Handmade/Homemade

Christmas 2009 :: All gifts were made by hand :: I accepted crazymomquilts' challenge and made my mother a 9 patch quilt. It's not finished yet. I made my grandmother a ripple blanket from a thrifted bag of yarn. And I knitted my sister an infinity/cowl scarf. There were many other beautiful gifts made and received (and some IOUs). We're already preparing for next year!

More than 9 patches..

What began as just a bunch of squares has quickly become 70 pieced 9 patches. I can't believe it! And in the hopes that my mother doesn't check her blog reader all that often I am posting some of the finished blocks here, and the quilt will be posted once I send it on its way (but first: finish piecing, piece the back, quilt sandwich, quilt the bugger, and bind -- in a bright, bright RED).

Dual Personality

Lately this is how my brain has been split: on the left side a list of projects and questions I'm working on related to my research. I've got two experiments running right now -- one in the lab and one in the field -- I have plans for a synthesis paper (hopefully a draft by September) and plans for a third experiment to be deployed in the fall once leaf litter begins to accumulate.

And on the right side are my quilting ideas. The upper quilt is a work in progress thanks to crazymomquilts who has whipped me into joining a 9 patch a day quilt-along. All my 9 patches are done, and I have begun to put the pieces together. The middle drawing is for a pillow, inspired by all the extra little squares I have left from my quilt, and inspired by all the patchwork pillow love. And finally, the bottom quilt, a two-toned number to be dreamed about until my self-imposed fabric purchasing ban has been lifted.

And that's my life, side by side.

KC Jackpot!

I have a persistent love for fabric by Denise Shmydt, Anna Maria Horner and Amy Butler. Because my local fabric shops are very fuddy-duddy (sorry, it's true) I have not been able to get my hands on a huge treasure trove of this fabric gold.

But then this weekend I struck it rich!! Urban Arts and Crafts in KC, Missouri is wonderful and lovely and a jackpot waiting for you. Check out the stash I found. I had to set myself a budget, otherwise I would have bought everything in the store. But no, I left you some goodies to purchase for yourself (you can even buy online!).

Roll With It

My third quilt. A quilt for some friends of mine who are getting married. It measures about 54" by 57". And I used a Moda Jelly Roll, plus a little bit of extra yardage for the boarders. The back of the quilt is pieced using some lovely KonaBay cotton and Moda hummingbirds.

I learned several things while doing this project:

1. Don't wash a jelly roll. Dumb idea. All the little strips turned into mass of craziness that started to unravel. What a mess. Plus I lost some fabric width as a result.

2. Borders, as much as I tend to dislike them, do have a place. I like the red and green. I like that the green is slightly more narrow than the red boarder.

3. I love nice back. That fabric is just as important to me as the front work.

4. I thought I'd be OK with the same colored thread for the front and back while quilting but really a thread that matches the back makes all the difference.

5. Do not quilt under duress. Rushing the process makes it much less enjoyable.

6. There's a funny cycle with quilting: "I love this fabric. Look at the pieces!...Ugh...this is tedious...ugh...the seams, the fabric combinations. Oh, what have I done?! I hate it. Gotta finish. Ok. I like this back. Oh look, it's quilted. Oh look, the binding looks so nice! Oh. It's done. I think I love it. Do I really have to give it away?!" That's the quilting path I walk down.

7. Don't forget to back stitch when you miter your bindings.

8. Plan your next project.

9. Take pictures!

10. Enjoy

Cheap is good...

...but free is better! That's my personal motto.

I was at my local thrift store, where usually it's crowded dingy, and the employees are grumpy and generally not interested in actually selling the mountains of junk that accumulates (don't even get me started).

On this rare occasion there was a helpful volunteer and she noticed I had picked up some knitting needles and asked me if I'd seen "the bag of yarn." No, I said. I hadn't. So she took me to it. It was huge! Not necessarily the type or quality of yarn I would by, but a treasure trove none the less. So I bought it for $4 (after an argument with the cashier because there were several $6 tags on it as well!).

Anyway, I've decided to make a wripple crochet blanket with most of the yarn, and scarves with the rest. Then I'll donate the pieces back to the grumpy charity shop. I figure for most people a blanket or a scarf is more useful than a bag of yarn. Except me. I'll take the yarn!

Quilt 2: Tetris

I did it! I finished my second quilt not that long ago. I was inspired by the various cross quilts out there, but more importantly I loved the fabric choices I made. The back was a bit of a surprise (pink polka dots? pieced?), but it all went swimmingly.



This baby is being auctioned off on Friday to raise funds at my sister's law school. The money goes into a fund to help lawyers who work in the public sector pay off their loans.