Productive Quilty Day
Posted By drsao on June 29, 2008
I got lots done today in my quilty world (even despite the fact that my cats were extremely helpful!) Don’t cats just LOVE to be in the middle of quilting projects!!!
LOG CABIN – COURTHOUSE STEPS ONLINE SWAP BLOCKS
I am in an online block exchange – a monthly decentalized log cabin swap – and for July our block is COURTHOUSE STEPS with a red center…..so I finished my 12 blocks today! It always feels good to get something accomplished ahead of time……
….and this was no small feat given that I had to share my cutting mat with my feline friend, Cuddles TINKERBELLE….she not only lounged on my cutting mat but she also decided to chew up a pen (that is better than eating pins, which she has also tried to do!)
FRED’S QUILT – WINDMILLS AT NIGHT – FIRST IDEA
My younger brother, Fred, finally told me what colors that he wanted for his quilt. He chose browns, greys and blues – so I got together some fabric and after looking through MILLIONS of pattern books and online patterns, I found a pattern that I decided would be perfect – from the QUILTS OF THIMBLECREEK series – Windmills at Night by Donna Heppler.
I have learned to make a sample block (rather than to cut material for an entire quilt) and so I carefully cut and labeled enough PARTS for one block….again with the help of my kitties who decided to nap on my cutting mat! (When I MOVED my cutting mat to the floor – the cats MOVED WITH ME – making this ONE BLOCK took a long time! :))
Another reason that it took so long was that there were several ERRORS in the pattern…..there was an insert in the front of the book with corrections – but I didn’t think to look for an error notice…. So I had to figure out the correct cutting instructions on my own (thankfully I did it right – a real miracle! :):)) And TA DA….here is the first (and last WINDMILL BLOCK.) I actuallly LOVE THIS BLOCK but it was challenging to get all of the points going in the right direction (and for someone who is spatially challenged this would have ended up on my LIST OF NOT SO FAVORITE THINGS. Thankfully my brother doesn’t read my blog, because if he saw this block he would probably like it…..:)
FRED’S QUILT – BOXY STARS – SECOND IDEA
I wanted to make Bonnie K. Hunter’s BOXY STARS QUILT with the online group starting July 1st – and so I said, ‘SELF, why not make it with Fred’s colors!” And so I made a BOXY STAR BLOCK – and I really like it…..SO FRED’S BOXY STARS is a GO! I love making these blocks.
I made the next block using some blue material from my nephew, Joey’s undershorts. He is 16 and he would probably be less than thrilled to know this tidbit of INFO was being made public – TEE HEE. Joey is Fred’s son – so I thought that it would be great fun to include this block in his quilt.
I enjoyed making these stars so much – that I made three today!
EGG MONEY QUILT
I am taking a six-month class (taught by Susan) at THE QUILTERS CORNER starting July 20 – we are making one of Eleanor Burns’ Egg Money Quilts. It is going to be a great class – lots of fun. I am going to use 30’s repro fabric……and I had lots of fun selecting the fabrics today…….here they are!
BINDING
My intention was to cut binding for another quilt tonight too – the quilt is back from Val (my long arm quilter) at A NEEDLE RUNS THROUGH IT – and since I was on such a roll, I decided to do that too….but alas, Cuddles decided to sit on the material…….maybe when I finish writing on my blog, she will have moved on!
OR NOT…. 🙂
Your cats are too funny!! One of our cats is fascinated with the flower head pins and will painstakingly remove them, one by one, from the pin cushion. He just drops them once he gets them out but will work away at it till they’re all out.
What lovely cats. I would so like to have a companion cat again. Unfortunately Rosie, truly The Laziest Cat in the World, spends all day sleeping on the spare bed and rarely comes to visit unless it’s time for food. I can see why you ditched the first block for Fred’s quilt – getting those points correct time after time could drive you demented. The boxy stars look much more do-able.