Mum’s Entwined Star – Finished

I Like it! Loving the way it turned out. The quilting pattern worked out better than expected and has a nice flow – altho it doesn’t lay flat, not to sure why – could be the material used. It was wonky after I washed it and it was definitely square.  Normally quilting takes of any weirdness – but not this time.  I was also worried about if the camo pink and the ribbon would blur together but thankfully it didn’t and they do stand out.  I need to rethink my tissue paper method of quilt marking for really tight and small designs as the paper doesn’t quite come out or the impression of it doesn’t – I did manage to get almost all of it out, thank goodness.  Love my tissue paper method, but my printer isn’t to happy with the process  I am looking to invest in some quilter’s paper and it’ll take a lot less time to print out my motifs – at this point, it takes a LOT of time to do just to print it as not all pieces go through the printer and I’m constantly dealing with carriage jams.

I’m borrowing a dowel from another project and this will be hung in my sewing room soonest   Wet blocking might solve the wonky issue – not sure if I’ll do anything about it – but the waves against the wall might just drive my OCD off the edge LOL

Mum’s Entwined Star

I just love the variety of looks you can get with HSTs. I wanted to do this with the bandanas I picked up at Michaels the other day – I had a hard time cutting into them as I was terrified I wouldn’t have enough or would make a cutting mistake. I worked it out in Quilt Pro then sent my numbers off to my quilt list. And my math was confirmed.

40 HST later and a lot of VERY careful sewing it was coming together.  The original measurement of the bandana were 22” x 22”,  The material said 100% cotton but it felt really weird – even to account for sizing – really slick / slippery.  So I washed it .. and it did prove to be cotton LOL .. went down to 20” x 20” – yes panic ensued as my measurements were for a 24” star – ya that wasn’t going to work anymore.  Sooo back to the drawing board – or rather resize and run the rotary chart in my program lol.  Finally it ‘grew’ to 18 ¹/₂”

Quilt Plotting .. Pin Cushions

I was thinking about the bandanas I picked up yesterday and that they were HUGE when I opened them up – I didn’t want to do an economy block that freeken big – so I started to plot .. hee hee .. yes no surprise to anyone I’m sure. I’ve mentioned before I love to design with HSTs and love the look they give. I designed Kyle’s Spinner quilt all with HSTs.  You can get so many unique looks with just one simple block.

I’m finally at the point where I can do something for my mum.  She passed in 2006 after a 25 year battle with breast cancer  I plan on hanging this in my sewing room so her and I can sew together once again  Mum taught me to sew by hand, by machine, do garment construction, embroider etc etc etc So with the bandanas I came up with an entwined star block – it started out at 24” but is now down to 15” – it was at 18” but I washed the bandanas and lost a few inches LOL  I plan to start on this tomorrow.  One of the bandanas got all wonky in the wash – totally out of skew – I just might rewet it and try and block it into shape

Pics … baby Ruby quilt

Since Baby Ruby’s quilt is done, here’s some of the pics of her quilts journey

I am truly amazed ..

At how much fabric 3 little boxes can hold!  In a last ditch effort to not have to pull all the boxes of books out the closet again, I went to the basement to dig through some boxes there – well I found 3 boxes – included in which was my fabric dyes and paints *happydance* Definitely happy to find those!  No books though – I really wanted to work on a convergence quilt – even went so far as to see if there was a Kindle version on amazon for it .. nope – hardcopy only – that’s okay .. I’ll find those books .. eventually!!

Baby Shower Day

Today was the big day for my gf baby shower.  I was rather grumbling a bit that it was at 10:30am on a Sunday, but with today’s blizzard (which is still going on 12 hours later) I’m glad it was early   It was a truly wonderful shower – no games thank God!!  Just breakfast buffet, a cafe bar (OMG it was awesome) and wonderful times with great friends.  Even with the snow coming in like it was, there was an awesome turnout!  I was so busy helping with the gifts I didn’t notice she had reached mine LOL.  Honestly, I teared up when she was looking at it and reading the label – I could hear the emotion in her voice – it’s so nice to know that she loves the quilt.

Universal you say???

According to dictionary.com, the definition for universal is:

adjective
1. of, relating to, or characteristic of all or the whole: universal experience.
2. applicable everywhere or in all cases; general: a universal cure.
3. affecting, concerning, or involving all: universal military service.
4. used or understood by all: a universal language.

The universal low shank quilting foot needs to have this redefined. Needless to say – it went on, did one side of the binding then went – nope – Im not gonna work another stitch – and it didn’t .. It is just a smidge to short – the plan was to put the binding on, then spend the rest of the day hand sewing it down and then adding the label then into the wash it goes .. maybe tomorrow afternoon some time . . hella sigh