the year of quilts

I am ridiculously proud of these eight quilts. I got them all done in time and I like every single one of them, for one reason or another. None of them were what I planned, but that's all right.

However, next time I decide to make quilts, I will definitely stick to wall hangings and lap blankets. The two big ones were a pain in the ass to quilt.

First the five log cabins, which remains one of my favorite blocks and definitely one of the easiest and quickest.








Technically this last one is a log cabin hybrid, with the log cabin squares around the center part, which is a modified irish chain block. And finally, another ridiculously easy and fun block called Bento.

Tale of a Quilt

A friend of mine will celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary next year and since I am in a quilting mood, it makes sense to make a quilt for her and her husband.

I had the bright idea - enter maniacal laughter here - to combine two quilt patterns, a rather cheesy symbol of two people's whose lives have come together. The obvious was my beloved log cabin pattern to symbolize the good ole boy my friend married:



The second was a friendship chain, to symbolize what my friend has met to me all these years:



Today I put it all together and realized - holy crap, I need a border!



In normal times this wouldn't be a big deal, except of course I realize this after having put the quilt together and also, I did good in getting the inner squares and outer squares nearly the same size so I didn't have to do anything extremely peculiar to put them together...and now I was throwing a spanner in the works by adding a border!

After spending an hour or so taking the outer log cabin blocks off - and wondering if I truly liked my friend all that much and when the answer came back as 'yes', wondering why - I added the inner border and was delighted to find that I could use some of the leftover squares for corner pieces. Go me. First I use fabric mostly from my stash and now I use left over squares.

And then I added the log cabin blocks. In a corner I refuse to show - and a corner I will tell my friend to always tuck out of sight - I had to jerry-rig a mishmash of squares to fill in the gap. Though I refuse to show it, the result isn't all that bad and most people probably won't even notice. But I will. (Stink eye)

This is not the bad corner, but an awesome corner instead:



In the end, though it's been a long frustrating day, the quilt came out beautifully. The border makes it, the corners are great and I am damn proud of it.



And this is what it looks like right now, hanging quartered on my craft room wall. I'm going to enjoy looking at this one for a while. :)

log cabin quilts

I have really fallen for the easy 'quilt in a day' system for log cabin quilts. No joke, a good sized lap blanket - 16 squares - in 3 hours, all out of odds and ends from my fabric stash. :) Go me, lap blankets for my dad, one of my oldest friends and even one for myself. :) now I just have to sit down and actually batt and quilt the suckers, lol, always the sticking point.



I'm running out of wall space in my craft room, so these three cuties are hanging in my living room, hence the lamp over the green and the bookshelf over the purple. I'm slapping my hand to keep from making more before sitting down and quilting what I already have made, especially since they are all xmas presents.




This blue one is for my dad and the first one I finished...and of course I managed to turn that middle section backwards, lol. I'm tempted to leave it like that, a sort of 'I was here' sign and see how long it takes Dad to notice.

Barbarian vs Fairy

My friend, the barbarian queen by night, the fairy queen by day. Or vice versa, you never can tell with these things. And occasionally a duct-tape dummy. Unlike another friend, who is roughly the same size as me, this particular friend is much skinnier and much taller, meaning this duct tape dummy has already saved me a world of trouble and grief.



In normal times, when we dress us, my friend tends to be 'elegant' and 'ladylike' with long sweeping dresses, snoods and demure looks. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she actually were the Lady in the Tower in another lifetime because I have met few people who are more at ease or comfortable in Renaissance style costumes than she is. And I spend a lot of time around SCA people and other reenactors.




This year she has decided to be 'sexy' and has expanded her horizons, first as the Barbarian Queen, complete with daggers and a swagger, which we will have to work on, as well as blue body paint...because we can. :) I'm fairly sure the blue paint is the part we are looking forward to the most.



The second day she will be going as a fairy queen, nicely fluffy but still more revealing and playful than is the norm for her. Oddly, as we age, I think we are getting sillier and more willing to be ridiculous than when we were younger. (Which is saying a lot, because we were pretty damn silly in college.) We don't take ourselves as seriously now and find more enjoyment in the ridiculous. A nice side effect of age, I think.

More afghans

Like I mentioned earlier, I've been busy this summer.

I just finished another filet afghan, another wedding gift, because this is apparently the year of the weddings, lol. Thankfully it's not real obvious, but I did have to stop short of the complete pattern and kinda finagle the edging, because I ran out of yarn. :( One row short and why is it always one row or a partial row? It's like insult to injury.



(And of course, this picture catches front and center my big mistake, the one I didn't catch until I was too far along to rip it out and start over.)

Anwyays, the pattern is from Decorative Crochet and it was a quick and easy pattern that was initially planned for an xmas gift, but was turned into a wedding gift instead. For the fun of it, I turned my washing machine blue this time. :) I have another filet in the design stage and if it comes out, I will be turning my machine either purple or teal in the near future.



(For this second shot, I shifted around to the foot of the bed and the mistake is still visible, but not nearly so obvious.)

And another granny square afghan - because when I figure something out I stick with it - in an around the world pattern.

My costumes

This November, for the third year in a row, my friends and I will be daring the Texas Renaissance Festival. For the past two years, we have learned something new with every trip, ranging from how to go through toll booths that first year, to the correct time to leave the festival to avoid the worst of the traffic.

I'm rather looking forward to seeing what we learn this year. :) That is the purpose of life, after all, the pursuit of knowledge.

At last years event, my friend declared that we would have 'themes' this year - pirate day and gypsy day and to be honest, we tried out hardest to adhere to those themes, but we all rather went out own happy directions and I cannot with honesty say that we are strictly 'pirates' or 'gypsies' as much as...a broad interpretation of the idea of pirates and gypsies.

I only have my own costumes to show today. I am nearly done with my friend - she of the 'theme' idea, but want to add the finishing touches and have not yet begun on the other and wouldn't be able to show off much more than an uncut pattern and a pile of neatly folded fabric.



At last years event, I fell in love with a particular costume and did my best to recreate it, though I could not but put my own personal spin on it. Such is life. It's not visible in the above shot, but the dress itself ends just above the knees and I'll be wearing trousers under, tucked into boots. I figure that if I was a pirate, I would dress mostly for comfort, as well as style.




This jacket, which was inspired by a truly awesome set of sleeves I saw the Fest, would be my 'fancy' outfit I would wear while going ashore. I also have a set of daggers and a hat to finish the outfit. I look more life a well-to-do Burgher than a pirate, but I like it and like I mentioned, this is a broad interpretation of the idea.






My gypsy costume is actually a bit more accurate, with that overdress doing a fair job of imitating a gwazhee (though not cut nearly as low over the bust as initially planned. I'm not sure why, but I just did not fancy that this year.) I also have a pair of purple trousers to wear under and a purple scarf for my hair. This year, it's all about the color.

And finally, a note about duct tape dummies: whoever initially came up with the idea (and wouldn't I have loved to be a fly on the wall for that conversation!) Thank you. My friends and I made them and they are a life-saver as well as damn clever and entertaining.

afghans

Most of these will be posted on Etsy soon, but I like having a picture to remember them by.




I love quilt blocks and I love granny squares and once again, I have combined them to create, in my opinion, some quite lovely lag afghans.




This one is more in line with a bed shawl, long enough to go across the bottom of the bed, wide enough to cover one's feet and calves for that little bit of warmth and, as I discovered, the perfect size to put over one's lap while sitting at the computer, without having to worry about catching it under the wheels of the chair or tangling around your feet if you have to get up quickly.

Quilts and afghans and costumes, oh my

I've been busy this summer. I admit, I tend to vegitate in the long, hot summer months between the fall and the spring semesters, but this year I was an active little thing and got all sorts of things done. :) I'm rather proud of myself and I'm sure this is a sign of new found maturity (which I hope will eventually wear off because, damn I'm tired.)

I've always loved quilts and over the years I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with them. I have stacks of quilt books, patterns, fabric and equipment. I've tried my hand at wedding rings quilts, around the world quilts and even a jigsaw puzzle quilt. I've collected patterns with every intention of making them, only to get bored, frustrated and/or intimidated before I could finish them, all of which made the choice of this year's xmas gifts particularly amusing. The fact that I am well on my way to fulfilling that list is impressive, to say the least.

I have been told that a proper log cabin quilt consists of a light side, a dark side and a center, preferably red. The light side represents joy, laughter, peace, goodwill. Basically, the good things in life. The dark side represents anger, grief, hardship, hate; the things that made us appreciate the good things all that much more. The red center is supposed to represent the hearth fire, the warmth at the center of home, family and life.



This quilt is an anniversary gift for a friend of mine, on the occasion of her fifth wedding anniversary. Admittedly, that technically isn't until next March, but I figured I better get it done now while the getting was good. I still have to add the borders (a red one and a green one) and the backing, obviously, but for now it is looking very nice on my wall, folded in half, obviously.







This quilt, the pattern is called Bento Box, is for this same friend. I had originally intended the log cabin to be for her and picked both the pattern and the fabric with her and her husband in mind. Of course, once I got it made, I realized that while it was a nice compromise between the two, it had very little of my friend about it and one thing I hate about having married and/or childed friends, especially women, is how much of their own interests and personalities get lost along the way. I'm perfectly happy to make a gift for the "B's" but I will always include a gift for my friend "A".



This is the quilt that started it all. Nearly two summers ago, my friend asked me to make her daughter a quilt, but life got in the way and it wasn't until this year that I had the energy, the time or even the interest in taking up such a large project. I'm glad I did, of course, but it's rather bittersweet. In truth, all these quilts are. Every time I see them, I think about how much my mom would have enjoyed them and how proud she would have been.



And last but not least, Around the world, one of my favorite blocks.

These quilts will be hanging on the wall for the next couple weeks/months, and then I will start taking them down to back and quilt, before giving them over sometime over the holidays. I already know I will miss them and have to stop myself from thinking about what other quilt tops I can make, with the express purpose of hanging them on the wall. :)

next post - afghans

I have this odd habit

I tend to hang my craft projects on the wall, even when they don't belong on the wall. :) This is one of the first quilted hangings I ever finished and I love it, flaws and all.



Originally it was the logical extension of the idea of a 'design wall'. Hang it up, take a step back and take a good look to see if it really looks as good as you think it looks.

Eventually it became the easiest way to keep track of my projects. My craft room - my entire house - tends to exist on the fine line between control and chaos and if it's hanging on the wall, it's above the fray, as it were.





Since my cats love my crafts - especially my crochet - it became a good way to keep it away from them, though my youngest seems to find the afghans hanging on the wall a convenient way to chase bugs.




Right now, I am in the middle of a quilting buzz. I finished a top recently for my friend's daughter. It amused me to take 'in progress' pictures. Right now it's folded in half and hanging on the wall, since it is too long to let it hang free. The point is to keep it away from the cats, not give them another excuse to cuddle with my fabric.



I have just begun my christmas quilting. I had plans for these quilts and then I threw out all those ideas and started over.




I have a fondness for traditional quilt blocks and since I have projects running out of my ears, I am especially fond of any technique that allows me to do it faster.

To put it simply, I love strip piecing. :)




Around the World is one of my favorite blocks, partly because it is ridiculously easy and fast, but mostly because I think it's simply a beautiful pattern.





Everyone who comes into my house gets this look on their face when they realize what is hanging on my walls, this look that says they think I might have finally gone around the turn, but I like it.

celtic knot heart

I am ridiculously pleased with how this afghan turned out.

It is based around a celtic knot pattern that conveniently curls up into a heart, convenient since I made it for a wedding.



I can look at it and seen a dozen mistakes and things I wish I had done differently, but I have been crafting long enough to know that while those mistakes are glaring to my eyes, most people won't even notice.



The woman I am making this for is fond of red and with my recent experience in successfully dying an afghan yellow, I was eager to see if I could turn my washing machine red.



I was quite successful and I am almost as proud of that as I am of the afghan itself.

odds and ends

I'm in the middle of about three big projects right now, but I've finished several odds and ends.

My friend was less than impressed with the cloak I made for her and after some thought, I eventually got over my pride and re-did it. I still like the effect of the yellow and black, but she's right, it's simply not her.

This cloak is very simple, a straight back, no sleeves, straight front, sewn only a few inches on either side and a hood, yellow tulle over black broadcloth, but it will look better on my friend than the flashier yellow poncho. She was right, that was more me than her. :)






I hate sewing buttons on. I haven't nothing personal against buttons, in fact I rather fancy them, but I hate sewing them on and I have tried multiple ways of getting out of using them the way the maker intended. I think I might have finally hit on a possibility. I found some tie-tack backs at the craft store and a little lightbulb went on. :) I made all the cloak pins this way, hot-gluing buttons onto tie-tack backs and if they work, several of my costumes will also be getting the hot-glue button treatment.



I was rustling through my button collection (I tend to buy them, even though I'm not real fond of them) and found some great goldish-brass looking buttons with NSEW written on them, which works out perfectly with the necklace I have already made to wear to the last HP movie, there on the right. It's kismet. :)




And finally, a belated birthday gift for a friend. I'm usually thumbs at remembering birthdays, but I am trying to at least remember the correct month, if not season. :)

My friend - she of the Hufflepuff cloak - got me a book of cross-stitch designs called "Subversive Cross Stitch", where the messages tend to fall more in line with my own caustic, abrasive personality than normal. In revenge - or thanks - I made her a set for her birthday.




I looked around and simply could not find any frames that I liked, so I got creative. :) I found some cheap cardboard mattes at the craft store and then some scrapbooking stickers for decoration. I thought they turned out rather cute, especially since the cute little stickers rather clash with the messages.