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.

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.

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!

Project Quilting 17.3 - Seahorse Postcard

 

I struggled for a few days with this week's Project Quilting challenge:  the year of the horse.  I was to find inspiration from the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future.  I like horses, but not for quilting.  I looked at different things to applique and did a leap sideways - how about a seahorse?  That grabbed me.

I was amused to see two others post seahorse project before I finished mine.  So instead of a Fire Horse, I have a Fire Seahorse.  I quilted it with shiny gold and added quilted seaweed around it.  I like it! 

Neutral Mug Rugs

I'm currently quilting my mystery quilt that I started last spring.  I followed the clues for the rectangular baby quilt although I intended to create a square wall hanging.  So there were extra pieces when I finished the final clue. 

 

Project Quilting 17.2 - Plaid Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge is plaid - plaid needs to be featured in the project. I don't have any plaid fabric, so I made some... or at least I tried. A few years ago I made a mug rug from trimmings by weaving them together and quilting over it. I decided to make a plaid postcard with the same idea. I cut a bunch of eighth-inch strips of black, red and white, then wove them together.

Project Quilting 17.1 - Window Runner

This year's Project Quilting has begun.  The first challenge is called "A Clean Slate" - in which we pick a project that aligns to whatever a clean slate means to us.  As I was thinking chalkboards, Rob reminded me that I was going to make a runner for our kitchen window and suggested a whole-cloth quilt.  Oddly enough, a whole-cloth quilt was one of the suggestions in the challenge post.  Then, as I was considering how quickly off-white fabric might stain, Rob said to use a solid color with white thread... and I immediately snapped back to my thoughts on chalkboards.  Black and white it is!

Our kitchen window is a great place to put plants in the winter but I found some of the planters left marks on the paint.  I've added a variety of coasters under them, then we thought a single runner might be a good solution.   

Project Quilting 16.6 - Swirling Spheres

The last Project Quilting challenge of the year was called Button it Up.  My first thought was a shirt or a coat.  Boring.  I have a pile of buttons I want to use up, so how to use them?  Creating a postcard or a mug rug seemed awfully lumpy (and not very useful).  Maybe a pillow or a wall hanging would work better with the texture?  After some research on button quilts I found some interesting designs featuring circles.  I was fully inspired by this and ran with it.

Both Rob and my mother thought I was crazy attempting a wall hanging in less than a week, especially since I was still cutting and ironing circles on Friday morning.  I had a final layout by Friday evening ready to fuse in place.  Saturday morning I fused, sandwiched and quilted.  I had hoped to quilt it all with one color of thread (for speed reasons), but quickly hated how it looked.  So I took the time to rip what I quilted and switch matching thread.  It was quilted and bound with corner pockets for a hanging rod by early afternoon.  It had to be!  I ran off to dance the rest of the afternoon and evening.  I brought the quilt with me to the dance and spent the dance break burying threads.  Whew!

Project Quilting 16.5 - Arrow Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge needed to include an arrow shape.  I considered making a wall hanging, but I needed this to be a quick project.  After a bit of research I ended up playing with two variations of the Arkansas Traveler block.  I made my own tiny paper-pieced template, picked out some scrap and made some arrows.  

Tried out a couple of new things with this postcard.  I cut a wider binding (1¼ inch) and also sewed the binding closer to the edge (a fat ⅛ inch).  I had to update my notes - don't need the wider binding if I stitch it so close to the edge.  But for once I had too much fabric rather than too little to work with.  I also used fusible web to tack down the back side of the binding - that worked so much better than glue.  Will certainly use that in the future. 

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 16.5
Melva Loves Scraps - Sew & Tell
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle & Thread Thursday
A Quiltery - Put Your Foot Down Thursday
Alycia Quilts - Finished or Not Friday
Nina-Marie - Off the Wall Friday

Project Quilting 16.4 - Birthstone Bowl Cozies

 

This week's Project Quilting challenge allowed me to pick off another backlogged project.  Yay!  

The challenge required using my birthstone color, which is peridot.  I can't tell you how much I hated that color as a kid.  I wish I had been born in any other month than August!  The color grew on me about 20 years ago when I picked out a pair of peridot and amethyst earrings (still one of my favorite pairs).  While researching this project I discovered the stone comes in quite a variety of greens.  I dug through my stash and found a few fabrics that would work (ooh!  pretty!).

Project Quilting 16.3 - Common Block Postcard

This week's Project Quilting challenge was common blocks - block designs that have been around for so long no one knows who "invented" them.  We had to have a finished project with at least three common blocks.

The challenge didn't fit with any of my backlogged projects, so I settled on another postcard.  To keep from getting bogged down with too many blocks I looked at only 4-patch block patterns.  Then I pilfered the pile of black-and-white scrap from my current Midnight Garden project and got to work. 

My original plan was six two-inch blocks in the black and grey.  I fiddled with it and got most of them stitched together... and that's when things went off the rails. 

Project Quilting 16.2 - Ombre Apron

I have a handful of back-burner project just waiting for time or a reason to start them.  This week's Project Quilting Ombre challenge turned out to be an excellent opportunity to make myself an apron. 

Sunday I measured Rob's apron, looked at some patterns and dug through my stash.  I was tempted to go for a black and grey ombre... but I don't DARE touch any of the potential leftovers of my current project.  Not until it's done!  I pulled out some greens, blues, neutrals, reds.  I ended with a set of 15 pinks and reds:  several quilt leftovers, a couple of quilt rejects and a few that simply caught my eye.  

My next thought - why do plain stripes when I could do waves?  I had to laugh at how similar this was last year's second week challenge.  Really, I was going to do something different.  Oh, well.

Project Quilting 16.1 - Djinn Postcard

Woot!  Time for a new season of Project Quilting!  Looking over my posts I realized this is my fifth year of participating.  Wow.  

This year's challenges starts out with Mythical Creatures.  So many possibilities!  I spent some time researching various myths and stories: Celtic, Indian, Norse, Greek, Native American.  I wanted to avoid reaching for a dragon or a unicorn.  Then I started thinking of some books I've read in the last year or so that featured djinn.  Of course then there's the problem of rendering and making it small enough to fit on a post card.  So I settled for wisps of smoke coming from a magic lamp.  

Cute.  Quick.  Fun to make. 

Project Quilting 15.6 - Irish Chain Postcard

The last Project Quilting challenge of the season looked so easy on the surface:  create a quilt using or inspired by an Irish Chain pattern.  The buck-basic chain pattern is nothing more than 9-patch squares.  So I dug through my square scraps, looked at my project list, and decided to tackle a sweatshirt jacket I've been wanting to do.  All the jacket examples on Pinterest were overwhelming, so this seemed as good a choice as any other.  

I calculated yardage, cut apart a sweatshirt and figured my basic layout. It was a somewhat ambitious project to finish in a week.  I focused on making the blocks first so if I was running out of time I could switch to making a baby quilt.  Excellent.  No problem.

Right.  I'd like to point out that the title of this blog post contains neither the word "jacket" nor "baby".

Project Quilting 15.5 - Water Bottle Holder

The latest Project Quilting challenge was called Wearables - the piece should either be something to wear or made from clothing or inspired by clothing.  The rules stated a bag could be worn ... so I figure water bottle holders count, too.

I have been wanting to make a water bottle holder for years - so long that one of the tutorials I had bookmarked popped up with a 404 error when I accessed it (yay for Wayback Machine!).  This was a great opportunity to use up the fabric I made from a stack of ¾-inch strips.  And then there's the satisfaction of crossing this project off my list.

I find the blues and greens so calming.  I really loved the fabric I used for the strap.  Unfortunately it was just a little too short - but I found another batik almost the same shade of blue.  The difference is hardly noticeable!

I added a lining, which made for a smooth top edge.  The bottom inside, though, has raw edges.  I wanted to make sure the lining didn't stick to a wet bottle and pull out.  I figure no one will ever see it. 

Project Quilting 15.4 - Time Flying Postcard

I made another postcard for Project Quilting's 15.4 challenge - Hourglass.  The challenge required an hourglass shape.  The first thing that popped into mind was an hourglass with wings.  Sure - I'll roll with that.

My first idea was to make it symmetrical with the wings on either side, but I had a hard time fitting everything on a 4x6" card.  This is what I came up with.  Time flies when you're having fun!

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 15.4

Project Quilting 15.3 - Citrus Banner

My entry for Project Quilting's 15.3 challenge - Inside Out is a wall hanging /door banner featuring the insides of a lemon, orange, grapefruit and lime.  It ended up being a five hour marathon on Saturday to complete.  Not how I like to work.  

I landed on the citrus slices idea while admiring the mini lemons produced by my mother's lemon tree.  Ooh - and maybe use my Dresden plate ruler?  I wanted to do something pieced, and my idea required something bigger than a post card. 

I spent a chunk of time cutting and assembling pieces before I realized I had measured something wrong.  The pieces were too narrow and weren't coming full circle.  (I now have a ton of little pieces that are begging for another project.)  My second attempt was more successful (but if you look closely at the lemon, I had to jam in one of the little pieces to get it a full circle).  So I lost what little time I had to work on this on Friday experimenting.

The whole design and assembly was on-the-fly with some vague ideas of what should work, and then doing and redoing things as I went along.  Not conducive for a deadline (I had to be done by 5pm on Saturday because of other commitments).  The quilt ended up with minimum quilting, a machine sewn binding and a few more mistakes than usual.

Project Quilting 15.2 - Milky Way Postcard

My second Project Quilting challenge is complete!  I made another postcard.  This week's challenge was Sky Color - the twist was to not use more than 10% of typical "sky" blue.  My first thought was an evening star at sunset; I was thinking reds and blues.  Then Rob suggested the Milky Way.  Hmmm... that had potential.  Last September I stood with a friend at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, admiring the stars in the Milky Way.  That's what popped into my head. 

And I really like how it came out.  I started with black fabric, added some dark blue, then indigo.  I bound it in a very dark purple.

It's quilted in shiny grey and flat black.  Then I embroidered a bunch of french knots and some running stitch with white, cream and pastel pink and blue thread entwined with sparkly thread of purple, blue and white.  It twinkles quite nicely in the sunlight.

Project Quilting 15.1 - Birdhouse Postcard

A new season of Project Quilting!  This is my fourth year of participating.  The challenge:  a quilt inspired by bird houses.  

These challenges are so much fun.  I never know where they'll take me.  My first thought was to piece together a mug rug.  I even had the design in my head.  But as I hit the sewing room, I discarded that in favor of an appliqued postcard.  I dug through my scraps until the right color combo came along.  It seemed too plain, so I fussy cut some leaves and flowers.  

My prior postcards have had square set binding.  I decided to try mitered corners on this one.  Would you look at that?  They came out nearly perfect.  I wish my normal-sized quilts came out so square!  (Although I'm not showing you the back - the corners are not so pretty.)  

I love it!

Sharing with:
Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting 15.1
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle and Thread Thursday

Project Quilting 14.6: Broken Dishes Cover

The last of this season's Project Quilting challenges was an odd one:  Conquer a Fear. Quilting fear?  Personal fear?  How do I represent that?  And what do I fear?

I dismissed most of the sewing/quilting fears... almost all those are just something I haven't gotten around to trying yet.  Personal fears?  I have some strong dislikes (like making phone calls to people I don't know).  But what causes me the most anxiety is around What if I couldn't....  I've had some illnesses that have made me too weak or painful to do basic things, like climb stairs or go shopping (let alone go dancing).  Made my brain too fuzzy to do my work.  I've been lucky - my worst problems have cleared up in months or maybe years.  But a few never got a real diagnosis, so they could return.  What if I couldn't dance any more?  What if I can't sew?  or do yoga?  can't eat real food?  have a heart attack?

My fear is becoming broken.  

How the hell do I quilt that?