More Sunshine

Chris Ballard, the wonderfully talented longarm quilter who quilts my quilts (and lives about 1200 miles away from me, btw) posted a series of detail photographs of the Sunshine Quilt in her photo album pages on her blog.

As for the quilt, I have it on good authority that my son makes his bed every morning in order to display this beauty.

This is the same "Slashed Squares" design I have used before, as shown in this tutorial, as well as the quilt in yesterday's post.

Summery Slashed Squares

This small quilt of summery colors is for a friend of mine. This quilt is going into a neutral colored room that faces North. The color in the room is provided by colorful paintings that hang on the walls. I wanted this quilt to be more reminiscent of summer colors as well as represent my friend's favorites.

The squares are 14" finished, so this quilt will be42" x 56" or so. There are 24 different fabrics in this quilt. Here they are, in the square in square blocks before I cut them apart and resewed them.
I've blogged about how to do these "Slashed Squares" here. This is the same pattern I used for my son's Sunshine Quilt.

I Got Etsy!

I have -finally- set up my Etsy shop. You can visit the shop here:

PatcheryMenagerie.Etsy.com

I am in the process of photographing each bag and posting them up on Etsy. It takes a little while, so bear with me.

thanks!

Not Like The Others

I have a friend who knits. As soon as I started making these little bags, she said, "They'd be great for knitting needles."

"How big are knitting needles?" I asked."

They come in three sizes, and the longest are 14 inches."We went back and forth, about how big a bag should be. I remembered seeing some really really fat knitting needles once, and I thought, well, if you're going to store ALL your knitting needles in one bag, it would have to be, well, BIG!
So THIS bag is for knitting needles. It is big; the bag itself is 14-1/2" by 3" wide and 3" deep. I'm calling it The Buxom Bag.

The Buxom Bags are constructed exactly the same as the smaller skinny bags - 100% cotton on the outside with a white vinyl lining.I don't have any knitting needles, but I do have artist's oil painting brushes, so I put some brushes in the bag. I was amazed at how many I could stuff into it.

I can't wait to see if my friend likes it.

Not So Basic Black, Part Two

These black bags were fun.

Not So Basic Black

When you have a lot of black zippers, you make black bags.

I paid some bills tonight, so not as much sewing as I would have liked. I've got a few more "black" bags to finish.

I'm still working on the Etsy shop. It's coming...

I'm a Fairy Auntie!

I'm a Fairy Auntie again! This is my godson, who was born yesterday afternoon.
Isn't he just the cutest thing! The Exquisite quilt is his Coming Home quilt.
Happy Birth-day Sweetie!

Sunshine Goes Home

My son picked up his Sunshine Quilt and brought it home with him. He's thrilled, and says it looks great on his bed.

I'm working on some Black Skinny Boxed Bags. An Etsy shop is in the works. Email me at patcherymenagerie AT gmail DOT com if you are interested.

Seven More Bags

I've got a stack of these little bags in process. Here are the newest ones. I'm looking into setting up an Etsy shop.

Fantastic Friday!

I received my Doll Quilt Swap 7 quilt from Sarah, and I just LOVE it!

I know this next photo is a bit out of focus, but that's a US quarter! Think about how tiny the little log cabin blocks are! And look! There's a kitty in the corner! It's Millie!
Here's the whole thing. I said I loved bright colors, wonky and black and white. Isn't it gorgeous? It's got a wonky house in the middle, and black and white checkerboards - my favorite!
Can you tell I love it?Back in July, I told my then unknown swap partner to make me a quilt for this wall in my school-bus yellow bathroom.**
It's AWESOME!

Thanks Sarah! It's PERFECT!


**I am not going to leave it hanging on these clips. I am going to add a proper sleeve for the back and hang it so you can't see any hooks. But I just had to see what it would look like!

The Selvage Fairy

Look what I found on my desk when I got to work yesterday. A lovely big strip of selvages from this nifty Betty Boop fabric, and a note...


"Oooooo, it looks like the selvage fairy has been here."

Thank you Selvage Fairy!

Two For Tuesday

Two more finished. My son came over for dinner last night, so I didn't get any sewing done.
But I have plans...

More, More!

I've finished four more, but I watched a lot of Tennis. I've got about a dozen in various stages of completion. My Mother has already selected her favorite.

I keep thinking of more uses for this little bag.

Skinny Boxed Bags, Part Two

Oh, I am having fun with these! I made four more yesterday afternoon. I'm going through my stash looking for fun and adventurous fabrics.I really like this one...
They are about 9" long (without the loops) and 2" high by 2" wide. Check out yesterday's post for more pictures.

Carolyn, email me at patcherymenagerie AT gmail DOT com if you (or anybody) is interested in purchasing any of these. I'll be making a lot more, I can say that for sure.

You can click the photos to enlarge.

Little Boxed Bags, Finished Version

I got it! I worked out this little bag, It's about 9" long by 2" tall by 2" wide. The loops at either end are 2" long.
The inside is that plastic waterproof material, so the little bag is good for things like toothbrushes, or even hairbrushes, combs, etc, makeup or even a knife, fork and spoon; anything you want to keep clean.
I liked this size so much I made a few after dinner.I think they'd make terrific gifts for my coworkers. I bet I could stuff a dozen cookies in these (in a plastic bag, of course.) Or maybe some chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. I might even sell these.

A Little Diversion

I've told you already how much I love bags, boxes and other types of containers. I decided to make a longer variation of this little bag. I had an idea of the size, but I'm not always good with numbers, so I decided to do a "mock up." But I always use fairly decent fabric in case the mock up turns out OK.

Fortunately, I caught this mistake, above, before I started stitching. Those little loops would have been useless on the -inside- the bag.
This is the end.
This is the inside.
This is what I made the bag to hold.

This little bag is 7-3/4" long by 1" wide by 2" tall. It's okay, but could be a bit longer and wider.

Also, I used plastic tablecloth material for the lining, since toothbrushes usually get wet. It was a good idea, and will also provide some stiffness, but sewing with it demands a few adaptations.

For one thing, you poke a hole in this stuff with a pin, and the hole stays. So when I added the zipper, I held it in place with blue plastic painter's tape. (Last time I was at the hardware store I bought a roll 3/4" wide.)

Next, it doesn't want to slide under the presser foot of the sewing machine, so I used a small piece of tissue paper underneath, then just tore it off once I sewed a seam.

I'll also do the zipper a bit differently. I don't like seeing the white of the lining near the zipper.

The green fabric on the inside bottom of the bag covers the seam and also provides a bit of stiffness. I like that.

I think the next one will be better, and I can already envision little bags like these in fun color combinations stuffing Christmas stockings later this year.

I can picture one in selvages, too!

No Cats? No Way!

Some bozo wants to keep cats off the internet. Like that will ever happen! I have a hard enough time keeping Millie off my quilts!
Here's the stashbusting Gizzy quilt that Millie was "helping" me with.

Cat Emoticon

I'm sure you've all seen these little cat "emoticons" before. They're little combinations of various punctuation symbols used to represent cats.With a little too much free time on my hands lately (big projects finished and nothing big planned), I decided to play.

Let me tell you, these are a lot harder than they look. This particular panel is about twelve inches wide by about five inches tall. The black bars are 1/2" wide, finished.

I'm on "stay-cation" this week, and I'll be watching the US Open Tennis tournament. I'm a big Roger Federer fan, but I have to tell you I am a bigger Melanie Oudin fan!

Wrinkly Sunshine

I have washed Sunshine, and put it in the dryer. While it was still about 2/3 dry I took it outside and draped it over the fence. (I put a sheet down first.) So now it's appropriately "wrinkly."

Which reminds me of that car insurance ad with the gekko. The one where he's used the boss's "kind of old and wrinkly" dollar bill to buy a packet of "crisps."

Now it's all folded up and waiting for my son.

Sun Shines on Sunshine

Well, almost. It's all finished.
You can see my little "love note" (the xxx...), and the label in the opposite corner.Now to get up the courage to wash it and make it crinkly. You can click the photos to enlarge.

Friday Facts

My cat Millie occasionally deigns to sit beside me. Here she is watching me handsew the binding on the Sunshine Quilt. Millie was a rescue cat, and she was feral, so she does NOT like to be handled. I've had her three years and I still can't pick her up, so when she decides to sit near me, it's a nice thing.

It got me to thinking...

Twenty-five years ago, when I was still married, I had a worktable four feet wide by ten feet long. Yes, four feet by TEN feet! It was glorious! When I had to sew the binding on a quilt, I would lay it out on the table, and let the edge hang down. Then I'd sit in an office chair and just move the chair as I stitched my way from one end to the other. In this manner, I could blindstitch an astonishing two inches a minute. Of course I didn't have arthritis and I didn't need bifocals either! LOL!

When I start handsewing the binding on a quilt, I always start about 18" away from a corner, and work my way to the corner. That way, when I turn the fourth corner, I'm well and truly in the homestretch.

I -always- use a thimble. I wear it on my middle finger of my right hand. It's a size 8. I have two thimbles, both size 8, but I always use the same one, and if I set it down somewhere and forget where I put it, I can't work until I find it. I never use the "alternate." The one I prefer is on the right in this picture.I've been watching the US Open Tennis Tournament on television. I've made good progress on binding the Sunshine Quilt while watching. I've turned three corners, and have two sides complete. (I can't sew anywhere near two inches a minute any more.)

How come I can do so much handsewing when doing 24" in one session is usually so tough for me? One word:

Ice.

Sunny Day & Sunshine

I had a great day yesterday. I met Sara, a quilter who lives about 90 miles away. We met in Concord, and visited a couple of quilt shops together. First was Peggy Anne's, where my selvage tote bag immediately attracted attention. We had a terrific lunch, and then visited Golden Gese.

I had brought some quilts to show Sara. Actually, I brought a carful. I brought my Sunshine Quilt, the Laughing Out Loud Quilt, my Alphabet Sampler Quilt, my Blacque Quilt, the new Doll Quilt Swap 7 Selvage Quilt, a few Gizzy Quilts and some of my Quilted Chessboards. It was so nice to show them off to somebody who totally "gets it."

We had a great time, and we'll do this again soon!


At home, I sat down to work on the binding of the Sunshine Quilt and watch the tennis.I've finished two corners and one side.