Placemats and quilting progress

There isn't much to say today, just uploading these pictures of the random-pieced scrap placemats I made my mom for her birthday.

They are about 13" square, but in retrospect I wish I'd made them bigger. (Inspiration from these pictures.)

Can you guess what I'm quilting?

Undersea Mobile

Hello again after another long hiatus. I made this mobile for a friend's baby shower a few weeks ago.

The boat at the top has the baby's name embroidered on it and hanging below are six stuffed sea creatures.

Most of the animal patterns I drew out myself but a few I found various places around the web. The cute little octopus was a Moda Bake Shop pattern from here. I reduced it by about half and it still worked well.

The whale came from here. I also reduced that pattern by 50% and modified it to give him a belly. The jelly fish was one of my own creations and I was really pleased with how he turned out. He has long, dangly legs that I did by sewing a running stitch down the middle of two strips of fabric and then bunching them.

I assembled everything with brass hoops from Hobby Lobby and fishing line and used superglue to set the knots so nothing would slide. I had to put it together hanging so I could see how everything worked so I suspended it off the ferret's cage.

She was extremely curious about the whole undertaking.

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.

Old and New

Yesterday I went with a friend to a small estate sale that had advertised having fabrics and old quilts. There wasn't much fabric I was interested in but I did buy a great antique Irish Wedding Ring quilt. It's lovely, hand-pieced and hand-quilted. We do not have one of these in the quilts made by my grandmother and great aunt. I also came home with several orphan blocks. Two small carpenter's star blocks as well as an appliqued star with hearts, all hand-pieced, and a stack of hand-pieced Dresden plates. Along with the dozen finished Dresden plates there were cut pieces for at least 14 more and even one partially finished block, complete with the mystery quilter's needle still stuck in place.

 I am going to teach my friend to put the unfinished ones together and applique them so she can put them into a quilt. If anybody has any ideas about the age of these fabrics I'd love to hear them, I have no idea how old (or new) they might be.
My hands smell like my grandmother after handling all these blocks and pressing them. Kind of weird. Makes me wonder, does everyone's grandmother smell the same?

The mariner's compass quilt is still in progress. One corner is finished, but I still need to paper-piece the other 3 corner blocks.

You see where this is going? Have a great week.

A Long Day at the Sewing Machine

I work on sewing projects almost nonstop today. To show for it, the mariner's compass has gained one and a half borders. (I used needle turn applique to attach the medallion to the background last night.) With the geese border on it measures about 54" x 42" I used the speed piecing (method "B") found on this site to make the geese and it worked like a charm. I will need to get over to the quilt store for more of the blue fabric before I can finish that border, hopefully on Sunday. In the meanwhile I can work on making a pattern and paper piecing the final border's cornerstones, which are going to be quarter circle compasses with lots of little points.






I also made this little snowflake wall hanging for Christmas. I made one of these last year for a swap but don't have any pictures of that one. The one last year took a lot longer, but in the meanwhile I've finally mastered a Y-seam so this one was quick. I used my grandmother's carpenter's star quilt for a pattern, literally laying a ruler over her pieces and adding on seam allowance. I like this style of carpenter's star better than the one I usually see where not all of the squares around the inner star are the same size. I think that one is more common because it can be made with no Y-seams? Anyway, here's a close up of the snow-y quilting on the center star. This thing's going in the wash first thing tomorrow to get that nice dryer crinkle.

Wordless Wednesday

Don't look too closely at my points!

A Mariner's Compass Quilt

I went shopping today at a new-to-me quilt store to find fabrics for a mariner's compass quilt. Tonight I pieced the first 3 segments of the centerpiece, here they are pinned on the inspiration fabric. I picked the background fabric up at a quilt shop in Anacortes, WA during my trip to the Puget Sound, the figures are traditional native designs. Since my entire time up there was spent living on a boat and sailing I knew I wanted to use it in a mariner's compass. I modified the design shown on this website and drew out a paper piecing pattern on butcher paper.

I have also been quilting slow and steady on my neglected double irish chain. Maybe I'll get it done quilting before I finish this top. Who knows? It could happen. :)