Monthly Archives: July 2012

In Which I Ask for Input

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As you all may know there will be a time shortly when I probably won’t feel like recording a regular podcast, but rather than leave you all hanging for that week, I thought I could pre-record some stories for you all to hold you over that week.  I’ve posted a poll over there on the right where you can vote the stories you most want to hear. I’m thinking it’ll be 3 stories for the episode, so I’ll take the top 3 vote winners and go ahead and record it so it’s ready to drop when the time comes.

Feel free to vote for as many stories as you want, or if you have another question you’d like to ask, or a story you’d like to hear, leave it in the comments here. I promise that I will not tell gross things in the stories (important to say in the face of the story of my kids’ birth - there is lots of funny stuff that happened without gross stuff). And also, the frog/mouse double-header might have some NSFW language if it’s an accurate retelling.

Sunday Night Stash: Babies and Bags

Sunday Stash

I finished the Little Boy Blue quilt (aka Farmer’s Wife Baby Quilt), and a couple bags for various purposes.  I also gave away a giant bag of knit fabrics that I finally officially decided I would never use for their original purpose. I wasn’t sure whether to count it here or not, but considering I took in a giant load of cotton fabric from a friend who was cleaning out her stash, I’m calling it even on the ins and outs, only the “in” fabric is something I would actually use!
  • Used this Week: 30.5 yards
    • 5.5 yards for Little Boy Blue Quilt
    • 2 yards for totebag for Good Mews
    • 3 yards for commission diaper bag
    • 20 yards of knit fabric - freecycled!
  • Used year to Date: 279.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 23.5 yards
    • 2.5 yards of various Sentiments line (charm pack, and some yardage)
    • 1 yard of novelty fabric
    • 20 yards of cotton fabric from a friend’s stash clean out (might be more, but I’m going to give some of this away, so it should even out)
  • Net Used for 2012: 76 yards (can I make it to 100 yards this year?)
  • YTD Used for Charity: 72.25 yards (26% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

HtbaS - Episode 89

I give a health update on the cats, talk a bit about my high school reunion, and then actual quilting! The mini-quilt Cindy made me, the Little Boy Blue baby quilt, and some small projects.

For those that haven’t listened yet, Zoom has been diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma tumor on her lower jar. It’s a very aggressive cancer, and there is no treatment. She has maybe 1-2 more months before she’ll be unable to eat or drink. My heart is breaking when I think about her suffering, so if it feels like I glazed over it in the podcast, please know that I merely tried to move past it so you all wouldn’t listen to me cry for 20 minutes about.  For now, she is still happy and active, and we are taking it day by day.  Zapper’s tumor below her eat is growing much more slowly, but she is slowing down as well. I am running a kitty hospice.

And with that, here’s a completely abrupt segue where I give you the link for the totebag I made for the Good Mews fundraiser

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WIP Wednesday: The One With a Pile and a Finish

Finished Projects, WIP Wednesdays
I finished quilting and binding the Farmer’s Wife/Fiancee baby quilt last night, so I’m pleased to introduce you to the Little Boy Blue baby quilt:
Here’s a little closer look at the quilting:
  
I did straight light stitching in the sashing, and then again in the blocks. I also added a little yarn tie in the center of each of the blocks to call back to the old-time quilts that my grandma’s made (and I couldn’t figure out how to get the center secured without doing 25 individual motifs or some more weird straight line quilting).  I FMQed in the white and checkerboard borders.  You can also see a bit of the scrappy binding, which came from my 2 1/2″ strips pile.
I also scrapped it up for the back since my white dotted fabric wasn’t big enough for the entire back:
So what’s next? Besides a label for Little Boy Blue, that is. This pile:
In the bottom left are the parts for a tote bag for Good Mews’ fundraiser on Sunday.  The other blue scraps are for a secret project, and then it’s Star Wars time, baby!

My Mini-Quilt from Cindy

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When we got back from our trip last week, a little package was waiting for me, all the way from Ireland.  As part of the Atlanta/Irish Modern Quilt Guild swap, we exchanged mini-quilts, and I may have rigged it so Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting and I were partners.

Somehow Cindy figured out that I maybe-sort-of like Star Wars, and based on a class she took at the Fat Quarterly retreat, she decided to make me a porthole view from the Millennium Falcon.  Alderaan! Tatooine! Those other planets I can’t remember the names of!

A long time ago in a galaxy far away in my sewing room…

Cindy posted a lot of detail shots of the quilt on her blog before she sent it over, so you can go there for some more photos, but I told her I would present it in proper context:

So what if I have 3 different Han Solo action figures? I can quit any time I want.

For the full effect, you have to put on the 3-D glasses to view the planet fabric (thanks, Rhonda, for helping Cindy out!) and yell “That’s no moon!” or “I made the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs!” I love the swirly batiks for the planets.

Thank you, Cindy! I love it. And thanks for the extra goodies for all the kids (human and feline).

Bonus semi-related Helper Cat photos:

Zapper takes to the fainting couch in the face of so many Han Solos.
The Force is strong with this one. Apparently presence of a high level of midichlorians makes one take a lot of naps.

HtbaS - Episode 88

I talk about the Farmer’s Fiancee baby quilt (to be renamed), my mini quilt for the Irish swap, and ask my mom some questions from YOU! We laugh a lot, and I think we managed not to cry, too.

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Meet Moxie, the Irish-bound Mini Quilt!

Finished Projects,
Well, at long last I can finally reveal my mini quilt that I did for Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting as part of the Atlanta-Irish MQG swap! Despite the lack of numbers anywhere in her address (which was a common occurrence amongst all the Irish swap partners - we Atlantans were a bit dubious!), she told me today the package got there safe and sound.

Meet Moxie:

Cindy said she liked “clear, bright colors” and of course all I could think of in my stash was the collection of mottled burgundies and browns. Fortunately, I also have a pantload of oranges and lime greens!

Moxie originally started off as an applique pattern but there were issues with the stitching. So I went with embroidery instead.

It’s sort of a risk to use the chevron print (from Riley Blake, which I got from my friend Andi’s shop) for embroidery, but I think it mostly paid off. It makes it interesting, to say the least.

I used a couple different quilting techniques to finish it:

Zapper approves.

I’m excited to say that I will soon be selling the center design as both an embroidery and applique design! I’m still working out some details with a partner and we’ll have some exciting launch news soon!

WIP Wednesday: The One With the Farmer’s Fiancee

WIP Wednesdays
Not quite a full Farmer’s Wife quilt - more like a fiancee since I only used 16 FW blocks.  The nine pinwheels are leftovers from Blue Swoon, and then the checkerboard border (my favorite part!) are from my leaders and enders pile.  I’m quite pleased with it.

The back is sort of scrappy - I had one piece just long enough to use, but it wasn’t wide enough so I pieced in some 5″ and 10″ squares, also from my scrap stash. It’s all basted and ready to quilt when we get home from our trip.

Sunday Night Stash: WIPs Not Finishes

Sunday Stash
Just the one finish this week, which was an entirely scrappy project! I got to use up 128 5″ squares and some 2 1/2″ strips to make a checkerboard for our giant checkers. Then I used a couple FQs to make a storage bag for it.

I’ve got all the bits cut for the center for the Farmer’s Wife baby quilt, and am sewing the rows together next.

  • Used this Week: 2.5 yards
    • 2.5 yards - Checkerboard and storage bag
  • Used year to Date: 248.75 yards
  • Added this Week: 0 yards
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used for 2012: 69 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 70.25 yards (28% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

HtbaS - Episode 87

I talk about making the king sized pillow shams, checkerboards, scrapping it up, and happy birthday to me! Also, I fought with my internet router this week.

(Late night edition! Woohoo!)

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