Finally - Sewing!

 

There's nothing like getting a big project done and then doing something you like as a reward. I made a bird. And not just ANY bird, a freaking Majestic bird.

I started with this bird. I found a piece of the green wing fabric, and it said it wanted have something blue in it. Alas, it came out a bit more bland than I would have liked, but still. So then I moved on to the other one.  They make me laugh. 

I added the last row to the Little Blocks quilt.

In the Great Stash Clean Up I found this fabric I had bought a year ago. I found six yards of it. Not only did I iron it (finally)...

I cut it into two three yard pieces and sewed them together. Now it will be the backing of the Little Blocks quilt.

Going to be awesome!

I had an idea for another tutorial, one that I am tentatively calling "The Easiest Quilt Ever," so I'm working on that. I think Julie's squirrels have migrated to my studio...

If you want to make some birds, (and you really do), you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

and oh, I joined Facebook. I'm still not sure how it works yet, but I'm there as me.

Finally, Some Sewing

Where the hell did the month of July go? One minute I'm watching Wimbledon and the next I'm planning for the trip to AQS Syracuse... Aside from hand sewing the binding on the baby quilt, I didn't do any sewing at all in July. EEK!

Back in February I decided I wanted to make a red and white quilt to use as a tablecloth for my dining room table. But I couldn't decide what pattern to make, so I let the idea sit.  After a few of the Bird Tutorials sold, I decided I could reward myself and buy some fabric. A quick check through my quilting library found this, which I decided would work quite nicely.

It's called Triangle Fury and is from Amy Ellis's book, "Modern Neutrals."  Since we all know I use patterns like this as a jumping off point, I intend to tinker with this a bit. In this case, I am thinking of flipping the values, making the white in the original my Red, and making the black in the original my White. I'll use red and white instead of the middle value. And my quilt will have different Reds instead of using one print throughout.

I shopped my stash, but a lot of my reds are warm reds, and I wanted cold reds and white. So I placed a quick online order and this arrived yesterday.

I'll use a variety of WOWs for the whites (like I usually do) and I may play around with flipping the block to see what kind of design pops up.

The design in the book is paper-pieced, and we all know how I feel about THAT. (Note: do not try to talk me out of it. Do not go there.) Obviously I'll figure out how to make the block another way, which is part of the fun for me.

Alas with about fifteen hours of driving in the next couple of days (to Syracuse and back), I won't have much playtime until the weekend. 

Unless you count seeing two of your quilts on exhibit at an AQS show and visiting the fun that is an AQS show as playtime, which I do. I guess I'll be shopping for more red and whites.

If you attend the show in Syracuse, find my quilts, Too Much Chicken and Black & White Crayons and take a selfie and email it to me. It's always fun to put names to the faces of my readers.

ONE OTHER THING...

OMG, has it been hilarious the last week or so responding to customers who think my birds are paper pieced. I even put that in the description ".. these are NOT paper-pieced." I hear all the time about folks who see my quilts and quite confidently tell the people they are with, "Oh, that's paper pieced." It fries me up every time. NO NO NO NO! No paper!

Makes me want to make a quilt that says...

"I AM NOT PAPER PIECED!"

I wonder if anybody would believe it.

Sigh.

Man, I gotta get back in the studio real soon...

Studio and Sewing Update!

On Sunday my dad and I hung the homosote pieces to the walls in my studio. This is where my design wall will be, and what's really nice about it is that no only will it be a flannel design wall, but I'll be able to attach things to it with push pins as well. You all know how sometimes it can be tricky to get large pieces to stay up on a design wall by themselves.

It was a messy day, bringing the pieces outside to be cut to size, then carrying them back inside and attaching them to the walls. It was messy because I had to move everything around, and then move it back in place.  More on that later, but look, I sewed the binding on two sides of the Life is 'Tweet quilt!  Woo hoo!  I did that while sitting on the couch "watching" tv with Millie purring beside me. Life doesn't get much better than that.


* update: Pat, the design wall is 64" wide by about 84" tall.