Animal Crackers

After much deliberation about what to do with those alternate star blocks I finally finished the Animal Crackers quilt top.

I really wanted to keep moving on this quilt so I didn't want to go to the fabric shop to find a fabric that would work. I liked the white as an alternate block but fell that the quilt wanted a bit more movement than that. A different fabric there would bring out the secondary star in the design.

The yellow I had was the right color but a bit to vivid and overpowered the animal print. Following the suggestion from Tine on flickr I tried the back of the yellow print. It was just right. The top is now in the fast growing "to be quilted" pile. I need to work on that pile I guess.

I think you might also guess that a certain someone thinks this quilt would look great on her bed. If she keeps this up she will soon be like the princess and the pea with a bed piled high with quilts.

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Enjoying Fall - or How I Spent My Time at the Cross Country Meet

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Be warned that this post contains several thrills.The weather on Saturday was predicted to be cold and cloudy. I was pleased to see the sun and clear skies on our way to the cross country meet. I dressed for the cold because it was in the 30s! I stopped in town to take a picture of this tree that catches my eye every time I drive by. 

There were lots of pretty trees and leaves at the park where the meet was held.

This yellow tree was right next to the finish line.

Even the ground was beautiful.

Oh, and did I mention I was there for a meet?

Animal Crackers update

Most of you know that when I start a project I usually don't plan it all out ahead. I like to jump in with both feet and the rotary cutter. I am glad that I laid a few of these out on the floor to get the idea before I had everything cut.

I have the twenty animal print squares and 80 of the star point rectangles. The block I had in my head is shown in the upper right corner of the photo. Now that I SEE how it is going together I am not going to make the block that way. I think I will cut larger squares to go in the background instead of four small squares. I was originally thinking one white block with a feathered wreath quilted in it. Now, as I look at it again I could do another print or a four patch of different colors.... I like that there will be secondary stars there. Now I have to decide before charging ahead again.

I also see that instead of cutting two rectangles for the star points between the animal blocks I should have cut one piece and sewn four triangles to it.

Maybe doing a little sketching before I start would be a good thing. It would have saved a bit of time here and would have ended up with a "cleaner" looking quilt.

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A Brighter Day

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Today was a brighter day. The sun came out and P and I rushed out for a walk around the fields. That was just what we needed. We came in refreshed and started in on our projects.  She is still working on coloring and cut outs.

I, however, started something new.

I am using every last bit of that animal print, some scraps, and some non scrap (gasp) fabrics. It feels good to have the scrap bin under control so that I feel like I can use larger pieces of fabric. The whole little quilt is planned around the animal print.

I bet you are on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it will look! I know I am.

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Out of Focus

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Some days this is how I feel in the fall - blurry and out of focus - only able to concentrate on one small thing at a time.I have a lot of things I want to do and projects to work on. But when the darker days of fall arrive it is hard to keep the momentum.  I move slower. When the cloudy overcast days start to pile up I just want to snuggle under a quilt on the couch and read a book while sipping cocoa or tea.I keep plugging along at a slower pace. One stitch at a time, making progress while I adjust to the shorter days.

Completed Web

Here is the finished spider web quilt.

I had a really hard time deciding how to quilt this one.

I first quilted spirals in each web imitating the pattern of a web spun by a spider. Then I set it aside for quite a while until I decided on the quilting design for the background. I finally settled on a leafy vine as a setting for the webs.

It is now being enjoyed as our new couch quilt. I do love these scrappy quilts. I even pieced the binding from scrap strip pieces.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey Swirly Twirly Skirt!

The other day while I was sewing and P was cutting things at her desk she commented that she wanted us to make a skirt for her. She wanted a twirly skirt. We looked through all my fabrics and I didn't have enough of any fabric that she liked to make the really twirly skirt in this tutorial but she did find a pink print that she really liked. 

Today we fashioned a skirt from the half yard of this fabric that I had. I squared it up and cut a 14 inch strip across. I sewed the whole width of fabric into a tube and made an elastic casing at the top. The bottom is finished with rickrack and a folded band of pink fabric so there is not an extra hemming step.  Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

She tried it on and it made her want to dance. I call that success.

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John Moores Crew Socks

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You would think I could have whipped out a crew sock pretty quickly. I have done it in just a few hours before. Well, not so this time. I have been working on this sock since back in July. I guess the problem was that I was NOT working on this sock since back in July. The end of summer brings so much to do with the garden and harvest that there just is not time to sit and knit. We work outside until it is dark mostnights which can be quite late in the summer. It is getting dark at about 8:00 now so I have been squeaking in a little knit time before going to bed. Ah, fall.

So, here they are, the next in the "Two Make a Pair" series. These are A's. She has been very patient waiting for them. I think she has taken to finishing some of her own pairs in the mean time. Sorry, dear.

I do like the colors in this yarn. Very pretty. And the stripes matched up perfectly!

These crew socks were knit using Sox by Berroco in color 1425.75% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon.

Retreat Projects

One of the great things about going to quilt retreat is the uninterrupted thinking time. Often, I get stalled on a project here and put it aside for months or even years. Sometimes when in the daily routine of home it is hard to keep a train of thought going for more than a few minutes at a time.

This year, with the theme "Mixing it Up" we were to mix applique and piecing in one project. I couldn't decide what I wanted to work on so I packed several unfinished projects, my suitcase of scraps, and my collection of solid fabrics.

I had six basket blocks that I made at retreat three years ago. I never knew what to do with them because I didn't think they would make a very  large quilt. I decided to add the vines and make a strippy quilt. I only had scraps of bright fabrics so I pieced them together to make the vines and inner border. 

The dots, or berries, just sort of happened. When some of the other ladies returned from a trip to town with that bright green and black dot fabric I knew that it needed something like that to finish it off. I made my own trip to town and bought some. It is a happy quilt that I never would have planned from the start but I really like how it turned out.

After finishing the basket top I moved to the next project. I had started the center applique piece in a workshop a few years ago but never got past cutting out the vase and a few flowers. I finished planning the applique design but still have a good bit of the sewing left to do. Once I had the center design set I started working on the borders. I'll be adding a double round of saw teeth with a white border in between. I plan to quilt a feathered vine in the plain border.

I am pretty happy with how this one is looking too.

I also made design decisions on a few other projects and now can get to work on them here.  Sometimes the figuring out what to do next can be the hardest part of a project.  It is good to get over that hurdle on a few things.

Guest Blogger

How to make Christmas ornament gifts. by P.

First tear out a page from a colored coloring book. Then, cut the things out. Poke a hole in the cut out with a needle. Thread the needle and put it through the hole. Then take off the needle and tie the thread.

Keep them in a display until it is time to wrap them up for Christmas. Then you have to clean your desk.

(so easy a four year old can do it!)

Instagram Photos

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