Short Attention Span Girl

I was out of town most of the week, so I was happy that anything at all happened around here.  It doesn’t look like much, but I cut out the baskets for the last five blocks from the Tisket a Tasket project and got them placed and ready to appliqué.

Easy appliqué to work on this week!

See what the other quilters have on their design walls (or tables or floors) over at Judy’s.
The BOM rehab quilters are busy over here on their projects.

- – marcella

I’m thinking I need to lower my standards.  It seems like more often then not I start out on Monday by writing that not much quilting has happened around here.  Maybe I should plan on something pitiful like a half hour a week of quilting and then I could at least meet if not exceed my expectations.

I did not finish any of the basket blocks this week.  I did get the July block all prepped and ready to appliqué and embroider.

I also realized that I really love to just sit and appliqué and not have to break up the hand stitching with more prep work.  With that in mind, I started prepping the last blocks. That way they’ll all be cut out and ready to sew.  I think I’ll like that better than doing it a block at a time.

I also realized that I hadn’t shown you one of my recent preemie quilt tops.  I had been trying to resist the granny block craze since I think we can all agree that I do not need another project to work on. But, if it’s small it’s actually finish-able, right?  So, using a packet of 2 x 5 inch rectangles from a Moda Candy Bar I made this cute little top:

The rectangles were all cut up into squares and I started playing.  There were enough squares to make four blocks and the leftovers were pieced with some white background squares to make the little triangle border.  The finished top is 33 inches square.  I think with a flannel back it will be perfect for a little baby at the hospital.

I did adjust the block directions.  The usual instructions use just squares to make the block, and then once it is assembled the block is trimmed up to a square.  That leaves all those background triangles with bias edges.  Instead of using squarers for the background, I cut triangles so the outside edge of the block would be on the straight of grain.

For the side triangles I cut two 4 1/4″ squares diagonally twice to make 8 triangles

For the corner triangles I cut two 2 1/2″ squares diagonally once to make 4 corners

The triangles are slightly oversized.  Then place the ruler with the 1/4″ mark on the points of the printed squares and the edge of the ruler on the background edge, and trim the block down to 9 1/4″ with a perfect 1/4″ edge.

See how the other Block of the Month rehab quilters are doing with their project here.
Visit Judy’s to see what people have up on on their design walls this week.

- – marcella

For my April unfinished quilt I chose a stack of blocks that I had sewn several years ago during work time at a quilt shop.  Once the piecing was finished I moved on to other piecing projects that were easy to take back and forth with me each month and the blocks were all but forgotten.

When I was rummaging through my unfinished projects looking for something to work on in April, I was happy to find not only all the blocks required for the quilt top but also border fabric.  In my stash drawer I had three other pieces from the fabric collection that I could use as binding.  I did order some flannel for the backing and the quilting did require more tan thread than I possessed necessitating a quilt shop run just before closing time last weekend.

The swirly quilt pattern was a stencil I had purchased at PIQF last fall.  I know stencils have fallen out of quilting favor but I like them.  I like having my patterns be so very even and exact.  It appeals to my picky nature.  Unfortunately, after I had fallen in love with the pattern I found that my white chalk pounce did not  show up very well.  I tried several other marking tools and finally had to pull out the big guns.  I marked the whole darn thing in fuchsia crayola washable marker.  Yes, it did take forever.  Then as I quilted and quilted and quilted, because that is one dense pattern, I fretted that the ink might not really all wash out. I had been too impatient to test the ink on all the fabrics – which I no longer had scraps of anyway.

Fortunately, luck was with me and I pulled the quilt out of the wash yesterday and all the very bright ink was gone leaving behind a lovely, crinkly quilt.

One more quilt finished.  Now to start rummaging through the pile for my project for May.

- – marcella

Not a lot of appliqué going on around here this past week.  I got most of one block completed.

The pieces are all sewn down but the embroidery is left to do.  Poor bird needs a beak and an eye, the flowers need stems and there’s a garland that goes over top of the basket.

The goal is to finish up this block and get the next one done for next Monday’s bom rehab.

See what the more productive quilters are up to over at Judy’s blog.

- – marcella

In between my “must do” quilting, I’ve been working on those little preemie sized quilts to donate to the hospital.  The latest one is made from five different basket blocks.  Each Thursday in March a quilt shop posted the directions to make them.

I used a sampling of Denyse Schmidt fabrics for the quilt top.  I made the sashings a bit wider than the pattern suggested and added a border so that the quilt would be large enough.  The hospital gives us size guidelines to follow.

With a flannel backing this should make a nice quilt for a baby.

- – marcella

I managed to complete a basket block this week.  It was very clear as I worked how rusty I’ve gotten at hand appliqué.  Looking back, I don’t think I’ve done any in at least a year.  Clearly embroidery and English paper piecing have taken over my hand work.

Given how many appliqué blocks I have left, I’m sure my curves will smooth back out and my pace will pick up. On to the next block!

My UFO for April has been sitting on the design wall.  I had decided I wanted flannel for the back and none of the local shops had anything that worked.  Saturday a big squishy package arrived in the mail and the fabric has been washed so I can get everything basted for quilting now.

See what’s up on other design walls this week here.

Visit the Pink Pincushion and see how everyone is progressing on their block of the month projects.

- – marcella

I’m going  back a couple of years for my next block of the month to the very adorable A Tisket A Tasket pattern that Bunny Hill did in 2009.  While you can purchase the pattern now, at the time the patterns were posted for free on the blog each month and quilters could follow along.  I was too busy to make it then, but did print off the patterns each month and put them all together in a binder.  I even ordered the ribbon and button finishing kit and tucked it away so I’d have everything when the time came.

The following year I thought I had the time and started making the blocks.  I got four made and then stopped.  I don’t even remember why.

I had bought two different pale green fabrics to use for the background.  Everything else is just whatever strikes my fancy from the fabric scrap drawer.

This past week I cut out all the pieces for the May block and will get sewing on that this week.  I love appliqué so it should be a fun one to work on again.

There are lots of great projects being worked on over at Patchwork Times, go see!

Sinta is keeping us all on track with our block of the month projects too, check out what ones others are working on.

- – marcella

I’ve started working on my unfinished project for April.  It started out like this:

I made these blocks several years ago at a sewing club at the local quilt shop.  Once a month their classroom is open and anyone is free to come and sew.  I had started this project only to discover that it was a pain in the neck to sew.  The blocks aren’t strip pieced but each piece is cut out individually and sewing together.  It took forever.  So, I set the goal that each month I’d try to go to the sewing group and sew two blocks.

However, once the blocks were done, so was I and they’ve been sitting in a drawer ever since.

This week, I pulled them out and got the top together:

The pattern is Turquoise Trail from a Debbie Caffrey book.  The fabrics are an old Fig Tree line called Folklorique.  I was fortunate that I had several extra pieces of prints from the line that I had bought thinking I’d make a tote bag for a class I was scheduled to teach.  The class never happened, the bag wasn’t made, but the fabric was in the drawer and I had enough of the tan paisley for the borders and a couple of choices for the binding when the time comes.

The goal for next week is to shop for a backing and get it basted for quilting.

- – marcella

I just cannot kick the bag making addiction.  It’s gotten bad.  Not only must I sew these cute bags I find but I seem to have to make multiples every time too.

A month ago I saw a really cute bento box bag.  I resisted.

Well, I resisted until I went to a quilt show and was confronted with really adorable Japanese fabric.  How could I not buy some Japanese fabric to make a bento box bag?

I couldn’t.  Heck, I ‘m not even a dog person and I couldn’t resist that fabric.

While the sushi fabric isn’t Japanese, I could hardly resist that either, could I?

I love the drawstring top.  It will make these perfect as gift bags for hiding what’s inside or maybe a sewing bag to help me not lose things.  Maybe I just need to think up an event to attend that requires me to pack a lunch.

For now, they sit on my sewing table and I just admire them.

- – marcella

If you’ve paid any attention to my blog, you might have caught on that I have a thing for Block of the Month programs.  I love the idea of making a block each month and ending up with a whole quilt at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, for me, the reality is quite different.  At the end of the year I generally end up with blocks or pieces and parts to a quilt top but rarely a finished top.

Sinta has started a “rehab” program for people like me.  We’re encouraged to pull out those partially completed block of the month projects and get them finished up so we can start next year (with all it’s tempting new block of the month quilts) with a clean slate.  Each Monday we’re to post on our progress.

I’ve been on such a roll getting my UFO projects done for the Las Vegas guild that I decided to jump in to this project too.  Hopefully, my finishing energy will keep up with my desire.

I’m starting with my most recent unfinished block of the month quilt.  My intention is to get it to completed top stage rather than finished quilt stage.  The project is from my local quilt shops Moda Club.  Last year, rather than doing the block of the month quilt put together by the fabric company, they decided to design their own project.  We bought our own background fabric, paid $6 and got the pattern and fabrics for the first pair of blocks.

This is my biggest problem with block of the month quilts.  See, block as in singular?  Then they trick us and have multiple blocks we’re actually supposed to make each month.  In my dreams I firmly believe that I’d always keep up to date if I really only had one block to make each month.  Please, don’t crush my dreams with reality.

Back to the project.  If we made our blocks and brought them back the following month we’d get the fabric and pattern for the next month.  If we hadn’t completed our blocks then we had to pony up another $6 for the kit.  This worked for cheap me and I kept up even through the crazy remodel.  However, by the end of the year I pooped out and missed one month and then never made the last month either because there was nothing to check.

Here’s the start.

We made four blocks and then were sold a kit of fabric to complete the center medallion.  See how tricky they are throwing in a whole bunch of extra sewing to put that together on top of our blocks to sew?  See all those zillions of little pieces that make up those corners?  Yeah, well, it’s still not done.  There is a sashing strip and then a whole lot of little squares that frame it and then another sashing strip to go.

As for the rest of the blocks that surround this center piece:

This is the Joseph’s Coat block and I have four out of four complete.

This Seattle Sights block goes in the four corners of the quilt and I have two of the four needed.

I’ve sewn six of the eight Squares and Stars blocks needed.

Putting it all together will be another adventure.  The pattern designer didn’t figure the math quite correctly for the blocks to fit exactly around the center medallion.  Sashing was added between the blocks to make them fit, however it’s different widths between different blocks.  I’ll just say it.  It looks wonky.  Wonky enough that people in class complained and we figured out a way to make it even instead.  Now I need to figure out my notes so that it turns out the way I want it to.This is why I will by happy just to get this project into a finished top and deal with the quilting another time.

Wish me luck!

- — marcella