Flimsy Whimsy

The black and white, etc. string thingy is officially a flimsy — and I want to squeal like a little girl!

Seriously, it makes me happy-happy-happy.

Save those old phone books, string thingers.  They come in handy.  Yes, you could string piece without a foundation just as well, but I like the stability and size/position guide that string piecing on paper provides.  Phone book paper is lightweight and not difficult to remove; it's like tearing out a check.

For more details on the process, skip back one post.

This ended up to be about 45 x 53 inches.  I added a one-inch stop border and a five-inch outer border (cut 1.5 and 5.5).

On my trip to JoAnn for batting yesterday, I happened to "spot" a perfect backing fabric.

Linking to:





And just for the Thrill of It...the funky sound Robert Randolph gets out of a pedal steel guitar is incredible.  Have yourself a happy dance!

Stringing Along

As I was tidying up the sewing space the other day, I popped the lid on a box of black and white scraps left over from the black and white quilt of 2011 that I recently finished.  I'd been meaning to make a string quilt from these at some point, but as I picked through the box, I noticed that a lot of the pieces were fairly short.  So my original idea of string piecing them on the diagonal went swiftly out the window (the thought of sewing a lot of strings together end to end in order to make them long enough to string piece diagonally was not appealing).

However, I could just string piece them straight across a foundation, like onto a 7x11 inch phone book page.  Then I'd have rectangles I could join together vertically, coin quilt style.

So I set about doing that.  Long rows of only black and white seemed kind of boring, though, and as it happened, I had a scrap of the multicolored print from a recent quilt lying next to the cutting table.  What if I used that print between the rectangles to break things up?  And to set it off a bit more, how about bordering the top and bottom of the multi print with a strip of white?

Thus was the new plan hatched.  

I was able to get 16 string pieced rectangles from the box of black and white scraps.  Then it came time to remove the papers, a task best done while watching or listening to something interesting for an hour or so.

I arranged the rectangles into rows with a solid vertical sashing between them—and I did not like it.  So I took away the sashing and just butted the vertical columns together against themselves, staggering the multicolored inserts.  Better.

Now I'm in the process of sewing the rows together.  I will end up with five rows across, a squarish shape measuring 30-something inches.  I may do an outer border (or two), or I may just bind it as is.

I hope those of you in the U.S. are having a relaxing Labor Day.  Hubs actually has to work today, poor guy.  Someone's gotta make the cheese (literally and, I suppose, figuratively).

Black and White

Finally, a finish!  That is a good feeling indeed.  The black and white quilt that I pieced over two years ago has been quilted and bound.

And I lived.

Seriously, the actual quilting is not my favorite part of making quilts, but this was kind of fun once I got into it.  Once I gave up the idea of quilting a perfect spiral, that is.

Shay reminded me that imperfect, scribbly style quilting is called "organic."  To which I responded that this quilt may be so organic it attracts flies!

But the spirals got better each time.  No buzzing was noted in the vicinity.

Having practiced all those circular motions, I moved on to the narrow stop border and did more circles.  Organically, don't you know.

My outer border was a wee bit ripply, I noted as I was basting it.  I fought the urge to remove and resew it and instead hoped it would quilt out.  A little meandering in that area seemed to do the trick. 

Then I went back to the frame borders in the interior and did a back and forth stitch.  I really like how that turned out.  After quilting down one side, I was in the zone and went on to finish them all in one sitting.

Finally, the little red patch.  I changed thread to red and quilted a little daisy with some pebbling (very organic, ahem) around the outside.

It took longer yesterday to hand bind the thing than anything.  I intended to machine bind it, but hand binding is sometimes what happens when you take too generous a seam.

After binding, it was time right away for pictures, since it was the perfect kind of overcast (plenty of light but no glaring sun).  Then the quilt was nap tested.  It passed.

You can see the quilting better from the back.  I had in mind a zen garden kind of thing, thus the straight lines, spirals, pebbles, etc.

The original plan was to quilt it somewhat differently, but after getting reacquainted with the quilt as I was pin basting it, an alternate idea took shape.

I don't have a clever name for this quilt, but I thought of this song.  To call a song a rag is one thing, but a quilt, well, no.  Anyway, both the song and the quilt make me happy!



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The Next Batch

I've been having a good time remaking more vintage blocks this past week.  I love piecing.  Maybe I'm not so much a quilter as I am a piecer.

Whatever.  This is what I have to show for it.

They are paired with the "before" as the top photo and the "after" right below it.

Just two more to go and I'll have them all redone! 

I was going to add to the group with a few more of my own, but on second thought, I'll stick with the original 12.  

I have been pondering how in the world to tie them all together, but I happened upon some fabric the other day that just may work as a sashing. Fingers crossed.

Crazy honkin' strawberry print, huh?  It's some kind of heavy duty cotton-poly (mostly poly) blend.  I can imagine some young miss with a pair of shortalls made from this that chafed like the dickens (pardon me while I interject my own jaded memories of synthetics).  

The dark blue floral print up at the very top is rayon (this quilt is going to need a "no smoking in bed" warning on the label). The balance seem to be straight up bandana prints.

The next project for me will be finishing an oldie but a goodie—a black and white quilt top that's a couple years old.  The thought of quilting it has always made me want hide under the covers.  I didn't want to wreck it.  You know that feeling?  Even after a friend came up with a wonderful plan for the quilting that seemed entirely doable, it still sat around unfinished.

Well, heck.  A couple years is plenty long enough to be a UFO.  I must have learned a few things in that amount of time (aside from the fact I am an excellent procrastinator).  It's time to move past the angst about quilting it and forge ahead.

Or at least baste it, for starters.  Sometimes "forging ahead" looks more like baby steps.

Favorites Friday ~ Whoop-Whoop

I am late joining two of my favorite linky parties, Favourite Things Friday and Can I Get a Whoop-Whoop?  But I just couldn't get a post together until today (Saturday).

You see, I've been preoccupied.

Obsessed may be a better word.

But listening to these audiobooks fits in nicely with my other recent obsession, mug rugs and minis.  I swear the color scheme of this one wasn't intentional.  Subliminal maybe.

They're like potato chips...can't stop at one.  I'm talking about the minis, but it could just as easily apply to the book series as well.  Here is the back:

As long as I leave the scraps out in plain view, I'll continue to pick up a snippet of this and a bit of that and make fun mashups.

So, tidying up the sewing space is in order, I suppose.  Soon, I promise.

Norm has been good about indulging me...he has watched the first two Twilight movies with me so far.  I think he's game for the other ones.  He likes the cars and bikes and the action sequences and monster encounters.  Tends to yawn through the romantic parts.  I bet he's over there rolling his eyes in the dark as well.

Here's the thing, I told him:  Women want to be desired.  Longed for.  Craved.  And by two rivals at the same time seems like kind of a bonus.  Makes for even more tension.

I made it up to him though.  We went to see the movie Drive, starring Ryan Gosling.  Not what I expected.  I had to cover my eyes in a couple parts from the gore.

Next up, after I clear the deck in the sewing space and mop my kitchen floor so I can baste it together, is the veggie/fruit charity auction quilt.  I did get the backing ready this week and cut the binding.  Baby steps.

But hubby is planning a thrift store jaunt this morning, followed by grocery shopping (blech).  This evening we're having dinner with our visitor from Utah, my cousin's husband who has been coming out annually to hunt with my dad.  That will be nice.

The weekend will go fast.  It always does!

Here's another of this week's favorites.  If you're not into rock music with a bit of a dark edge (although I can't help giggling at the falsetto "ahs"...there's something kind of Spinal Tap-ish about it), you can mute the sound and just watch the white lines, especially in the last 30 seconds or so of the video.  They would make very cool quilt designs, I think.  I am inspired to try something that mimics such lines and waves.  Reminds me of watching the old oscilloscope while listening to vinyl albums back in the day.  Good times.