Square Madness

I finished my Square Madness quilt. It is on the large side 80x75 inches. I will describe is as interesting and I cannot photograph it well.

Infinity Scarf

I promised Big R an infinity scarf with the yarn left over from my pink and orange socks. The scarf's length would be either as long as she wanted it or until I ran out of yarn. Luck would have it there was only enough yarn for the length she wanted.

My new rink side knitting project for the Spring hockey season is the Miette sweater. This one is knitted top down. I plan on making full length sleeves and adding 3 inches to the body so it comes to my waist and is not cropped.

February Quilt Squares

Here are my next installment of squares for the Monday Monday Quilt. This round is olive, turquoise and purple. I did purchase a 6-1/2 inch square grid. I still haven't figured out all the different grid lines in each quadrant.

Block 8 - Pinwheel

Pinwheel was rather simple.

Block 9 - String Block

String block was fun. I paper pieced it to a 6-1/2 inch square to eliminate the guess work and wasting scraps by cutting them too big.

Block 10 - Snowball Variation

This was another straight forward pattern.

Block 11 - Bow Tie

Some how my purple "squares" ended up more like triangles.

Block 12 - Winged Square

I did not like this one. Too many 1 inch squares. My greens are too similar. Kinda of boring. Some how it ended up too small and crooked. I needed to add buffer strips to make it the correct size.

Block 13 - 9-Patch

This 9-Patch was fun.

 Here is a possible place mat setup. I think this set has too much solid green.

Paris Original

What have you been sewing these last 6 weeks?

Big R is dancing in her school's musical production, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". I volunteered to sew costumes. There was only one sewing project this year, dresses for the Paris Original number. In a nutshell, in this scene Rosemary is going to a party and is going to wear her one of a kind Paris Original dress. Lo and behold when she arrives, everyone is wearing the same dress!. (Good reason to avoid ready to wear or the featured outfit in popular catalogs - nothing worst then seeing your outfit on someone else - looking better.)

The costume director chose a lovely fitted bodice, right arm drape, fully gathered (with under netting) dress. Every classy Paris dress. The Director was thinking 30 girls on stage in this dress for this number. The other sewing mom and I took home cut out fabric. Five hours of sewing and one dress is made, but the bodices were not fitted nor was the zipper or hem done. I managed to make 2 dresses that week. The next Saturday, they are now thinking only 25 girls in the number. I mentioned the two sewing Moms work full time and each dress was 5 hours of construction and so that really wasn't going to happen (I am spending 3 days a week at hockey and have the hassles of being a Girl Scout Cookie Mom.) It was decided that 10 girls would be just fine in that number. So much fabric was needed the costume director ordered it on line. Absolutely wonderful idea expect the dye lot was noticeable different on the new fabric. She ended up driving to all the JoAnn's in Central and South Jersey and a few in Philly to get enough. (Glad that wasn't my job). A few of the arm drapes where cut out backwards and there was no more fabric, she said there are few JoAnn's in North Jersey she hadn't visited yet... I said I think there enough scrapes that I can piece it - it just a costume isn't it? Using my sewing skills I hid the seam in the drape, you'd never know. :)

The girls tried on the dresses and alternation were made and zippers inserted - another hour or so per dress. Last Saturday was the costume check on stage for the Director. The girls loved their dresses. They looked great on stage. I heard the girls were so happy with their dresses they posted photos on Facebook.Certainly makes it worth all the hassle. So here it is a Paris Original in need of a hem, trimmed netting and pressing.

Here is that lovely arm drape...

Modern Quilt Squares

My Quilt Guild is doing a Quilt Along of make blocks designed by 42 Quilts for her Modern Monday project. Modern quilt designs are new for me. I find this project intriguing. The plan is to do 6 blocks a month and end with a quilt top at the end of year. I have no need for another quilt at this time, so I have decided to pick through my scraps and make 6 coordinating blocks which will be sewn into a place mat. At the end of the year I will have six reversible, mismatched place mats. This is no problem because place mats are always in the wash and the table is mismatched.

After making these blocks my first reaction is a lot of fabric waste. Some shapes are made larger then needed and then trimmed to get the right look. There is a learning curve to this - which is my challenge. Here are the blocks:

Block 1 - Crossroads

This block looks like logs on an algae pond. After piecing this block needed to be trimmed to 6-1/2". It was recommended to use same size clear plastic ruler. I don't have one and made a 6-1/2" paper template and guessed it looked about right. This tool would be very helpful.

Block 2 - Log Cabin

Oops! That little window should be in the upper right hand corner. Somehow I was turned around when figuring out where the long and short sides fit.

Block 3 - Rail Fence

Four logs floating on an algae pond. Purple would have been a better choice the green are two similar and don't provide a gradient effect - which I was hoping for. Also I made one of the logs a little to wide so I'll lose the green stripe when it is joined.

Block 4 - Churn Dash

This is a fun one. It took three tries to get figure out how to trim the block so the slant showed up. The first two times I squared the block to the purple side cutting off the wonky angle created by the brown.

Block 5 - Sawtooth Star 

This one was hard. The pieces were over sized so they could be trimmed. It was difficult to "see" the final picture to know what to cut.

Bock 6- Mosaic

This one would have been much easier if the squares were cut to 2-1/2" and then the triangle was added at what ever angle you wanted. Making them 3-1/2" and trimming to 2-1/2" seems wasteful to me.

It was fun but a little frustrating. A 6-1/2" clear plastic ruler would make it sizing much easier.A possible place mat layout.

2013 Finished

After completing Butterfly Love there were two outstanding 2013 projects: Diagonal Madness quilt top and the pink socks. Both were completed before December 31 (Yippee!).

Diagonal Madness was an interesting adventure. According to the directions the nine patch border was going to be too big and would need trimming. In my case it was too small and I needed 3 extra 9 patches. I am not sure where I went wrong, but it is finished.

Digging through my scraps I found enough material to make a backing - complete incoherent and non matching fabrics, sticks with the madness theme. It is really ugly and doesn't deserve a photo. It is pin basted and ready for quilting.

Pink socks were another adventure - yarn was too thick so I needed to go down to 000 needles to get the correct gauge. I did not try to match the stripes since I had only one very large skein. I started the second  where the first left off. Some how by luck the stripes matched up after the toes.

January's project is the pants. I never started them. Too many December distraction. They are the first project for 2014.

Butterfly Love -Third Quilt

As I walked through my garden

I saw a butterfly light on a flower.

His wings were pink and purple:

He spoke a small word . . .

It was Follow!

-Hilda Conkling

Butterfly Love was completed on time! It is a beautiful purple with a bit of green for Big R. For this quilt I used a handmade flower stencil to do the hand quilting. 

On my last quilt I was having trouble with the mitered corners of the binding and connecting the two ends smoothly. I found this tutorial at Valerie Custom Quilts which was extremely helpful and gave me the results I wanted.

Big R picked out the spunky backing which is a great compliment to the traditional front.

The batting is bamboo fiber. It is thin and very warm, but I found it difficult to quilt. I am not sure if it was the fiber or the glue for iron-on fusible. I prefer safety pin basting skip the fusible batting next time.