When one talks about quilting… many things come to mind….
Habits and idiosyncrasies about quilters are top of the list….
Especially for me since I know so many quilters.
Quilters are crazy cat ladies….
Really….
I see many comics, etc., with quilters and cats.
In my house, a piece of fabric on the floor – no matter how
small – is something to be sat upon by a cat.
And since there’s five of them, not much fabric is missed by them. My shelves of fabric in the basement just
scream “cat bed” to each and every one of them….
Obligatory cat
stories:
I laid out a small quilt yesterday. Small enough that I could do it on my living
room rug. I cut away the extra batting,
and left it lying while Chris and I went to dinner. Sure enough – came home and it was already a
cat bed!
I quilted the quilt after dinner and left it said quilt lying
on the floor when I went to bed. Ariel
managed to disrupt it from laying flat on the floor, wiggle under it, and was
waiting to jump out when Chris came down in the morning.
And – not quilt related, but still a crazy cat lady story….
We took Bronx to the vet today. For those of you who do not know Bronx, he is
a male Bengal with all four claws. He
was totally unsocialized when we got him that we had to lock him up alone and
gradually introduce to the others. He is
also a F1 (First Generation) Bengal.
They are considered the “pit bulls” of cats. There is a whole group out there that wants
to ban private party ownership of F1s because they “will turn on you.”
Yea, right.
Bronx is probably about 12.
We’ve had him 4 years. He’s a
HUGE baby. He sits on Chris lap and
nuzzles him. He’s ok with new people,
but VERY guarded.
We were a little worried about bringing him to the Vet. He howled the whole way there. However, he was VERY well behaved in the
store/Vet (Petsmart/Banfield). He did
not attack any dogs. He did not bite or
claw the vet or the vet tech. He did sit
nicely for the exam. He did not shred
any paper in the exam room. He even
actually seemed to like shopping, sat nicely – albeit very attentively – in the
cart. He did not try to hop out and he
did not try to chew open the treats or the dry cat food!
Quilting
I have been doing some quilting lately.... I even did some cleaning of my quilting area - that shows I'm serious!
Leave the Quilts
Alone
In this
post , I posted a picture of the quilt I
laid out and made a comment about how it would look in the morning…..
Before:
After:
Yea, anything fabric is to play with….
And, while I am on the subject of this quilt. At this point… I hate it….
Not really, just frustrated with it. Very slow going and everything went wrong.
I subscribe to a monthly club for fabric packs. It varies what size/shape I get each
month. I call it my “inspiration club.” It makes me think about doing things outside
my comfort zone.
I have made this pattern several times and I really like it….
However, this time, everything went horrible wrong.
The Pattern
I saw something similar in a quilt shop, but the directions
are all mine. I will write them up
sometime, but here is a quick primer:
- Take squares of fabric and cute them diagonally both ways
- Cut four strips of one fabric, and two squares of another
for EACH cut up square of fabric.
- Assemble to look like this
- Assemble all blocks into a quilt
That’s really it. It
is a simple pattern, looks VERY complicated and it is absolutely wonderful for
large squares of fabrics - layer cakes especially. The cross bits are all one fabric, so they
tie in the multiple patterns/colors of coordinating packs of fabrics.
I have made this quilt 4 or 5 times already….
The Saga
But this time…. Ugg
I cut out most of the strips of coordinating fabric and
realized that they were too short….
I solved that by putting on corner triangles to make a nice
look…
I trimmed the first few blocks and completed them, then
realized that they were two different sizes in the corners…. I had to redo a
few
Cutting the corners just didn’t go nicely
The fabric pack was greens, blacks and whites… some had two,
some had three of the colors…. Putting together a pattern was not easy…. The squares
were not easily dividable
Speaking of the squares, the person putting together the pack
also had an issue with it. There were
all the squares that were supposed to be there, and then there was a shorted
piece of fabric (same as another) in the center of the pack.
I laid the quilt out several times. I would complete a few blocks, but it was
time consuming working on the corners and doing some re trimming, so I would
leave, the cats would destroy it, and then I would have to lay it out again,
which would get me thinking all over again about what was “green”, “black” or “white”.
I finally assembled it, and decided it was going to get
DONE. I quilted it right away and went
to do the border. I had neither a green
nor a black that would coordinate…. Not even a plain black!
I have THOUSANDS of yards of fabric and I did not have ONE
that would work for the binding….
ARRRGHHH
Went to Joann’s today and got plain, black broadcloth… on
sale for 40% off at least.
Twin City Quilting Block
of the Month
In this
post, I showed the picture of the completed Block of the Month for last
year. I also showed a picture of the quilt
that I made from partial blocks, mismade pieces and other scraps….
And, in this
post, I showed what I did with the LAST of all the scraps.
In between those – the large “left overs” quilt, and the
final use of scraps, I also had a few more partial blocks and big enough scraps
to make more so I made these two runners/toppers:
So, now, that project box is empty! And nothing to put on my stash shelves…
*Happy Dance*
Textile Center Garage
Sale
I went to the annual Textile Center garage sale. I went the preview evening and paid my $25
for the pleasure of going through other people’s rejected items before the
general masses… one person’s junk is another person’s treasure, right?
On top of the $25, I spent another couple hundred and got a
TON of stuff…. Ok, a quilter’s ton, not a measurable ton…
I bought some
yardage, but mostly bought smaller bags of fabrics. I did buy a couple of the “expensive”
packs. One person had donated a bunch of
fabrics that I recognize to be Australian and had them neatly organized into
bags. There were about 5 times what I
would call “garage sale” pricing, but still less than the store – probably half
to a third what I paid in Australia for some similar, and definitely not
available here or common. I bought some
beads as well. I got some neat pieces,
and sorted them into my collection.
Nothing earmarked for a projects
The Seven-Dollar
Quilt
Amongst other packs of fabric that I bought, I bought a zip
lock of 2-inch squares. I think it was
$1.
Not the best buy…. Pricy for the few squares it was… someone
else’s choices, cutting, etc. Basically
a bag of scraps…
Bag of Inspiration!
I started sewing the squares together. I formulated my plan as I went, and even
then, did not know until the very end what it would be.
I also bought three bags of beiges. Larger scraps… some long, some wide, some
about the size of fat quarters, a couple pieces close to a yard. All different patterns, but all around the
same color… beige, tan, ecru, sand…
How many other names can you come up with for basic beige
color?
Here is the end result!
I am going to call it “City Scape”. Can you see the city in it?
Also, look at the one corner… There’s a reason for it.
Basically, I made blocks that looked like this:
And assembled them into rows like this:
Notice the “Built in border” on the two sides?
I added border to the other two sides:
And used a four-patch in the very corner!
And, of course, I had a couple pieces left over…..
Scrap Tamers
I also finished the top for the Scrap Tamers mystery
quilt. Remember, I ONLY used scraps on
this!
Glass
I have not been to the studio lately. I missed three Fridays because of: The Studio closed for a special event, mini
retreat for my quilt group and last weekend’s Wisconsin Dells trip (in that
order). So, I got there as soon as I
could this past Friday… I made a couple small pieces, then I set off to work
with my 104 COE glass (millefiore, canes… etc.) and made this special display
piece for myself:
The main idea behind this was to showcase some of the
smaller bits of glass that I work with. I
am going to try another one, but after I get to the torch work studio and make
some stringers and other things that I can work into the design.
It has got some geometric designs, but I also branched out
(no pun intended) and made a couple stylized designs:
A flower:
The leaves are trimmed from glass sheet, the flower is
millefiore, and the stem is actually copper.
It will be interesting to see how it color changes in the kiln.
An apple tree:
The tree trunk/branches are also copper like the stem in the
flower. The leaves, apples, etc., are
millefiore. I cannot take all the credit
for this – I copied something from Pinterest!
Using Plates
No, this isn’t a quip about my barbarian family learning to
use utensils for the first time or something…. They are generally quite polite
(we won’t mention burping… on the part of several of them!)
Anyway, we are beginning to use my fused glass plates for
regular dinner service in the house.
This is Chris’s masterpiece of dinner tonight… meatballs
balanced on the opposite corners… basil leaf illustrating the food….
And on that note - good night!