Thingies

I've made a new batch of thingies for Christmas baby presents. (A video of the folding blocks in action -- not my video.) My method for making them has definitely improved with practice.

I am still quilting, somewhat irregularly. The long hiatus has been due to several things, mostly a shift in focus. For all of September, October, and November I was busy with a large writing project that absorbed all my time. I'm taking December off from major writing before I edit that project so expect a few more quilting projects to go up this month.

Rainbow Strings is finished!

I'm so excited to finally have another finish, all krinkly and soft from the dryer! I finished this yesterday but had to wait till today for pictures. This quilt started out with foundation pieced string squares from my scrap boxes and grew from there.

I was trying to mimic half square triangles with the colors. It finished at about 54" square. I quilted it with V-shaped lines to match the string chevron design. On the border I outlined the colored squared and did cross hatches through to white ones. The backing is a striped sheet. I'm super pleased with the way this one turned out.


For the record, this is what happens when I try to take pictures. Hope you had a good weekend!

Introducing... the Thingy

I made a couple of these in January, and I had started to post this once before but didn't because I couldn't figure out a way to accurately represent what it is. This time, though, I've found a video of one in action!

What it is is a toy. A highly addictive folding, rotating block toy. There are apparently patterns available at some stores to make these. I developed a pattern from a photo of a completed one someone posted on their blog and my memories of playing with wooden and plastic ones. If you follow the links through from that video you'll come to a tutorial for making one of these completely by hand. My method is almost completely machine stitched, allowing for stronger and nicer looking seams. If I can ever figure out how to render the pattern into something two dimensional that someone else could actually understand I'll post it here.

I've made a couple of these and have the pieces for a third cut out. As you can see, I'm still in the prototyping phase. I need to get a different foam to fill the blocks so they will lay better. Even so, it's downright fun! This is actually one of the quilt-y things I am most proud of.

Laptop Sleeve

Today was a remarkably unproductive day as far as making the necessary revisions to my thesis. I procrastinated by watching the latest episode of Mythbusters and making a protective sleeve for my laptop. The fabric is from the Legacy Studio Fresh Fusion line and I love love love it. I already made myself a pillow case out of the same fabric and went back to buy more, plus coordinates. The laptop case is a tight squeeze, but it fits. I'm using over-all snaps to make a removable shoulder strap (not attached in the picture.) All in all, it was a successful, academically-unproductive day.

The Authentic Scrap Quilt

Today I'm featuring another old quilt. This was technically my first finish of 2010. I finished quilting it at my parents' house just after Christmas, taking advantage of their big dining room table to quilt it. It's made from the scraps left from the Authentic throw. That quilt was made by sewing jelly roll strips together in sets of four and cutting squares on point out of them. That generated a ton of triangles made up of little slices of jelly roll. I put those triangles back together into squares. The smaller squares I bordered with muslin and the whole jelly roll strips I had left.



The LOVE the muslin I used in these two quilts. I'm out of it at the moment, unfortunately. It is natural, offwhite color with some imperfections and it paired so perfectly with the Authentic line. I also really love the black and cream fabric in the inner border and the binding. I think it's the simplicity of the color scheme with the ornate pattern that makes me like it so much. I have just a little of it left. The outter border is a leafy dark green batik that's another favorite. I quilted it with diagonal lines at varying distances apart. The batting is Warm & Natural and it's really quite heavy, especially for this part of the country.

This is the quilt the is on my bed, it's about large twin-size but works well on my full-size bed. It feels the most "me" of the quilts I've made. It's simple and the colors are subdued and the design grew easily from the scraps I couldn't bear to waste.

Meanwhile, there is a rainbow string quilt coming together on the design wall while the squares quilt waits for motivation to return.

Table Runner

This quilted table runner, the one featured in my header, was a belated Christmas gift for my mother. I finished it in January. The colored border strips came from a Hill Country Spring jelly roll I won in the fall from Chris at Shared Creativity. The centers are from a Natures Notebook charm pack I picked up at the LQS near my home (which has a great online store, by the way.) The pattern is one I saw online somewhere a while ago. I have it saved on my computer as "French Kiss Diamonds". I quilted it with overlapping zig zags, following the borders and outlining the charm square centers. Poor planning left it not as long as I'd been aiming for, but I still love it (and Mom does, too!)

Finish! The Whirligig Quilt

The Whirligig quilt is done! Since I'm visiting my parents this weekend I took to opportunity to get some photos of it with their pretty staircase and good windows. Wilson is notably absent. Traveling in the car is very stressful for him, so he stays home on short trips like these.

I drew out this pattern and developed all the cut requirements and measurements for myself. I added the miniature whirligigs to use up some of the fabrics I got in my Moda Sampler Pack for Christmas. They are from the 'Frolic' line by Sandy Gervais. The rest of the fabrics, except for the border, came from stash. I tried hard to keep it gender neutral, but I was definitely thinking of a little girl when I made it and the Frolic fabric has some little flowers on it. Still, I think it could work for a little boy, too. The backing is flannel, corduroy, and linen. I made a scrappy binding from the leftover backing. I love the way the corduroy binding feels. That is definitely one of my favorite fabrics.


This is the densest quilting I have ever done and also the first curved line quilting. It really made it crinkle up beautifully. The body has overlapping circles that are almost as big as the blocks (about 9 inches) and the border has a celtic inspired design I worked out and traced onto the fabric using cardboard cut from a cereal box as a template.

This is a toddler bed sized quilt, approximately 50" x 60". I don't know any toddlers (who I want to give it to, anyway) or any expectant mothers. The idea for it just got under my skin and I had to try it to see the design on paper become a quilt. This is definitely my favorite quilt I have made so far and the first that I feel good enough about the quality to be willing to sell it to someone. I'm happy to enjoy looking at it until the right person has a baby and I can pass it along.