Quick nine patch update

Before I have to post two week's worth, I better show my week 4 nine patch blocks! I actually have a full yard of that yellow Michael Miller with the appliances and jello - I'm strangely drawn to it and hope to find a good use.

The long weekend was busy, but I wanted to share what a 6th grader looks like when his parents are yelling and cheering as he marches past in a parade. It's hard to hide behind a trumpet!

Injury is good?

STILL doing yard work. The neighbor jokingly commented that it is like watching the slaves build the pyramid. We finally finished re-planting most of the beds, now we're moving 15 cubic yards of mulch from our driveway to all those beds. For those that haven't had the horror of mulch dumped into their driveway - 15 cubic yards looks like a small mountain after the dump truck leaves. What a way to spend the long holiday weekend, eh!?

I did get a break yesterday as I was forced to sit and ice my knee. It seems that I've been bending too much and now it is terribly swollen. Hurray for injury (I'm telling myself!) as I had time to work on stitching down my binding. Just a couple more breaks like that and then I can finally show the finished quilt!

And just for fun, here are a few whirlygiggle blocks. I'm addicted and will share some more of this picnic quilt next week. We're off to grill and watch Caleb march in the parade.

Have a great weekend!

Busy as a bee

I decided what to do with the two Neptune layer cakes that came in the quilt kit I bought. I'll make a Bento Box for Becket's room (B Cubed). The layer cake squares will work wonderfully for this. I can get 3 light and 3 dark blocks out of each pair of matching 10x10 squares.

I'm going to use only the blues, blacks, and greens - the lights are all going to be Kona's premium 200ct muslin. It feels like a soft, cool bed sheet. Should be perfect for his room! I only have those two test blocks done so far, as I have been more busy FOR the BEES than sewing.

Yesterday we were out from 8am until 8pm planting and moving stuff. I started counting it up, and stopped at 100 things: perennials, shrubs, grasses, and a few annual pots.

I still have to do the vegetable garden, and add some irrigation.

But first I'll take a break and make some more 2.5" squares for my nine patch blocks before I'm too far behind!

So close

I had all the blocks quickly pieced for this wall-hanging quilt and laid them out for joining. Guess I was too quick - that center, left block is wrong. I'll be unpicking it tonight.

I don't know which is worse, frogging my knitting or unpicking seams?!

Ending and Starting

Motivated to get in another Spring to Finish quilt, last night I stippled an improv top that has been sitting for a while. The binding is cut and ready, so I just had to pull a pile for a small hanging quilt.

I'm getting the hang of cutting my fabric - hurray!

Week three 9 patch

My third week's nine patch blocks. It is getting harder to decide how to create them, and I was even more worried when I realized we have seven more weeks to go!

As I wonder if all the blocks will 'go together', I think I will have to start trusting more in the magic of the white sashing.

I've also started my Aviary quilt. Those are honey bun strips in sets of three. I must say I was quite proud of myself when I measured the center strips and they were actually 1" wide! I think my seams are getting better.

Liz, over at Teeny Tiny Quilts, asked what we listen to while quilting. Becket took a kid-sized view of my spot in the front room that shows my iHome back there.

I usually listen to various NPR podcasts (This American Life, Planet Money) and The Moth podcast. Nothing I'm doing right now is rocket science, so it's fun to let my mind wander. It actually seems to help when I'm free motion quilting - the result is more organic and prettier if I don't over think it. I have to use the earbuds when actually quilting a top, though. Otherwise you miss all the funny stuff to the hum of the needle. What do you listen to?

Honu kala pa'a - finished!

I have been dieing to share my finished coin quilt - had to wait for some sun to get good pictures.

Honu kala pa'a - roughly Hawaiian turtle coins. I made it to remind me of the wonderful trips we've taken to Maui and Kauai.

I love it! Tula Pink's Neptune line - three charm packs and a bit of yardage for back and binding. It is sashed with 100% white linen, also on the back.


The other solid on the back is cotton oxford shirting. It was a substitute when I realized I forgot to buy enough linen for the back. A happy accident, it was wonderful to work with and I'll certainly look for more to use again. I got that piece for a huge bargain at JoAnn's, but it is considered a fall fabric, so I have to wait just a bit to find it again. I decided to feature some of my favorite charm squares on the back, and I like this the best with the sea turtles.


The black print is perfect for the binding.

Neptune really is amazing, so when I saw that Hancocks of Paducah had the quilt kit on sale for nearly 50% off, I had to have it. The kit came with two layer cakes, nine fat quarters, and finally 5/8 yd and 1 1/2 yd cuts. Ooooh, pretty.....

(tossed in 3 yards of Bijoux - on sale, already paying for shipping and all)

We decided to do Becket's room in a kind of Hawaiian sea-theme with underwater and waterfall photos we've taken. I'll probably use just the blues, blacks and greens. I just have to choose what pattern to make.

Pressing Issues

I had a little experiment going yesterday while working on my 9-patch squares. I usually press all my seems open - I like how neat and flat the blocks turn out. But, being pretty new to the exactness of quilting, I often get corners like this:

Lame, shifty squares. I pin, follow the presser foot, try to rotary cut perfectly - nothing seems to help 100% of the time if I have to match up more than one seam across. But see how nice and smooth those seams are? So I tried a couple of blocks pressing the seams to one side or the other, then nested them.

Ooohh, pretty corner. But look at that huge cliff on top of the orange dots!

That awesome dotty fabric was sent to me by my new internet-friend, Chen. Happy, Fun mail!

I did a few more pressing to the side and all ended up nicely aligned, but lumpy. Sitting back and thinking on which thing would annoy me less, as well as what would show less once quilted.

I decided to go with side pressing - but opening up the final seam, since they are all going to be sashed and not directly joined. As I go along with more experience, I may change my mind, but this seams (couldn't resist the pun) best for now.

And also, thanks for all the nice comments about my finally-hung quilt! I think I may make a few specifically for hanging. They make the wall look so happy.

Week two 9-patches

My second week of 9-patch blocks were a Free Spirit fest. I have been hording Park Slope - I'm strangely drawn to it. It was fun to actually use it! The pebbles are my favorites, though, and I have them in all three colorways.

I also tossed in some cute Heather Ross fish to add to the fun!

I was going to do a block with the solid pink and Mendocino mermaids, but I didn't think the scale was going to work.

I finally hung my first quilt, and I'm so happy with how it looks on the wall. I was motivated to do it one morning, and it was just me and the 3 yr old. I had him take a picture while I held it on the wall so I could decided on placement. That actually worked out really well. I only had to mount the holders to the wall once!

Happy {stash} Mother's Day....

.....to me - from Fabric Shack! I ordered late Wednesday afternoon. The soft, wonderful package arrived Saturday afternoon.

Dots

Kaufman Flowers and solids

Fun Stuff

A couple of pre-cuts

And a fun free gift of some machine needles! They always include some kind of treat (including yummy root beer barrels once). Happy folded-stash Mother's Day!

Finishing is good

I was indecisive yesterday - nothing seemed right. So I went to flicker and opened this - I really love her color sense - then made an online visit to the Fabric Shack. I'll be sure to share that nice package when it arrives!


Motivation finally moved me last night and I got the binding sewn on the Neptune quilt. Becket declared it 'Beautiful, it sure is'.

Big up side to actually getting things done, is I now have a tidy little pile of the black tone-on-tone left over from the binding ends! Since I cut my binding strips 2.5" wide, I was able to quickly chop it into squares for my 9-patch blocks.

Speaking of which, I'm having a FreeSpirit fest with them this week. These are some more of my favorite fabrics that I had not been able to cut.

Tool Tuesday

I just had to share how awesome this Sewline fabric pencil is! It was part of the cool prize package I won from Moda before Christmas.

I must say I was a tad skeptical that the Sewline pencil would be any different than the 5 other marking tools I already had - none of which work all that well.
I think my mouth dropped open then first time I used it. That is my black binding fabric for the Neptune coin quilt I'm working on. [yes, I have to draw the line]

The white ceramic lead draws an amazingly smooth, clear, crisp line. One pass! And it comes off with a dab of water or the eraser attached to the other end! Just like a regular mechanical pencil, it holds 6 leads and the package came with a 6-lead refill. There are also other colors for light fabric. Since I totally lucked out and got it for free, I don't even know how much thing runs. But whatever it is, it's worth every cent!

You need it. You'll love it. Go get one now!

I thought I would give a little peak of the freshly quilted Neptune this binding will go on, but you get Becket, too. He grabbed the other digital camera for the photo shoot....

And got some better pictures than I did, I think!

While downloading, I found one of me setting up the pencil shot - not long before he has his own blog!

What luck!

I have another chance to stay a bit focused and actually FINISH some things! Spring to Finish will run another month - join me.

{0r at least don't start something new and cool and post about it, leading me horribly astray - I'm looking at you Moda Bake Shop}

With the first non-rainy weekend in quite a while, not much got done inside the last few days. But who can pass up the blooms and a new garden bench!

I did actually finish something AHEAD OF TIME this weekend. I am meeting friends for a birthday breakfast tomorrow morning and thought I should bring a gift. I made a tote bag - for groceries or whatever. I love this fabric and it was the last of what I had.

Now I just need to get those sandwiches quilted! Then you can find me and my binding back in the yard.

First 9-patches

My first week's worth of 9-patches for the One a Day Quilt Along! I think these gnomes and hedgehogs will be my favorites of the whole thing. One gnome block is fussy cut - the other is the remnants of those cuts, but I liked how it seemed as though they were hiding in there.

These were my indecisive blocks. I wasn't sure 4 or 5 mushrooms per - and pink or green birds? So I did them both. I'm not sure if I love the mushroom blocks.

As I was looking over the stash bins and the few scraps I have, I was trying to figure out what I will put together for future blocks. I have a nice Park Slope set for this week - not sure on many others. And then I was trying to decide how everything was going to relate to each other at the end. I finally decided that when the end came and I was laying out all 70 blocks, any blocks that were totally out of place can go on the back!

Want a sandwich?

Coin quilt and an improv quilt ready to go. These didn't make it in time for Spring to Finish, but I'm on a roll and should keep going!

Sewn Launch Party Giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of the new Australian website SEWN I have decided to join the Launch Party Blog Giveaway!

"SEWN is new and innovative online quilting and sewing community for all lovers of fabric crafts. There will be Tips and Innovative Tools to help with your projects, an Advice Centre for all your sewing questions, online forums and chats, and information on your local shops, sewing groups, quilt groups and classes.

SEWN will feature designers and shops from Australia and New Zealand,as well as the latest from the USA, Canada,Europe and Japan.

There will be articles, interviews and tutorials from industry experts,competitions and free patterns! We’ll even be reporting via podcast from craft shows around Australia and the USA."

It sounds like so much fun! Go check out the website and by joining the SEWN Launch Party you are also in the drawing for more terrific prizes.

So, to join the fun I decided to give away this super cute Australian couple! The pattern for Bonzer & Beaut by Melly & me.

I love them so much, I accidentally bought two, so enter my giveaway and one pattern set can come live with you!

To win all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The random number generator will pick the lucky winner who will be announced here on Monday, June 8, 2009 - the launch date of the new website.