. Again, I trim down at the end of the process.

So I pick another strip, and sew it down, followed by work on the primary project. At this point in the primary project, I'd finished the center of the log cabin block and was starting to add the first non-background fabric round.

So, I kept going, alternating string block with log cabin block, always checking the next potential strip to be the right length. If it was too long, I just cut off the part that was too long and threw that bit back into the box of scrappy strips.

...and the Log Cabin and string block just keep growing...

...and growing...

At this point, I'm sure you get the idea. I'll save you from more progress photos that are essentially the same. In the end, I had a Log Cabin block, in which I took some artistic liberty and didn't make all of the non-background rounds from the same fabric.

I also had a couple string blocks like this:

I always trim these from the back, so that I can be sure that the white strip in the center of the block is centered. Again, these are cut down to 6.5" for a finished size of 6". They should come out looking something like:

Obviously, you can make these string blocks whatever size you like. You may also use fabric as your foundation. I prefer the paper, so that I can tear it away and reduce the bulk, because I do plan on using batting in this project when I reach the quilting stage. By using paper, I am limited by paper sizes, especially since I don't like using standard copy or printing paper. It's thicker and doesn't tear away as easily.

And that's string blocks, used as leader/ender projects. Don't you just love how quickly and easily these can come together?

Thoughts on Fabric

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:54:00 +0000

I regularly browse other blogs, because I love to read about what people are doing with their quilting and to see what they are getting inspired over... I also love to read about hot topics, and the things that make us stand up and take notice.

A little bit ago, a visit over to completely cauchy and reading her post about the striking tea towel quilt she made just struck a chord with me...

Okay, so it wasn't just about the tea towel quilt, which is totally worth taking a gander at (and she makes yummy knitted items too!).

cauchy09 wrote:

"Here’s a radical notion: I don’t want to buy quilting fabric anymore.

I know. Right? We’re still looking for signs of alien abduction over here.

I find myself continuously angry at the industry. We’ll save those issues for later. More than that, though, I am continuously angry at myself because I can’t bring myself to use the contemporary quilting fabric yardage that I own. It’s not hoarding. I just know that I don’t design naturally with these prints in amounts more than a small scrap each. Yes, they are beautiful fabrics and I covet them all, but they are not me."

You all know that I buy a lot of tone-on-tones... I posted an in depth look into my buying habits for the Skill Builders Series Part 2A - Buying for the Stash. And, by the end of writing it, I'd started to realize just how much I am starting to dislike even looking at designer print and lines...

It's not that they're not pretty. They're very pretty, and sing to the wannabe graphic designer in my heart.

They're just not usable as is if you're not making big blocks that follow the modern aesthetic.

Unfortunately, the modern aesthetic isn't exactly me. I love to play with design and color. However, I do my playing on a smaller scale. Very rarely do I make a block large than 12" square, and even then it's likely to be a traditional block. When I do make bigger blocks, they have quite a bit of piecing to go along with them. The best way to describe me is that I'm a traditionalist who's not afraid of color (at all - have you seen my DWR-WIP?).

And really, when one works with pieces that typically don't go over 4" square, what's the point of buying a big, bold modern print? Case in point, Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line, which I lovelovelovelove. I got two fat quarters of it from a swap partner, and I swooned over it. The two that I received were Woodcut in Passion and Slow Dance in Vintage.

Beautiful, right? Problem is, the repeat on Woodcut is almost eight inches in width. But I love the rich red! Slow Dance is almost twenty inches. And I'm enchanted by the movement of the lines... I'd been sitting on these two fat quarters for months, feeling trapped by their size. And what was I supposed to do with them?

Farmer's Wife Block #005 - Bat Wing

In the end, I fussy cut the snot out of Slow Dance and completely lost the repeat in Woodcut. That block finishes at 6". And let me tell you, there is no way that I would repeat this process to make multiples of this block. Fussy-cutting makes the miser in me shriek in pain at the waste of good cotton.

Throw in that fabric lines are so color coordinated and perfectly matched... I find that while I can love individual prints in a line, I often am turned off by seeing the line in its entirety. Why? Because I can't help but feel that if I limit my fabric selection to a single line, I'm not expressing my own creative vision. Every time I sit down with the one fabric line I purchased nearly every print of, I feel trapped. I don't see my own design emerging. I see myself catering to the fabric designer's vision. Not exactly a great starting point. Quite frankly, I've given up on using those fabrics together, and they're being parceled out into other tops.

And that's me and most modern fabrics, over and over and over. I've learned to just look and drool, because otherwise I'll be disappointed that I spent my limited fun money on fabric that's just going to sit there. I support a family on my income, so that $50 or so that I eke out every few months to spend on me!me!me! is something that I want to be able to enjoy long-term. (Especially if that money ends up going toward supplies like batting, thread and new rotary blades instead of fabric every now and then.)

As I stated in my comment on cauchy09's post, I want my skills as a piecer and quilter to be what shine - not my ability to buy attractive fabrics. I feel that the fabrics in my quilts should work together to create a total image, to tell a story together. I want to step back, and see my quilt.

Not the pretty designer fabric that dominates the design.

Because, you know what? That's all I'm going to focus on ten years from now. When that quilt has been used and loved to death, I just know that I'm going to regret having made the focal point of that quilt the fabric, not my skills with needle and thread, color and design. Of course, there's the whole problem of will I even use and love that quilt to death if I have any regrets about it after completion...

The pretty designer fabric lines out there represent what manufacturers have decided should be in fashion as far as color, shape and line. On top of that, there's new fabric lines constantly releasing. I don't know about you all, but I've already pointed out that my fabric budget is pretty limited. I just can't afford to keep up with whatever is new and bright and trendy. I can't do it with my clothing, so why am I going to do it with fabric?

Now, I'm not out to bash designer fabrics in the modern aesthetic, or the quilters who use them. They're beautiful fabrics, and while I don't always like the quilts that are made from them, the quilter-maker was following his/her muse. And I appreciate that. Quilting is my chosen form of artistic expression, and I love the community of individuals who share in this passion.

With all of that said, I'd like to leave you all with a comment that Sherri Lynn Wood left on the blog post that sparked this post. I think it encapsulates perfectly the whole point of this post:

"The fabrics we use in our quilts are the narrative, plot, place, and the characters of the story. Each fabric has the potential of carrying so much meaning or NOT – especially if it’s the most recent color coordinated fabric line out by the latest crafty pop designer."

Give Away!! Bright Blocks Need Good Homes

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Update: Most of the blocks have been claimed and I've sent out emails to the lucky people to have claimed blocks. Thank you all so much for giving homes to these blocks! Comments have been closed for this particular give-away.

As you all know, I changed directions on my Farmer's Wife Sampler. As a result, I have several blocks that need new homes and I'm more than happy to drop these babies into the mail this weekend to someone who will love them.

So, the rules. Photos of the blocks up for grabs are below. One block per person. First come, first served, though I have to limit this particular give-away to U.S. residents. Leave a comment telling me which block you want. I will follow up to your comment with an email asking for your snail mail address. This means, if you don't have a Blogger/Google account, please provide me an email address in the comment for me to contact you.

#001 Attic Windows

The orientation on this block doesn't match the book - I downloaded the foundation pattern from the Yahoogroup, and forgot to mirror image this prior to printing.

#002 Autumn Tints

For whatever reason, I also paper-pieced this one. Couldn't tell you why now, but I did.

#100 Weathervane

Another paper-pieced block, in which I removed some unnecessary seams.

#004 Basket Weave

I followed the book lay out for the colors, and it's a grouping of some prints that I just love. No surprise that they're all tone on tone, right?

#010 Bowtie

Again, paper-piecing to the resuc. I was kind of retentive about how the white patches met in the middle.

#008 Bouquet

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I finished this one up... I'd meant for the pink triangle that's the base of the basket to be the polka dot fabric.

#006 Big Dipper

Have I told you all how much Quarter Square Triangles can kick my ass? It took me three tries to do this one without a cut off point.

#009 Box

I have an attraction to 'ugly' prints. Plus, the floral print here was on clearance for $2/yard.

#012 Broken Sugar Bowl

Not only do I like 'ugly' prints, I made too many HSTs that finish at 2".

#111 Wrench

And, finally, the end of my mistake. Yeah.. Way too many of that unit.

#029 Economy

Bright screaming pink... I'm not even sure why I bought this fabric in the first place. I'm almost out of it, thank goodness. It only took five years.

#061 Northern Lights

Funnily enough, I love both of these fabrics... by themselves. Together? Not so much.

#092 Streak of Lightning

I love, love, love, this polka dot fabric. I should have purchased the whole bolt when I saw it in the shop.

Well, there you have it, folks! Thirteen Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks, all in need of new homes. For those of you not doing the FWS, but just like the blocks, these finish at 6" X 6", so they're actually 6.5"square with the seam allowances.

Farmer's Wife Frenzy

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:20:00 +0000

Two Sundays ago, I spent part of the day at work pre-cutting a bunch of Farmer's Wife blocks. Football season has started, and Janesville is full of fans, both of the Packers and the Bears. On top of that, the Brewers are doing exceptionally well. This meant that the mall emptied itself of shoppers as game times drew near on Sunday.

And. holy shingles! This pre-cutting thing works miracles. In three days, I made several blocks:

#011 Broken Dishes

You all might have noticed that I like to repeat 'themes' in my fabric selections. This time it was circles. And that navy fabric - it's really a pretty royal purple.

#006 Big Dipper

Quarter square triangles are not my favorite, and I'm trying desperately to ignore the one point that got cut off in this block. I don't know if I'll continue to succeed. However, I love this combination of fabrics.

#021 Contrary Wife

I'm trying to add lighter blocks in as I go along... And I've repeated the theme and fabrics. I just couldn't resist. Plus, fussy cutting makes its reappearance. Again, I would never do it for an all over quilt top design, but one off blocks... it's kind of fun.

#084 Spool

I'm actually really disappointed by this block. It needs more 'pop' in the color department. I'll probably be remaking this one. It's just too 'blah'. It's not helped by the very muted tones or the fact that the relative size of the prints is so close

#003 Basket

The handle is hand-appliqued. This is another one I might take the time to redo, mostly to secure the ends of the basket handle better, burying them in the piecing. I didn't mind the hand applique - that only took about fifteen minutes one morning.

I also precut Buzzard's Roost, but I wasn't happy with it, so I didn't photograph it. It's perfectly pieced - I just made a mistake when cutting and reversed my two fabrics so the values weren't placed the way I want. It's simple enough to rotary cut, so when I have some free time to pre-cut again, I'll add that to the to-do list.

While I was at the monthly Stitch 'N' Bitch, I paper-pieced two more blocks:

#005 Bat Wing

For this one, I used the fat quarters of Innocent Crush I received from my DQS 10 swap buddy. I love the look of this line, and the colors - it's just that the prints are freaking HUGE! And, hello! I work small blocks. I just don't dig the big blocks. So anyway, some more fussy-cutting to get a sense of movement. At the risk of being risque, Sandi thought this one looked like an especially talented stripper had gotten her tassels going in opposite directions.

Or an owl.

I'll let you all decide.

#001 Attic Window

Silly me! I once again forgot that the paper-piecing foundations available at the Yahoogroup aren't mirror-imaged so that the blocks come out they way their shown in the book. Still, not re-piecing this one, as I'm pretty happy otherwise. That awesome mustard green makes another appearance, along with a new acquisition in the form of that bright pinky-purple. It's actually a gradient fabric, but you can't see much of change in color, except for the top right corner.

So, seven more blocks into The Farmer's Wife Sampler. That brings me to seventeen completed. (Eighteen if I could the Buzzard's Roost that I just don't like.) I have about another dozen blocks' foundation patterns already printed, so expect a slew of paper pieced blocks before I move on to pre-cutting more rotary friendly blocks.

Weekend Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:23:00 +0000

I've been a good little worker bee this last couple of days.

I picked my fabrics for the Test Your Skills Sampler. I designed my quilt top for the Modern Quilt Guild Kona Solids Only Challenge.

I even got some actual sewing in. I made the four 3" nine patch blocks for TYSS, and half the large snowball/nine-patch block. I have to re-do the snowballs - my piecing was somehow inaccurate, and they didn't match seams correctly with the nine-patch blocks. I'm anal enough that it just wasn't acceptable, so I threw the boo-boos in the scrap basket. Since they're just nine patches, I didn't bother to photograph them. When I get a little further into the TYSS, I'll post photos.

#071 Puss in the Corner

More fussy cutting, and that awesome Walmart fabric makes another appearance. Sadly, I even got anal retentive about how I cut the dots.

#093 Swallow

I deliberately went with lower contrast fabrics with this block. I have a lot of very dark, and a couple of very light, blocks. I need some middle ground to help keep the eye moving over the (eventual) quilt top.

Both prints are Walmart fabrics, and I'm still having some fun playing with fussy-cutting. I've determined that I would NEVER do it for a large quilt, but one off/sampler blocks, I'm okay with fussy-cutting.

I've also gone and pre-cut the fabric for another fix or six Farmer's Wife blocks, so I'll be ready for another round of sewing. I went through the book, did the quilt-y math and scribbled my own rotary cutting directions onto each page. I've also gone and denoted those that I feel need paper-piecing. In addition to those, I've found that there are a number of five by five grid blocks which would require me to cut things at 1/5 of an inch. The very idea makes my head hurt, so I'm going to be figuring out if I want to substitute blocks.

I have a ton of scraps, a good portion of which I reduced to strips about a year ago. My sampler projects aren't helping the scrap situation much. Okay, not at all. I've been generating scraps far faster than I've been using them. I determined that it was time to start working on my strip quilt.

Sometime into one of the more recent batches of Farmer's Wife blocks, I realized that I should just use the string blocks as my leader/ender project. *facepalm* Why didn't I think of this before? These blocks would have gone so much faster!

Two days, nine blocks, one design and a bunch of pre-cutting done. It's been a good weekend.

TYSS Fabrics Selected

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:03:00 +0000

My Kona Lake arrived on Thursday of this past week. Yes, in fact, I had ordered it two weeks ago. fabric.com mistakenly sent me a truly hideous six yards of some slate blue print that had different pairs of ice skates all over it. Actually, there really aren't words for me to describe this stuff, so a photo will have to suffice:

Needless to say, I was pretty well horrified. Any person that I've sewn with or has seen my stash knows that I'm just not a novelty fabric person. Thankfully, fabric.com switched out the fabrics with no fuss, but I was delayed in picking out my fabrics as a result.

Now, I was going to work on my Kona Solids Challenge today. Upon sitting down to actually sew some of it, I realized that I just didn't feel like I had enough different fabrics to produce the right number of gradients.

So, yes, I did go and order two more Kona Cotton Charm packs, and the Kona Color Card, thank you very much. Yes, I know that my self-control sucks. What do you expect? I'm a quilter, which means that I and a serious fabric addiction go hand in hand. Needless to say, that particular challenge project is being put on the back burner until my goodies arrive.

Moving on...

Using the highly scientific method of draping fabric over the back of my couch, I first auditioned the blocks I'd made for the Skill Builder Series tutorials. I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked how the majority of them worked. The fabric on the far right is my binding fabric.

I converted the photo to black and white, so that I could judge values. I was surprised to find that I liked having the yellow fabric. My eyes had deceived me, and it's actually lighter in value than the Kona Lake. Not by a lot, but enough to make a difference. This made me decide against the fabrics in the far left block. That salmon color just gets lost against the Kona Lake.

I played a little more, a process which I did not document in photos, but should have... I ended up discarding the yellow floral entirely, and switching in another yellow. With the exception of the brown background dots fabric, all of my selections are tone on tone, or nearly so. (Gee, what a surprise, right?)

I knew right away that I wanted to keep the three fabrics on the left. Despite the similarity in color to the background, I opted for the teal on the far right. I needed something other than that spruce green to bring some balance to the otherwise very warm tones I'm using. The yellow floral got switched, as I'd mentioned before, but mainly because I like the idea of having three prints that have a circular motif to them. I played with a couple of different shades of wine red (I have a lot to pick from), but ultimately went with the print shown above because of the lack of gray in the color. I needed something fairly pure in tone to foil against the very vibrant orange.

It's serendipitous that the fabric that I picked for the binding coordinates so well, especially considering that I didn't have any of my blocks with me at the WI Quilt Expo. And I totally winged picking the color of my background, just praying that the Kona Lake was close enough to the very pale aqua in the striped fabric that I wouldn't notice a difference. I got really lucky.

And now, maybe I can actually go sew something!

Fresh Sewing Day

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:18:00 +0000

It's the beginning of the month, and I thought I would start sharing the culmination of the previous month's sewing from now on. Mostly so that I can look at ~~my lack~~ of progress and kick myself in the butt to do more.

My sewing time is aggravatingly limited - working two jobs will do that. But I am working on stuff, which is a lot more than can be said for previous months.

1. #012 Broken Sugar Bowl, 2. #016 Calico Puzzle, 3. #009 Box,

4. #004 Basket Weave, 5. #002 Autumn Tints, 6. Urban Worm Completed

I can actually say that I had a finish last month, which is pretty amazing. I'm back on the Farmer's Wife blocks. Today, I'm starting the Kona Solids Challenge. I didn't work on my Double Wedding Ring at all; shame on me! I did clean up my sewing room, which has facilitated sewing.

Mrgh.. I look at my progress for September, and it feels pretty meager... I'm going to go sew something now.

I Hate My Brain...

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 04:46:00 +0000

I've finished Urban Worm, gotten back on the horse with the Farmer's Wife Sampler, and have actually been feeling creative. So, I turned my attention to the Kona Cotton Challenge once again. I'd actually designed a top for it in EQ7:

I like it. It's very traditional, very pretty... and would have made for a crap ton of piecing, and more effective with yardage, not charms. Not exactly what I was going for.

So, my brain has been stewing on this conundrum. In my sleep. I woke up two days ago with the image of a design burning a hole in my consciousness. It would not leave me alone. So I finally got a chance to draw it out and make some tweaks to this design:

The flying geese that are all the same color - that's just a placeholder color for while I play around with the charm pack and figure out what gradients are getting used. And now I have an almost pathological need to get a Kona color card, so that I can make up the gradients that the charm pack isn't going to provide me with.

And yes, those are flying geese on a curve.

I am a sick, sick person.

Attack of the Farmer's Wife

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:28:00 +0000

I'm finally back to my Farmer's Wife blocks. I've already decided that I'm going to call this quilt The Farmer's Widow. Why? Because I just wasn't happy with the randomly scrappy blocks at all. Mind you, I love scrappy. Just not uncontrolled scrappy. I'm happiest having control over my color palette.

I decided everything needed a touch of neutral fabrics/colors in order to tie the blocks together. I haven't decided on my setting or sashing yet. I'm not sure that I want to just sash them and call it done. I'll think I'd like my setting to not be so simple as plain sashing.


#002 Autumn Tints

I love the big circle print. The circles are perfectly 3" in diameter, perfect for this block. It's got a great weight and feel to it. And, would you believe that it's a Walmart fabric?!? I promise, I'm not kidding. I took a chance a few shopping trips ago and saw that Walmart had precuts on clearance. Regular price works out to be $5 a yard. I think I paid $3.50 a yard. I'm pleasantly surprised!

#004 Basket Weave

I switched the way the quadrants were laid out, to avoid the look of a swastika. I also wanted to make sure that the lighter fabrics were on the outside, in case I decided to sash or set with a darker fabric.

#009 Box

Super easy block to put together. I think it took me maybe fifteen minutes of sewing, tops. I just can't imagine using templates when rotary cutting a block like this is so much faster.

#012 Broken Sugar Bowl

I couldn't see wasting the extra HSTs I would have had leftover from the strips I used to put #009 Box together, so I just used the same fabrics in this block. I like the contrast of the super red print against the gray.


#016 Calico Puzzle

Another super easy block. I really love the plum color against the mustardy green print. I think it gives this block a very Asian feel.

That's it for the Farmer's Wife/Widow blocks today. Keep an eye out here. I've a bunch of bright blocks that I made for this quilt sampler that just don't work for the new color palette. I'll be giving those away here. I'll also be hosting a give-away for an entire quilt top. It's time for me to just start letting go of some projects.

Urban Worm Completed

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:53:00 +0000

Urban Worm has been completed! Which means that my Rock Valley Modern Quilt Guild 'Habitat Challenge' is done. Whew!

I should probably be mortified to tell you all just how glad I am this project is done. Seriously, folks, there were moments that I wanted to just burn this pile and walk away. Mostly because I just wasn't invested in the fabric. I felt obligated to complete the project because we'd signed up for the challenge, but also because we'd been given the fabric.

Then there was the whole challenge portion of this. I'm totally not in love with the Habitat line. Not even close. It's got some interesting prints in it, but overall... Not my bag. And I was working with a whole freaking line! I just don't do that. I've only deliberately bought most of the prints in a line once...

All that said, once I finally buckled down and decided that I would work on this particular project, did I make this mini-quilt easy on myself? Nope. Not. At. All.

I decided that I would hand applique a 'worm' made up of one quarter Dresden Plates. Then, once the top was done, nothing would do but for me to find one yard of just the right marigold color for the backing. On top of that, I need to get perl cotton in at least four colors to do some chunky, sashiko-style quilting.

Thankfully, I had the top done by the time we were due to to go to the Wisconsin Quilt Expo and I was able to find both the perfect color backing and perl cotton in four colors that were just off enough to bring some more interest to the top.

The backing ended up being a Kaffe Fassett cross-weave cotton, which has a really loose weave. I like it for the texture that it added to the quilt as a whole, but I don't think I'll ever elect to use it again. It's a little pricey, and I don't like the looseness of the weave.

The sashiko-style hand-quilting seemed to take forever. I don't regret doing it, really. I think it gives a warmth and rustic feel to the quilt, that is desperately needed to alleviate the otherwise unrelenting gray.

Overall, I'm very happy with the final product. I wish I hadn't procrastinated as long on it. It really made Urban Worm drag on when it didn't need to. I still have to wash the quilt; we'll see how it turns out then.

FNSI and a Couple of 'Dur' Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:59:00 +0000

I worked on 'Urban Worm' for Friday Night Sew-in.

Right off the bat I had some issues.. My tension wasn't cooperating. At all. So, I mucked about with it, re-setting the top thread tension several times and running some test lines with my walking foot. Running the gamut from setting 0 to setting 9, my top thread tension was too loose. So I decided that Bessie must need a tune-up.

So, I opened Bessie's bobbin casing up and removed shameful amounts of lint. More test lines. No resolution to my tension problem.

Okay. Let's try a new needle. Nada. About ready to pitch Bessie out the window at this point, as I wouldn't have Saturday to quilt, I had a *facepalm* moment.

Re-thread the machine, Jeanne. Always remember to re-thread the machine after making tension changes.

*sigh*

Yeah. That fixed Bessie.

That was Dur Moment #1.

I finished quilting Urban Worm in about an hour and half, after figuring out my tension problem. I was left with a few dozen tails hanging out of the front of my quilt sandwich to bury, because I have decided that I really dislike the look of taking some back-stitches to lock my threads.

At which point I taught myself a Quilter's Knot.

Seriously.

A dog's age ago, when I taught myself to quilt, books mentioned the quilter's knot and explained how this magical thing was supposed to be done. Unfortunately, the descriptions and diagrams available to me at that time made about as much sense as an engine schematic. My clearly addled seventeen year old self found an alternate and far more time-consuming method of burying and securing my tail ends.

Fast forward to Friday Night, when I realized that my method would take forever and would actually mar the look of the finished quilt. Youtube and this video to the rescue. It took a stupid number of tries to get it right and have the motions become muscle memory.

And, one must remember that the knot needs to be buried in the layers. If the thread happens to snap before burying said thread, then one will probably have to redo a line of stitching.

Yes, that happened. Welcome to Dur Moment #2. I still have to go back and pick that line of stitches out and re-do it.

Anyway, the grand sum of my trials and tribulations for Saturday was:

The photo is a little wonky, and I have a lot of excess to trim off. I'm hoping to get the binding done tonight, and then I can spend my commutes over the next week on the embroidery.

Friday Free For All

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:47:00 +0000

I ordered my solid for the Test Your Skills Sampler just a few moments ago, from fabric.com...

Let me just say that I'm SUPER happy.

Why? Because I just bought NINE yards of solids for $35.65.

That's right. Six yards of Kona Cotton Lake and three yards of Kona Cotton White (for another, separate project), and all for only $3.96 a yard. (Coupon code CAT811 for 15% off a purchase of $40 or more stacked on top of the sale price.) The sale ends 8/19/11. I'm not sure when the coupon code expires. And, no, I'm not sponsored by www.fabric.com, nor by anyone else. I just think it's awesome to be able to buy Kona for less than $6.00 per yard.

Kona Lake

I just pray that the Kona Lake color is actually very similar to the on-screen display (at left). Right now, it looks a shade or two away from the light aqua in my binding fabric.

If it isn't, I guess I'll have six yards of Kona Lake for another project.

Also done this morning... Pinning the snot out of the quilt sandwich to get Urban Worm quilted. Apparently, Friday mornings will be when I get things done. I have an hour between getting the kiddo off to school and when I have to actually shower and get dressed for the part-time job.

Speaking of Urban Worm, since I actually have something to work on, I'm joining in on Friday Night Sew-In.

Solids for the Test Your Skills Sampler

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:20:00 +0000

If anyone is going to participate in the Test Your Skills Sampler, and has their heart set on using a Kona cotton solid for their background...

www.fabric.com has several colors on sale for $4.66 or $5.85 a yard. I simply searched 'Kona' and came up with several pages of options. I didn't go through all of the available colors, because I'm not allowed to shop for anything until Friday, but there's plenty of options!

Stuff and Things!

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:58:00 +0000

I spent the day at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison with Sandi of Piecemeal Quilts, her mother and two of her aunts. Yes, as has been pointed out, I am the baby of the group :) I wouldn't have it any other way, though. These ladies are a blast, as proven by Sandi's mom started our day with some risque comments! I call it a winner of a day when I can spend it looking at quilts and fabric and laughing with some good friends, then enjoying good and (wonderfully) simple foods.

Speaking of food, I made some awesome (!!!!) and super simple cookie/toffee bar things. The recipe was called "Popularity Cookies". I highly recommend them!

Ingredients:

35 soda crackers or club crackers (I used club crackers, and I have no idea how many I actually used. I simply covered a 13" X 18" walled cookie sheet)

1 cup of non-salted butter

1 packed cup of light brown sugar

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup of milk chocolate chips

1 cup of blanched, slivered almonds (a 4 oz package is exactly what you need, though I'd recommend giving them an additional rough chop or putting them through a quick whirl on a food processor after having made this recipe one. Additionally, you could really use whatever nuts you like. I'm thinking cashews would be heavenly on this! Regardless, I might also try toasting the nuts prior to putting them on the cookie bar thingies.)

Instructions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 400°F (or 205°C). Cover your walled cookie sheet with a layer of tin foil and line the crackers on the foil (I took the additional step of spraying the tin foil with non-stick spray).

2.) Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and boil for about three minutes. Pour over crackers completely; spread with a spatula if necessary.

3.) Bake for 3-5 minutes; watch carefully. (That's verbatim from the recipe. I'm honestly not sure what I was watching for. I pulled the tray from the oven when it looked like the toffee layer had gone solid.) Remove cookie sheet from oven, place it on oven door and sprinkle chips over baked crackers. When chocolate gets soft, spread over crackers with back of a spoon. Sprinkle slivered almonds on melted chocolate.

4.) Place in refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Break into cookie-size pieces. This recipe freezes well.

And since the Wisconsin Quilt Expo is a quilt show with the prerequisite vendors, I came home with loot! I've been a very good girl with finances lately, paying off credit cards and school loans, and, in general, not buying much for myself. So yesterday was a bit of a splurge.

Now, before I show off the loot... I did go home with money left in my wallet, so I was a very good girl, and very restrained. Really.

Nancy's Notions got the lion's share of my money, and mostly in fabric. From left to right, a one yard cut of Iron Quick Fabric, 2 yards of Rocket Scientist by Kari Beyer, Daydream in the green colorway by Bernatex, #7914 Stripey Tiger by Maywood Studios, and two charm packs of Plume by Tula Pink. I was so excited to see the charm packs - I LOVE Tula Pink's fabrics, and I'm not normally comfortable buying a) designer fabric at designer prices and b) pre-cuts. However, the charm packs were $6 each, and I've not had a chance to pick up ANY of Tula Pink's fabric before, so I grabbed it.

Again, from left to right. Perl cotton in four colors and one yard of a Kaffe Fassett cross weave cotton in goldenrod. These are for the Urban Worm. I'm so glad I found what I was looking for at the Expo, rather than having to troll through websites and hope that on screen color would accurately reflect what would arrive in my package. One yard of Ellie's Emporium by Sue Penn. This will be the binding for the Test Your Skills Sampler. A new combination seam ripper and clipper. Needle grabbers for hand-quilting. Two packages each of universal and quilting needles - they were on sale for $2.39 a package! Embroidery needles. Pink and yellow leads for my Sewline Mechanical Pencil, and a new thimble.

Oh, and not pictured: the free tote I got from Nancy's Notions for spending enough money in one go with them. *facepalm*

By the way, after spending the whole day walking a concrete convention floor, guess what I did? Take my son for a two mile walk to downtown because he wanted to see the river.

Yeah, I'm insane.

Back Again

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 06:01:00 +0000

Yes, I've been gone a while. Life sort of took off at a gallop and left me behind, grasping for the reins. It's been busy - Zebediah went back to school, I've been working two jobs, and the fall semester started at the campus on which I work.

This two jobs thing is nice for paychecks. Too bad I'm not spending the 'extra' money on fabric. Nope. Not at all. (Well, except for tomorrow - tomorrow is the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison) I'm being a responsible adult and paying off the credit card debt and school loans. Yay, me. **stalks off grumbling about adulthood**

So anyway, two jobs makes for not much quilting time. However, I have a half hour commute to and from work each day. I should get my act together and put together some hand-sewing. I *was* working on the applique for a challenge quilt, but I finished putting the top together tonight. I need more hand-sewing projects. really.

The challenge top is to the left... They're Jay McCarroll's Habitat. I honestly didn't really like the fabrics at first. It took a while for me to warm up to them - like, I had my stack of fat eighths in hand for a month before an idea came to mind.

Overall, I'm quite happy with this so far. I wish my applique were better - it's a little bumpy in places. I probably should have basted everything down instead of working it freehand, but live and learn. I plan on adding sashiko style embroidery for quilting, combined and contrasting with straight line machine quilting. I'll be binding it in the navy solid, I think. I want to find a marigold solid to back this with.

It measures about 24" inches wide. I'm not sure how long it is. I didn't actually measure from top to bottom, as this design sort of grew on its own. I started with struggling with the need to ensure that the challenge fabrics have a chance to shine on their own, which was hand-in-hand with the problem of design. I ended up deciding to contrast a traditional design against the ultra modern fabrics, which is how I selected the Dresden plate pattern. I wanted to incorporate more of the prints, which is why i added the top and bottom borders.

I'll be calling this one "Urban Worm". Now to get started on the solids challenge top.

DWR Construction Instructions

noreply@blogger.com (Grey Cat) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:33:00 +0000

I finally sat down to take photos of piecing a Double Wedding Ring. I skipped the mind-numbing chain-piecing portion of the sequence. Why? 1843 individual pieces, that's why. I buckled down, and forced myself to piece the arcs before allowing myself to start piecing rings.

The photos will, hopefully, guide you through the process without too much confusion. You'll go from:

Look at the top photo - with the green arc, I've already attached the the patches that complete the football when sewn on. There's no reason to do a Y-seam here, with some planning ahead.

I always attach the short arc to the melon first. Find the mid-line of both your melon and, in this case, the orange arc. With GO! cut pieces, it's very easy. There are notches to mark those points. If you cut your pieces out from templates, you likely won't have those. I would fold each segment in half and press the fold to create a marker for yourself. Alternatively, you can draw the mid-line or eyeball it.

Once you've found your center, align your pieces like so:

Put a pin through both pieces, vertically, along the mid-line. Then, you'll want to pin each end of the melon onto the arc segment. Having said this, the tip of the of melon should protrude past the end of the arc segment by 1/4":

Yup, that's the seam allowance! Pin that point, and repeat with the opposite tip of the melon. Now, pin the snot of that sucker:

I actually prepare about a half dozen of these and feed them through in a chain. Yes, that does make about 90% (or more) of DWRs chain-piecing, but it seems to go quicker via chain-piecing. Sew your 1/4" seam along the pinned edge. I tend to sew right over the pins, removing them only if they promise to be right under my needle as it comes down. Do what makes you feel most comfortable as you sew this seam. Press as desired. I press this seam open myself.

You'll have this now:

Line up the mid-lines of your long arc and the partially completed melon:

Again, pin vertically at that mid-line. Line up your ends and pin those. You will still see the tip of the melon poke past the edge of your fabric:

I failed to take a picture of these segments pinned together, but it works the same way the other side did. Just match your edges and ease the fullness of the larger arc along the curve.

Isn't that pretty? And pretty gratifying too, if it's laying flat and not wavy, bunchy or full of puckers. But wait! There's more.

Take your center and align you the complete football with the center's midline. You MAY mark the point where the two 1/4" seams intersect at the 'ears' of the center. I don't.

Notice that the melon almost extends to the other side... I cannot tell you if other DWR templates/paper-piecing options do the same. It's entirely possible. Pin the midline and line up the top two 'ears' of the center with the seam of the green arc WITHOUT the 'corner' patches that complete the football. Pin those, align your edges, then pin the rest, again easing the fullness.

Sew your seam. This seam I start and stop with some backstitching. Again, I tend to run right over the pins, unless my needle threatens to bend or break them. Unpin before moving on. Your seam at the 'ear' should look something like:

Repeat the above steps for attaching a completed melon to the opposite side.You should end up with something resembling an apple core shape. I press at this point, because I like things flat. It's probably not necessary to, but I can't swear to it. I will point out that I do not bother pressing open at this point.

One you've got your apple core, find the vertical mid-line of the apple core laying on it's side, as shown above. Match up this center with another completed melon:

Pin that mid-line and then match your ends. Pins those and then line up fabric edges, ease fullness and pin the snot out of these two pieces. Now, when you do this, you want to locate the tip of each 'ear' and give them a little tug so that it's not folded over on itself and the 1/4" seam is where it belongs.

Sew your 1/4" seam. You'll have to be careful that the center fabric doesn't fold in on itself and insinuate itself between pins. Otherwise, you'll have to go back and rip those stitches out, to free the center. Repeat these last couple of steps with the other side. You should end up with a near circle:

That's it! You've completed your first Double Wedding Ring! Now all you have to do is make enough 3/4 DWR to add on to make a complete row:

When I have enough 3/4 DWR to do a couple of rows, I'll you how to stitch the full DWR to the 3/4 DWR to complete rows. From there, I'll show you how to put the rows together.