X and + blocks

I’ve been in a bit of a sewing slump again lately.  My energy levels have been very low because my iron levels have apparently decided that the basement is where they like to be.  Being exhausted because you just emptied half of a dishwasher is not fun.  I typically sew a lot in the evening, but that hasn’t been happening lately. This, unfortunately, means that I haven’t been sewing very much at all.  I’m slowly getting the iron levels back up, and once this nasty little spring cold leaves me alone, I want to sew again.  I think it’s been almost two weeks since I used my sewing machine.  That makes me sad.

The last things that I made were some X and + blocks for a sewing bee that I’m in.  One person requested blacks and whites with bright colours mixed in, and the other wanted a bright block with solids, spots, geometrics, or stripes.  Bright is right up my alley!  This is what I made them.  We are using the tutorial from Badskirt for this bee.

Hmm, the carpet is the same in both of those pictures.  It’s amazing what light can do, isn’t it?  My turn on this bee is not till next January, but I’ve already decided what I want. Bright blocks (of course!) with an aqua cross in the centre.

I love those little cherries on the corner.  So cute.  I also love that the warm weather is finally here and I can eat some cherries for real soon.  I love the fresh fruit that summer brings.

Surrendering to a nap

Thing 3 will be three years old at the end of this month.  She has grown into a wonderful little girl.  She is outgoing and friendly, she loves to talk, to read, and to sing.  She is lively and energetic, and gives fantastic hugs.  She has also not napped regularly since she was 18 months old.  So this afternoon nap of hers is a rarity.  A precious rarity.  I’m glad I caught it with my camera.  My sweet baby.

Childhood memories

Last summer, my brother-in-law married my wonderful sister-in-law.  It was such a beautiful wedding.  The weather was fabulous, the setting was so perfect, the ceremony was so sweet, and the party after was the perfect ending to a great day.  At some point, before or after the wedding, I’m not sure, she gave me some of her and her sister’s old pajamas for Thing 1.  She said they had long since outgrown them, and her mother had kept them for years, not being able to donate them because of the memories associated with them.  Her mother had made these pjs for her and her sister, so in the end, they decided to give them to me for Thing 1, so that they would still be used and loved.

My sister-in-law is one of the friendliest people I know.  She’s also gorgeous, and looks like Jennifer Lawrence.  Because we do not live near each other, I do not know her as well as I would like to.  We have busy lives, and the distance does not make it easy to get together for a quick cup of coffee or a short jaunt to the mall.  When I realized that Thing 1 was actually already too big for the clothes, I started thinking that it would be a great idea to make a little quilt out of them, and give them back to my sister-in-law’s mother as a way to store her memories.  I have found that quilts are the best way to store memories.  My own brain is too faulty for that sort of thing.

I asked my sister-in-law if she thought that was a good idea, and she said to go for it.  So I started planning, and then I did some cutting.  I had to do some stabilizing too, because I was working with knits.

This is what I ended up with. There were some fabrics that I didn’t use yet, but I plan to stick them on the back. I forgot to take some pictures of the pjs before I started (there’s that faulty memory of mine again), and I had to change the design at times because the clothes were not as big as I had planned for them to be, but all in all, I like how it ended up.

Now I don’t know if my sister-in-law reads this blog, and I’m fairly certain that her mom doesn’t, and if she does, I guess this quilt is not a surprise anymore. I hope to have it finished when we all go back to visit at the end of the school year, the very end of June.  I work best under deadlines, so that will hopefully not be a problem.  After all, it just needs basting, quilting, binding, and possibly a sleeve.  I could do it in a day or two, but will probably put it off way longer than is comfortable.  Sometimes I think procrastination should be my middle name.  :)

Baby quilt time!

We’ve been having very indecisive weather this spring.  It can be a beautiful, warm, sunny day one day, and then next day it will be below freezing and we will be dealing with a snowstorm.  The kids have been getting very antsy to play outside a lot more often, so whenever it gets to about 3 or 4 degrees C, they are out there like a dirty shirt, riding their bikes and kicking soccer balls around.  They ride right through the snowdrifts that were leftover from the day before.

I have been using some of their time occupied outside to sew a little.  A friend of mine just had her second baby, so I made her a quilt.  I don’t make little baby quilts very much, but I’m always surprised at how fast they come together.  I made this entire quilt, from pulling fabrics to finishing the last hand-stitch on the binding, in a day and a half.  That’s like the speed of light for me!  I used the Kentucky Chain pattern that I have as a tutorial on this blog.  I also have a very scrappy version of this quilt in progress; those blocks are about half way done.

I took all of these pictures around my house on the same day. Welcome to spring in Alberta, with bright green grass in the front yard, but 2 foot snowdrifts in the back yard!

The grass is actually greener than it looks it this shot. This was in the shade.

And of course, the beautiful ‘quilt in the ash tree’ picture. I love this tree. It was a big factor in my love for my house when we first bought it a few years ago. It really needs a pruning though. You can see the bright green grass better in this shot as well. And a little snow, of course.

Simply Solids Bee Tutorial – Alberta Triangles

Next month it is my turn to be queen bee in the Simply Solids bee that I’m a member of.  It took me awhile to choose the block that I wanted everyone to make.  I saw this block somewhere, but for the life of me I cannot remember where that was.  I searched in my books and online for the name of it, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.  If someone knows what this block is called, can you let me know?  For now it will known as Alberta Triangles, since that’s where I’m from and what it’s made of.  Original, right?

This is what we’ll be making.  Let’s get started!

To start with, you will cut:
A: 4 – 2″x5″ rectangles – background
B: 4 – 2″x3.5″ rectangles – background
C: 12 – 2 3/8″ squares – flying geese wings/background
D: 1 – 4 1/4″ square – flying geese base #1
E: 1 – 4 1/4″ square – flying geese base #2
F: 1 – 4 1/4″ square – flying geese base #3
H: 2 – 4″ square – HST
J: 2 – 4″ square – HST
I: 1 – 3 1/2″ square – centre

There is no G. I do not know my alphabet.

Draw a line through the 12 C squares and both H and J squares. I typically use a hera marker for this (see the left side of the photo) but you could use any marking tool you prefer. I marked some with a pencil so that you could see the line better.

For the H and J squares, layer one red square with one black square, and sew 1/4″ away from the marked line, on both sides. Cut apart on the marked line, and press, either open or to one side, whatever your preference is. Square up to 3 1/2″ There is a detailed tutorial of this method here, if you need more details.

To make the flying geese, take the background squares (C) and layer one square on the opposing corners of each of the three 4 1/4″ squares (D, E, F, flying geese bases).

Sew 1/4″ away from the marked line on both sides (# 1). Cut apart on the marked line (# 2), then press, either open or to the side, depending on your preference (# 3).

Take another background square (C) and place it on the open corner with the marked diagonal pointing toward the intersection between the previously sewn on squares (# 1). Sew 1/4″ away from the marked line, on both sides. Cut apart on the lines, then press (# 2). You will end up 12 flying geese total: each original base square will give you 4 finished geese. Trim the geese to 2″ x 3.5″, if necessary.

Lay out your block. Sew the sections together. I forgot to take pictures of it in progress. Sorry! I’m sure you can figure it out though.

Here is your finished block! It should measure 12.5″ unfinished.

I made a second block in a completely different colour scheme to show you how versatile this pattern can be.

The block will look totally different depending on what colours you decide to use and where you want to put them. In the second block the middle, chartreuse geese blend in with the background a lot more, and the outer red triangle form a kind of chain around the perimeter of the block.

I made a sketch in EQ to show this to a greater extent. All of these blocks are the same, but the different colour and value placements makes them look very different.  In some, the nine-patch stands out, in others, it’s the flying geese.  I love blocks that do this!

If you have any questions about the tutorial, please ask and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.  If you make one of these blocks, I’d love to see it!  And since this will be an in progress quilt, I’m linking up to The Needle and Thread Network.

Growing up

As I suspected would happen, I did not sew a lot while the kids had their spring break from school.  For the first half of the week the weather was fabulous, so we went to the park every day and played in the sunshine.  When it got cooler again we had to stay inside a bit more, but since it didn’t rain (or snow) they got more outside time than I expected.  We went to visit family in Calgary too.  So we had a good holiday, but I think I only sewed for about an hour for one day of it.

We went to Ikea while in Calgary and I picked up some play food for the kids while we were there.  They love to play with their toy kitchen, but they had no food.  So when we played restaurant, I would be served pancakes made of lego and cakes made of wooden blocks.  They never complained about it, but I felt bad that they had no play food.  I didn’t want to get them plastic food so when I saw the felt stuff at Ikea, I picked it up right away.

It came with a lot of different stuff, but they wanted to add some pasta to it so they could make macaroni and cheese.  I couldn’t think of a way to make cloth macaroni easily, so I compromised and suggested bow-tie pasta instead.  Thing 1 helped me make it.  I cut rectangles of of a light coloured felt, and then folded it accordion style and sewed a small seam in the middle.  She basically did it herself because it was so easy to do.

I don’t have a pair of pinking shears or a pinking blade for my rotary cutter, so she snipped the edges into a zig-zag shape by hand.

After the pasta was done, I decided to make them a bag to store the food in so that it wouldn’t get lost.  I used the Lined Drawstring Bag pattern by Jeni of In Color Order.  I made the larger bag so that everything would fit.  The kids asked me to use food fabrics, so I used The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle for the main portion of the bag.  I lined it and made the drawstring with oranges and used cherries for the top panel.

Then Thing 1 decided that she wanted to bake a cake all by herself. I let her do everything except put it in the oven since I didn’t want her to burn herself. She chose Old Lady Cake, a recipe of my mom’s that I grew up eating (and loving) but left the raisins out because she does not like raisins. She measured carefully and took her time, but her loaf turned out beautifully. It tasted great too.

I remember when I was a girl that I dreamed that someday I would have a daughter and I would teach her to sew and cook, but now that it’s happening it’s almost like I’m not ready for it. I can’t believe that my oldest is 8 years old already and can do so many things on her own. It makes me want to hold on tight to her and make time slow down, because I know that she will be fully grown before I am ready to let her go. Nostalgia can sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Community Quilt 2013

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had gone to a sew day in order to get started on my community/donation quilt for this year.  I had gotten the blocks finished that day, but had done nothing more with them until two days ago, when I put them together and finished the top.

These are not typically colours that I work with a lot. I used more brown a few years ago, but it’s grown out of favour with me these days. And I like green, but I don’t seem to use it very much. So I wanted to make something that used those colours. I actually used all of my brown strips up for this quilt. I have no more scrappy brown strips left in the box! It reminds me of a forest. Thing 1 says it looks like a maze. The pattern didn’t call for a border, but I think I will add one to complete the chains that fall around the edges.

I tried for a random layout of colours, but somehow I ended up with two places where the same brown ended up in four touching corners. By the time I noticed I had sewn everything together, and it was too late in the evening for me to care enough to fix it. So they will stay.

My other cat decided to photobomb the picture this time. It was funny, everytime I would raise the camera to take a picture, he’d turn his head to the side. And when I would lower it again, he’d look at me. I raised and lowered that camera at least ten times, and he did the same thing every time, without fail. That must be his good side or something.

It’s Wednesday, so I’m linking up to the Needle and Thread Network.