Another little diversion...

I spent most of Saturday making plaid nine-patches. Which was productive, but quite frankly, tedious.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the project (it's perfect for its recipient!), and I'm enthusiastic about making progress...but there's something so much more liberating about cutting loose and not following a pattern.

I'm a youngest child -- and while I never considered it would have a huge impact on my crafting, could it be that the streak of rebellion bestowed upon me by my birth order is now manifesting itself in creative spontaneity and eschewing others' directions? Hmmm...

I tried doing a little hand quilting to mix it up a little, but sadly had to temporarily abandon my efforts due to my little orange friend, who couldn't seem to stay away from the project whenever I picked it up. It sounds like a weak excuse, I know (and poor animal training on my part), but there is something about this particular project that has him entranced -- except for rearranging blocks on the floor, he doesn't pay attention to anything else I have in the works, pin-basted, hanging threads or otherwise. I'd sit back on the sofa to start quilting, and Archie would literally jump into the middle of the frame and either settle down for a nap or start chewing on safety pins. I'm admitting defeat (again, only temporarily) -- but hand quilting, I think, will have to wait until he's a little older and not as curious. The quilt is already basted, so it can be easily machine quilted, anyway (sigh).

Which brings me to a machine update:
I called the shop before I left last weekend and explained my situation. Turns out their tech is on vacation and they aren't taking any machines in until November -- and then she assured me I still had a window of time before I drove my 440 completely into the ground without servicing. I'm still a little leery, given how much use it's getting pre-Christmas -- anybody else have any experience with this, or are you all totally on top of things and take care of your machines right away and I'm just a big loser?

Anyhow...in the interest of giving my overworked machine a rest yet still satisfying a need to play with fabric, came up with these cute little things:


I should have put something up for size reference -- they're just under 3" tall and totally adorable! The takeout from Friday night's dinner wasn't that great, but the fortune cookie box was too cute to resist and proved to be a great template!

The possibilities, methinks, are endless. These could be addictive!


P.S. In response to all the warnings I got last week about cats and sewing notions, my house is now kitty-proofed. I just have to find someplace more convenient to keep my pincushion than in the cupboard above the sink!

Gettin' there...

It's been a busy week, not much time for sewing...or blogging, for that matter. I tend to work long, wacky hours, so when I get home I'm usually not good for anything but decompressing in front of the TV until bedtime. Consequently, I try to get up early and do my sewing in the morning...but it's been so much harder to get up now that it's dark out. It's only October -- way too early to shift into hibernation mode!

So progress on the homespun nine-patches has been slower than usual. I was hoping to be at least piecing them by now, but when the alternative is staying huddled under the covers and grabbing another half-hour of sleep, I'm OK with it...

Strip sets up the wazoo...and another 15 to go

This stuff is much stretchier than I'd anticipated, despite the use of sizing. Which makes me think that the piecing process will be very forgiving -- and that's a good thing!

Only 90 days 'til Christmas...

I don't even remember whose blog I read that directed me to this site, but I do remember leaving a comment that I may never forgive her for doing so!

I'd never worked with homespuns before, but I saw these and immediately thought of a special someone (who may or may not be checking in here to see what I'm up to and therefore shall remain unidentifiable) who might just fit nicely under a nice flannel throw by the fire this holiday season. So I thought what the heck, I'll try something new, and ordered every blue plaid flannel they had.

Flannel homespuns...can't you just smell the chestnuts roasting?

Initially, I wanted to do a rag quilt, but then I found this pattern (from this book, which is hard to say three times fast but has some good patterns in it). So I loaded up on muslin at the Ice House, and they even dug around in the back room to find me some long-forgotten gray-blue plaid flannel for the backing (at 75% off -- woo-woo!), and I'm good to go!

From "40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts" by Evelyn Sloppy,
whose work, anyway, is actually quite neat

I am, however, finding cutting plaids to be a little challenging. I've complained about pre-washing taking up time, and ironing (thinking ahead, though, I was pretty careful not to distort these so cutting wouldn't be a total nightmare) -- but not being able to stack these babies and produce five or six strips with one slash of the rotary cutter? Ack! It's messing with my quilting mojo!

I suppose I could layer them and cut without regard to the plaid, but I'd be even more frustrated if the lines were crooked (see? I can be a perfectionist when it's called for!). So I'm gutting it out (poor, poor Kate, so eager to put the foot to the floor) and slicing my strips from each individual fat quarter with such accuracy it hurts.

Patience. I am taking a really deep breath and exercising patience.