A little bit of sewing…

I was sick, now 2 of my 3 kids are sick (the third probably will wake up with a fever tomorrow), so I have not had the time to do much sewing the past few nights during my down time after (or if) the kids go to sleep.  Anyone else get cranky if you don’t get your “me” time?  So in between kids waking up and crying every few hours the past few nights, I’ve managed to get a few things crossed off my list.

These super modern wonky crosses are in the mail to Beky.  I loved making these blocks.  They were easy to do and pack a visual punch.  Can’t wait to see the wedding quilt she makes!

This is not my first x & + block I’ve made for a bee.  It’s a popular block and relatively easy to make, too.  I could just imagine making several versions of this quilt in different colors and fabrics if I had the time…

This star may be the death of me.  And the reason I might not sign up for another bee.  It literally took about 7 hours, which is a huge chunk of my weekly sewing time.  And it’s not perfect, kind of irritating after I spent all that time on it.  I realize some people adore paper piecing, but I now know I am not one of those people.  This is the second time I’ve had to make this exact block for a bee, so it was late going out in the mail because I basically procrastinated until the very. last. second. and then couldn’t get it finished by the end of the month.  But it was mailed on Monday and should be to its new owner by now.

 

This block I made recently but never shared on my blog.  It’s an Anna Maria Horner tutorial which I’m sure you’ve seen if you look at quilts online.  I found it to be pretty easy to make, but my block finished up a little shy of the measurements, so Jen kindly let me add a strip to the top and middle to even it out.

Here’s another x & + block in pretty blues and yellows.  I think this block is hypnotic with the relaxing colors and that Tula Pink wavy line fabric.  Look away, look away!

And then this is another bee block that’s rectangular and made from diamonds.  Loved it!  Probably because it was a challenge I was up to and purple is my favorite color.

This block is called a Bento Box I think.  It was fun picking aquas and oranges from my stash to include.  That orange/aqua strip is one of my favorite fabrics ever.  It’s Anna Maria Horner (I think LouLouThi).  It comes in other colors, but I really like the color combo in this version.

And this is one more block—I Spy Mittens—for Laura. 

We have been having many insect visitors this year.  My kids raised two batches of American Beauty caterpillars into butterflies and one group of ladybug larvae into ladybugs.  Then we collected every single tent caterpillar within a 1/2 mile radius of our house and had to feed these beasts twice a day with fresh leaves from a specific tree for almost 2 and a half weeks before they all finally made cocoons.  Now they are hatching into brown moths my kids love to hold, carry around, accidentally release into the kitchen where they scatter to the ceiling and I can’t get them down without a ladder.  But most notable are the cicadas.  This is the 17 year brood and it’s pretty darn crazy how many fly by every day.  They are not the most graceful flyers, and I laugh every time I see their romantic pursuits, unless it ends of course with one or both of them getting annihilated by the front end of my minivan going 60 mph on the highway.  Yes, they are everywhere, flying in front of traffic non-stop.  Climbing up and dying on my front porch by droves.  Luckily it’s almost over because the noise is unbearable some mornings.  Can’t even have my tea out on the front porch.

Here you can kind of tell they have bright red eyes.  Their legs are strong for clinging to your hands and clothes, but they don’t bite so my kids aren’t afraid in the least.  I was going to include a couple photos of all the holes they dug in my yard, but suffice it to say there about a million tiny holes the size of a pencil eraser in every conceivable spot in my yard.  Not a big deal though—their tunnels help aerate the soil so I don’t mind.

And here’s of those little brown moths that came from the tent caterpillars.  About 40 of those have hatched so far, and we might still have twice that many left to go.  I’m not kidding when I said my kids picked up every single one of the caterpillars.  For some reason, like clockwork the past three years there has always been a super HOT day after the caterpillars first emerge and if they spend too long on the blacktop road in our neighborhood, well they just dry out and get crunchy.  So my kids take it upon themselves to save them all.  So we did.   I will be happy when I can finally put the mesh butterfly habitats back away in the garage!

My caterpillar loving child, Bea!  This caterpillar is named Zig for the one bold zig zag on his back.  I thought we should send the photo off to Denyse Schmidt so she could use that idea for her next line of fabric.

Got a few other personal things going on right now.  The big dance recital is in two weeks and there are extra practices, plus I am a room mom for one of Bea’s classes (she does ballet, tap, & hip hop).  Esther is in tap & jazz, and little Ronnie just does the  minis.

And a few days ago we acquired a new pet.  Esther finally got her cockatiel.  Her name is Rosie.  Esther is ecstatic and so far has done an outstanding job taking care of her new charge.  She loves to read all about cockatiels and read to Rosie, too.  She even colors some pictures of cockatiels to decorate the wall next to the cage to welcome Rosie.  So we are now full up when it comes to pets.  “No vacancy.”

So between a new pet, everyone being sick, and the big dance recital coming up, I don’t think I”ll be getting a lot of sewing done.  I’m just going to concentrate on a new quilt I started. 

I’m going to call this quilt “taxi!” (imagine Carrie Bradshaw hailing a cab) I picked this yellow/black combo for my block for the Make It Modern bee, so hopefully with those 12 blocks and others I have been working on, I will have enough for decent sized quilt.

Enjoy your weekend!!!!!!!  Thanks for visiting!!!!!!!!

Polaroid Quilt Block

I made stacks and stacks of polaroid blocks to swap via the Flickr Picture Perfect Polaroid Swap.  Then I lost half the blocks (no joke).  But I got my mojo back and cut out a new stack.  Then I sewed a few together to see how they look.  I followed the tutorial found at capitolaQuilter.

I found that you can use 2” strips to make the background, and I have one tip for making your blocks tip (ha ha).

Whatever direction you angle your ruler, your finished block will tip the opposite direction.  Leave 1/2 inch at each corner so you will have at least 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Don’t angle your ruler too much (see my block above—look closely at the tomato—it’s too tippy and a little corner was sewn off), or you’ll sew through the corner of your picture.

Now trim to 4 1/2 inches the other way.  Again, make sure you leave 1/2 inch at each corner.  Then you’ll end up with a perfectly wonky block like this.  And yes, I use a broken ruler.  Also, it is not the only ruler my kids have broken in half.  

I try to be organized, and I found that it was easiest to sort my pictures into two stacks of blocks—ones I wanted tipped one way and ones I wanted tipped the other way.  Then I just remembered to tip my ruler the opposite direction.  Sometimes I would get confused (especially since I had all 3 kids in my sewing room) but I’d just remember it would go the opposite from how I cut.

I finished up two blocks with 12 pictures each today and also my bee block for July’s Beejeebers.  Here’s a sneak peek, but I want it to be a surprise.

I also mailed out this vendor apron I made as a custom order for a local jewelry seller.  She saw my apron at the Maker’s Market last summer and asked me to make one. 

The front is separated into three pockets and the back is lined with denim. 

Mod Mosaic Quilt Block

I just made this block from Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial found here.  It was fun to make and I enjoyed picking scraps for this block.  Sometimes I have a hard time sticking to just using scraps for a bee block project, and usually end up cutting into my fat quarters and bigger pieces, but this time I stuck to only scraps and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Today was 1/2 price at the “Treasure Store” (aka The Salvation Army Superstore).  My daughter found this cute clock for $1.

A little bit of paint scratched off on the 3 when I removed the price tag, but otherwise it’s in great condition and works.  I have a little beef with the way the price tags are attached to everything in the store.  It would have been way better to stick the tag to the back of the clock, and many times the clothes have permanent holes from the price tags.  But it’s still a fun and cheap shopping trip.

Starting the new year off with a quilting bee

I accidentally joined two online bees this year.  I meant to join one, but somehow I found myself as the January block person for a different bee too!  I thought they were the same bee, but in fact, they are hosted by two different people on two different blogs.  How did I let that happen?  Children, I’m sure.  Not being able to focus for more than a few seconds before somebody needs me!  Anyway, this should be interesting!

So I was really sweatin’ my fabric choices for January since this is my first bee and I’m the first to pick.  Then, this beautiful quilt came across in my reader and I was smitten!  It is made by Melissa Burt and posted on the Connecting Threads blog, Notions.   The quilt is called “Wonkytown.”

I went ahead and bought some fabric for the border and back since it was still technically 2011 (for 2012, I have resolved to spend less time looking at fabric online—and buying it—and more time sewing). 

The fabric is by Anthology.  I think it’s called Woodlands. 

I made three tree/house blocks just to see how easy/difficult it was and give better guidance in my preferences for the block.  It was a bit of a challenge to make the blocks,  but I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  I did my first ever embroidery (if you can even call it that) on the sun’s rays in this block:

When I showed it to my husband, he said, “Isn’t it a little asymmetrical?”  Ha ha, men just don’t understand!

Then I tried another tree block, and this time made it night.

The fox sleeping in the bush isn’t quite what I envisioned.  The two snow-ball corners of the bush got cut off in the seam allowance, but overall it is an acceptable block.  I plan to put it in a pieced back.

Then I made a house block:

This one turned out pretty good I think.  I tried to make it on a hill and that’s how it looks to me.

I can’t wait to see what my other bee members come up with!  Melissa, who made the original quilt, hung it on the wall in her daughter’s bedroom.  I was thinking that might be a nice thing to do with this quilt as well since Bea and Esther are moving to a new bedroom this year.  It is much bigger than their old one.

On a personal note…I have been having unbelievable urges to have another baby!  I joke about it all the time, but there is literally a jumbled pile of exersaucers, bumbos, boppies, and a swing at the bottom of our stairs by the front door ready for me to pass on to another person…and it’s been sitting there at least 2 months!  I guess I am not ready to call it quits yet.  The only problem is that I have been having trouble sleeping lately and now take a prescription to sleep.  In November my husband went on a business trip and was gone about a week.  I literally did not sleep for almost 4 days and had to go to urgent care when he returned to get medical intervention!!!!  It turns out that I was taking real Sudafed for a cold, and whatever the active ingredient is, it was making me jittery and unable to sleep.  So, since then I’ve been taking Ambien.  A few nights I haven’t, but usually I am so nervous when I go to bed that I won’t be able to fall asleep that I can’t fall asleep unless I take the prescription.  It is such a dumb problem, but I certainly don’t know how to get around this.

I counted, and I have 7 quilt tops finished that have not been basted or quilted yet.  I am going to see how many I can get finished in January.  I am not going to start any new quilts until they are all completed.  They are:  Greek cross, charmed prints, Chinese coins, Valentine’s quilt, my dad’s flannel quilt, my mom’s denim quilt, and a new one I have almost completed, Little Leaves.   Oh,  and I just remembered,  I have a flannel quilt I made for Bea two or three years ago that I never got around to finishing.  This quilt is huge!  I think it will need to be tied instead of quilted.  So, that makes 8 quilts to finish up first!

Here’s to a happy new year!

Do Ewe Knit?

I don't, but my sister-in-law Robin does!  She has made my daughters some beautiful and unique hats, blankets, and sweaters over the last five years.

Here's Bea in her swingset after our Easter egg hunt wearing a sweater knitted by Robin.

I haven't really reciprocated much, but when I saw this new line of fabric at Over the Rainbow, I knew I had to make her something from it. I plan to make a lap-sized quilt and possibly do some wonky blocks, which I've never done, but the fabric is silly and wonky seems to make sense.   It is a preorder and hasn't been released yet, but I read on some blogs you can get some of the newer lines of fabric on Ebay or Etsy early somehow, so I've actually bought a few things before they've been released, including these 3 fat quarters.  I happened to have some Heidi Grace Midnight Kisses yardage from Joann's that matches perfectly, and I ordered a couple half yards of Robert Kaufman Konas in red, slate, and gray to go with it too.  I hope she likes it!






I've got yards and yards of the Midnight Kisses fabric because it was only a dollar a yard on clearance.  It has a pretty silky feel.

  I'll have to make the wonky blocks pretty large because of the scale of the fabric.  If I had realized it, I would have ordered 1/2 yards instead.