and so, so the blackwork heart becomes part of the crazy quilt

I'll post another pic once I've embellished the exposed seams.

What I'm up to this week

Well, I've made a little progress on the Cathedral Windows piece, but the tutorial is going to have to wait awhile. I got new batteries for my camera, but it's still dead. So, in a couple of weeks (after the rent is paid), I'll finally get a digital camera. Nothing high-end, because that's just not in the budget at all. But Radio Shack has quite a few decent ones for about $100 or so.

Meanwhile, One of the quilting email groups I belong to is doing a mystery: all in the color family. I spent a couple of hours today rummaging through my stash, and wound up pulling fabric for four different colorways of this quilt. Now I'm prewashing everything before I cut. I always prewash my fabrics (one at a time, in the sink), because I want them to do any bleeding or shrinking they might do before I've used them in a quilt. Know what I mean?

And those lovely two-inch stars I did for the mini swap? Were supposed to be three inches square. Oh well, I don't have time before the deadline to redo them, so either people will be okay with sashing them up to three inches, or I'll get my own blocks back.

The paper-piecing group that did the four-inch teacup block swap has started a six-inch stocking block swap for the holidays. The deadline for that is December 1, so I have plenty of time.

I've sketched out the next part of the "Opening Your Creative Eye" series, so I'll try to get that posted tomorrow. I still need to carry out that step on my example picture, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Well, the timer just went off to tell me that it's time to swap fabrics in the sink. Later!

Cathedral Windows Update

This is what I've gotten done so far on my Cathedral Windows. My friend saw it and wants me to make it king-size, for her. That could take a while, since the colored squares are only 1.5" on a side!

I was going to take pictures today so I could show you a tutorial of how I do my Cathedral Windows, but the battery in my camera is dead. So it's going to be a few weeks until I can put that up, by the time I get a new battery, take pictures on the weekend (because by the time I get home from work there's really not enough light to take good pictures), and then get them developed to CD. Yeah, I'm still using film. The only digital camera I have is on my phone, which is so not up to such a task.

In the meantime, I'll give you the first lesson of a class that I'm developing, called "Opening Your Creative Eye". Stay tuned.

Cathedral Windows Update

I cut my black background squares last night, and started sewing today, following the tutorial that I linked to earlier. What I discovered was that, sewing by hand (I don't presently have a functioning machine) resulted in some really ugly squares.

So I decided to take a different tack - literally. I had already marked 1/4" from the edge on my squares, for a sewing line. I decided to use that as a line on which to fold and press the edges. Then I folded the square in half, first one way and then the other, finger-pressing to mark the center of the square. Next, I folded each corner toward the center, hiding the folded raw edges. I tacked all the corners down in the center, and pressed all the folds. Then I folded the corners to the center again, again pressing and tacking them down.

Now I have some much-better-looking squares. I've started whip-stitching the squares together, and I've cut the batik squares for the "windows". I'll scan some to show you when I get some more put together.

Mini Stars

As promised, here's a pic of the mini stars I made for the swap. I made four of each star, and they'll finish at 2" across.

I've Been Away Too Long

I'm sorry for being such poor correspondent. I've been busy having life.

Anyway, I've recently been able to spend more time playing with fabric, doing some paper-pieced blocks for a couple of online swaps. I'll show you some of them later this weekend.

Meanwhile, I've been inspired by this Cathedral Windows tutorial. I'm going to do a miniature one in black with bright batiks in the "windows".

What are you working on?

Today, it's all about the Fabric

A couple of weeks ago, I scanned a huge stack of my stash into my computer, so I can use it when I play with EQ6. Then, I started washing and pressing it and putting it on the shelves in my soon-to-be studio. This takes awhile, as I wash each piece separately in the sink before pressing it dry. I use the hottest water I can handle, because if it's going to run or shrink, I want that to happen before I use it in something.

Anyway, I still have a good-size stack of scanned fabrics to wash, so that's what I'm working on today.

Monkey Shines update

This is one of the Monkey Shines blocks. As you can see, I've done the Monkey Wrench in four colors instead of the usual two. It looks really cool, but I realized when I started setting some of the blocks next to each other that it kind of messes with the secondary pattern. Now I'm doing more of them in just two colors. I'm still using all four colors, but only two per block.

Monkey Shines

I haven't finished my sweater yet (I still have about 12" to go on the cowl neck), but I'm starting a new quilting project. I mentioned last week that I've been playing around with EQ6 again, pulling up some traditional hand piecing patterns to use instead of paper piecing as I usually do. Right now I'm working on a bunch of 6" Monkey Wrench blocks, which I'm calling Monkey Shines because I'm doing it in four colors instead of two. I'll scan a block later this weekend (when I finish some) so you can see them.

Red Shoe Ramblings: How To Make A Fabric Postcard DebR Style

Red Shoe Ramblings: How To Make A Fabric Postcard DebR Style

I know this is kind of an old post from Deb's blog, but 'tis the season for making and sending cards!

She's got lots of other cool stuff, too! Check it out!

Wild Garden

One of the many projects I have going right now is a Grandmother's Garden variation I call "Wild Garden". To the left is a segment in progress. The hexagons are 1" on a side. When the section has 6 hexagons on each side, I'll quilt it. When I have enough sections quilted, then I'll put them together into a wheelchair blanket for my honey. One of the other things I have in mind for these is a robe that I refer to as my "coat of many colors".

I love English Paper Piecing because it's 98% portable. There are really only two stages that aren't. The first is printing out the hexagon templates on full-sheet label paper (no pins required!); the other is cutting and sandwiching the batting and backing for each section. All the rest of it can be done anywhere; from cutting out the templates and sticking them to the fabric, all the way to connecting the quilted sections. I carry it along to do on the commute train (one of the joys of public transit), I do it while watching TV with Honey, I even do it at my desk while waiting for pages to load on my computer.

Another thing I like about working on small projects (or big projects in small sections) is that it lets me see progress very quickly, which is the sort of positive feedback I need. Not only that, but it lets me use up little pieces of fabric that might otherwise go to waste. One of the women I know at work is also a quilter, but she considers anything smaller than about 1/8 yard to be a "scrap"; for the kinds of things I make, that can be quite a bit of fabric! I can use anything bigger than 1/2" square, especially in foundation-pieced minis.

What are you working on?