What would Gran say?

My Gran was the only grandparent I ever had. Both of my mother's parents were dead before she was out of school and my father's dad died before he was even married. My Gran was a bit rough around the edges. She couldn't cook worth a damn, but had grown up working hard picking cotton and working in gardens. Oddly enough, the woman loved crochet and quilting. I would go with her to her quilt circle in the summers. All the little old ladies were so sweet. When we were at her house she would give me random fabric and help me make dresses for my Barbies. I think it was really so I wouldn't leave naked dolls all over the house. "Sweatin' like a whore in church" was a catch phrase and when I hear it I giggle a little. The smell of hair with a rinse being blow dried reminds me of soap operas and Little Debbie snacks, waiting for her hair to be done. She would let me play with the pads of her fingers. I thought she was 100 years old. She would laugh and say she hoped to live that long.

She loved my purple nail polish.

When I was 10 I bought purple nail polish at HEB and my dad thought it was disgusting. My Gran thought it was pretty and made my fingers look lovely. She stood up for my purple nail polish and at the time, I thought she hung the moon.

She died the October of my senior year of high school. Her mind gave out before her body finally did. It was the first time I lost someone close to me. It was like getting my heart ripped out and kicked in the gut. I was mad at myself for pissing away so much of the time I could have spent with her. Now that I'm older I see a lot of her in myself. I wonder what she would say about all the things I make. Would she like the new styles coming about in the quilt world? Would she tell me if something looked ridiculous? Could she explain why she always jacked a few packets of Sweet N Low from every restaurant we went to?

Yesterday was her birthday. She would have been 100.

WIP Wednesday!

Another Wednesday has come along,you know what that means!

There are some beautiful projects going on this week! I love seeing what everyone is up to.

The quilting has started on the Kaleidoscope quilt. I do all my quilting on my kitchen table since its the only place I have big enough to do it. I had to alter my set up because the stupid thing kept sliding around.

I finally have decided what to do in the center of the blocks. I was originally going to do some free motion but the idea I came up with will work better for me. More my style you could say.

I decided that the diamonds that make points will be quilted on the inside. That idea popped in my head and I immediately knew it will be what was missing in my design.

This morning I busted out the poor man's quilt design tools, aka graph paper and crayons, and drew up a pattern for the Transformers quilt.

The more I though about fussy cutting the more it bothered me. This is a bit more simple and patchworkish than I had planned but I know it will work out. Now I'm debating on sashing or leaving them all touching. A thin 1" wide black is the contender right now. I may see how it looks once the pieces are cut and laid out.

The solids swap mommas are matching up pairs. I can't wait! I have a few cute ideas in mind.

The Hubs got his boat back from the shop and took it out for his maiden voyage. No problems at all! He's like a kid at Christmas. He wants me to go out with him but its insanely hot here in Texas and sunny to boot. I'm happy with my pasty white skin and air conditioning thank you very much.

Oh my sewing, how I missed you.

I haven't been sewing for about a week now. For whatever reason, my body decided to have a civil war within my abdomen. FINALLY I feel better. I was about to Ralph all over the place during Harry Potter, but after looking forward to it for so long I wasn't about to let anything get in the way. It was bittersweet. I love the HP series for the story itself and all that is has done for youth reading. Anything that gets kids excited about reading is cool with me.

Now that I have completely over shared with the internet, let me show you what little I have been up to.

I had a hell of a time once I went from blocks to rows. For whatever reason that was when the bias stretching kicked in. A lot of my points don't match up and I got so mad I had to put it up for a while. With this size I wish I had done smaller blocks. These come out to 12" squares and my backing is a flat sheet for a toddler bed. Sew and learn I suppose. I did have to add a little slice of gray to the backing so it would be wide enough. It's sandwiched and awaiting some quilting. I'll try to tackle that on my next day off.

I am SO excited about this! I've never done a swap before! I have wanted to so bad but I never could catch them when they started. (I just realized she probably thinks I'm a stalker. First her quilt along and now a swap. I promise I'm not a weirdo stalker lady!!) I've never done anything with all solids. It's also a bit scarey because this will be the first time I've made anything for someone that wasn't family or a close friend. EEK! We filled out our survey things and now we get matched up. I hope my swap partner isn't a super duper perfect quilter. I would hate for them to get my package and think its ugly. Ok, freaking myself out a little. I'm hoping that my nerves won't get the best of me. I'm a wee bit insecure, can you tell?

I trimmed up the pieces for Mom's New Wave quilt but i haven't started piecing just yet. That ALSO goes on the the list for days off sewing. Now we just have to see if the family will let me have that peace and quiet.

WIP Wednesday!

I could have sworn I posted this past weekend. I'm going to assume the big blogger beast ate it all up. Again, I've linked up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

My Well Crap quilt has been favorited so many times on flickr! I never in a million years thought that would happen. Its so encouraging getting comments from strangers, especially ones that make quilts. Most non sewers can't appreciate the art as well.

I've got 6 more blocks to assemble, then I can start squaring up and sewing together. I think there are a couple I may have to repress, but no biggie.

I've been debating how to quilt this and the best I can figure is circles around the gray, but I worry there won't be enough in the centers of the solid print blocks. If nothing else, they will get tacked down in the centers with little * shapes.

The fabrics are getting turned into a New Wave by Oh Franson quilt. I have 6 of the colors cut up and half of the white sashing sliced and diced as well. This is such a simple little pattern but I had a brain fart and couldn't do math. I cut a good 4 fat quarters wrong. Thankfully they were the ones I had duplicates of so the swearing was kept to a minimum.

This one is giving me the hardest time of all. This is for a 5 yr old little boy that loves Transformers. I have no earthly idea how to go about it. The large print is such a strange layout. I thought about fussy cutting the small characters and surrounding them with the solids. The thought of just cutting it all into squares and piecing them together has crossed my mind as well. The bottom 2 fabrics are flannel that will be pieced for the back. (The one on the right is stars, not that you can tell with my crappy iphone pictures.)

Word to the wise: plan a pattern THEN buy fabric.

WIP Wednesday!

If you're coming over from Freshly Pieced, welcome! Take a look around!

 

Wednesday just crept up on me this week! I did finally finish quilting and binding 2 different quilts.

It was my first time to do a pieced binding. I did 2 different black on white prints so that if I messed it up, it wasn't as obvious. I still can't get the binding perfect, but I have zero patience for hand sewing.

This came together ok. I LOVE the binding fabric! I have a bit left over. I don't know what I'll use it for, but it'll be something gosh darnit!

I have about 8 hexagons sewn in halves, and 6 blocks done for KQAL. I'm so excited about both! I have learned so much about seams from these 2 projects. I want to go back and rip apart something I started ages ago. Knowing what I know now, I straight jacked those things up!

Blood, sweat and sewing

The birthday fabric got all cut up and a few little swirly hexies got made. I realized I cut up the wrong white fabric after I had already done it. That kinda sucked. It looks ok, but it was going to be white on white polka dots. I'll save that for later I suppose.

I had tried the Jaybird Quilts hexagon pattern before and failed miserably. Nothing was lining up right at all. Turns out offsetting pieces doesn't work for me. This time I cut the corners off of all the pieces and its done wonders! Its an extra step that is a bit tedious, but well worth it if it comes together without me throwing a rotary cutter through a window.

Since I got an extra day off this week I spent the whole day ironing and cutting for the KQAL. I was laying it all out and not quite digging the pattern or colors I had picked. I consulted the stash and pulled a few greens and liked it even better. Then I remembered I had favorited a picture on flickr of a different style kaleidoscope and changed it to that. Unfortunately, I had already cut up a good number of triangles and strips to later be cut into triangles. I cut the strips in half and grabbed them at random to sew them together. Then, I went back and cut out the wedges. Its a bit more scrappy than I usually do, but waste not want not.

To do the actual piecing I use a highly advanced system. I call it the shake and grab.

If there are repeats I throw it back in and try again. Did that blow your mind?

Here are the 4 blocks that I got done today. You can kind of see the scrappy pieces in there. So far I'm totally digging this. I think the man child will be able to grow with this as well. There are so many polka dots in it because he goes nuts for them any time we are at the fabric store.

In my frantic excitement of extra sewing time I sliced my finger open I could probably stand to get some surgi-glue on that beast, but ehh. I bleed for my craft! I'm a hardcore quilter! My quilt group would be named like a metal band. Sewing For My Sorrows While My Machine Lay Dying. We could applique bats or gargoyles on everything and whine about other crafters not really understanding us. Oh wait, that much angst is only tolerated while in your teens. Damn.

WIP Wednesday!

Does it still count at midnight? I'd like to think so.

I got 2 quilts quilted and binded this week. The Well Crap quilt and the gift quilt. I'm kinda mad because the gift quilt had a boo boo in it. I bought the no baste batting. When I sandwiched it all together and ironed it made a weird spot on one corner. The stuff was utter crap in that I spent time ironing it and it STILL didn't stick together. So I washed it in hopes that it would come out and it didn't! I feel embarrassed giving something away that has a weird spot on it. Its all done so I don't think I could applique some extra spots on. The Hubs said he couldn't notice, but to me it was glaringly obvious.

Am I the only one going nuts waiting for the QAL? I hope not. I started another project today to tide me over til it starts. I have a firm belief in not having too many projects at once. The Bestie got me some wonderful fat quarters for my birthday and I decided to make some twisty hexagon blocks like these.

Image from whynotsew? via flickr

I have declared Bestie as my color consultant. She knows nothing at all about quilting or sewing and she found me an amazing mix of fabrics. I added in a few from my stash and a nice off white.

I have an extra day off this week. Little Man will be going to the sitters so I can spend a whole day sewing. Lucky lady is me! Wooo!

 

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