I Like Thursday: Some History - Ancient and Otherwise

When am I not busy??  It's time to catch up with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday with some good things that happened recently (distract you from your doomscrolling for a bit).

My mother and I met up with some friends at the Harvard Art Museum a few weeks ago.  I was impressed with the size of the Grecian wine cups.  How full did they fill them?  I guess if you're too drunk you couldn't drink out of the flat ones?  You may have to enlarge to read the quote that was on one display - but I found it rather humorous. 

Stitching Away

I've been participating in Canuck Quilter's mystery quilt.  I was doing so well on the latest block until I started ironing the pieces.  I managed to sew one right-side to wrong-side.  D'oh!

It was a flip and stitch corner, so in addition to the required piece I also have a set of tiny 1½-inch half square triangles to use in some other project somewhere.

This will be a wall quilt when it's finished.  The steps have been quick and easy - I'm curious how it turns out.

Doomed... Yet Again

I guess visiting the Drapes of Doom (a set of sound curtains used to dampen reflected sound in a dance hall) in February wasn't enough.  I invited five of those drapes into my home this week to add jute strips to the side.  The modification will allow the 17-foot tall velvet curtains to be hung on their side.  I spent Friday afternoon working on them.  

I was still living in Rehoboth the last time I took delivery of any drapes.  Time flies! 

What We Have Here...

is a failure to communicate.  Or maybe a heated argument?  At a minimum the Midnight Garden quilt and I were not on speaking terms for most of March. 

This was an outright surprise.  I was plugging along with the black blocks and had made quite a bit of progress by the end of February.  I had envisioned finishing the flimsy by now.  I liked the design on the computer and I really liked the individual black blocks.  However, when my mom walked into the room and went "Oof", I knew she was expressing what had been niggling in the back of my head.  The black on the wall was too busy and overwhelming. 

I Like Thursday: Springing Spring

It's been a while since I've written:  good stuff, bad stuff and just plain life stuff.  A few recent photos reminded me of the things I like.  The snow has melted (and we even have a bit of green grass in our front yard!).  

Rob took me out to hike around Buffham Falls.  As you can see there's plenty of water!   (You can also see Rob is less than thrilled I'm including him in the photo.)

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!).