The Devil's Claws had to be put on the backburner for a while.
I'm making a quilt for a customer and look what the kit contained- Chenille! I've never used this before, and it took ages to cut out the stack of bits you can see here. Fluff everywhere, a dull cutter blade and these tall stacks were the result of all my effort.
I like the effect of chenille, but I'm reserving judgement until I see how this goes . Some of the other material is on the thin side, and I don't know how they'll fit together.
Luckily it's a very easy pattern, but I have to be careful not to handle the shapes too much, or they start to fray.
And look at all the scraps! I'm going to have to do something with this lot, these kits are very expensive, so I might surprise the lady with a couple of cushions or a little throw quilt as an added bonus.
Yep. Need that wading pool.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
I enjoyed finishing the arrowhead top and getting rid of the old blocks so much that I looked through the boxes and decided to work on these next.
A set of Devil's Claws, based on an antique quilt of Barbara Brackman's that was in Quilters Newsletter magazine many many years ago. I decided to use my precious scraps in these blocks, and they are very scrappy and varied in appearance.
These are all hand pieced too and I never got sick of them even though the pieces were so small and there were so many triangles in each block. I was in no hurry to get them done and I relished each new combination of fabrics that I came up with. I probably started them 13 or 14 years ago and worked on them for three years overall. ( I can't believe how long they've been maturing in their box...)I still really really like this pattern, but I would machine piece it now. If I was to make another one....
I haven't decided yet whether I will set it exactly like the one in the mag, or try something different.
Mac has outgrown this container too, I'm seriously thinking of buying him a wading pool he adores the water so much. I tried to shoo him off a garden bed the other day by squirting him with a hose but he literally lapped it up, turning his face full into the water and snorting and blowing like an old hippo. Not afraid of water this boy.
Would you drink YOUR bath water if it looked like this? It was clean to start off with.......
Friday, February 16, 2007
I can't believe how easy it is to neglect the blog.
It only takes one thing out of the ordinairy to make me too busy to post. I'm going to have a visitor and I've been sprucing the house up, but of course the blog is the first thing to suffer. Perhaps I'm just not organised enough, sigh.
Karen thought a poor little pup might be in trouble for chewing up a mop. Nah, I hate the implements of housework and that trifling mishap couldn't upset me.
But this could- see that white stuff? I store extra batting lengths on my spare bed, and investigating the ever more hysterical jangling of the bell on Mac's collar I discovered that he was having a grand old time tearing the batting up and strewing it round the room like a snowstorm.
I let out such a yell he put his ears flat on his head and streaked out of the house, and didn't stop running until he reached the back fence. And I don't think it was a "Oops, I'm in trouble" sort of exit, I think it was more "Nah nah! Can't catch me!!!"
Now when I let Matt buy this puppy, I gave him a great spiel about how it would chew things, and be prepared to lose shoes or belts or whatever took the lad's fancy, and how we couldn't get too angry because that's what pups DO.
What has he destroyed of Matt's? Nothing. He hasn't chewed very much so far, a towel that he shredded, an outside cushion, the mop, a scoop from the laundry. But everything he damages is mine, and the batting is Precious. I'd have to drive at least 45 mins to replace this particular one. Fortuneately he'd only pulled off the raggy bits around the edge which I'd cut off anyhow, but we were NOT amused!!
But I've forgiven him. For the time being. He'd just better not do it again.
Ahem, on to patchwork.
Nothing new has been done, so I'll post the quilt on the spare bed. ( the batting is now safely UNDER the quilt). Don't know what this is called, Keryn and I named it Town Square and it's my attempt at a 2 colour quilt.Blue and white, but the setting fabric ended up being cream and there are lots of scrappy blues, so I didn't really succeed. Perhaps I want to do a quilt with only two fabrics, just to see if I could stick to something that limiting.
And look at those three on the pillow.The blue bear (he WAS blue 48 years ago) used to have a squeaker inside, but that's defunct now, and I'm afraid I used him for colouring practice at some stage. He's filthy, but filled with straw, so I can't wash him. He never had a name. Then there's my favourite bear of childhood, the one I took to bed and cuddled, and then my boys took him to bed and cuddled him, and now he guards the spare bed. He has no name either. The golden bear Keryn and I found at a garage sale for a dollar, and couldn't leave him there, he's the same vintage as Blue Bear and is a bit grubby, but unwashable too. He's called Patrick.
My goodness, I just hope that Mac never jumps up and gets hold of these three characters! He'd have to run further than the back fence to escape my wrath then!!!
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Trust Keryn to ask how many stars were left.
Let's see, there were 177 to start with. (Remember, these were my hand sewing during a time when I couldn't use my sewing room and I got a bit carried away.)
I used 20 in this quilt
and 28 in the borders, and then I made 30 into these blocks which will go into a quilt based on an antique one I saw on ebay.
So that makes.......78 I've used so far......99 BLOCKS LEFT!!!? How many more quilts do I have to make to see the back of these? A few more apparently.
You can see the size of the stack is a lot smaller, and the pink ones I've already picked out the setting and fabric for, so they won't take long. Somehow I haven't put myself off and I still like piecing 8 point stars, but I think I must have been suffering from Obsessive Piecing Disorder. Is there a support group for that?
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Remember this stack of eight point stars?
The ones with blue backgrounds were made into this quilt
Which still left an awful lot of stars to be used.
I was thinking about the pieced borders for the Arrowhead top, and the light bulb blinked- what about the stars that are just sitting there in the drawer?
So off I went with my fabulous idea until I discovered ...this....
This is a HOLE! In my quilt top!
And judging by the frayed edges, it's been in the material for a while, probably before I cut it and sewed it as the alternate squares in this top. How could I not have noticed? GRRRR! So before I could attach my wonderful pieced borders I had to do this......
I contemplated just appliqueing a patch over the hole, but I preferred this solution, even though it meant more work.Sigh.
So here's the top, and I'm really pleased with it on many levels. I didn't plan any of the setting, but I love the way it looks. The material from Keryn was a bit of serendipity, the blocks sitting there waiting to be used were fortuitous, even the colours were right for this quilt. Sometimes I wonder if there isn't some inner process that goes along quite undetected by our consciousness and is planning these "accidents" for us. It just all worked out so well. Except for that hole....
