Kaleidoscope Quilt

Or Stack n Whack, One Block Wonder. I've seen a few names for this sort of quilt. You start with a loud patterned fabric  with repeats every 23 inches or so.

You make cuts of the fabric, stack up the sections, and cut out 8  identical triangles.



Then you sew  the triangles together and watch all the different patterns pop out like magic:



I tried making some 4 triangle squares, just to see what it would look like:







and here's all the blocks I made from that one piece of fabric:

Yo-Yo maker

being the complete sucker for gadgets that I am, I could not resist picking up a few of these little darlings...Yo yo makers..Not just round ones, like my great grandmothers made, but cute little heart and flower ones, and in two sizes:



Is that adorable or what? I rooted out a pile of tiny scraps from my fabric stash and took it all with me on a car trip.



I started putting them together And I think it might be a cute little wallhanging
or maybe a little dolly quilt:


My favorite piece of fabric:

Attic Window I Spy Quilt

Ah Spring! Lots of Babies coming - to friends, not to me :) and incoming babies mean lots of quilts to make! Here's 2 I have in progress..

I started with some bright colorful fat quarters of novelty fabric, cut them into squares:


then added the sashing:


I used a slick new trick for making half square triangles.. I'll show that in a separate post. The half square triangle is what make the optical illusion work on the Attic window quilt. here's Quilt 1 all pieced together:



And Quilt 2 almost all pieced together..



Now to add borders, Backing and quilt them!

Fleece coat ...for my dog

This wasn't too hard at all.  Of course, I had to add some dreads to it, so he wouldn't feel left out. The weird thing is I think Schnicklefritz really likes his coat. I put it on him a few times to adjust the fit, and when I had it finished, he happily stuck his nose in it and pranced around.

 

  

It is a rare sight to see snow here in Arkansas ...

Rasta Fleece Hat

 

 

And one more hat.. A rasta dread hat.  My husband wanted it.. i'm not sure why, but he's cute, so I made him one.

 

I have  some fleece scraps left over, and I hate to throw them out, but it isn't enough to do much with. so I think the dog is getting a fleece coat. Maybe the cats will too. 

cozy Fleece hats

Thanks to the cold weather, I have had time to work on several projects - and actually get them done!
Mollie's Kitty hat:


And Jake's...Dreadlock hat. He wanted it to look like this, I promise.

Knitted socks

I finished the socks I made for my Aunt, and mailed them off yesterday. They were supposed to be for Christmas and as much as I procrastinate, since I am only a few weeks late, I am doing pretty good!

I use the two socks on two circs method. I can't handle double pointed needles, If I did one at a time I would never do the second one. And I don't have to count for the second sock, I can just do the same thing on each row, and end up with socks the same size.




I used a worsted weight wool, and size 6 needles, so they are pretty thick and cozy.

And here they are all finished!! I get a kick out of seeing them grow.

Raggy Quilt - Sarah

My Friend Sarah's version of the raggy quilt:

She made a sweet baby quilt with Minky, chenille and a flannel - Lots of texture and really cute!


And she made this one too:


She got really fancy with the quilting on the squares, it really looks beautiful. I love the fabrics she choose.

Quilt repair 4

This part was badly damaged, the fabric was coming apart, the bating was missing, and there was a huge rip on the back:

BAck:


I sewed up the back first, removed the entire square of damaged fabric, and replaced the batting using batting from th edge That I had cut off.




I used feedsack fabric to make a new square and hand sewed it in:

Quilt repair 3

Now this one was tricky..


I only had to remove 1 inch from this side as well.
I had to cut out a bit of the damaged part, and replace some batting





Here again I used a patch of feedsack fabric salvaged from another quilt, Sewed the patch by hand, and then refolded the binding and re-sewed it.

Quilt repair 2

Another area of the quilt:


Still working on the edges, I cut off just a inch off this edge to allow for rebinding

Fix:


more of the rebound edges

Quilt repair 1

Repairing an old quilt is a painstaking progress..
A friend of mine asked me to do a few fix ups on her grandmother's quilt.

Here's one part of the damage:



And the fix:

The fabric had just disintegrated here, so I had to patch over it. Since the batting here was gone, I used a little batting from a part of the edge I cut off and padded it before adding the patch. I used a piece of feedsack material salvaged from another old quilt to handsew a patch.

Next problem:


Fix:


I removed the fabric at the tear on that edge, about 3 inches, to allow enough room to cut off the damged portion of binding and rebind the edge. The back of the quilt was a lovely blue polka dot fabric and the quilter had folded over the edge of the backing to bind it..I wanted to keep it true tp the original , so I did it the same way.

The Roc-Lon people

A few days ago, I entered a blog contest on Kelly's blog, I have a Notion.
http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/2009/09/roc-lon-challenge-photos-and-winner.html

The Roc-Lon company ( Rockland Industries) sponsored the contest and even had a very nice prize package for the winner! I was familiar with Roc-Lon from using their Total Light Control Blackout drapery lining for curtains - and was very pleased with how much the curtains insulated the windows.

The contest was fun, each person was sent a 8 1/2" by 11" piece of Roc-Lon Multipurpose cloth to use in a project.
here was my little project - I made a small puppet theater for the kids to play with:


I didn't win, but I did have fun making a tiny little puppet theater that my kids have really enjoyed playing with, and I loved seeing what everyone else came up with.

This morning I got a very nice e-mail from an Administrative assistant at Rockland Industries thanking me for entering the contest. What a lovely personal touch!

Paper doll Quilt

I love this fabric! Snippets By American Jane for Moda. It's so sweet, paper dolls, and little dolly clothes! It was the perfect choice for a friend's baby quilt:



Back of Quilt:

Watermelon hat and dress

After I finished the hat, I decided to make a little watermelon to applique onto a dress so she'd have a matching set:



I even thought ahead - I can take the applique off and put in on another dress for next year, and make the hat a little bigger too, if need be.

It's all pieced!

Okay so I didn't get it all sewn together that day. I ran into a few problems- I had to re-piece two blocks that I somehow put together backwards. That and I had laundry screaming at me too. But It's done.


All I have to do now is send it off to my Quilter, Becky. Thank God for Becky! After becky works her magic on it, this quilt will go live with my mom, and have a special spot in the "grandkid's room" at her house.

Finishing this quilt meant a lot more to me than I thought. After I had the last seam sewn, I laid it out out on the floor to take a picture of it - and I cried.

Why so sappy over a quilt top? I don't usually cry over finishing one, I'm usually happy to have it done and out of my hair. But this one was more than just a sewing project. It was a huge mess that I had the chance to fix!

Here is what I started with I messed this up really bad, and it is one of those rare moments in life when you get a chance for a do over.


Most importantly, this quilt is proof that I finished a project! One thing I do not like about myself is that I had a habit of starting a lot of stuff but didn't always see it through. Heck, the main reason I started this blog was to motivate myself to finish up my UFO's! And look, it's working!

All the blocks are Done!

I am on the home stretch! I have all the blocks pieced, and Now I just need to arrange them and sew the blocks together. The quilt will be 9 blocks by 7 blocks, but my design wall isn't quite big enough for 7 rows until they are sewn together. So now I just have to fiddle around with how I want the colors to line up, and with a little help from my son, I should have this together today!

Blue and White tea set

I finally got 'er done. This one is up for sale in My Etsy Shop



These are so fun to make. Hopefully I will bring in a little extra cash for Christmas!

Fabric finds

I always love adding to my fabric stash.. here's a few of my latest finds..A little more of the Snippets by American Jane. I like everything in that line. Oh how I adore the paper dolls and sweet toys! And the batiks, just like candy, so hard to resist. I don't think I'll ever buy a solid color fabric again.




I especially loved the chicken fabric. I think I may make a zippy little retro apron out of them , and a dress for Mollie with the ladybugs.