Monday, February 17, 2014

"Finished" Quilt: Fern Gully

This gorgeous fern fabric has been sitting around forever and I just don't know why.

Monaco by Dena Designs (Free Spirit)

What's not to like?  I guess for some the seafoam and lime green color combo could be off-putting I suppose.  Or maybe the large scale print is difficult to decide what to do with?  It reminds me of the the movie Fern Gully.  Probably because it's giant ferns, and you know, FERN Gully...but whatever.

The original Avatar.  

And obviously Batty was the best. This still cracks me up.  Yes, I am actually, literally "lol-ing" at this.  Still.

Aaaaanyway....I digress.  Thank god for the Villa Rosa $2 postcard patterns.  I love those little things!  Mom may be addicted to the mini charms, but I love these little patterns.  The quilts range in size, the instructions are clear and concise and they are perfect for scraps and large scale prints alike. 

So I did one.  




I just got it back from Frances (quilter) and I'll be on binding duty soon.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Snow Day, Sew Day - Psychedelic Turd

Salem has called a "chains or snow tires only" day, so that means we're homebound for now.  9" total with a change of freezing rain later! So other than sew, what do you do?

 Snow angels 

Now, before anyone says anything about the name of the quilt, it was inspired by this song...and if you mishear the "Psychadelic Furs" lyric the way I did when I heard it for the first time, and once you see the quilt, you'll understand why.

Behind the Music - The Vandals

I can't remember which pattern this came from (so hey, if anyone recognizes the pattern...), because I started this 4-5 years ago too, but I was way too into this bright fabric and it's a little overpowering, but weirdly I still like it.


Here is what I started with.  NO idea why two sides have a black border and the other two don't, but whatever.  I wasn't planning on taking it apart to put new black pieces on (I don't have the original fabric anyhow).  But seriously...talk about wonky!  It was warped from ironing when I should have pressed, and my quarter inch seams were iffy at best.  But it held together just fine so I kept it as is.


All I did was finish the pink borders (originally only the top and bottom pieces were attached) and add the green one.  I figured how could it get any brighter and any more garish?  It's a psychedelic turd...how does that saying go?  If you paint a turd gold, it's still a turd? Something like that.  Well, either way, it's fitting. (And I can hear a handful of y'all from all the way over here..."how many more times is this girl going to say 'turd'?" Probably a few more times.  It's a little funny.)


Another one for the "ready to quilt, someday" pile.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Snow Day, Snow Day - Honduran Twist

Looks like the valley is in for it today.  It started kind of snowing yesterday, but it continued overnight and the roads were a little slick this morning.  I didn't think it was bad enough to not go in to work, so I did, but some 2:30 it was getting pretty bad.  Let's just say this afternoon, my usual 15 minute drive back home took about 45 minutes (I can drive in snow fairly well, since I had to learn straight away when I got my license, but I don't have 4 wheel drive).  I got to the shop just fine but it was coming down hard enough and the roads were getting bad enough that we decided to close up shop and get home. 





About 6", with more supposedly to come.

So, what to do with a snow day?  Turn it into a "Sew Day!" I know, that's terrible, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, it is time to get some old projects together and finish them. 

Nothing shows you the progress you've made than going through old, unfinished projects.  This one was a clusterbomb.  I haven't worked on this one in maybe 4-5 years. This is the pattern I was working on:


Twisty and cute! So I opened the box and found twelve finished partial seam blocks. (That's a lime green, by the way, not a heinous looking yellow)


...and then I found a bunch of these weird chopped off pieces in both the blue and green.


 I guess I must have miscut a bunch of these, got frustrated and put it away.  Your guess is as good as mine.  At this point, it was a lot of very carefully piecing these odd little square-triangles.




What I DID learn in finishing these blocks, is that 4-5 years ago I did NOT understand the difference between "ironing my blocks" and "pressing my blocks."  Holy warpage, Batman!  Some of them were warped enough from the ironing that I couldn't trim them straight enough, and I didn't have enough of any of the fabrics to redo them.  Lessons learned!  



Another lesson learned?  Color choice.  If I had to do this quilt again, I wouldn't have gone with that green.  LOVE the blue...but not so wild about that green at this point.  C'est la vie. 



As I got it pieced together more, I was a little happier with it, but surprisingly John really loves it.  Since it's not his usual manly style, I had to ask.  He said that he loved it because it reminded him of the art from Honduras, all the bright colors and things he remembers from his childhood.  The fabric is actually called Guatemalan Flora, which makes sense...while it's not Honduran themed, Guatemala is one of their neighbors and the art style has a similar flavor to it. 


So here is the almost finished quilt, with John hamming it up on the top there...It would be done now, but he wants it a little larger so he can curl up in it (understandable, after all, isn't that what quilts are largely for?), and luckily we still have some of the border print at the shop.  I'll probably get the border slapped on this week and it'll go in the "ready for quilting, someday" pile.

"An elephant never forgets" (but I almost did, about this project)

Last June when we had the fire in the warehouse behind the shop, everything kind of got scattered to the winds in the hurry to get everything out of the building safely.  Fat quarters were mixed with books, mixed with patterns, mixed with cut goods...you get the idea.  We managed to keep our programs organized, but everything else had to be re-sorted when we put the store back together.

As usual, Mom and I generally each have a few projects (samples) we're working on in the classroom.  At the time, we just had to stuff those projects in bags and get them the hell out.  I found a few of the ones I was working on, but unfortunately a few were missing.  Most of the merch was stored at my house a few blocks away, but as I ran out of room, some went to my folks' place too. I looked at her house, came up empty handed and assumed that everything was out of my house at that point so, my project was among the missing.

The other day I was neatening up my sewing room and I came across a big ziplock baggie full of blocks.  Lo and behold, there was my project, which by this point, I had just about forgotten about.  All 12 elephant blocks AND the pattern (score!) had been in my messy sewing room since June! So the other day I took them into the shop...squared them up, picked a sashing and....boom. Ready to quilt!




It'll make a cute addition to the kids' room at the shop.  Just need to reorder the pattern and there you have it.  This would be cute for a little boy or girl...or make it bigger (and not a stupid 1.5" sashing) for a grown up who likes elephants too.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Portland Modern Quilt Guild BOM 2013 - "Finished"

I finally got around to finishing the block of the month for last year.  The last two blocks were a rough finish...

I did NOT do the curved seams (after 8, I kid you not, 8 attempts...thank God for applique)

 
And I miscut half of the pieces for the last block...3 hours later...

So I got the blocks laid out...
 

I decided to make the blocks 16.5" inches, so the quilt would be a little bigger.  Originally, I chose a Michael Miller Hearse print as my border, but after I got the block assembled, the hearse fabric was just "meh." 

So I opted for cheesy monster movies!






 Now it's off to Frances for quilting, and it'll sit in the binding pile until I feel like binding it.  Probably in gray.  Another one bites the dust! (except for binding...)