Color!

What this particular rainy, grey March Monday morning needs is a good stiff shot of color.

These were my weekend creations. So much fun playing with random strips and scraps of fabric and my sewing machine. So simple and yet so rewarding!

My inspiration?

{Image info and credit here. Project info and inspiration found here.}

Take that, Monday Morning!

It's The Little Things

It's the little things that make me unreasonably happy.

I enjoy puttering around with my sewing machine. I am neither proficient or confident, but messing around is fun and I learn a considerable amount in every failed experiment. I don't really sew often even though I enjoy it, mostly because I don't like feeling quarantined upstairs in the craft room alone. I like to be able to hear what's going on in the house and generally feel like I'm part of my little family, instead of the lonely stepchild in the attic.

Last night we moved the desktop computer (that no one ever uses) into the closet and set up a little sewing space for me in the office! It's out of sight but still part of the general goings-on of our home! Why didn't I think of that a year ago?? I can hear the TV, talk to my girl and generally ignore the problems that the dogs are causing without having to actually do the disciplining! Perfect. . .

Here's what I created last night.

It's based on a tutorial I read here. After reading through her well-written instructions I thought, "Even I could do that!" It's not perfect. There's a bit of wonkiness to some of the squares and some of the seams don't meet perfectly. But with that said, it's the little things that make me unreasonably happy!

I still have to quilt it. I want to try machine quilting. That's another experiment that I've never attempted. I've got my new working space. Now all I need is to stitch together some scraps of courage and dive right in!

Happy

It's my birthday weekend and I'm feeling lighthearted today. Contributing to my happiness, in no particular order. . .

:: Getting together with friends for a birthday meal this weekend.

:: Making these! I think I see a table runner in my future. . . or placemats. . . or a quilt if I'm crazy enough. . .

:: A surprise knitting project on the needles. For a baby!

:: That I'm wearing sandals. . .in March!

:: That I have a piece of writing floating around in my head that's almost ready to be committed to paper.

:: That it's Friday. Happy Weekend!

Recycling

One of my methods of operating is to bite more than I can chew. I start projects that are far too complex for my limited skills. I start an exercise routine that is much too ambitious. I dream up plans and ideas that can't possibly be implemented. And, when my grand plans and schemes don't turn out the way I dreamed they would I get frustrated and never finish.

I like to think that I've curbed that little quirk as I've matured. I think we shall soon see. . .

I fell in love with this quilt:


It's made up of alternating 7" squares of a single pattern with squares cut from vintage sheets. Ever since I saw that picture I've been scouring second-hand stores for floral sheets from the 1970's and earlier. I have 27 different patterns. It's recycling at it's most fun!

Here's the start of my vintage sheet quilt:


I really don't have much of a clue what I'm doing. I do know that it will be 98x84, the dimensions to hang over the edges of a queen size bed. It will have 14 rows of 12 squares each. Cuddling up on the couch with a big warm blanket is my idea of a perfect winter evening so I didn't want to skimp on the size of this thing!

Of course I've never made a quilt before so I don't have the slightest idea how to bind it, or even quilt it for that matter! But I'm sure that I can figure it out.

The other reason that I'm excited about this quilt is that, in the past, I would have started my quilting adventures with something like this:


This time, maybe I'll have enough sense to make that my second quilt. . .

A Garden Path

My yo-yo quilt obsession has taken a new turn. I got 900 of the little buggers done and then decided that I would like a more structured, less random pattern as I sewed them together. I looked through some quilting sites and decided that yo-yo's would lend themselves pretty nicely to a "garden path" design.

I spent some time with Illustrator, playing with designs and colors and settled on a design something like this.


I really like it, but it only requires about 710 colored yo-yo's and I have 900 done!!! Worse than that, it requires 450 black ones and I don't have any!

Oh well. . .I planned on this quilt taking until my retirement. It probably will.

Here's two days progress:

Newest Obsession

Meet the newest crafting obsession.


It's called a yo yo. It's about a 4" circle of material, seamed around the outside and then drawn together to make about a 2" rosette. In the 1920's they were a fad among quilters.

It takes about 1,200 yo yos to make a quilt top. (Yes. . .1,200. . .)

This is a pile of about 110.


Not bad considering that I've been making them – off and on – for just a week! They get tacked together to form a grid and then quilted on top of backing and batting to form a quilt. It's the quilting part that I'll probably never finish!

Here's an example of (hypothetically!) what it will look like in another 40 or so years when I actually get it done!



I love the old-fashioned look of this quilt.

Hopefully I get it done in time to take to the nursing home with me!