Quilt as you go-go...

Given the success of the last mini-QAYG project, I thought the girls would enjoy contributing to a larger quilt. Attention spans are waning now that their doll quilts (the original goal of our lessons) are finished; these 10" x 13" blocks finish quickly, and we're all looking for a little instant gratification at this point.

All ready for a QAYG!

I cut a bunch of backing squares and batting, established a layout for the back (the middle stripe on the front coordinates with the backing fabric so I can keep the layout straight without having to flip the blocks over to determine who's who), and emptied the box of trimming strips. Everything was spread out on the floor when they walked in the door.

The girls finished six of the colored blocks, which made a good dent. I kept going with the colored blocks after they left and got them all quilted.

I've discovered that I don't trim my strips nearly wide enough -- this would go a lot faster if I'd give up more than two inches of fabric when evening up cuts. Cutting some wider strips is in order to make the black blocks finish more quickly. The girls aren't big fans of "Skinny Minnies."

As much as I'd like to wrap this marathon up, they won't be back for at least three weeks with Easter and Spring Break coming up. Their mother really wants them to get a good sense of their contribution and understand that they're using what they've learned in order to give back. For that, I'm happy to extend the finish line a little longer.

My cat is a camera hog...

He knows where I keep my camera, and the thunk! the drawer makes when I take it out. The quilt is still drifting to the floor when he appears out of nowhere and pounces on it, ready for his photo op.

My original intent was to audition thread before I started pinning, but that notion got rejected rather quickly.

First the thread had to be inspected...

Then the quilt sandwich tested for nappability.

That workstep takes quite a while. Quality Control means everything to this guy.

And you wonder why I never get anything done?

The Curse of the ADD Crafter...

The girls didn't have acting class this week so didn't come by for their sewing lesson, which puts our quilt-as-you-go projects on hold until next weekend. That's fine by me, because I got it in my head around Wednesday or Thursday that I should see if I could do a QAYG project on a larger scale. You know, because I didn't have anything else to work on.

I cut a bunch of strips of varying widths from my "Good & Plenty" stash, and used that pink and black spray dot yardage for backing. Kind of wish I'd thought it through a little better, but if I don't charge full speed ahead with an idea once it's popped into my head, there's a very good chance it won't reach the finish line. It's The Curse of the ADD Crafter.

Turns out this was a perfect spell to counteract the Curse! It took a day to tack the strips down, and another day to quilt and bind. Wham bam, and it was done! And I learned a couple things along the way, which made the entire venture worth it:

1. Extra pinning perpendicular to the stitching helps avoid creep. I started out pinning parallel to the seam, and things on both the front and the back got shifty very quickly.
2. Press after every strip so the previous strip doesn't buckle. The wiggly quilting afterward helped camouflage this, but it's nice to have things flat to begin with.
3. I wish I'd marked horizontal reference lines on the batting before I started, because things got a little crooked toward the bottom.

Edited to add:  I would have started this whole thing in the middle instead of at the top. It would have been much more manageable if I'd gone in either direction, and I probably wouldn't have had as many problems with shifting.

It ended up ~40" x 48". As a first try and a really quick project, I give a thumbs up.

This one goes in the Quilts for Kids pile, and I get to put a check mark in the Finish column. Awesome!

More fun than piano lessons...

Big Sis' quilt is done! I bound the two long sides and saved the short ones for her, which she completed with flying colors.

Neither girl had the patience to move onto garment sewing, so as a surprise, I made each girl pajama pants for her American Girl to match the backing and binding on their quilt. Both girls and dolls seem quite happy.

I started Little Sis on a quilt-as-you-go string doll quilt, which she took to pretty quickly. The fast results and unbridled play in my box of WOF scraps kept her attention for the entire session. She'll add her own quilting on top of it this Saturday.

Big Sister gave me the ultimate complement as she was leaving:  "This is WAY more fun than my piano lessons! And there's no recital!"

Best-laid plans...

Big Sis finished quilting her doll quilt this weekend and we squared it up. I showed her what we needed to do for binding, and brave girl that she is, she told me I could start it this week, but leave her two sides to finish herself. Little Sis, however, lost momentum completely, too excited about a play date immediately following to have the patience to make doll clothes, which is what I had planned. She chose instead to start laying out the charity quilt on the design wall.

That lasted about five minutes, and got cast aside for pretzels and a session of Little Pet Shop on her iPad, which was fine because it gave her mom and me time to caffeinate and catch up. When they left, I put off all the things I was supposed to get done around the house that afternoon, finished laying the marble triangles out and started sewing them up. I can always cut more squares next week for the girls to design with if they want; I know better than to ignore the mojo if it knocks on my door.

I figure not all these sick kids are five- and six-year olds; older ones might want a quilt that's a little more sophisticated. This one's at the other end of the spectrum from the manic Wonder Quilt I finished last week. The triangles finished at 6", so it went very quickly.

I found backs for both tops, so it's on to basting and quilting this week. And trying to figure out what I can do with Little Sis next weekend that will rival Little Pet Shop.

My Wonder Quilt...

I finished this top yesterday. It's definitely going to be a happy quilt, and hopefully will help raise the spirits of a sick child stuck in a hospital bed somewhere.

The bubbles remind me of Wonder Bread, and also do wonders to calm these busy blocks down. Without the sashing, they were downright dizzying together; now they might just elicit a minor swoon or two. Maybe that's not a good thing, given where it's headed?

It'll take a couple nights of TiVo viewing to pick all the tiny pieces of foundation paper out of those points on the back, then on to getting it quilted. I'm already cutting Marbles for the next charity quilt to make with my two little proteges. We probably won't get to these tomorrow, but I need to be ready in case they blow through another lesson plan.

Gotta keep the momentum going -- Easter isn't far away!

Charity quilt time, plus a lesson update...

We're getting snow in Chicago today. While it's hard to believe at the start that those tiny flurries are going to amount to much, the flakes are getting bigger by the minute and it's quickly starting to accumulate on the grass and car windshields. The gusty winds and general gloominess makes for a good sew day as the white stuff keeps falling.

I'm still working on my Comma Spikes, but in shopping my stash for some additional fabrics to include in that project, I found these orphan blocks I made eons ago from this book not long after I started quilting.

See? My love of precise, spiky triangles goes way back.

It's a tad busy for my taste now, but seeing as it's Lent and I have some charity quilts to make, I figured this would make a good one, seeing as it's 30% done. It needs sashing and borders to calm it down, and a few more squares to be big enough for Quilts for Kids. Fortunately, there was a Ziploc of leftover fabric under the blocks, so I don't even have to cut anything. The template for the paper piecing was still on my computer, so no excuses -- other than maybe "Archie's napping on it, I'll come back when he's moved."

In Lesson Land, we're chugging right along. Little Sis finished quilting this past weekend, so this coming Saturday we're on to American Girl pajama pants. I'm going to do the binding on her quilt unless I can find a really simple tutorial.

I'm spending a lot more time on technique and the whys of sewing with Big Sis, and it shows in her work. Her blocks didn't need a ton of trimming, and her four-patch joins are spot-on. She chose to do a little more quilting than her sister, so she's a little further behind -- something sassy Little Sis chooses to remind her of whenever the topic comes up.

Big Sis is catching on really fast, and she's eager to get this done and move on to the next project. At the same time, she's old enough to have the patience and understanding to finish. It's fun to see when somebody this young gets it -- and wants to keep going. I think there's a big-girl sewing machine in her future!