Quilts

Cranking out those Lollies!

April 6, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Cranking is probably the wrong word. It takes me the better part of a day to get one of these pinned, just because I have to leave time for pulling out all of the Kaffe fabrics I own, distributing them around on every flat surface in my sewing room (I have been known to pull out the portable tray tables for another surface) and then finding NOTHING I want, make a run to the fabric store for more. (Oh, and by the way, there’s news about my tiny giveaway at the end.)

So maybe cranky is a better word. That’s always I how I feel in the middle of one of these blocks. And also when I look up at the one that’s All Done and I realize the mauvey pink leaves are all wrong all wrong.

And so were these attempts to fix the problem. I was able to find these because in the middle of all this angst, when my entire color-themed cupboard was exploded, I decided to tidy up.

Pretty, right? Notice I didn’t show you the other closet.

But I persisted, cranky or not.

By switching out some of the larger circles it finally came together, so cross that one off my list. I’m also trying to pay attention to how I begin and work through these knots just in case my class carries and I will actually teach it. I’m going to bring chocolate for when they hit the cranky part–that ought to help.

I wanted to try to make a RED-background Lollypop Tree for the holidays. I pulled out my Piece O Cake books and patterns as Becky Goldsmith does such wonderful things with red backgrounds, but whatever I worked with didn’t look holiday-ish enough to suit me.

Better.

So I made it to here, and am going to let it rest.

When I was a local quilt show, I picked up a few fun buttons to giveaway on my blog that have sewing-related themes.

And because I cleaned out my sewing cupboard, I’m throwing in a bit of fabric to go with them.

The second group, with the “power tool” button is a few larger squares of boy-oriented fabric for those quilts for sons or grandsons, or an I-spy quilt you may want to make.

The first batch of fabrics (“Hot Stuff”) has couple of fat quarter solids and a trio of fun novelties.

Cindy, of Live a Colorful Life, is hosting me on her Name Game on her blog on April 8th, Monday. To win one of those buttons, and the bits of fabric that go with them, check back on MONDAY, the same day her feature will post. Don’t leave comments below for the giveaway, as I’ll only draw from Monday’s comments. As usual, you get one chance for your comment, and one more chance if you are a follower of this blog (and leave a comment). I’m hoping you’ll head over to Cindy’s blog and see what she has written (thanks! Cindy), and you can also leave a comment on Cindy’s blog for her buttons (she has two different ones).

Okay, now I have to go and clean up my sewing room.

Snapshot: Putting the Quilt Top Together

October 19, 2012October 21, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Here’s my Snapshot Quilt, in the requisite rustic pose drooping over a gate with rusty wheelbarrow. Go yard work for great props.

This is the third and final post in my tutorial of how to make the Snapshot Quilt, constructed from lots of Polaroid blocks. And at the end, my little giveaway. I have three sets of 10 blocks each to giveaway, but hey! you must be a serious Polaroid-er to get them. Leave me a comment telling me what you’ll do with them–have you started your collection? Do you have a few and want more? Do you have plans for them? And for fun, tell me about your favorite vacation photo, since this quilt is, after all, a tribute to vacation photos everywhere.

Here’s a close-up of some of the Polaroids. I received the truck Polaroid in the swap. Love it!

And that German-looking couple on the right was cut from my Barbie-doll dress.

Now back to work. I have made a PDF to help guide you with cutting, and it includes the basic bones of the quilt. Download it: PolaroidQuilt

Start throwing up blocks onto your pin wall. This was my first attempt. I knew I wanted a stacked coins effect, but was playing around with inserting blocks into the middle of the stacks. Meh.

Second try. I like this one better, but not keen about the four blue blocks across the top, so I switched them around. Check the previous post for the doctors-office-view of the quilt, which shows how I ended up arranging all my blocks. I also checked to make sure that there wasn’t a glob of orangey-red blocks, or too many of one type or color.

After getting the blocks the way you like them, sew them together. My row tags, made from embroidery holders, indicate which row it is, and which is the top. I pinned them all together in a row, then stitched them.

Cutting the white internal strips and borders:
Internal rows are 4 x 52″ (w/o s.a.) so cut three strips that are 4-1/2″ by 52-1/2″. I’d STRONGLY advise cutting them on grain, that is, cut them parallel to the selvages of your white fabric. All these double-Polaroid blocks are slightly on the bias, so they need the strong stable edges of an on-grain piece of fabric.

Borders (seam allowance included):
Border #1, top/bottom: cut two pieces 2-1/2″ x 40-1/2″; for the sides, cut two pieces 2-1/2″ x 56-1/2″” long
Border #2 (print), top/bottom: cut two pieces 2-1/2″ x 44-1/2″; for the sides: cut two pieces 2-1/2″ x 60-1/2″” long
Border #3, top/bottom: cut two pieces 2-1/2″ x 48-1/2″; for the sides, cut two pieces 2-1/2″ x 64-1/2″” long
NOTE: I’d cut the border pieces slightly longer, to give allowance here and there for ease needed when sewing on borders.

Matching centers and edges, ease the stacked quilt blocks onto the white on-grain strip of white fabric. Repeat until four rows of stacked quilt blocks and three strips of white fabric are sewn together. I sewed the seam with the quilt blocks to the throat plate of my sewing machine, allowing the motion of the feed dogs to help ease in any extra fabric.

Sew on the first top border, then the bottom. Then, matching centers and edges, sew on the side borders as you did above, keeping the white strip UP and the quilt block stack to the feed dogs. Press seams toward quilt blocks.

Attach the print borders next in this order: top, bottom, side, side. I was exacting on the lengths and matching edges and centers, but I should have given a little more ease to the side borders. It’s a challenge sometimes, as you don’t want to get the borders too small so that the quilt “bows” with a curved edge, but you also don’t want it so loosey-goosey that it ripples. Pin and check, is my advice. Then press the seams toward the print fabric.

Lastly, attach the last white borders in the same order: top, bottom, side, side. Press toward the second (print) border.

You’re done!

How do I plan to quilt this? I’m thinking I’d first stabilize those long stacks with either stitching in the ditch white white thread, or a quarter-inch away into the white. I’d like to outline along the Polaroids to make them pop. The white sections call out for some sort of overall pattern, like this pattern from Leah Day of Free-Motion Quilting, Bow-tie Parade:

Go and visit Leah’s site for lots of ideas and a stimulating blog. I love reading her posts. I do plan to bind this with more of that print shown in my border.

Now! Leave a message if you are interested in scooping up some of my Polaroid blocks, and mention what you’ll do with them–have you started your collection? Do you have a few and want more? Do you have plans for them? And for fun, tell me about your favorite vacation photo, since this quilt is, after all, a tribute to vacation photos everywhere.

Mine favorite vacation photo is from when Dave and I were newly married (under a year) and we took all the kids to Zion National Park. We are standing there in the middle of red rock country in our slightly dirty T-shirts, a group of 2 adults and 4 children who were on their way to becoming a family. Now let me hear about yours.

UPDATE: Congrats to the winners of the Polaroid Blocks: Mary, Cindy and Marilyn. I’ll look forward to seeing what they do with their blocks, so send those photos over to my email when that future finish day arrives.

Giveaway · Quilts

Wowsers!

October 4, 2012 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

I finished the grading on the above stack of ~~Torture Implements~~ papers. (But don’t they look nice, all lined up? You would think I liked to work in rectangles and squares in my time away from the classroom, or something.) So after entering their grades, I turned on the computer and found this:

I smiled. A great big smile. Wowsers! 100 followers officially here. Welcome everyone!

I guess that means my blog has now grown up a bit, and can stand up straight on the playground of blogs. This means I won’t get picked last for softball or kickball and that maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to clap the chalkboard erasers after school. Wait. Wrong era. No erasers anymore, right? And probably no chalkboards, either.

But I’m still smiling.

So that gave me energy to do a few leftover quilting tasks. (Sometimes grading really gets in the way of my life. How do Sherri and all the other teachers do it?)

I ironed the backing for Summer Treat. As I was working on this, it struck me on how lucky I am to be working with all this beauty. I had Harvesting the Wind on the pinwall, and was ironing the giant cirles of the backing on my fancy-schmancy ironing board cover. I stepped back and took a shot just to remind myself that when I’m parsing logical fallacies, comma splices and MLA format, I really do have this vivid other life that feeds me.

Pinned Summer Treat on the bed while listening to the presidential campaign debate analysis on NPR. Nothing like keeping your mind busy while your hands are busy, too. I plan to work on this quilt, plus a few other things this weekend, when my church has a world-wide conference. They broadcast this conference twice a year, in April and October, and it’s so nice to quilt and listen and refresh that side of me that needs to think Deep Thoughts occasionally.

Next I dragged out my Polaroid Blocks to finish off. I’d made 50 and sent off to the swap, and received quite a few interesting and wonderful blocks in return and they’d been sidelined in my studio.

I wanted to work on this partly because Krista of KristaStitched had sent me a few blocks, including a gingham one to remind me of our summer Gingham Giveaway, which truthfully feels like it was a millenium ago. Or at least a million papers ago. (Am I done complaining about grading? Not until December 8th, sorry, for that’s when the semester ends, but I’ll try to contain myself.)

She also sent me these two little treats: a scrubbie (but I’m using it for a mug rug) and a sweet teensy little granny square pincushion. I pinned it up on my wall for my gigantor pins I use (like corsage or hat pins) when I am monkeying around with fabrics. Thank you, Krista!

One of the steps in Polaroid Blocks is trimming up–we receive them “untrimmed” and so I stood at the table and trimmed up 140+ blocks this evening, while listening to more debate analysis. It’s been interesting to teach the rhetoric of political speech in my Critical Thinking class this semester. I’ve had to pay attention a lot more, and be more “critical” in the classic sense about what is said in the campaign. Five more weeks, everybody.

Here are the blocks in stacks of ten, plus a few pulled out to the side for a Halloween tote bag. The tilted stack is a few short of ten. Tomorrow night I plan to work on bordering them for my quilt (I’ve sort of thought up a design. Sort of). I’m taking them over to Simone’s where we are having Quilt Night. One of her daughters likes to look at these, so I’m hoping she’ll help me pair them up by fours, which is what I need for my plan. A nine-year old brain can often do somersaults around my old brain.

Before I head over there, I’m printing off all the names of those who have entered my black and white giveaway. So you have until Friday, 5:30 p.m. West Coast time, to enter your name if you haven’t already; click *here* and leave a comment. I’m making two stacks: one with everyone’s name and another one with followers (both here and on Google Reader, if you mentioned it). I’ll announce the winners Saturday morning, after I rub the sleep out of my eyes and get back to the real world.

But I’ll still be smiling!

EPP · Giveaway · WIP

Quilting Along

October 2, 2012October 2, 2012 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

This is a picture of my latest start of my hexie blocks series, taken in my super-duper photo studio: a piece of batting laid down on the kitchen counter, making sure that I don’t put it near the dishes, or onto any stray bits of gravy. Other times my photo studio is a bigger piece of batting, laid down on the guest bed upstairs, or if it’s medium-late in the afternoon, I can smooth it out on my pinwall, drag in the torchiere from my husband’s den, prop the other light up on the small stereo speaker on my desk, and make sure I turn on the camera’s flash.

Actually, considering my week, this is a stupendous output. You know, some weeks are GetMoreDone and some weeks are BarelyQuilting.

Now you know way more than you want to about how things are at my house, but I do want to thank Lee of Freshly Pieced for hosting us on WIP Wednesday, where we all scramble to get something done–or partially done–so we can post it up here and say Yes! I’m still quilting along! (I love WIP Wednesdays.) Click on her name to head back to her blog to read about others who got way more done.

But don’t forget to enter the Almost to 100 Followers Giveaway, on the post just below. I’m giving away two sets of fat quarters–in black and white–perfect to rustle up some Halloweeny quilting!