another set of literal quilt blocks

This time the set is for my friendy friend, Robyn, and the third color is coral instead of blue green. 

I packaged up this block set to her along with a paper HST birthday card and a guide sheet showing many of the possible combinations for the blocks. 

(If you are wondering about that excellent acorn/squirrel ribbon, it's designed by the ever willowy and affable  Jessica Jones  for  Renaissance Ribbons.)

The blocks are very relaxing to make, if you enjoy repetitive preciseness. You can totally zone out while painting and binge watching Gilmore Girls. (Unfortunately I've found I can't watch a Korean drama while painting – too hard to keep looking up at the subtitles.)

Beware: These just-for-fun quilty display pieces are real time suckers. It's addictive. 

And, as I mentioned before, if you are careful to paint each block the same way you will get two designs each time, one on the front and a different one on the back side. I like flipping the set over to see what I got. It's a surprise!

If you'd like to try making your own Literal Quilt Blocks I've included construction tips with the earlier post. 

quilt blocks. like actual blocks.

Literal Quilt Blocks for my big sister Leigh for her birthday! I have had the idea for this gift (and also the supplies) for at least two years. Sorry, Leigh. Sometimes it takes a while for me to get to things. Your birthday rolled around again and it finally lit the fire under me. (But still too late for your actual day. Doh!)

I sent this block set to her along with the HST card I made and a handy chart with block layout suggestions:

The 4x4 set of painted blocks is just meant to be a fun, quilty coffee table display or to stand upright on a bookshelf. Leigh's a very talented quilter so I thought she'd have fun switching the designs of the blocks around to suit her mood.

I spent a very looooong time playing with this set. It's fun! See:

You get the idea! So many possible combos. You can make each design in only one color, two colors, or use all three. And if you are methodical when you paint the blocks and do each one the exact same way, each time you build a design on the front there's a different symmetrical design on the flip side.

I bought the precut 1.5 inch wood blocks on Etsy. Six sides to each block = three solid colors and three HSTs in the same colors. Any sides with unusually dark or flawed woodgrains got covered with a solid. I was pretty happy with the nice quality of the unfinished blocks. (Tip: Make sure your blocks are all nice and square before you paint.)

I debated greatly on the best way to get the color on the blocks. I thought about cut paper and Mod Podge first, but scrapped that idea (haha, quilt pun) and decided to paint them by hand with acrylic artist paint. Important: Use a good quality flat brush and a careful stroke to paint on the color if you don't want to drive yourself crazy getting paint over the edges. Mine aren't perfect but I decided that lends them handmade charm.

I used a spray clear sealant to finish the blocks. As a project bonus, the fumes gave me visions of heffalumps and woozles. Strong stuff. Definitely use it outside and don't bring the blocks in until they are dry.

And yes, the overspray got on my glass table^. Didn't realize that until I took away the cardboard and noticed it had a nice frosted glass effect around the edges. Soap, water and steel wool took care of the problem. Rookie mistake.

These blocks were a fun project! I'm planning to make at least one more set.

look, I made a quilt!

My throw quilt. After listening to me whine and gripe and obsess about it for months, here it is! A little anticlimactic for you probably, but a triumph over adversity for me. Oh, my ever lovin' fancy word. I bow so lowly to you, quilters everywhere.

If you remember, I changed my mind at least twice about the design of the quilt top. I settled on this very simple half-square triangle composition. The fabrics for the quilt top are from a bundle of beautiful AMH fabrics I purchased many moons ago.

OK, so the back. I decided on a wonky double cross, which I adore. I'm not sure the turquoise is working but it's on there and I'll learn to love it. I had a limited choice of solid cottons locally and it was either this or a burnt orange. You wouldn't believe (or perhaps you would) how long I spent just staring at them both against the other fabrics and weighing the decision. This one. No, that one. Nooooo...This one. Think I might've loved the orange better. Gah. (closing eyes, raising arms and letting it go. whoosh)

I do really like the binding fabric. It was a cotton I found in the aisle at Jo-Ann. Hand sewing that binding on the back kinda took forever. Lots of TV time.

In hindsight this process makes this gift, already so well-loved and appreciated by all of us, look even more sacrificial. Thanks again, Robyn. And now your quilt has a buddy hanging right next to it on the quilt rack. We use them every day.  

this foot was made for walkin'

 

Haha, get it? Walking foot. The first few lines of machine quilting have been sewn on my throw quilt. I spent a long, knee popping time over the weekend crawling around on the floor and baste stitching my pinned quilt sandwich together. Can't say I enjoyed that part. I also can't say I'm exactly enjoying the machine quilting part just yet.

I've wonkified my straight lines so far and am now regretting my choice of off-white thread. It's just so very visible on my dark, solid backing. At first I thought the contrast would be great but now it is merely spotlighting my ineptitude. LOL. This throw will have a lot of handmade charm.

And oh yeah, I changed my mind again about the block design since I last posted. I do super love how the new quilt top arrangement came out, and also love my wonky hugemongous double cross on the back...but I am going to force myself to wait and show you the finished quilt soon. That will help motivate me.

what I'm up to

Through some misguided vote of confidence I've been put in charge of planning my extended family's Christmas gathering this year. So naturally I've decided to make it as heinously complex as possible with a progressive dinner! And caroling! And a trivia contest! And Secret Santa gifts! And no football watching, gadget staring or napping whatsoever! We will have old fashioned fun if it kills us.

Also I'm attempting to finish this simple-turned-soul-sucking throw quilt I planned to whip out, oh, nine months ago. I'm so tired of seeing the stack of fabric that I intentionally put right in my way on a crucial corner of the work table. Every day an inner dialog like this:

Oh. There's that stack of quilt fabric. Again.
(stab of guilt)
I should really finish that because it would be nice to be able to use this end of the table.
And I totally will.
Later.
(Places coffee cup on top of stack)

So even though there are many things I'd love to be making right now, like Liberty tops and French Hen ornaments, I'm forcing myself to work on this stinkety quilt project. Which I'm having to do the hard way now because in my novice quilting fervor I started right away to whack it all apart and sew it together nine months ago to create a random, rectangular pieced throw. No design needed! Sewn randomly together! It'll be quick! I'm gonna love it!

After staring at it for months and not loving it, I've decided I can't possibly continue with that idea, I simply must make one that looks more like this:

I'm learning through this process that perhaps I'm not cut out to be a habitual quilter. Because cutting squares is BORING. Especially when you have to cut each one individually from your fabric because you are a doofus and have already cut it once and now have to turn it just so in order to squeak two squares out of each piece. GAH. At least with the white fabric I've been able to cut several squares at a time.

Another reason I'm not cut out to be a quilter is I freak out over small inaccuracies of cutting and sewing. How do you people make everything come out so neatly matched? I sweat over everything because I know my mistakes are going to snowball as I go along. Which requires tedious pauses to square up each square. It drives me insane.

Wish me luck. I'm plodding on with it, casting longing glances at my felt and shirt patterns.

yes, another doll quilt and pillow

More stash busting, this time for a girlie girl we love named Jocelyn, who just turned seven. I'm told her American Girl doll needs a cozy place to sleep so this set will be put to good use right away. The charm pack du jour is Hoopla by Moda. I have really loved putting these quilts together. They make a special and useful handmade gift but are not a huge investment in time or materials. You probably have what you need on hand to make a set at any given time given a couple of evenings notice.

The blue on white swiss dot fabric just keeps on giving. What a great thrift store find that's been. I used it here for the backing and also for the pillow. And I still have a few more yards.

I think that's all the doll quilts for now. I have another top pieced together from the Magical Endless Box of Charm Squares, but no end user in mind for it yet. And I have acquired much quilting knowledge. I have now installed and used my walking foot (thanks to this helpful tutorial) and am comfortable with square corner binding. Baby steps.

doll quilt and pillow for Darcy

I started this doll quilt for my 2 year old great niece the same night I started these. (I have a LOT of unused charm squares so this will not be the last doll quilt you see.) This is a pastel set of Amy Butler squares I bought an age ago. I decided to add another row to make it a square quilt this time. Aaaand this time I broke down and did actual machine quilting and binding. So I guess you could say this is my very first completed actual For Reals bonafide quilt. Yay!

 

It's really squared up quite nicely despite the wonky look of the photo. After this I figured out there is a presser foot designed for perfect 1/4 inch seams (I'm a novice quilter OK? haha). I ordered that baby right away on Ebay and it's en route. That should make piecing more accurate. 

All fabrics were pulled unearthed from my stash. That's a coordinating Amy Butler print for the backing and pillow. (My mom is here visiting and she's trying to organize my fabric shelves, bless her.)

Thought I'd give it a test run with an actual doll! I hope Darcy will enjoy it. Happy birthday, sweet girl.

doll quilts and bookmarks

These lovey bookmarks and mini quilts were last minute brainstorms for my girls' handmade Valentine treat. It's a good thing too because my raspberry Jell-o cookies were kind of a fail. I thought chocolate chips would be good to add. Raspberry and chocolate. Great combo, right?

Mmmm not so much. My bad. And the recipe I followed for the jell-o cookie part seems to have too much salt and too little sugar? Or maybe I just messed up along the way somewhere. That seems more likely. I tried to rectify the situation by making a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over them. They are OK. Edible. A pretty color. Just. Not yummy.

So, the bookmarks. I took my own advice and used my Love You bookmarks tutorial to make these, this time with gray paper. Easy, quick and makes a nice, sturdy (and pretty) bookmark. I wrote a sweet Valentiney message on the backs, since these also functioned as the gift tags.

My girls are still very attached to their stuffed animals and dolls. I noticed they were using all my wash cloths and hand towels as doll blankets, so I clued in that they might enjoy a couple of doll quilts. Shoulda done this years ago.

I started the quilts Thursday night because yes I'm a crazy person. They were technically finished on Valentines Day, but kinda late in the day (that seems to be turning into a bad Valentine tradition).

Goodness knows I have enough charm squares to spare, so I spent some time digging in the box and came up with these two combos and also two more that I'm going to sew together as gifts. I guess you'll be seeing those in due time. These are sewn almost exactly like the binky is sewn in my Baby Binky Bunny pattern, except this time I added some 1/8" batting inside. Don't look too closely. I can't seem to piece even the simplest things accurately. How do people do a queen sized quilt with tiny pieces and it still comes out matched up? I bow to you.

I still managed to avoid 1) Quilting 2) Binding. Win Win. Instead of binding I sewed/turned. And instead of quilting I used old-fashioned ties to hold the layers together.  The backs are two different colors of Kaufman Essex.

And now my hand towels and wash cloths can serve their true purpose. Stinky and Mushmellow will never miss them.