Project Quilting 17.6 - A Handful of Guinea Pig

One last challenge for Project Quilting this season - something that could be held in my hand.  I've done my share of post cards and mug rugs for small projects, so I wanted to do something different.  Hmmm... might be the perfect time to make a guinea pig?  Years ago a blog reader brought this Gertrude Guinea Pig pattern to my attention; I bought a copy.  It's been sitting on the shelf ever since.   

The pattern shows the guinea pig in colorful prints but I wanted more realistic colors.  I pulled a bunch of browns, blacks, white, greys and tans from my stash and Rob and I picked the ones we liked best.  I've been hording that brown fabric for ages - I loved it but never quite found the right project for it.  The black fabric and the funky white fabric were both excellent finds at Swanson's (the amazing "no-kill shelter for your fabric stash").  I didn't have any ¾-inch buttons for the eyes, but a trip back to Swanson's yielded a pair of shiny black shank buttons.  How perfect are those?!?  What a score.

Quilted Cushion Fabric

My sister wanted some seat cushions for her dining room chairs.  She asked my mother to stitch them up... at which point they came to me to see what fabric I could offer.  

I dug through my stash, brought out some orphaned blocks before pulling out several sets of crumb blocks.

Piecing and Pinning

The last Project Quilting challenge comes out later today - so I was able to focus on clean-up projects this week.  I have almost cleared out my backlog of Winter Stars scrap.  Whew!  I pieced together a backing for the Lone Star quilt.  Then I ripped out a few of the center star's seams and restitched to get rid of the bulge I had complained about in an earlier post.   The center points are a total mess but absolutely no one is going to notice those.  The quilt is flat enough to ease out any other ripples when I quilt it.  

I started sandwiching it before I noticed a few jagged edges along the black and red Vs I had intended to address (the other missed points are more forgiving).  The frustrating thing is two of them had already been ripped and restitched.  Thankfully third time was the charm (and kept to my two-rip-and-restitch rule).  This quilt is officially sandwiched and in need of quilting inspiration.  

Project Quilting 17.5 - Cyan & Orange Pizza Box Cozy

This week's challenge for Project Quilting was to create something two dominant complementary colors.  Excellent!  This was a chance to clean out some of my stash and to make an insulated pizza box cozy (which has been on my to-do list for some time).  Our nearest pizza place is a ways away and we're hoping this will keep it a little warmer on the way home.

Mystery Wall Quilt

I participated in a mystery QAL (quilt along) last spring for the Colour Value Mystery and pieced together this wall hanging.  It then sat for several months until I had a chance to quilt and bind it.  I'm pleased with the result!

I started the quilting with a walking foot.  My design required pivoting the quilt back and forth and that got tedious pretty quickly.  I switched to free motion quilting which sacrificed straight lines and precision but the process was a lot more enjoyable.  (Especially having fixed the bobbin tension issues.) 

At some point I started to quilt some curves, but disliked the look.  I ripped them out and continued quilting straight lines.  I really like the designs over the gold and white (the black is quilted, too, but does not stand out).  I extended those patterns across the border as well.

Lots of Lines

I started this mystery quilt last spring.  It has been on the shelf waiting for Winter Stars to be done.  I've been able to focus on it last week, plugging away on the quilting.  I wrapped that up this weekend - all I need to do is square it and bind it.

At some point I tried using a ruler to quilt straighter lines.  Nope.  Just as bad as I remember the last time I tried that.  Maybe I'll try ruler quilting when I get a nifty longarm machine.  Ha.

Do you recall I had some bobbin tension issues?  I spent some time on the bobbin before quilting.  I don't have a tension gauge, so I tested it by filling a little canister (remember when cameras needed film?) with safety pins then  clipping it onto the thread.  The bobbin needed tight enough for the canister to pull the thread a bit at a time but not so loose to drop to the floor.  With a bit of trial and error I discovered 22 grams is a good spot.  Stitches are even no matter which direction I quilted. 

Project Quilting 17.4 - Art Deco

When I saw this week's Project Quilting 17.4 Of Another Era challenge, the first thing that popped in my mind was art deco.  Maybe it was from the quilting I was working on for my mystery quilt.  Or maybe from some paper patterns I had tucked away.  Rob pitched a few other ideas at me and we brainstormed for a bit.  But as Thursday rolled around and nothing grabbed me, I pulled out the paper piece pattern and settled on a mug rug.

I have some teal fabric I've been wanting to use, so I settled on teal, black and gold.  The paper pieced fans aren't quite art deco, but close enough to fit the bill.  Each square is four inches.  I knew I wanted to set it on point and nestle them next to each other... so the rest of the layout kind of grew from that. 

I still have some lovely shiny rayon thread from my sister's quilt, which seemed the perfect thing to quilt it.  Added a flange binding with some more teal and it's done!

Some Winter Highlights

Winter finally arrived in force in January between the snow and the cold.  I'm happy to see the snow (but I'm also happy to see a little daylight at 5pm).   I've gotten out a few times for local skiing and snowshoeing.  It's been lovely.  I don't like dismal grey winters.

This year the snowblower (and Rob) has gotten a workout.  Check out that plume!