Strippy Blues: X Block

Within two or three feet of my chair in the sewing room I can reach out and touch any number of WIPs. They run the gamut of incompletion, ranging from piles of leftovers all the way to 'almost finished'.

Well, there has recently been a 'laying on of hands' to the pile of blue and grey leftover strips from Sea Glass to take it to the next level. I had made four wonky Log Cabin blocks with chartreuse centres for a pillow from some of them but there are still lots left.

I have long loved this scrappy Rainbow Connection quilt from Amy at Diary of a Quilter, and the other day I came across this tutorial from Leigh at Leedle Deedle Quilts which is the same one that Amy used, so, Tutorial + Strips = New Project!

Mine will be much more muted than Amy's (though some day I want to do a bright version) and there aren't enough strips to make a quilt, so I think it will be a table runner. The blocks are 6" finished so I might do three across - I'll see what it looks like. It's relatively mindless sewing but feels so good to move through that pile. That said, I'm amazed at how long the pile is lasting. I thought I might have enough to do a cushion, i.e. four 6-inch blocks, but there will be lots more than that....M

Tool Time

I've had questions about where I bought the handle to tighten my quilting hoop but have been unable to reply because folks are identified as 'no-reply bloggers' so I thought I'd do a quick post about it in case others were interested in looking for one as well.

I had to do a little digging after the question was asked as there are no markings on the tool. Sleuth that I am, I finally found the answer. I got it from Carol Shewan at Willow Creek Rug Hooking. The tighteners are not in her online shop but if you contact her she will be happy to help. If memory serves me correctly, I paid about $5 for it.

It is such a joy to work with so if you use a quilting hoop I would really encourage you to pick one up; your knuckles will thank you. Makes you wonder why someone didn't think of this sooner.

The slot in one end of the handle has a hole drilled into it so it just sits over the screw and the wing nut in your frame and you use it much like a screwdriver.

Thought you'd enjoy a quick peek to what the border quilting pattern looks like from the back. It will need one more little square added to the corner where the two large triangles meet, but I'll do those all at the end.

Also, if you are a no-reply blogger, here's a link to step-by-step instructions for how you can change that so that I am able to reply to your questions - I love getting your comments and this just makes it that much easier to connect....M

No More Rolling Around on the Floor

How long have I been saying that I need to get things up off the floor and make a design wall so that I can have a better perspective on things and not have to spend my time laying out blocks on my hands and knees doing my best impersonation of an Olympic gymnast doing a floor routine? Well, thanks to my favourite nephew, I now have.

He delivered two sheets of insulation for me (about a year ago already!) but they have been languishing in the garage until I figured out what I was going to do with them. This week he cut them down to six foot heights for me so that I could get them down the stairs and wrap them in batting, just taping it to the back sides.

Because I expect to be moving these around a fair bit I went back after the first round of taping and just secured all of the loose edges so that things wouldn't come undone. So now I have almost a complete wall in my sewing room that is a design wall - yippee skippee!

In hindsight, I probably should have had them cut six inches taller but I have to manoeuver around a few tricky corners so I went for the shorter height. I'd still like the boards to sit higher on the wall so I'm going to get him to build me a little platform with a ledge so that I can snug the panels between the ceiling and the platform without having to nail anything into the wall to secure them. Right now they are sitting atop two shoe boxes. Classy.

So, as soon as they were up I had to try placing my star blocks and some geese. The room is very small so I think I'm going to need to use a different lens to be able to get more of what's on the wall into the frames to share with you (I had to leave the room to take the photo at the top of this post!). Also, because there is no natural light in the room it's tough to get shots with true colours - I'm going to have to see if I can get different bulbs that don't throw such a warm glow over everything.

Anyway, back to the quilt. I still like it with just all the star blocks and nothing else, but the geese haven't been ruled out yet.

Remember I said I wasn't sure if this was one quilt or two? Well, this is the idea that is running around my head for the second option - columns of geese in varied lengths. I'll make more geese and see where that takes me. In the meantime, I'm pinching myself that this is actually done....M

The Thin Green Line

Much to my surprise, I continue to make great progress on quilting the border of Confetti and now have two sides finished. I'm finding this a little unbelievable, but in a good way. I have to give a lot of the credit to my trusty painter's tape. The pattern that I'm stitching is all straight lines so I'm marking it off with the tape - no marker or pencil line to worry about and no erasing/rinsing. Love it.

These are my trusty tools - my newer glasses to help see the cream thread against the cream print, thread, scissors, and the wooden handle that I bought at FibreFest this past fall.

There's a slot in one end that just slides over the wing nut to help you tighten or loosen the quilting hoop. It's ideal - no more fiddling with the little nut and getting residue from the screw on your fingers, and it's kind to your fingers in a way that the metal isn't. I think it may be the best five bucks I've spent in a long time.....M