Fan-Tastic Finish

In looking back over my previous posts about this quilt, at some point I must have decided its name was "Fan-Tastic."  That is, of course, giving a nod to the name of the block, which is known as Grandmother's Fan. 

Fan-Tastic sounded better than Fan-O-Rama or Granny's Fanny, but I guess it depends on your mood.

Like the Drunkard's Path block, there are so many interesting ways you can set a Grandmother's Fan block quilt.  You can get some idea by doing a Google image search for Grandmother's Fan quilt, like HERE.

It's basically a quarter Dresden plate, which I cut using the EZ Dresden ruler and then drew the pieces for the outer setting and inner quarter circle, as described in this post.  Then I roughly sketched out a setting (emphasis on rough).  I had the top put together a year ago last November.

After it had been appropriately aged (i.e., neglected) for a year, it was time to send it off on holiday to my local longarm quilter, Sandy.

I left the quilting design to her discretion, and she chose a cheery overall floral-ish and swirly kind of thingamajig.  Technically speaking, that is.  I like it!

This quilt started as a challenge to use a piece of dress fabric yardage my sister gifted me (the darkest navy blue with white flowers).  Do you know, when I showed her the finished quilt, she didn't even recognize the fabric?  Not that it blended in well or anything, she just didn't remember ever buying that fabric.  Ha!

It's bound in a bright lime green check, from the clearance bin of a big box store, as was the backing.  Because, as we say here in the rural Upper Midwest:  "I ain't that way."  We're proud of our humility around here.  Our grammar, not so much.

Well, it's Friday and Sarah is again giving us a chance to show what we're doing the happy dance about, so I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Speaking of dancing, Bruno Mars is always fun to watch.  "Too hot!"  Yep.  Also, "smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy."

Fan-o-rama

How's that for a silly title?  Well, I'm running on empty at this hour, what can I say.  I should be doing the final round of shoulder exercises before bed, but I just can't anymore tonight.  

Physical therapy wasn't bad on Wednesday, but the two things the therapist added to my existing regimen seem as much aggravating to the shoulder as they may be helpful.  Hoping the soreness will calm down soon.  Anyway, it's been a busy day, and then I had a brewski about an hour ago and that pretty much sapped my will to check anything else off the to-do list.

However, earlier today I finished a quilt top.  Ta-da!

I like how it turned out, all diagonally squiggly and such in this setting.  It's about 60 x 70 (-ish), which makes a nice throw or kid sized quilt.

This project started as a way to use an older fabric my sister had given me.  I used an EZ Dresden ruler to cut the pieces, then switched them up into grandmother's fan type blocks. 

I will not be naming this quilt Fan-o-rama.  Other suggestions are welcome, however.

Linking to:

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

From the local police beat in yesterday's newspaper:

"I'm here to rob your store."

"Sorry, Orange Goatee Dude.  I call bullshit."

"Okay, um, just give me a sub then...which I'll pay for with my Visa card."

When I'm not chuckling at the newspaper, I've been making blocks.  Got a nice pile of them ready to lay out on the floor later today.

Like my scribbled design?  I can't draw a proper square, but I can sew one, so who cares.  When I decided to make it a little longer, I scotch taped a second scrap onto the bottom to draw the rest.  'Cause that's how I roll.

I have a PT evaluation today for the shoulder.  I'm only a little scared.  

(Thrifted skull and treats; glass pumpkin Pier 1)

Happy Halloween! 

Progress Report

I'm happy with the progress that has been made on an impromptu quilt that's coming together.  It started with a challenge fabric (back one post) and the notion of incorporating that into a Dresden.

I sewed the pieces together in groups of five, or quarter Dresdens, then played around with them.  I liked the idea of doing diagonal squiggles instead of circles.

That morphed into a decision to transform them into grandmother's fan blocks.  First I had to to reverse engineer them to get the inner quarter circle and outer background piece (trace the curves and add seam allowances).

The little quarter circle turned out to be kind of a bugger to piece.  It became apparent that my usual method (involving pinning and sewing with the U-shaped piece on top) wasn't going to work in this tight space.  I recalled seeing a tutorial last year by someone demonstrating a no-pin method.  I tried that, and it worked well, but you have to sew vewey, vewey swowy (read that part in an Elmer Fudd voice), literally a stitch or two/three at a time, adjusting the layers as you go.  Like so:

Never mind the patina on my vintage machine.  She's got a lot of miles on her.  And a half century ago when she was new, Mom often parked an ashtray right there in the harp space while she sewed.  Miraculously, nothing went up in flames.

After piecing about a dozen or so blocks, I laid what I had out on the floor.  I'll need to trim them down along the white edges so they're a little smaller, since I want the red parts to tuck into the design a little more.

I tried setting them on point, too, just for kicks.  Not bad either.  Another time maybe.

After seeing them laid out, I decided to experiment with a different fabric in the small quarter circle for half of the blocks.  We'll see how that works out.  I've got another twenty-something to make.

I'll be linking up with the fun at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Have a great weekend!

Challenge Fabric and Quilting Along

My sister gave me yards of this navy and white print fabric a couple years ago to use as I saw fit.  She had bought it to make a dress (in the '80s, I think), which obviously never happened.  I, too, stashed it away so far back as to be off the radar.

Recently, I found it again and prewashed it.  As it lay on my cutting table waiting to be refolded, I contemplated whatever to do with it.  Perhaps a two-color quilt in flying geese, or maybe stars, or half-square triangles?  But I worried that all by itself, it might make a brand new quilt look instantly dated.  Maybe just use the yardage for a border, or a backing?

It's mostly cotton, from what I can tell.  It may have some poly, judging from how it didn't wrinkle in the dryer and from the feel of it.  But it is a nice weight and seems stable enough to quilt with, is the point.  The selvage says The Manes Corporation, which I believe is no longer in business since a couple decades ago.  I guess that makes it vintage.

Then I thought maybe combining it with other fabrics might be a better idea—you know, sort of losing it in the shuffle.  On a whim, I decided to make a trial Dresden block with it.

And I liked that.  However, maybe I wouldn't do a traditional Dresden but something else, like a diagonal squiggle with quarter blocks.

Still undecided about how to put it together, but I went ahead and cut more pieces, so we'll see how it evolves.  I'll still have loads the navy/white print left.  Any ideas?

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If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have seen this skirt I pinned from JCPenney recently.  I don't wear short (or any) skirts anymore, but I loved the design and thought it'd make a cool quilt.

JCP - $9.99 y'all!

So I experimented with a couple different methods for how to make the blocks, including a drunkard's path (which worked okay, but matching the arcs where a thick seam meets was a challenge).

I also tried a one-seam flying geese block and then folding the sides back, cathedral windows style.

I tossed these in the odd blocks bin for another time.  A couple days later, however, I saw a blurb about an upcoming quit-along hosted by Megan at City Stitches.  Serendipity!

I have downloaded the pattern, which is basically a modified drunkard's path block.  Now I need to get my fabric together.  Check out the post here for some cool variations.

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Here's a tune from the vault, circa 1977, which I found myself singing along with the chorus ("no no no no nooo no no no...") in the car the other day.  Such a pretty song for the saga of a deadbeat (and only slightly remorseful) dad.