A Little of This and A Little of That

Tonight I reached the halfway point on the homespun rag quilt.  No new pictures to share though, sorry.  :(  It's turning out to be very pretty!  I have to say that even with all of the bright colors, making a rag quilt is just plain boring now that I've learned how to piece more intricate blocks.  I do love the "rustic/home" feel of a rag quilt but the process is just blah.  I'm really dreading all of the seam snipping time I have yet to put into this one. 

We spent a couple of hours at the fairground park today and I was able to piece together several more blocks for the charm quilt.  I'm loving that quilt more and more with each stitch.  It's just so random sewing all of the colors together without concern for anything other than the blocks lining up straight.  I'm really have a great time with it!

The advent calendars for the boys are coming along slowly, too.  I work on the pockets for those while we are at swim practice during the week.  Wednesday I finished another set of pockets and picked up the December embroidery towel just for something different.  Sometimes I wish I could stay focused on just one project but then again, I'm the type of person who, if I get bored with something, I have to re-direct my attention to regain my motivation or else I'll get sloppy and do a poor job just to be done with it.  It's good to know your limitations.  :) 

The results of the County Fair quilt judging are in and...I didn't stand a chance!  Honestly, there are some seriously talented folks in Lewis County!  Granted, I'm up against not only the Amish and Mennonite ladies, but also the native Northern New York women who have been handed down the art of quilting from so many generations that even they have lost count.  I am a little upset that they didn't make more of an effort to display some of the smaller quilts better (most were merely folded in half and draped over a dowel).  Most quilts, mine included, have the fancy needlework more towards the center of the quilt, not along the edges.  When they are folded in half and "hung to dry", only a quarter of the quilt is on display, which seems pointless to me.  All in all, it was an interesting experience but I don't know if I will submit another quilt for judging at the next fair.  Maybe when I have more experience...

Happy Stitching to all!

Hand Piecing the Charm Quilt-Week 1

The charm quilt has been slow going but I have made a little progress this past week. I still have a bit more embroidery to do on some of the blocks but I think I'll tackle those as I come across them so that I can take a mini break from hand piecing all of those little squares. The blocks in each row are sewn together in this picture but the rows are not, so they won't necessarily be in this order when it's all said and done.

Part of the reason for not making much progress is this little thingamabob.   This is the nameplate for the Minky Monster.  It's made out of minky, too.  Now that we aren't hitting 99 degrees with 85% humidity anymore I'll have to drag this behemoth out of its cave and finish it up. 

Now for the surprise stuff.  A few posts ago I made mention of the homespun fabric I used to make the needle case.  Well, what I didn't say was what I was doing with the rest of the homespun.  :)  This is my first experience with this type of material but I am truly in love with everything about it.  I bought these from Jubilee Homespun about 3 months ago and I'm so happy I did.  Their fabrics are fabulous! 

Rag quilts aren't my favorite type of quilt by far, but when I saw what they did with these fabrics it inspired me, you know, the little butterflies of happiness that float around when you find something you love love love! 

I added several blocks of denim from my boys' old jeans to the mix and even appliqued butterflies, flowers and hearts to some of them.  There is a hand embroidered name block for each person in our family, as well. 

The blocks are 7" square, so finished they will measure out to 6" as each seam allowance is 1/2" for the ragging.  The rows count out to 17 w X 15 l which will be the perfect size for our king size bed.  So far, I've sewn four rows together and it looks fantastic!  The best part about all of this is my husband has no idea I'm making it so it will be a complete surprise to him when he comes home for mid-tour leave in the fall!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have enough left over to make a couple of throw pillows with the leftovers but if not, I will just buy a little more.  Yes, it is really that good! 

This one is so big that I couldn't find floor space in the house to lay out the blocks so I had to wrestle with the wind and design it in the backyard.  Thankfully, I just mowed not too long ago! 

Overall, it's been a busy week or two, especially since my oldest was away at summer camp.   We're back to normal now, or as normal as we can be with Daddy being away. 

Happy stitching to all!

Stone Soup Charm Quilt

Back on 27 February 2011, I created a Facebook page called "The Stone Soup Charm Quilt Project" and invited a handful of my friends and family to help me create a unique quilt using more than 1,700 different pieces of fabric.   On the 9th of March I mailed out packets containing registry cards, instructions and ziploc bags.  The idea was to have each person send back a 3" x 3" or larger piece of fabric along with the pre-printed card containing their name, birthdate, hometown and current city/state of residence.  As this is basically a "Friendship" quilt, I thought it would be interesting and fun to include a little information about who helped to create the quilt to whomever winds up with it later on. 

The group grew to a whole whopping 18 members, 10 of whom sent back the packets with their registry cards.  Quite honestly, I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't encourage more of my friends and family to participate, especially since this quilt feels more and more like a lifetime achievement project than anything and I really wanted them to be a part of it.  I've never been much of a salesman, so maybe I should have tried harder.  (I don't like to be pushy.) 

So now, here it is, 9 July 2011 and I have officially completed collecting all 1,757 pieces I need to begin hand piecing this quilt together.  The design is my own, simple but hopefully unique.  I spent 9 hours today sorting and checking to make sure that there are not any matching pieces.  (A true charm quilt doesn't have any two pieces of the same print or color or in some cases, only one set that matches, which turns the quilt into a hide and seek game.)  I decided to cut two matching pieces from one of my old maternity night gowns to use as the one and only matching set.  The nightgown is the one item of clothing I own that I used through both of my pregnanies and the many months of nursing with my two boys.
 

My husband has mailed a piece of his Army uniform, a multi-cam print from Afghanistan, to be the centerpiece of the quilt.   His unit patches, along with those of my active duty and prior service friends, will be sewn to the back of the quilt above or below their names.  The name of each person who sent in a piece of fabric for the quilt top will also be embroidered into the quilt backing.  I'm not sure yet what I will use for the backing and binding, but sometimes you just have to get the feel of something before you can decide how best to finish it.  Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards a red binding in 30's reproduction, but time will tell.  The backing will have be light colored with a small scale almost neutral print so as not to distract from the names and patches that will be sewn to it.  I've decided not to buy anything at all for the backing until I come across something I'm head over heels in love with.  Yeah, that will take a while to find!  

I have a ton of scraps from all of these little pieces, two full buckets to be exact!  Maybe a postage stamp quilt and yet another scrap quilt or two are in my future.  :)