2017: January Recap

I realized I haven't posted anything from what I've been up to for January.

I did set myself some creative/crafty goals:

1.  5 Fluff tems per month (minimum)

2.  5 Mirabel items per month (minimum)

3.  Try something new (new pattern, block, something)

4.  Make a quilt top

1-3 will be something I do every month.  Number 4 is something I'd like to be able to do but I'm willing to admit that sometimes that one just might not work out (because some tops are time consuming, etc).  And I want to not just make the tops but finish them (by years end) so I won't be making 12 tops this year.  Right now my quilting goals are set at three/four finished quilts.  One is a top I already have done, two are tops I want to make, and one is a baby gift.  I think that's a reasonable goal for the year.

But anyway, what did I get up to for January?

First, Fluff and Mirabel:

That there is a dozen seahorses.  Six for each cause.  It got these done early and am already working on February's items (that will be at the end of the post).

For the "try something new" I suppose I have THREE things for the month (just got lucky).  In no particular order:

Pussy hat!  Had to get my Women's March on and when I realized I had left over pink fleece (from making the jigglypuff doll) I figured why not?  It took just about an hour start to finish (and by start that means getting the fabric from the craft room and cutting out the pattern).  Pattern is HERE.

Then, I also tested two patterns for Sweetbriar Sisters.  (really, get on their pattern tester list, it's good stuff).

Hmm, is that an egg?

It's unzipping. .. what's inside?

Welcome to the world!  Come on out.

Zipper egg and little bird.

The zipper egg was kind of a pain in the ass to make.  Not a total pain in the ass but more of a pain then I thought it would be and it's not going to work out as something I can "mass produce" for charity (too labor intensive).  BUT, it's not the fault of the pattern.  The pattern made it easy to do and I got very good results from my first go around.

The only real "problem" with the pattern is the bird just barely fits in the egg.  They noted they could resize the bird but honestly I'd prefer they make the egg larger.  The bird is a good size.  Small but not so small it's hard to work with.

Close up of the bird.  His beak is a little crooked but still within "acceptable to donate to charity" range.  BUT. . .I might just keep him and his egg since the egg was such a bother I think of it like my reward.

How cute is that fabric?  Feather print for the win!

What else. . .what else. . .OH, quilting. .

The top I'm working on is a cat face block (check out Stash Bee blog for a ton of fun blocks. .. that's where this one came to my attention).  As of this writing, the top is NOT done.  All the blocks (like pictured) are done and I have 30.  So a nice even number to use for a quilt (5 across, 6 down).  I need to put sashing strips between each to make the rows and then I think I'm going to do a type of "quilt as you go" technique to finish the top and the whole damn quilt at one time.

I've made a "strip as you go" quilt before (where you sew strips down to the backing/batting so the quilt top is sewn together right onto the batting and backing in one go) and I think this method will work for this quilt.  I made a tester (from two spare faces) to check my hypothesis.

(enlarged that bad boy a lot)

Don't mind how wonky it is, I was not trying for perfection (and if you look close you'll see the one of the side sashes is sewn on wrong side up!).  I started by sewing down the top sashing (sized to the width of the cat face block).  Then I sewed the first cat face block on (face down on the sandwich, then flip it right side up). then the middle sashing (I pieced together scraps!), then the next face, and finally the bottom sashing.  Then I put on the side sashings, trimmed the batting and rolled the backing fabric to the front for binding.  For just being a tester piece, it turned out well (meaning it worked like I wanted it to).  I think I'm going to just go balls out and try making the quilt this way.  Worst case scenario, it will be a train wreck.  BUT, it will count as a "try something new" so it won't be a total loss, right?

So I just need to finish up this top (hopefully as a full quilt) and then I'll move on to either another top for myself or the baby quilt I need to make (by May/June).

What's am I up to now?

February's charity sewing is already in full swing.  It's snails!  I think there are 14 or 16 or something like that (I forget now exactly how many).  OH, and for March I'm going to add a third charity to the mix (more on that another time, gotta get those snails done first. . .I'm so bad at having tons of projects started at once so I have to stay focused or nothing will get done).

AND. . .I haven't stopped painting.  Now, I only paint 3 ish hours a week (for 6 weeks or so at a time. . .like a school semester) so I'm not really whipping out the finished canvases.  I did finally finish the chameleon set (which I gifted to my mother, who requested a painting. . .any painting. . .for Christmas. . .I'd never force my paintings on anyone, they aren't really that great in general. . .total rookie stuff).

ANYWAY, this is the canvas I'm working on now.

Octopus!  This is how it looks RIGHT NOW.  But I have painting tonight, so maybe. . .just maybe. . it'll be almost done after that (it's very close now. . .I'm trying to not go for "perfection" with my paintings so I can enjoy getting more actually FINISHED. . .this one is at the point where I'm starting to think about what my next canvas will be, so that means it's almost done).

(shout out to my hubby who's photobombing there in the background. . .woot! hey hubby!)

I'm aiming to make February as productive as January and I'm off to a good start!

Quilts for Pulse Blocks

After the Pulse nightclub massacre (side note, that was a hate crime not some terrorism b.s.  I get so miffed when the news tries to make it into a "ooh, big bad brown terrorists!" thing when it was just a straight up homegrown hate crime. .. ok, mini rant over) the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild put out a call for quilts/tops/blocks to make quilts for survivors, family members, first responders, and those affected.

Details HERE.

They wanted to keep a heart/rainbow theme and offer THIS pattern as a jumping off point for folks (they'll take any quilt/top/blocks that are heart/rainbow, though).  (they prefer the 10 inch size of that block)

Seeing how easy the block was AND that it could be made from scrap sizes of fabric, I was TOTALLY in.

I just mailed these 13 blocks out today.

You can get three of these blocks (the color part) from one FQ.  So there are three of each of these.  I did go and buy a bit of fabric for this project.  I don't have a lot of true white on white fabric (I have low volume but a lot of it is black on white or gray on white) and when I found a white heart on white background fabric at Equilter AND I got a $10 gift certificate for doing a survey I figured what the hell.  I only ended up paying 93 cents for a half yard of fabric.  Hell yes!  (and there was a 5 inch strip left that I can keep for me. .. yes, it always ends up being about me).

Used scraps for these three.  So I got one purple, two green, and one pink.  One of the greens has a different light fabric.  I didn't have enough of the two light fabrics I used (the heart print and this other print I bought to use in a cat themed quilt and/or have just to have some white on white fabric).  Again, I ended up still having a five inch strip left of the non-heart light fabric, which is perfect because the project I was thinking of using it for calls for five inch charms.  I love when things work out like that.

I only have one each of these.  The star fabric there just wasn't enough to make another block (which was a shame because that's sparkly and sparkly is the best) and the ostriches I didn't have enough of the heart/light fabric to make another (I have a bunch of that ostrich print because it's awesome).

Just had to enbiggen that there ostrich block to show it off a bit more.  I just love it!  You can see the heart print, too.  I think I have to get a bit more of that fabric the next time I shop.  See how easy this block was (the only tiny tricky bit is, if you're working with a directional print you have to pay attention that it's sewn on properly. .. but that applies pretty much any time you use a directional print) I kind of want to use it to make a cat themed quilt.  I already have a pattern to make a much larger heart (that's what I'm using to make my Pets on Quilts submission) but this would be cool, too.  And show off my funky cat fabrics a lot better since the heart uses more of each fabric (the other pattern uses 5 inch charms so each fabric has less space to pop).

That's what's up next, the Pets on Quilts submission.  I need to sash the blocks, get my backing fabric, and put it together.  Chop, chop.

2015 Quilting Goals: Drunkard's Wife QAL

I decided to do a quilt along to force myself to work on my quilting skills.  That and I happened to stumble onto Sew Scatterbrained's blog (via IG).  She's doing the work of setting the QAL up so all I have to do is play along (no signing up or any of that, which is just my style).

I got all caught up (there were only two blocks to do) this weekend.

The fun twist with these is you're supposed to make an error (because you're drunk, right?  yeah, that's too dangerous for me to mix alcohol and fast moving needles, thankyouverymuch.  that and alcohol makes me sleepy, again, not good to be drowsy when playing with fast moving needles and rolling cutting implements).

This was a churn dash (I believe that's the correct term) block and I deliberately put one corner and one of the "two bar" pieces on wrong.  You really notice teh corner error but the bar takes longer to notice.

OH and double challenge for this, I'm trying to use up three scrap packs I bought on a lark from Pink Castle Fabrics.  They had a bundle sale (they do that a lot) so I grabbed a cool, a warm, and a neutral.

And the other block.  I don't remember if this has a "real" name (I know all of the blocks are standard patterns, nothing too outrageous though the next block looks complicated and I'm worried I'll really cock it up good just due to incompetence).

That block is supposed to have all the points the same so it makes a starburst in the middle.  But I deliberately turned the two side ones to make stripes instead.  I really like the starburst way and this alternative version.

My only problem is these are supposed to finish at 12.5 inches (pre-trim) and mine simply do not.  I know I cut everything accurately so it has to be my seam allowance.  I consistently used the same for each seam and I did check it before I started BUT (now that I'm thinking about it and given my general fail at math and mathy related things) I could have messed that up.  I really did measure it with a ruler and all that but I could have measured wrong.  I'm just going to keep making them all the wrong size and then trim them all the same when I go to put them together.  No harm, no foul I suppose.

See, I can't even pull this off when SOBER.  Maybe I should have a little nip of gin before I try the next one.

2015 Quilty Goals: New block practice

There's some debate (in my own mind) as to whether I did this block correctly.  I re-watched the tutorial and I swear I did it right BUT I looked at another tutorial (provided on the swap I thought I was going to do but then dropped because I wasn't sure I did the blocks correctly) and it looked different.

Eh, here's what I got:

I made them in the colors the swap specified (thinking I was going to use them, before I chickened out).

Clearly one is a bit crooked.  I'm not sure if that's a sewing error or pressing error or a bit of both.  (that's the block there on the right)

Closer look to examine.

See, the debate is over that wee little four patch in the middle.  On the Missouri Quilt Co tutorial, they only give the middle bit one quarter turn so you get the white going diagonal down the whole patch and the color diagonal in the other direction.  But on one of the other tutorials (that I'm too lazy to look up now) they have it turned more.  I think they said 180 degrees which would be two quarter turns (if my math is right, which it frequently is NOT).  So in the example block above, that would mean you don't have color flowing diagonally.  For the center you'd have the grape print next to the two other purples and the whites as a band.  But in the one tutorial they also did the flipping differently so maybe that's the problem?

I really think the Missouri Quilt Co tutorial was the easiest and made sense for the seams, too.  The way they have you turn the middle bit, your seams fit nicely together.

Either way, I didn't feel like making more because they are a bit fussy.  Not hard, exactly, but fussy.  They remind me just a bit of paper piecing which isn't my bag (there are a lot of seams on the back so it's kind of bulky).

I did do well in matching my points on both.  The one just has that crookedy part to it.

I didn't bother to trim them down at all.  I think I'll just add them to my miscellaneous block pile and use them to practice free motion quilting.

Speaking of, I got a bit more of that done this weekend, too.  You'll see that in the next post when I show off the patches I made.

Ok, off to the next post, shall we?

Two things for swaps

Time to make a post showing off some swap stuff.

First up, some wacky 9 patch blocks.

That's the whole set of six.  I keep two (one of each color) and then swap the other two sets to my partners.

The pic doesn't do the colors justice.

The pinks are a lot deeper and the yellows much more bright.

I really like the fall ones the best.  I love food print fabrics like that, where the images are really overlapping and kind of busy.  That leaf fabric is nice too (same idea of really busy print).  The yellow just worked so nicely with it (and has what kind of looks like little wheat shafts on it--but they're not just little leafy things).

The other block I'm just "meh" on.  It looks good but that fabric in general doesn't make me leap over the moon or anything.  I got it as a set from a traveling stash box and I took it for just a project like this.  Made it easier for me to pick the fabrics.

I used my walking foot for these and that's when I discovered it's acting up.  The little lever that gets bumped up and down (by the screw that holds the needle to the shaft) to make the top feed dog move in time with the bottom (built into the machine) ones was getting stuck in the up position and causing some issues.  Also, I hadn't measured to see what a 1/4 seam allowance was for that foot so my seams were pretty dang fat.  Thankfully, you start with 11 inch fabric squares to end up with a trimmed 9 inch block so I had wiggle room.  I plan to remove the walking foot and see if maybe it needs a shot of oil to prevent that catching.  I'll also measure to see what a 1/4 inch seam is for it (I might need to move the needle all the way to the right to get the sizing correct).  But for now I can just put my regular foot back on.  I don't really need the walking foot for projects like this (just making a block) or regular sewing and I don't have any truly quilty projects on the horizon right now (so I have time to fiddle with the foot).

Blah blah, so much talk.  We need more PICS.

I finished a patch last night.  There was no theme for it.  I love a good anything goes patch.

Funky Monkeys!

My partner likes sock monkeys so this should go over well (same partner I made the bag for months back).

Thanks to having some fabulous fabric I didn't have to do much to make this patch work.  Just embellish the images.

I added felt hair, french knot eyes, and stitched mouth line to the top left corner monkey.  The top right monkey got stitching on her fabulous eyebrows, french knot eyes, and some lace.  The bottom left monkey got stitches on the eye marks and some beading.  Bottom right monkey got CRAZY EYES.

Those need a closeup.

AAAAHHHHH!

I love this monkey so much.  I was going to put google eyes on but these beads are so much better.  The pupils don't match which makes the overall effect that much more crazy.  I didn't do anything else to that monkey.  I mean, after the crazy eyes was there anything else to do?  Exactly.  This monkey is now perfect.

And the back.  Of course I had to find something with a banana.

That's all I got for now.

What's up next?

Well, I've been working on Fluff Project stuff.  I just have four tiny ghosts to face up (put the faces on) and then I can put a whole mess of them through the machine.  In fact, I might machine up the ones that are ready before doing the minis.  Then I can move on to the reindeer I've had cut for an age and a half.

THEN. . .I'm going to make a big ass whale.  Yup.  Totally impractical and will just take up space in my house but I WANT IT.  I haven't sewn really big lately and I'm in the mood.

I also have a few swaps to do.  One is a super fun Disco themed patch.  I have my idea all sketched up and feel confident it will turn out well.

For Pinks Sakes: Quilt Blocks for Charity.

Anna at Life So Crafty did a blog hop, For Pinks Sakes.  I couldn't commit to doing the blog tour (they posted on weekends and I don't "computer" much on weekends) but I did want to get in on the sewing portion of the hop.

Anna is collecting pink quilt blocks for inclusion into a charity quilt she's making to help raise breast cancer awareness AND (more importantly) funds of her mother in-law's treatment.

She's collecting any style as long as they are minimum 4 inches (finished) and contain pink fabrics.  Also, square/rectangle is better.

So I decided to make some more blocks.  I made one a few months ago (just a simple 2.5 inch patchwork one) but I pawed through my stash and found all the pink I had and realized I needed to make more blocks.  I've been trying to bust my stash and this was PERFECT.  It was also a perfect chance to try out a simple/basic block I've been wanting to try.

BLOCKS AHOY!!

Log cabin blocks for the WIN.

I made them one round smaller than the instructions I found.  But these are around 10 inches in size (didn't measure, but the longest log on them is 10.5 inches so they're in that ballpark).

Those were the first two I made.  I did a fussy cut cute print for the centers.  I just HAD to use that piggy.

(oh, any wonkiness you see in them is because they're on a lumpy picnic table--the blocks aren't crookedy like that).

Once I made that pair I was kind of hooked.  I just had to make a few more.

And since I was cutting fabric, I felt obligated to keep using the fabric, trying to use as much of the cut bits as possible.  Then when one print would get low, I'd try to use it all up.  It was like a game!

I tried not to duplicate the center square on any of them.

(beware, my toes are in the next pictures!  these little piggies were putting the sewing machine pedal to the metal)

I ended up with a total of eight log cabin blocks.

And all kinds of little pieces left over.  SO. . .I had to make two more blocks to bring the grand total up to 10.

2.5 inch charms in a nine patch style.  Very basic.  (again, any warbly/wonkiness is due to the surface they are on, they turned out very neat--except for one seam on each of them.  It curled over and I shook my fist at it and put a pox on its home!)

They measure at about 6 inches each?  I put my 5 inch square ruler on them to make sure they met the minimum size requirements and they were larger than it so I was all good.

I had so much fun making these.  It was nice to do some actual quilt block making for a change.

And I realized I like the smell of hot fabric.  When you're ironing (pressing--whatever) some unwashed fabrics and you get that sizing smell?  Yeah, I like that a lot.

I mailed these off this morning and I hope they are of some use to Anna.  Hell, even if she thinks they suck, I had fun and busted some of my stash so I'm a big winner!

Fluff Project Update (and a quilt block I made)

Just some random stuff I'm either finished with or just about finished with.

First, the full on finish.

Sew at Home Mummy made a blog post about a friend who's doing a blog hop/block sharing project via their blog (confused yet?).  You could be part of the blog hop OR just make a block (or two) and send them to Erin at Sew at Home Mummy and she would get them to the person hosting the hop for inclusion into quilts she's making to donate to a cancer charity/hospital. (really, if you want the full story with all the details check out the above link, I'm just doing a fast and loose summary here).

SO. . .I made a pink block to help out with the charity quilt(s) this blogger is planning to make.

I was going to make a bigger block but when I started pawing through my stash I realized I don't have much in the pink family.  Wouldn't you know, back when I was doing that series of swaps for stash builders, I got flaked on for the pink.  At the time I wasn't that worked up over it since pink's not a big color for me but. . .since I only had a few FQ of pinks and they didn't really work well together I was about to just scrap the plan to make a block when. . .

I was going through my 2.5 inch charms (just playing with them) and LIGHTBULB MOMENT I realized I had some nice pinks in the mix and could just pull some of them to make a decent sized block and the problem would be all solved.

So that's what I did.  One block made from 2.5 inch charms.  I tried to make all the pinks go with each other.  I did try to alternate really light with darker.  I think it turned out well.  I really like the "faith/hope" text charm.

And, it was good practice for my postage stamp quilt (and made me want to work with it some more but I have so many other things that are more pressing to do first, like swaps!).

After I got the block done, it was time to give some attention to the Fluff Project.

Cute little girly girls!

I was really worried these wouldn't work out.  That they would look dumb or cheap when finished but they really look cute.

Gossip girl!

Look at the girl on the left trying to pretend like she's not listening.  Mmm, hmm.  We know you like what you're hearing.  (wonder what's being said!)

These ladies are a little better behaved.  Though the one in the middle looks a little TOO innocent.  I bet she did something naughty and we just haven't discovered it yet.

I just have to close up each of these dolls and then they are ready to join the bunnies in the holding box.

That will bring my total finished toys to 16.  Sweet 16!

I'm aiming to do 40 toys for this quarter's challenge so I'm doing well on that front.  I also have fabrics pulled to try and make some puppies and some dinosaurs (both My Funny Buddy patterns) but I need to do a lone practice of each one before I decide if I can do a small assembly line of them.  I think both will make the cut but you never know.

Wacky 9 Patch Quilt Blocks

Another swap DONE.

Set of wacky 9 patch blocks.

Two sets to trade, one for me.

The closeups are the ones I kept.

The pic doesn't do it justice.  The solid color is a tan but the woven looking print.  The dots on the purple fabric are about the same shade which pairs with the tan in the bigger dot print.

Again, the colors aren't popping due to my sad photography skills (and using my phone).  The rose print is a creamy shade which goes well with the book print (I used that one on a recent patch and pulls from the shiny gold accents in the music fabric.

All three of the fabrics on the music/books/roses block are from one of my more recent scrap pack purchases (perhaps the last one I got right before I went on my buying fast?  can't remember what store that one was from but the box was really good).

That's all I have today.

Tonight I start sewing on the pouches for this quarter's Hopeful Threads project.  I want to get that box out the door by the end of the week.  I grabbed up a big priority box when I was at the post office this morning, so I'll pack all the extras tonight and then just pop the pouches in as I finish them.  Can't wait to have that project DONE.

Then I have to work on an art doll and my multi-media curse project.  I know what I'm doing for my curse but the dolls is still up in the air.  We'll see what comes.

Lots o' swaps: Quilt blocks, dotee, and bag

I have two posts this morning.  First up is the miscellaneous one showing off a bunch of stuff I completed for swaps.

In no particular order:

Crazy 9 patch swap:

I kept one of each and swapped the other two.

You may notice they aren't exactly alike.  (I'll get to that in a minute)

I made another black and white set but used different fabrics.  The penguin and diamonds I picked up on my last fabric buying before I started my new year fast.  Remnant bin for the win.  The polka dots were just in my stash.

These fabrics were from the Fabric Worm scrap bundle I recently reviewed.  They just go together.

BUT. . .these blocks aren't exactly correct.  The pattern is wrong because I didn't swap the layers out the proper way.  The pattern should have similar fabrics going three down diagonally then three fabrics looping (corner, side, bottom and top, side, corner--like in the black and white block).  Clearly, this block isn't following that pattern.  BUT I still like it so I sent them out.  If someone complains I'll make them a new block.  But I think the fabrics work so well together that the pattern change up isn't a big deal.

Next up:  Dotee Doll

Black and white dotee doll to be exact.

Full body showing hangar and tail.

Closer view.

Face shot.  The glasses cast some funky shadows so these pictures are extra crappy.  Go me!

The eyes are two sequins stacked with a seed bead.  Simple was the theme.  Per the swap the face could have some color if we wanted but I wanted to make the whole shebang black and white, so I did.  Heck, I even mailed it in a white envelope with black ink and used a black and white note card inside (it was the front of a card someone sent me, I like to cut off the front if it hasn't been written on and re-use them as swap labels).

Patchwork back.

Last but not least:  Poochie bag.

Full shot.

Close up trying to better show the colors.

The gray is an ashy shade and the pinks are bright.  The pocket is a purplish pink that compliments the skulls.  Normally the straps would be a different print but when I was pulling fabrics I couldn't find something that looked good and I had enough of the skull fabric that I just decided to make the straps the same fabric as the bag shell.  I like the finished product, though my machine was not happy.  I had to stop and oil it and swap out the needle (before starting this project) because there were so many layers of fabric to sew through.  Even then, the machine was still complaining a bit (but still making nice stitches).  I also had a bobbin incident.  I'm still not sure what caused the problem but I think it might be a poorly wound bobbin.  I wound a new one and it was fine so I'm not sure.  I may go back and try to figure it out or I might not, depending on if I want to irk myself.  (the problem was the bobbin threads were coming out all loopy and even jamming a bit--the bobbin was in the case correctly but the machine was just not liking it for some reason).

OK, I'll have another post in a few minutes.  I'm off to the post office now to mail out a mass of swaps.