Category Archives: Sewing

Sleeping Around

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Here are my batik blocks from the Carpenter’s Star pattern, arranged on top of my bed. This was a few months ago. I finally got around to sewing it together and finished piecing the quilt top yesterday. I sewed the half-square triangle blocks at Shelly’s house in May. She sewed her quilt top in June; I’m a little behind schedule, to state the obvious.

Quilt top blocks for the Carpenter's Star pattern, arranged on top of my bed

Carpenter’s Star, arranged


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

I was so reluctant to remove the arranged quilt blocks from my bed. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to having a quilt for myself. I considered options that would let me leave the blocks on my bed until I was ready to sew them.

My dog Moe, sleeping on the couch with her feet sticking up

Moe, queen of the couch

First I thought about sleeping on the couch. I walked into the living room towards the couch and sat down, gingerly. It’s not really my couch anymore, you see. It belongs to Moe, my 13-year old dog. That’s where she sleeps, on top of a sheet. If I had any chance of sharing the couch with her, I was going to have to get her to move over. I gently prodded her shoulder. She opened one eye. I tugged at her feet. She yawned and stretched out. I tickled her behind her ears. Finally! She got up, looked at me and plopped right back down in the middle of the couch. She was snoring within seconds.

Then I called around to some friends to see if they had room for me to sleep at their house.

My Plan B friend’s dog was nursing puppies and wasn’t taking kindly to visitors. (I was glad to stay clear of that situation.) Plan C friend had been auditioning fabrics for days all over the house using the morning and afternoon light through all the windows and was on the verge of the perfect fabric combination for her next quilt. If she moved anything around, she’d have to start all over. I understood – believe me – and moved on to my next sleep over possibility.

Plans D, E, and F: One had boxes and boxes of knitting yarn stacked everywhere as a favor for her friend, a knitting-shop owner. Maybe I could sleep at Plan E’s house? Well, she had a bevy of new oil paintings drying all over her house, couch and bed included, for an upcoming art show. Plan F already had overnight guests who had travelled to town for the quilt shop hop that weekend.

I returned to my bedroom and looked at my beautiful batik blocks, all in perfect rows. I sighed deeply, picked up my pillow and a blanket and took my place on the floor at the foot at the bed. Obviously I need more pet-free friends who aren’t artistic. And a sleeping bag from Santa.

Stella’s Quilt

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Here’s a quilt I made for baby Stella, due to come into this world the first week of December. I used the Macaroon Bali Pop for the main part of the quilt and other batiks for the border and back.

A baby quilt made for Stella

Maybe I should have included sunglasses with the quilt.

The pattern is the Jelly Roll Race pattern, using 15 2.5-inch strips. I read the pattern wrong (surprise!) and had to take off four rows at the bottom that I placed perpendicular to the main part. Why did I sew them on that way? When the directions for the baby quilt said “sew the last four strips to the bottom,” well, that’s what I did. What I didn’t understand is that all the seams were supposed to be facing the same direction. My last four seems were at a 90-degree angle. It looked odd.

Yes, it looked odd and it was wrong. Fortunately for me, Shelly knew what it was supposed to look like and helped me out (again). I removed the wrong-way rows and then decided that a large border is what it needed. I like the way it turned out and I hope Stella likes it, too. This is the second quilt I’ve ever made. The first one was years ago and I ruined it when I quilted it. This quilt still looked presentable even after I quilted it. I must be improving.

Two pillowcases made with Dr Seuss fabric

Two for Harrison, an up-and-coming big brother!

Stella doesn’t know it, but she will have a brother waiting for her when she arrives. I made Harrison two Dr Seuss pillow cases to celebrate his promotion to older brother.

Festival Pet Project

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Two pet-themed fabric postcards by Shelly

Pet postcards by Shelly

Three dog-themed fabric postcards by Tresha

Pet postcards by Tresha

Shelly and I sewed some fabric postcards for the Festival Pet Project that’s part of the 2012 Houston International Quilt Festival.

All the donated postcards will be sold and the money given to Friends for Life, a Houston animal shelter.  All the postcards will be displayed for sale, which means — ta da! — Shelly and I have our “quilts” in THE Houston International Quilt Festival!  In our case, our “quilts” are the fabric postcards, 4 inches by 6 inches.  Still, we got in! Woo-hoo! We’re famous! . . . in our dreams, anyway.

If you are at the 2012 Houston International Quilt Festival, checkout the Festival Pet Project postcards and buy one for a good cause.

Longhorn, Session 4

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Longhorn applique on the sky and grass fabric background

Dippity-Do, home on the range

It’s been quite a while since I worked on Dippity-Do. Here’s what he looks like after appliqué session #4. I need to iron all the pieces to the background and then I’ll be ready for the first sewing session. I think I’ll move the clouds around some before I start sewing, now that I’ve had a good look at it.

Longhorn applique, just the face

Freckles Jr

 

While I’m still finishing up on my first longhorn applique, Pat started her second. Each of her sons will get a longhorn appliqué wall hanging.

The longhorn art quilt pattern is by Susan Cranshaw.

Longhorn Session 1
Longhorn Session 2
Longhorn Session 3

Ten-Minute Table Runner

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The pattern for this is called the 10-Minute Table Runner.  This was my first one and it took me 37 minutes.  I could tell I didn’t do it right because I couldn’t get it to turn out like the example without adding in three or four steps.  The next day, I showed it to Shelly, who had sewed a few some time ago.  She couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong, either.

Table runner in orange and pink fabrics

Step one: follow the instructions . . .

I tried it again the next night and it only took me about 20 minutes. I still did it wrong and still didn’t know why. I left it in its perwhacky state and took it to work to show Shelly. Fortunately for me, Shelly sewed a couple that night as well and remembered how to do it correctly.

My problem was that I didn’t follow the directions, exactly. (Surprise!) I managed to do everything as it should have been through the step where I ironed the tube. The next step was to “fold the tube in half and sew.”  Seems simple enough now, doesn’t it?  What I did instead was to open it up and then fold it in half.  That meant that when I sewed it, the seam was on the outside.  All I had to do was iron it and fold it in half with the middle (showcase) fabric on the outside.  How hard can it be? Can I say “Operator Error?”  

Table runner in Halloween fabrics

A 15-minute table runner

Ah ha!  That night, there I was in front of my machine yet again sewing a table runner, this time without adding any extra steps.  It takes me about 15 minutes to make one, but at least it is presentable.