The blocks are finished!

What a gorgeous morning! It's kind of a Goldilocks day. We had some days that were too cool for this time of year, then some days that were too warm. Today it's just right.

I'm in a good mood because last night I finished the blocks for the Shakespeare in the Park! I started this last year, with a spin-off group from the Stashbusters list,. and made pretty good progress for a while. But then I had Christmas gifts to make, and cold weather kept me out of the studio and so on, until it had been almost a year since I worked on it. But once our quilt show was finished, I decided to make it my first priority and get moving.

I was pleasantly surprised when I went through the box. I had finished all the small stars, and the Snail's Trail blocks and all I still needed was 18 large star in star blocks. To be on the safe side, I made 20, half light on dark and half dark on light.

I'll still need to cut the filler and setting pieces, but I'm looking forward to figuring out the layout. That's always one of the more fun parts for me.

Another thing I'm looking forward to? Getting the rest of this fabric back into my stash! For the past year, whenever I've needed a blue or purple, I've found my best fabrics were set aside for SITP. I'm looking forward to emptying the bins, putting yardage back into my stash and putting all the assorted cut pieces into the appropriate scrap bins. I know my 2-inch squares and triangles bins will get a nice infusion.

Here are the blocks. More later.

A reversal of fortunes

Have you ever.... carefully listed all the size pieces you need for a set of blocks, figured out which pieces need to be light, which dark, how many you need of each, got them all cut and then....

Realized you reversed the values and cut lights where you needed darks and darks where you needed lights?

Yep, did it. After finishing one set of star in star blocks (the light star on dark background) for Shakespeare in the Park, I figured out what I needed for the last set of blocks, the dark star on light background. I got everything cut for the inner star, then the outer star, then realized.... I had reversed the values for the outer star.

The worrisome thing is that I'm running low on the cream I'm using for the background, but the good thing is that the 40 cream squares I cut at 4 3/8 inches can be cut down to 3.5 inches, so I should be okay.

While I was cutting I noticed my rotary cutter was dragging a little. I replaced the blade and what a difference. I have to remember to replace/sharpen the blades more often.

At least it will be easier to recut the rest of the pieces today.

A couple of nights ago I got back to the thread work on the sample piece and added another couple of colors. I used some polyester machine embroidery thread with a nice sheen and it's really added to the depth of the piece. Instead of filling the open space with a tight filler, like I did on the first sample, I just added some small spirals and that fills it pretty nicely.

Fun comes in all sizes

The great thing about working on small projects is that you can see the progress so fast. That's especially nice when you use them as a break from larger projects – like the queen-size Shakespeare in the Park I'm working on.

Last night I trimmed up the rest of the Flying Geese and sewed a couple of sections together for my large star blocks. With a little luck tonight I can finish sewing together the large light on dark stars, and be ready to move on to the last batch of stars. This is going a lot smoother than I expected. For some reason I thought I had a lot more to do on this quilt.

More fun with the little stuff. I had decided my little lighthouses were too big to be inchies, so I made them two-inch squares instead – twosies? They are coming along pretty well, last night I added some thread scraps to make vegetation around them, and did some quilting on the background and added metallic thread for the light area. I think some more quilting and then some embellishments and they'll be done.

I promised a picture of the basted applique. This is the palm tree I'm working on, with one of the leaves basted on. It seems so much easier to me to turn under the edges a bit at a time along the basting lines. I know I'm getting smoother curves than I did when I tried to iron around freezer paper.

And I'm really having fun with this thread work. This started as a sample piece, quilted in the dark pink. Then I added pale yellow. Last night I added a pale blue machine embroidery thread with a nice sheen. I haven't decided what's next, but I'm thinking sparkles....

 More later.

Kitties and quilts

My Pepper cat is my quilting buddy, keeping me company in the studio and testing quilts for comfort as soon as I have two pieces sewn together. His best friend Phantom (aka Squirrel) only shows up if it's quiet and there's a nice sunbeam to nap in. She's the original scaredy-cat.

Yesterday I was putting some things away in the office and emptied a little box, which I dropped on the floor to collect for recycling. Within five minutes, Pepper had taken up residence – a 20 pound cat in a 10 pound box. He occupied the box on and off for the rest of the day. This morning I walked into the living room and Squirrel had claimed the box. It's a much better fit for her.

Another good evening in the studio last night. I got three of the large star blocks done for Shakespeare In the Park (SITP). My Flying Geese are turning out much better, though slightly oversized, this time. I'm doing a four at a time method explained on Connecting Threads site. They have a lot of nice tutorials on their site, as well as some cute free patterns.

I decided to revamp the rest of the little lighthouse figures I'd started a few days ago. They are a little too big for inchies, so I'm making them two inches square and will make brooches out of them. I'm starting to think in terms of inventory for sales on Tybee Island next year. I added a bit of fabric and fused them to the backing last night, should have something worth showing after tonight.

I'm still working on the hand applique, just one palm leaf to go. I started this to try out the basting method of needle turn applique. With this, you trace the entire design on the back of the background fabric. Then you roughly cut pieces of fabric for each applique piece, leaving lots of extra. One at a time, baste a piece, using a large needle and heavy thread. Then trim up around the shape. Then you cut a couple of stitches of the basting, tuck under the edges and start your applique. You take out a few stitches at a time and fold along the line created where the basting came out. It really does work, and I'm getting smoother lines than with freezer paper, etc.

There's a nice tutorial on it on the Tropical Applique blog.

I'm still experimenting with the multi-colored quilting/threadwork. One of the sample pieces I did at the quilt show was black, which I quilted with bright pink. It didn't show up as well as I'd hoped for the demo, but it is pretty. Last night I went back and added echo quilting with a pale yellow thread. Now it's starting to pop. Here's the start, there will be more to come.

More later!

Some more thread work

I had so much fun with the threadwork I did on the sample piece that I decided to try a new project from the beginning. So yesterday I alternated working on my SITP blocks and working on a small floral applique piece with lots of threadwork.

I started with a simple background, then ironed fusible to some fabric. I freehand cut petals, leaves and stems for flowers, then fused them into place. Then I stitched the edges of the applique, using my Singer 115 handcrank sewing machine. I have this one set into a cabinet and it's my favorite for doing very precise stitching.

Then I layered it and started stitching, using different colors for different areas, but with at least three colors of stitching throughout. Then I did small curled stipples between all the motifs.

After it was finished, I used a light stroke of paint stick on the petals and leaves, then used a cotton swab to blur out the paint.

Final result, it's pretty, but not nearly as striking as the previous piece. The light colors get lost on the light background and the dark ones look kind of harsh. I also lost track on the spirals and they are kind of messy looking. And since I matched the paint color to the main colors of the petals and leaves it obscures the details in them. A contrasting color (or no paint) would have been better.

I haven't decided whether this one is done as is, or if I want to do a little more, maybe some watercolor pencils, or some beading to embellish the flowers. This won't be my last try with this technique.

In other efforts, I finished the inner stars for the cream on dark stars for SITP. Today I'll start a bunch of Flying Geese for the outer parts of the blocks. I hope I can get them a little more precise than the recent ones.


Lots to do today. More later.

Sewing ADD?

I hate cold feet! What does this have to do with sewing? Last year I made sets of heatable corn bags for everyone in the family for Christmas. They're just like the rice bags except I fill them with feed corn from the farm supply store. I made a couple of sizes, a longer, narrower one that could drape around a neck, and a medium sized wide one perfect for warming the feet. The last couple of evenings have been pleasant, except that my feet got cold, and I cannot sleep with cold feet. So last night I pulled out one of the warmer bags, heated it in the microwave two minutes and tucked it at the bottom of my bed. Instant comfort and I was asleep in no time.

center of large stars for SITP

I had a very productive evening in the studio last night. I've been thinking about improvements and last night pulled out a swing-arm lamp with magnifier that I'd planned to use on my workbench. I set it up next to the machine I use all the time for piecing. Great!

I finally pulled out my Shakespeare in the Park (from Judy Martin's Creative Pattern Book) and figured out what I have and what I need to do to finish it. I'm doing it in scrappy blue, purple and pink, with a single cream background throughout.

This is such a gorgeous pattern, and I love the sense of motion. But it's not the easiest to put together, so I'm afraid I have some flying geese with their points cut off. But once it's put together, I don't think that will be noticeable. And, quite honestly, if I tried to go back and remake all those units, this quilt would never get done. Even if I had enough of the background fabric to redo it, which I don't.

So, I have all the Snail's Trail blocks done, and all the small star blocks, so just need 16 large star blocks (and all the assorted setting pieces).  Eight of the blocks are cream stars on dark, and I got five of the centers of those blocks done last night, with components for the rest of the eight centers ready to go. My new goal is to finish the eight light on dark blocks this weekend, then next weekend move on to the dark on light.

I played some, too (that's why it's sewing ADD), trying out some echo quilting and fills. A while back I wrote about seeing "hyper-quilting" on Patsy Thompson's site. While I was demonstrating at the quilt show, I did some simple free-motion in light thread on dark fabric. It came out pretty, so I decided to play with it. I cut off a small section and echo quilted the light with a bright pink. Then I came back and echoed again with spring green and did a filler stitch between the flowers, feathers, etc. Then, as a finishing touch, I brushed just a bit of color in with my new Shiva paint sticks. I think it's kind of gorgeous! Now I wish I hadn't cut the piece off, I could have done the whole piece this way and had something pretty impressive.

original quilting on back, with echo quilting and paint, front

Finally, I'm working on a little hand applique. In one of the magazines I picked up, they explained an applique technique where you baste the pieces on, using small stitches and heavy thread, then cut the stitches out and fold under along the stitching line. I wanted to see if I liked this technique better than the folding/gluing/pressing/paper template I've tried before – and I do! I'm getting much smoother curves and sharper points. I'll post more on this later.

Looking forward to a beautiful weekend. We need to get outside and do some work on the house (the joys of having a 100-year-old house) and I need to work on some of my organizing/decluttering projects, but I'm mostly looking forward to getting back into the studio.

So, time to get busy. More later!

Too much fun!

These little things could be addictive! I got back in the studio again last night and played with my inchies. I finished the first pair by trimming the excess pieced fabric, then fusing on a small randomly cut piece of fabric to break up the lines. Then I sewed on a few beads in coordinating colors.


I fused on a solid piece of fabric (black, for these) on the back, then hand-sewed on some fuzzy yard to trim the edges. I decided to make these into earrings, so I then sewed on some jump rings and attached the earring wires.

For the second batch, I went a little more detailed in the piecing. I sewed together strips of dark green, white and dark green to suggest the lines of a lighthouse, then cut the shapes from the strips. Then sewed on pieces for "sky" at the sides and grass at the bottom. Then I fused them to the backings, did a little free-motion quilting on the sky and grass, then trimmed off the excess. Then I sewed on some beads. Only problem here was I quilted off the edges, so when I trimmed I got loose threads. I haven't decided how I will finish these.

It's funny that sometimes I don't feel creative, other times I want to be creative but don't know what to work on. Then there are the times when I have so many things I want to do that I need eight arms – or a couple of clones. In breaks from inchies, I worked on plans for a star quilt I've been planning in my head for several years. And I'm thinking about improving the lighting and doing some organizing in my studio. And thinking about getting back to work on the Shakespeare in the Park I started last year. And getting ideas for an applique quilt. And more ideas for inchies. And...

I just hope this creative energy lasts long enough for me to get some of these things done!

More later.