Monday, October 27, 2008

Stashbusting Gizzy Quilts

These are "stashbusters."
It's fun to make these up with only myself to please.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Gizzy Quilts

I finished up a couple of Gizzy kitty quilts yesterday.
My son really likes this Rusty colored one, and wants it, even though he doesn't have a cat.

This one is going to a Tuxedo cat who lives in Nashville.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Bento Bonanza

I have now completed 72 of the 81 Bento Box blocks I need. Here are some I finished yesterday.



Saturday, October 18, 2008

Rejects

These are all my wonky free pieced letter rejects. I am saving them for Tonya.

Happy Belated Birthday, Tonya!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Back to Bentos




And my sewing room is nice and clean, neat and organized.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Sewing Room is Clean

The sewing room is CLEAN! Wow! The tables are clear of junk, the piles are gone. All I have to do is a little dusting and vacuuming, and it will be all finished. Pictures later.

Maybe before and after video, even.


This is a drawing I did of my son when he was 14. It is 3/4 life-size, so the head is about 7" tall. I have arthritis in my drawing hand, so I don't draw much any more. When you can do stuff like this, taking something apart to make it "better" is normal. So it's really hard for me to leave something alone when it didn't come out the way I planned.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Cleaning the Messy Sewing Room

I have decided that my sewing room has reached Critical Mess and needs to be thoroughly cleaned and neatened up.

Which is why I don't have much to post today, and no, I am not showing pictures. Well, I won a cute little camcorder last week and took a "Before" video. Maybe I will show you an "After" when it is nice and clean. But my son is coming over for dinner tonight, so it won't be tomorrow.

Here, though, is a design for a black and white bento box kitty quilt.And here is how it got sewn up. I do not know how it transformed itself so wildly.But I don't think I am going to take it apart. (I can hear Tonya cheering already!)

oh oh. I just figured out what I did wrong. Easy fix!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Swap Quilt 5 Finished

I finished the Doll Swap 5 quilt. It's 20-1/4" by 20-1/4".

It's a miniature version of the Slashed Squares quilt I gave to my friends.


you can click the picture for a bigger view.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Doll Quilt Swap 5, In Progress

Since my work schedule will be so punishing for the next six weeks, I decided to work on the Doll Swap quilt right away. I will be making a smaller version of the "Slashed Squares" quilt.

For the Doll Quilt, the finished size of the block will be 7 inches. That means the center squares here were 4" cut, and the strips were 2-1/2".Then I cut them apart like this.
I rearranged all the pieces, resewed the blocks together, and here is the finished quilt top.
Then I machine quilted it.
I haven't decided what to use for the binding yet.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Doll Quilt Swap 5, started

These are the fabrics I have chosen for my Doll Quilt Swap 5 quilt. This is a quick swap, due December 1, and I have a ridiculously busy work schedule for the rest of this month and November, so I wanted to get it going right away. This quilt won't have any letters, and should work out to about 21" square.

So I will work on the top this weekend, and then go back to my Alphabet Sampler Quilt. I want to finish the numbers and finish the drawing for my house. Then, maybe, start making the house. A layout for the quilt is forming in my head.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Doll Quilt Swap 5

Today I received the name of my swap partner for DQS5. Her list of likes and dislikes was not particularly specific in any area. I checked both her flickr pages and her own blog, and am not much enlightened. Hmmm....

I guess that means I have creative freedom! I do know that I won't be doing any letters this time.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A House is a House

Although this is a perfect house to display in a traditional type sampler, it isn't my house.My house is much plainer.
But I've lived in it for 22 years, so it's the house that's going to go in my alphabet sampler quilt. I am working up a drawing so I can figure out how big everything should be. It looks like the house will be about 9" x 12".

I also sewed up 5, 6, and 7.And had a great phone conversation with my pal Tracey, who makes the most divine sock kitties.This is her interpretation of Millie and Monty Q.

You can see mine here.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

1-2-3-4

Looking at these I realize I didn't make any with black backgrounds. Oh well. I can do that later.

I joined the Doll Quilt Swap 5. I'm nuts, what can I say? But I had great fun the last time, so I am looking forward to it again.

Now Tonya, I love your work and you inspire me, but if you think I'm going to make a quilt top out of my extra letters and just give it to you.... well,

Je ne pense pas!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Alphabets Complete

I finished both alphabets. Here are pictures. I still don't know which one I will use for my Alphabet Sampler Quilt.Millie has made her opinion perfectly clear.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

W-X-Y-Z

I have finished sewing all the letters of my alphabet.

I think the B, G, R and W are the most complex letters to free-piece. The "W" ends up being enormous, but I am very happy with these.I wanted the "X's" to look a bit wonky.
I prefer my lower case "Y's" to the upper case ones.
The funny tabs on the edges of the "Z's" will disappear once I sew them to a background.

Next I will sew up the numbers, but I have some chores to do first.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

T-U-V

These letters -look- easy to make, but to get them to look interesting, you have to experiment, and that doesn't always produce a successful result.One of my lower case "t's" for example, looked more like a jet plane than a letter. Do over.
One of my "u's" came out too short, and looked like a "c" taking a nap. Do over.
Getting the "V's" to stand up straight and not look tilted takes a little doing, because making them is almost counter-intuitive. But I am happy with these.

Next up, W, X, Y and that pesky Z! Stay tuned!

Q-R-S

Rough day at work yesterday. Put my foot in my mouth rather spectacularly in front of the big boss. Spent the rest of the day feeling profoundly stupid and embarrassed. Got home, started dinner and started the upper case "Q's" while it was cooking.

I got a little carried away with them. They are a bit oversized, but I think they will be fine, since I won't be lining up all the letters perfectly anyway. The purple is really pretty in real life, looks washed out here. I like the little tails on the lower case q's.
I love the upper case "R's". They are inspired by the R in the font called "Cooperplate Gothic Bold."
"S" is my favorite letter in the entire wonky alphabet. The best one here is the lower case with the white background.

I didn't have enough time to make the "T", but I have all day today to finish the other 7 letters. I accidentally ran over a pin with my rotary cutter, and I don't have any spare blades, so that's a pain. I'll have to go out to get some later.

Friday, October 3, 2008

M-N-O-P

Here are the results of last night's work. There is no accident I stopped at "P." The upper case "Q" is really tricky, and I was getting tired.



No colors are repeated in the letters, except for the background. I have 26 different colors, and each letter is a different color.

The letters with the white background look really fresh and spring-y.
The letters with the black background look really avant-garde and arty.As you can see, my cat Millie is involved with the design process.I am planning on making this into a quilt version of a traditional "sampler" with all the letters, upper and lower case, and numbers. I plan to add my name and the date, and the name of the city where I live. I am also thinking about a house, since those are often depicted in samplers.

I have a feeling Millie might make an appearance as well.