Got a Hand?

I can absolutely draw my own hand. I love drawing hands. They are harder than faces, and I love drawing those too.

A friend suggested I put my hand on the sampler quilt, on one side of the house. I thought it was a great idea. So I traced my hand.


Then I worked out how I would piece it. So far, so good.


And then I tried to free-piece it. This looks like a clumsy rake to me.


And this looks like a sick rubber glove.

Makes me think I might actually have to cheat and use paper piecing (eeek). I will absolutely NOT applique this. The rest of the quilt is pieced, this hand will be pieced too.

because, you know, the idea has legs.


(okay, okay, I couldn't resist. I love a good [bad] pun.)

Dot-Dot-Dot

One of these colors is singing for me. The other two, not so much.

Which one do you like, and why? You can click the photos to enlarge. The last one is a pretty soft green, even though it doesn't show up well in the photo.

Wonky Stars

I didn't like the way my stars turned out on the number panel of the quilt. They are shown above in the bottom row. I want my stars to have points. So I really studied them and tried again last night. I think I have two winners, shown in the top row. I'll be replacing them later.

I have been busy the last couple of days with the usual boring stuff: dishes, laundry, shoveling, cleaning, work, and some not so usual stuff: blogging about my bread and fixing my mother's computer... I am almost "caught up." You all know how it is!

I've got an idea of what to put on the right side of the house, and it isn't a giant cat. I've also sewn the strips together for the last three rows of "dots."

I'm in the home stretch...

Stars!

Gunny Mom suggested sunshine and Paula suggested stars. So I decided to use Belinda's little tutorial and make some mini stars.

These are only 3" tall, and I had a hard time with them, and now that I see them near the numbers, I think I can easily make them a little bit bigger.

Dot suggested pencils or crayons, which a coworker had also suggested, and that thought led me to the idea of spools of thread, which I like very much.

Derby and 3anklebiters, hold that thought about the punctuation marks. I've already got a plan for those, but not in this quilt.

I had always planned to have a cat on the right side of the house, in the empty spot below, so Magpie Sue and Maggie, you are on the right track.


I have finished my signature panel, and I like the idea of the yellow flower between the location and the date. And I've got more rows of "dots" planned to separate all the individual "panels."



Finally, please go visit Tanya. She's just finished a spectacular quilt with words, hearts, houses, Japanese kanji and original cat and dog free pieced blocks. It's filled with color, love and originality. It's a knockout!

Suggestions, Please!

My Sampler quilt is coming along. This morning I worked on the rest of the signature block. All I need to add now is the year, 2009.

But I have a small problem. I need something to fill in the space on either side of the numbers panel. In this photo, I am trying out a little flower, and a wonky heart, but neither really hits the mark I am looking for.

I need something to fill in the blocks marked with ?? The letters are 3" tall, so it can't be bigger, and whatever it is has to be sorta wonky.

Whatever goes on one side, should go on the other, so hearts, flowers, tiny butterflies...?

Suggestions welcome! Leave a comment.

Thank you!

Seminole Patchwork Band

The strip of blue squares I used to separate the upper from the lower case letters in my alphabet sampler quilt is an example of Seminole Patchwork. There were a few books about this technique published in the early 80's, and I have them all. They are now out of print, but some newer ones are available. Last summer, I posted pictures of a Gizzy Quilt I made for my cat Jasmine using Seminole Patchwork.


(You can click the photos to enlarge.)

This band is very simple to make. The fabric is cut into strips. Here the white is 2" and the blue is 1-1/2". I cut two strips of white, and one of blue, and sewed them together using a 1/4" seam. I pressed the seams away from the middle. Next, cut crosswise at a 90 degree angle into 1-1/2" pieces.Sew pairs together, offsetting the pieces like so. You can use the seams to line them up, as shown here.
Sew the pairs together using a 1/4" seam. Don't bother pressing them yet.Sew your pairs together, as shown.
When all your pieces are sewn together, they should look like this.
Now you can press.To get a band with a straight edge, just cut somewhereAnd then join the cut piece to the other end.You have to be careful when trimming the points on these bands. Remember, it is completely on the bias. If you look carefully at my blue band in yesterday's post, you will see the band wobbles a bit.

No, I am not ripping it out.

The Dotted Line

I'm starting to assemble the top of the Alphabet Sampler Quilt, and I didn't like the way the upper and lower case letters blended together.

I wanted each of them to have their own emphasis. In the historical samplers, there is usually a line of decorative stitching separating the various rows of letters. So I decided to make a row of little squares on their points. I didn't want the little squares to disappear, but I didn't want them too too bright either. So I used a dusty blue. I am very happy with the way looks now.

I guess I've set myself up to make a couple more of these. (I'll post a tutorial to make this Seminole "band" tomorrow.)

How Big is a "Scant"?

I'm making a block or two for Carol of Giraffe Dreams to go into a quilt for a teenage girl named Joanie who lost all her belongings in a house fire. It's an Ohio Star block, and Carol kindly placed a link on her blog to another page with instructions. I followed them, I thought, to a "T," but when I measured, my block was 1/4" too small.

How does one lose 1/4" on a block like this? Well I have to assume that my 1/4" is a not a real one. Then again, reading the directions they called for a "scant 1/4-inch" seam allowance.

How big is a "scant"?

That's a rhetorical question, I don't need an answer. I'll be trying again real soon.

Who Wants the Postcard?

Over the Holiday weekend, I found a post on a quilter's blog with a simple request. A local school was teaching children geography and had hoped to receive 100 (1,000?) postcards from around the world, showing local landmarks. The deadline was the end of January. I thought it was a terrific idea, and decided to send a postcard from the local art museum, which I was planning to visit on Sunday.

I went to the art museum. I bought a postcard. But I can't find the address to mail it, and I can't remember which blog had the post about it. I need your help.

Can anybody remember who posted about this? If you, could you please leave a comment and tell me where to look?

Thanks!

Alphabet Sampler Quilt Progress

Yesterday I made a few hearts, a butterfly, and my name panel. I'm keeping my surname covered up for privacy. I have a few more elements planned, then I'll start sewing all the components together. I'm actually planning to quilt this one.


Here is my (belated) list of 2008 quiltmaking accomplishments, in no particular order:
44 Gizzy Quilts. (24" x 24")
3 Swap quilts
2 Queen-sized quilts
3 Baby quilts
1 King sized quilt
4 Twin bed quilts

and I started the Sunshine Quilt and made all the letters for the Alphabet Sampler Quilt. I have no particular quilting goals for 2009 aside from finishing the quilts that are in work now. Quilting is my stress relief (I work full time as the sole Network Adminstrator for a $11M manufacturing company) and I refuse to make it more like work.

Alphabet Line Up

Sewing the uppercase letters together is easy, because they are all the same height. I just sew a 1" strip to the left side of each letter, and then join them. I might fiddle with them a bit, but by and large it's pretty straightforward.

The lower case letters, however, are a different story. Some have extra bits that go up (b, d, h, k, l, & t) and some have bits that go down (g, p, q, y). So the lower case letters need extra fabric both above and below, in addition to the bit along the side for spacing.


So here is a layout that I like so far.

I'm not 100% sure, however, and I have learned that when I get to that place, it's best to stop and do something else. At any rate, I have to make the letters that spell my name and the date. I've also decided to fill in some of the empty spaces at the beginning and ending of the letter rows with hearts, flowers and butterflies, kind of like this:


I've run out of the colorful polka dot fabric that I've used for the background of the letters. So I'll improvise. I should have known better. When I made Violette's quilt, I went back to the fabric store repeatedly to buy more of the same background fabric. In the end, I bought close to 10 yards. Of course, when I bought the white for the alphabet, I wasn't sure if I would use the letters with the white or black background.

I am really, really, really liking this quilt, and am very excited because it will be MINE when it is finished.

NUMB3RS

I finally finished the numbers for my Alphabet Sampler Quilt. When I got the fabrics for this quilt, I deliberately selected 26 different colored batiks, and made each letter of the alphabet a different fabric/color. When I was making the letters, I didn't want a "rainbow", or "color wheel" effect, but for the numbers, I did.

By the way, the title of this blog, "NUMB3RS" is a leet version of the word "numbers." For information about leet, check the Wikipedia entry. Can you tell I have a job as a geek?

By the way, the Wikipedia entry for needlework samplers is interesting.

And yes, I watch the tv show, NUMB3RS, faithfully. It's my second favorite TV show after the original CSI.

Alphabet Sampler Quilt

I changed my mind. The letters with the white background look much better. This is a preliminary layout. I have a particular wallspace in mind for this quilt, and it measures about 36" wide by 52" high, so those are my imaginary boundaries.

I have to finish the numbers, add my name and year I made the quilt. And I want to add a butterfly and maybe a heart somewhere, somehow. We'll see. This layout is by no means a done deal.

A House is a House, Part Two

Back in October, when I finished piecing the letters for my alphabet quilt, I started thinking about the house I would add. Eventually I decided to make a slightly wonky pieced version of the house I live in.

Over the Christmas Holiday, I started thinking about the house again. I decided that since it's white, the background would have to be darker, so I decided to use the letters with the black background. While looking at my sketches, I also decided not to make the house strictly black and white. So I picked a soft green for the windows, and lavender for the doors. The roof is a couple of very dark greens, the steps two browns and the foundation is a grey. I don't think I was really thinking when I added the blue backgrounds. The one on the sides of the house really doesn't do much. I might rip it out and replace it with the blue sky fabric. My house does have a chimney, but I couldn't see it in any of my pictures, so I left it out. Of course, the house also has a side porch which I left out too, as well as the bushes in the front.

My upstairs neighbors really do have an oversized potted plant on their porch railing, and my cat really does sit in that window. The windows are 1" wide by 2" tall. The house block is 14" x 18". You can click the photo to enlarge, if you like.Here is the block with a picture of my house and one of my preliminary sketches. I didn't make a pattern for the house, and I didn't use paper piecing. It's all free-pieced.

Happy New Year! Thanks to all of you who read this blog and give me such encouragement. Have a very healthy and prosperous New Year.