Last weekend I finished the Orange & Grey donation quilt piecing. I am so pleased that I will be able to bring it to the BAMQG meeting. I haven’t made as many donation projects this year as I did last year. There is still time to make a few more and I have some ideas, as I have mentioned recently.
I screwed up a little bit when I sewed the blocks together. I intended to the blue squares to be in the same position in block. Somehow they got moved while I was sewing and ending up all over the place. I think it adds a bit of movement to the quilt. In general, I definitely like the blue. I think it adds interest to a very basic (but effective) quilt design. The blue was chosen as a complement to the orange and I think it works very well.
Orange & Grey Donation Quilt Back
The back is very basic, Because of the size I was able to use a few half yards and be done with it. I did use the stitch letters to put my name on the back kind of subtly. I am relieved not to make a label for all of these donation quilts, but I also am kind of sad that there won’t be any kind of record of their maker (me).
I posted the quilt on FB and got a lot of good comments, including one from one of the nephews. Hhmm. I started cutting blue squares from scraps for the next donation quilt.
I did diligently work on these donation blocks until they were done a week or so ago.
They are fun to work on and I am happy I put the blue square in each block. I think it adds interest.
I am thinking that my next effort will be sans background, e.g. no grey, and just have different scraps all in the same color make up the blocks. Where the blue is in these lovelies, I will substitute a complimentary colored patch, similar to what Pam did with her Rainbow Baby quilt. I guess I keep saying this over and over so I must really want to do it.
Yes, I still want to put sashing between the blocks. I’d love to get this done by the September meeting. We’ll see. Apparently, crawling up into my fabric closet for a blue bin is a problem. I don’t even know if I have the right blue for the sashing.
You know, sometimes you just have to sew like a demon and make a lot of cat beds.
Happy Cake Cat Bed
I have to say that when I sew these cat beds, I think about the two cats we had growing up, Spooky and Sunkist. they have long since gone to that giant cat bed int he sky, but I still remember them fondly. Spooky used to crawl under my covers and sleep there, hogging the entire bed, of course. Sunkist was what we would call “A Big Guy”. He weighted about 18 lbs and liked to park himself in a convenient lap. Once he parked, the lap was not going anywhere. You would be lucky if you could move at all!
I made a lot of cat beds over the weekend. Amanda was kind enough, via Kelly, to send along the parts for about 5 cat beds. Now that I am pro-cat bed maker, I can make one, start to finish in about 20 minutes. The first one, which I mentioned, I made at Sew Day. Everyone stuffed their schnibbles in, but Amanda will still have to stuff it some more.
Grey Star Cat Bed
I heard Very Lazy Daisy’s podcast #1 where she was talking about the tiny slivers of fabric she keeps for collaged art quilts. I kept yelling at her, in the middle of the gym no less, to make cat beds and stuff them full of those tiny scraps. The kitties will love them.
The other thing I like about the cat beds is the fun fabrics. I would never buy many of these fabrics, but they are fun. How often do you get to work with smiling pieces of cake? I like thinking up funny names for them.
I also think that I should try more patriotic fabrics once in a while and this project gives me an opportunity to do so. I like the idea of helping animals, especially since they provide so much comfort to people without children or other family members nearby.
You can make cat beds, too. I previously posted the pattern and it is still valid. I will get them to Amanda if you make some and get them to me. You can also talk to your local shelter and see if they accept cat beds and what the parameters for making some are.
I might be back in the blogging saddle. I spared you my Special Whine that I intended to post on Thursday when my frustration level was over the top in terms of computers. I rethought and reworked what I had available to post and now I have my new computer and, so far, so good. It stays connected to my network (yes, first world problem), which is awesome.
I spent the afternoon and evening with BAMQG yesterday at a special event. The day was a Sew Day, then starting at 6:30 Bill Kerr of the Modern Quilt Workshop gave a class. More on that later, but I’ll tantalize you with this: I want everything that man has to sell and then I want to crawl inside his head and suck all the design theory out.
The very first project I worked on was a cat bed for Amanda. I sewed that baby up and then we all used it to stuff our schnibbles in. It wasn’t nearly full enough when Amanda took it home, but she has a lot of schnibbles with which to work, so I am not worried. Stay tuned for more Sew Day fun!
I have been working on these blocks as leaders and enders for the past month or so. I finally finished sewing enough of the two-squares-sewn-together basic unit for a large lap quilt. I pressed all the pieces and put them up on the small design wall, which had been, mostly, empty since the end of the Star Sampler.
Most of the orange fabrics are leftovers from Fresh Fruit. The grey background is an old half yard (or so) I had laying around. I am trying to use up my bin of neutrals for donation quilts since I don’t use them that much.
In using up pieces, I am trying to use greys that are too beige and other beige fabrics. I worked at making sure this piece did not look too depressing.
While doing my Qi Gong exercises yesterday, I stared at the piece and moved patches here and there and exchanged placement of certain bits as well.
Pam gave me the idea of adding a blue square when she posted her Rainbow Baby quilt with the white square. I like the illusion of looking through the block to the wall (or whatever) behind. In mine, I went for adding some punch. I love that blue and orange combination, though, I think it would have had a greater effect if I had used no background fabric. Next time I might try making monochromatic blocks and punch it up with a dash of a complimentary color.
Clearly, I am not done with this pattern yet.
Nota bene: My computer is still giving me fits so some of the next posts and photos will be via cell phone. Bear with me while I get used to the new platform.
After trimming all the t-shirts for the Young Man’s t-shirt quilt, my scrap bag was overflowing. The cat beds don’t take long to put together, so I sewed the pieces up and stuffed the bed with shards of t-shirt material and cotton scraps. My scrap bag is nice and clear now and the cat bed only needs a bit more stuffing.
I can’t make the next meeting either, so Kelly and I may meet downtown to exchange stuff for the meeting. The cat bed is heavy, however and I don’t want her to have to haul it around while at the Exploratorium with her daughter, so I may just mail it to Amanda.
Look for the pattern and information in this previous post.
Not enough doing good this year, so I am working on changing that. I have been out of town so much that I am also slacking on cat beds, though I may be able to remedy that this week.
These are the pillowcase fabrics and parts that I found lurking in the [never ending] stack of fabrics I have been ironing. As you can see that pink/plaid flamingo fabric I discussed on Twitter has a starring role.
I pulled out a black with a grey background and cut it up for another 16 patch block donation quilt. I am using orange as the alternate squares. I may punch it up by adding blue squares as well. We’ll see how much of the right blues I have. I hope to make that into a top, and make the back by the next BAMQG meeting.
As you saw in a previous post, I am back on the Cat Bed wagon. Some people had some good questions, so I thought I would gather up the information and put it in one place, to the best of my ability.
Schnibbles
Kati asked “How large are the scraps you’re stuffing? They look pretty big to me.” These are the size that I put in the cat beds. the little triangles are the ears off 2.5″ and smaller half square triangles, so you can get an idea of how big the shards are. I might be a bit crazy, but I really only throw away tiny schnibbles that really can’t be used at all. For the longest time I worried about tossing even these tiny shards away. They seemed like they could be used for something. I just didn’t know what. As I read some Victorian novels and ‘rag & bone’ men were mentioned, I kept trying to figure out what could be done with these shreds of fabric. Amanda saved me when she asked for these cat beds.
Cat Bed March 2013
One reader said “It’s easy until I come to the stuffing the tube…do you have any secrets to make it easier than having to put my arm into the tube up to my elbow to push the stuffing around? I am going to have to redo the second one because it is too stuffed/firm.” My answer was “I just dump it in and then once it is as full as I want it (about 3/4s full) I just kind of mush it around until it is ok. I think the cat will knead it to the cat’s liking, so I don’t worry too much about it except not making it too firm.” Amanda confirmed when she said “For the scrap pieces, I try to use nothing larger than an approximately 3×3? square. If it is too big a scrap, then they are hard to dry thoroughly in the dryer. You can also you the strippy castoff pieces that are thin but long – those are okay and don’t necessarily need to be cut down as long as they are thin. I think the best stuffing to use is leftover batting scraps – they dry really well, and make the bed nice and soft. But of course, cotton fabric pieces are always good too.
For the issue about the tube – just cut it shorter! When you are sewing the “side” part of the bed onto the base, if it overlaps more than 5 inches, just cut the extra off. You don’t want to have a big overlap because this does make it a pain in the booty to stuff.”
I finally crawled back on the donation bandwagon. This isn’t an organized donation project, just my own personal desire to be of service. Part of my problem was missing too many BAMQG meetings, but also I had too many other projects and keep forgetting to sew the Patchwork Wheel blocks together. I still haven’t sewn them together, but I have a goal of getting them together before the next BAMQG meeting. The illness in February didn’t help things either.
My scrapbag runneth over
I had to do something, though, because my scrap bag had reached critical mass and was overflowing. I even got a larger one to accommodate all the scraps I had accumulated since December. I still couldn’t cram any more scraps into the new, larger bag. I use the scraps, as you know, to fill the Cat Beds Amanda collects for the Homeless Cat Network. Often, because I had been sewing one to two cat beds per month, I didn’t have enough to fill an entire cat bed. I would just put in as many as I had and Amanda would fill up the rest of the cat bed to ultimate comfy-ness.
This time I had tons of scraps. I created a lot of scraps in December, January, February and part of March with all the projects I worked on. Remember? I was off over the holidays. I was almost able to fill up an entire cat bed. I’ll give it to Amanda and let her decide whether the scraps I put in are enough. She has tons of scraps and can fill up the bed to capacity, if needed.
Sewing this cat bed together was exciting, because she used some very soft and slippery fabric for the sides. It is like Minkee, I think, but I don’t know if it is actually Minkee. It was a little fuzzy, too and got everywhere. That was no problem, because now I keep a masking tape roller in my workroom and that tool cleaned me and all the other Minkee-ified surfaces right up.
Cat Bed March 2013
I sewed it almost as soon as I got home from the meeting, because the magnet holding my scrap bag to my cutting table was not designed for the weight of fabric and it kept falling off.
See how fat and comfy it looks? I am sure it will make some cat very happy.
You can see the pattern for the cat beds in a previous post.
These blocks got some quality time with my design wall – for about 10 minutes – this past weekend. I put them up thinking that I would get a chance to sew them together, but other quilts interfered.
These are going to be sewn together as shown and I think I will leave the border off so that I can make progress and get this baby to the quilter. I want someone to sleep under it or drag it around for comfort sooner rather than later. I feel like this is the longest it has ever taken me to finish a donation quilt. AND I am not even finished.
The blocks are a little crazy, but I had fun making them. I would like to try this block with some different fabrics. I’ll put it on the list. It might be a good donation block when someone is making a lovey.
Here are some more Patchwork Wheel blocks. I am a bit stuck on the last few, because I misplaced a stack of fabrics. Sigh. I hope to have found it and be back on track by the time you read this.
I am having fun with Ribbet. Sometimes I don’t want to deal with the formatting of multiple photos and Ribbet is a good alternative. I can do some quick collages, basic editing and pull from Flickr. It is free, you don’t have to register (though you get more, if you do) and it is relatively quick.
As mentioned in a recent post, there is a project to collect pillowcases for the kids at Sandy Hook Elementary in CT. Making pillowcases was on my radar, but I had to get through Christmas first, with lots of baking and cooking, family and friends. I wasn’t putting those in need behind my real life. I really wanted time to work with the pattern and make sure the pillowcases were well made and of good quality. The way Twiddletails shows the cutting doesn’t mesh with my thought processes, so I have to really think about it and focus if I don’t want to waste fabric.
I like that pattern, though, because once you get past the first stitch line, you have only two more stitching lines to complete the pillowcase. I also like it because there are no raw edges due to the French seams.
The Mexican food fabric (with beige and green backgrounds) had been languishing for quite awhile and it was time to use them. As you might remember, my intent was to make teenage boy/older boy friendly pillowcases. I know the kids at Sandy Hook are on the younger side, but perhaps there are 5th or 6th graders who are past cheerful trucks and dancing animals who will like them. I find it so easy to find fabric suitable for toddlers, but not so much suitable for teenaged boys.
Dream Fabric
You might have noticed that some of the pillowcases have a green in them that is slightly off. I found this fabric in my green bin when I was looking for something to go with the Mexican food fabric. It yelled out “I am dream fabric and perfect for pillowcases” to me when I saw it. Sadly, I used most of it for something and barely had enough for half a pillowcase much less a whole. I decided to use it for the trim. Yes, the color is a bit off, but I want these pillowcases to induce sweet dreams and be infused with good energy, so I put a little bit in. The viewer can’t see the clouds in the finished pieces, but I know they are there. I really wish I had enough for whole pillowcases.
Circus Pillowcase
I pulled out a bin I had noticed when I was rearranging and cleaning up after a fabri-lanche recently. It had multi-color fabrics in it. I didn’t remember buying most of the fabrics and they are not fabrics I would buy now, but were very cheerful and GREAT for kids.
I was especially pleased to find this circus print, and enough of it to make a pillowcase and a cuff, as it demands to be left in large pieces rather than cut up. Notice that the cuff is a companion print. At one time I also had the star companion print, but couldn’t find it. I must have used it.
I sent the pillowcases off yesterday and the postage was $12.00+ for parcel post! I forgot how heavy fabric is. That is done and today I am on to something else. Stay tuned!
You might als0 be interested in the following posts:
I am redoubling my efforts to do good with fabric. To that end, I am thinking that I would like to finish the Patchwork Wheel blocks before Christmas and, thus, I need to think about layouts.
I mulled publicly sashing this piece in the last post and was pleased to receive an email from SherriD with her Photoshop handiwork allowing me to see the effects visually.
I like the space between the blocks that the sashing provides and I have plenty of Kona Snow to make sashing. I am not quite sure if Kona Snow will match the background used in the blocks, though, and that might be an issue.
The sashing-less version is much more chaotic, but it does look like roads winding through a town.
Thanks, again, to SherriD for taking the time to create this image for me.
I saw this on Mark Lipinski‘s Facebook page. Thanks, Mark, for being in the loop and sharing this great opportunity.
Here is YOUR chance to help the families in Newtown…
Becky at Quliter’s Corner quilt shop in New Milford, CT is collecting pillowcases for the children at Sandy Hook School. She is trying to collect around 600. Please pass this message to any sewing friends. Pillowcases can be mailed to her at Quilters Corner, 312 Danbury Rd, New Milford, CT. 06776.
HOW TO MAKE EASY, FAST PILLOWCASES: http://yhoo.it/Uq5AHj
Here is one way to help the students at Sandy Hook Elementary. I have written about pillowcases in the past. The pattern I like to use is the Twiddletails pattern. I like it because of the French seams, but the pattern can be a little tricky to understand.
What fun fabrics do you have that could help to brighten a child’s day? I have some Mexican food fabric that is great for boys!
