Baby quilt done!

I finished this last week, but am just getting around to the photos now.


We love us some gas in Billings. Seriously. There are three refineries.


Back.


Here are the details:

It's 45 inches square
The grey is Quilter's Linen in grey, but the wrong side.
The binding and back strip (dots) are from Momo's It's a Hoot, as are some of the prints in the log-cabin blocks. The binding is by hand and took about 90 minutes.
The elephants are Japanese and the sashing is Essex Linen.
The rest of the fabric came from random fat quarters, but I know the wood grain is Joel Dewberry and the blue herringbone is also Joel Dewberry, one of my favorites.
The blocks are wonky log-cabin style, and finish at 10 inches.
The sashing is Essex Linen in PFD (prepared for dye) 3 inches finished. I used PFD a) because it's what I could find in stock and b) it wasn't as harsh as white or as cream-colored as ivory.
The batting is bamboo.
The quilting is an easy free-motion pattern, and I think technically stippling, since nothing overlaps (except one tiny mistake that only I'll ever notice).


Here's more of the piecing.

And here's a closer shot.






I really loved using the Essex Linen with this quilt and think it'll become a regular for sashing in the future. As long as I can find it in stock.

We snagged those photos right before heading to the horses races.





He almost broke even. Basically.






And, continuing the theme of running animals, we hit up the Reed Point Sheep Drive on Sunday.









It was a very American event.


There was Miller Light, after all. And these pants, which I'll post about next.








So that was a massive amount of photos. Speaking of massive...





This desk. It's in my, ahem, new sewing room!

All I have are cellphone photos right now. But you get the idea.






The desk was Tim's parent's. They bought it in New York a long, long time ago. It's called a partners desk. It's meant to have two people on each side, hence the double drawers. And ridiculous size.


It's solid oak. I can lie diagonally on it, reach my arms over my head as far as I can and still not touch both ends. I love it.


And, to wrap things up , adorable dogs. And a Tim.

Funks

I'm in this funky little rhythm where things are happening too fast and too slow all at once.

I want fall to show up already, but I feel awful wishing the last bits of summer away. I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, but I want everything I do -- dog walks, for example -- to last longer.

I'm enjoying the poke-along pace of the improv log cabin blocks in the baby quilt I'm working on, but in my head (and on random scraps of paper throughout the house) I'm building a list of projects I want to start.

I get through 1.5 baby quilt blocks a night. I get one together, stick it up on the wall, start on the next one.

Halfway through the next one, after sewing machine-cutting table round trips that take me by the design wall 16 times, I decide I don't like the block I just finished.

So I push it off to the side, my designated blocks-for-the-quilt-back-or-a-pillow-or-something area. Then I decide I'm too tired to sew anything I like and head to bed.

By morning, I have fonder feelings toward all the blocks.

Figures.

Today I wanted to do something else, start to finish. And I did.





It's a case for my sunglasses.



I used scraps from the baby quilt and some Essex Linen I had on-hand.

I sure do like that stuff. The heavier weight is wonderful (like Japanese fabric). You get the look of linen without all the fuss. And you get solids with some nice texture.

For this project, I used my sunglasses to make a freezer paper template and then built a basic lined pouch. I was going to sew Velcro to the top for the closure, but I couldn't find any. Oh well. I think I'll add a button and loop tonight. That way my closure will be quiet. Shhh.

I needed a project like this: one hour, no second-guessing. I like being comfortable enough with my sewing skills that I can build something small without the silly screw-ups that make it an all-afternoon affair.

I had a few Goodwill finds today, but I think T might steal one of them for his wardrobe. In all fairness, I offered it up. I'll post photos... as soon as I take them.

Time to roll over into the weekend.

Been busy

We've been jamming as much summer as possible into August. So far it's been swell. Fairs, fishing, blues fests, etc.

Same on the sewing front.

We swung by Lowe's on Friday and for $21 ($15 if all of our hammers weren't in the basement of our Butte house for some reason) got the supplies I needed to build something I've been daydreaming about since seeing them all over when my mom and I had our Montana road trip in June.


It's a loom to weave fabric scraps into rugs! And Chowder isn't nearly as excited as I am.

It's 2 by 4 feet and has a bazillion nails. I hammered them all.

Here's a basic diagram of how it went together.



I bought two 8-foot long boards (I think they were 2 by 2 inches) and had a guy cut them into 2- and 4-foot segments. I used 1.5-inch roofing nails, but if I did it again I'd use smaller once because my boards started to split ever so slightly when I drove in the nails. Maybe it's just because I'm so strong. I placed a nail every inch and did that before screwing the board ends together.



I also raided the Goodwill pile and came up with lots of shirts and pants.


Formerly known as a pair of trousers. I cut off a leg, hemmed the top and added elastic at the bottom.



Last night I was restless with my baby quilt blocks. I'll explain why in a few paragraphs.

So I took a break, wandered back to the Goodwill stack and made my first quartered log cabin blocks based on this quilt from, again, the Block Party book.


Three sleeves from mens dress shirts.

I also got a laundry quarter pouch from the cuff.


Just zig-zag up each side.

Wheh.

So, back to that baby quilt. I showed someone the block photos last night and they loved them, but said the colors leaned toward the boy end of the spectrum. Urgh. I hate when that happens. I hadn't been second-guessing myself on the gender-neutrality thing up until that point. I love these blocks and I think it'd be good for a baby girl to have a little blue in her life.

I mean, I'm a girl, and today I'm wearing a blue shirt.

But more green and yellow couldn't hurt. So I picked up some greens and yellows from MoMo's It's a Hoot line. Just a quarter yard of four prints, so only $9.50.

I had a big realization on Monday after seeing my three blocks on the design wall all weekend. That's one advantage to having it right in the middle of our living space.

One of these things is not like the other. Can you which?


I'm not sure if I'm getting the terms right here, because I've seen them used different ways, but the blocks on the sides are courthouse steps blocks (if you ignore the color rules) and the center one is a traditional log cabin block.



With all the different colors and prints, the traditional block seems too busy. So for this quilt, I'll stick with all courthouse steps.

Some of those steps will be modified a bit to keep it wonky. Like that one on the right has two sides added on before the top and bottom.

So I'll be back at it tonight, with lots more greens and yellows.

Two blocks down...

... no idea how many to go. Ether nine or 16, depending on how big I want the quilt to be. I'd like it to be 16 because I like sewing them, but that would make for one huge baby quilt.


Block No. 1 on the left, No. 2 on the right.

I wanted to make my first block the most simple one, and the second the most complicated. That way I can work between these two for the rest of the project. This is a baby quilt, so it can be fun and busy, but I don't want it to be too busy. I think simple blocks will help keep it calm.

Improvisational sewing suits me. Probably because it's less organized. Instead of cutting a specific number of strips from one fabric and on and on, you just pick your fabric and cut as you go. I'm doing free-hand rotary cutting on this.


If a fabric is on the table, it's fair game.



I'm trimming the blocks to a 10.5-inch square. Right now, the plan is to border each block in 1 inch of white and then put the blocks together with 4-inch grey sashing. That's why I think I'll only need nine blocks. That's too bad.

But maybe I can squeeze more in on the back.