Another Baby Quilt

It's time to start building a quilt for the baby girl Niece #2 is expecting to deliver in July. Oddly, I have not been in the mood to do any fabric shopping. So the challenge is to make something cute, or at least not ugly, from what I have available in my stash. Since her first child is a very active little boy I chose to go full-on girly for this quilt. Pink, purple, dolls and dresses, florals, whatever I could find that would work together. I also decided to make a crazy quilt this time, utilizing the stack, cut, and shuffle method.

The hard part is finding prints in my collection that are still big enough to accommodate the large squares this method requires. I'm starting with 11" squares to end up with blocks that will finish at 8.5" (9"raw). The first set I made had seven prints in the stack. I made six cuts. That was a bit much to get the rotary cutter through. For next stack I only layered up five prints and made four cuts. That resulted in more waste when I trimmed the blocks to size but not enough for me to get in a tizzy over. It's more important to me to get the greater variety of patch sizes and prints this approach creates. 

 This is where I am so far. Originally I was going to make 42 blocks. Now I'm thinking 30 will be enough. That will allow for a border treatment that may help to contain and calm the busyness in the center of the quilt. Might have to purchase yardage for that! 😊

Happy Days

Hello my patient friends. I'm finally back - at least for the time being. ;- ) I'm happy to report that I haven't been sick all the time since my last post. There were a couple of times I wanted to report on my activities but couldn't get my computer to behave. Here's a little bit of what's been happening in The Magpie's Nest...

More blocks for the wedding quilt, beginning with this stack of six prints.

Here are the resultant blocks:

And a couple more stacks of six prints each...

At that point I did some math. I was planning on 30 blocks, set 5 x 6, for the body of the quilt. That would have been five stacks of six prints each. Unfortunately, as you may remember, my very first stack of six prints only yielded five usable blocks. I needed seven more blocks to reach my goal of 30. Why not try a stack of seven prints?

I added another half inch to the size of the starter squares, just to be on the safe side. As it turned out these are some of my favorite blocks!

I have since mixed the blocks up and set them together into a flimsy. Don't have a picture to share though, sorry. I'm trying to figure out what to do about a border. I want to add a bit of length but not much in the way of width. Right now the top should measure 60" x 72".  I only want a couch quilt, not a bed cover, but the groom is on the tall side. So we'll see what happens.

In other news, I've had a wonderful birthday. There was sunshine and blue skies all day long but it didn't get uncomfortably warm in the house. I woke up feeling well in body and mind and stayed healthy throughout the day. That was a gift in and of itself! I started a new project with parts from an old one, and one of my gifts was four new pair of the wild knee socks I enjoy so much. It couldn't have been a better day under the circumstances, nor a better way to begin another year. :- D

Crazy-making Blocks

The red and white stars have been put on hold for the time being. I got a little stuck when it came to making filler blocks. Bonnie just used whole cloth squares inbetween her Ohio Star blocks but I can't bring myself to do that. So I'm trying to make low volume hourglass units to spread out my star blocks. We'll get back to that eventually.

In the meantime I have a wedding quilt to create. I've been collecting various green prints - the only color cue I've been able to get from the bridal couple! - and worked to find a process that I would enjoy while at the same time producing a quilt the newlyweds would like.

The floral print you see above will be the back and maybe an outer border on the front. Maybe. You're only seeing a portion of the greens I've collected. Don't tell my husband, but I think I spent more than we budgeted for fabric for this project. ;- )

I've decided to use the stack and slice and shuffle process again. I enjoy the variety each stack of prints offers and it allows me to make five or six blocks at a time.

I began with 14" squares of fabric and made five cuts for six patches in each block.

The theory was to make twelve inch finished crazy patch blocks. That meant trimming the blocks to 12.5" once they were reassembled. The first time around I had two that came out big enough to trim down to 12.5". The other four were far too small and wonky. That really threw me for a loop. I've used this process often enough that I felt very confident I would get good results. Apparently I was a little too confident!

This morning I figured out what I'd done wrong. I'd turned a pair of patches upside down when sewing them back into the block. So I've taken those blocks partially apart, turned those patches right side up, and made other adjustments where necessary (and possible).

I now have the first five blocks done. I'm not sure what I'll do with that too-small block at this point. The next step is to try another stack, see if I can get 12.5" out of them, and then make further decisions. I may be able to add scraps to the small block and include it in the quilt top or I may not need it. I'm not 100% certain how big this quilt is going to be yet.

Between the seaming of the crazy patches I sewed up these two 9" liberated stars:

The owl print in the lower block is stinkin' cute. It's a new arrival at my LQS. I may have to go back for more... maybe make myself a new set of potholders to replace the burned and stained pair currently on display. :- )

What Do You Think?

I've mentioned that I'm making a birthday quilt for a little girl who will be turning four at the end of May. She requested kitties and/or puppies in her quilt. I didn't think this would be a problem... until I actually started making blocks. Which is what I've been doing since my last post.

First I debated about what blocks or what process to use. Somehow a liberated quilt didn't feel right so that got eliminated right away. I also didn't particularly feel like making a bunch of precision pieced blocks. I looked at a lot of Disappearing Nine Patch quilts online. For a while I thought that would be the pattern/process I would use. But I was also thinking about Karla Alexander's Stack the Deck process for making crazy blocks. In the end that's the one I went with.

I think the problem began with the fact that some of my cat prints are dark and grayed while others are bright, pure colors. I thought I could manage to blend the two, using the "more is better" principle. I'm just not sure it worked in this case.

This is not all of the blocks, but enough to give you a rough idea what I've got. I ended up not using many of my cat prints for one reason or another so to begin with I don't feel there's enough catly presence in the top currently. I guess the other thing that's bothering me is that this feels too old for a four year old. There are some fun and colorful prints in the blocks but it just reads darker than I think a preschooler's quilt should. What do you think?

To be fair, I should tell you that I have ordered a large print with cats in it that I thought I might be able to work into the top somehow. It could become borders or a feature element. I won't know how well it even works with these blocks until it arrives. It has a black background however so it won't do anything to lighten up the quilt top. It didn't appear to be available in any other colorway.

What I really need to do is turn my attention away from this puzzle and occupy myself with some other project until the new fabric arrives. Soooo... what to do for my March Bead Journal Project?

Tired But Happy

I'm delighted to report that my teaching gig went very well :- )

This teaching opportunity is a sort of combination retreat/quilt class for a group of ladies who either work at a local hospital or are related to someone who works at that hospital. One of the ER nurses is the organizer of this event every year. (She's one of those petite women who have more energy than a pro football player!) Last month I wasn't feeling well even before I arrived at the retreat. One of the ladies had stopped at the mall earlier in the day, tried out a new hand lotion in the department store there, and then came to the retreat. There were other scents in the room too, and between them all I was useless in less than an hour. Fortunately I had chosen a very simple pattern for them to make and was able to give the more experineced quilters directions as to how they should proceed. I prayed myself home, went to bed, and checked in with them about noon the next day. They had done fine without me. (I'm not sure whether that's good or bad!)

I was concerned this month because I felt I really needed to be there to guide them through the project this time. We made sure to remind them of my chemical issues on the supply list; that was something I'd forgotten to do last time. Overall I felt stronger this time too. There was one farily significant hitch though: a first-time quilter brought in a big, brand new, cutting mat. Of course no-one else could smell anything but I could feel the fumes off-gassing from the mat going up my nose and into my sinus cavities right through two layers of carbon filters. I had to work very hard to give coherent directions as they began cutting into their fabric. I also made a poor choice when it came to doing my demonstration of the technique we were using. Nothinig insurmountable, but not what I would have done had I been unaffected by fumes.

Once they got started on their projects things went well and I was able to go home and go to bed early. When I arrived the next morning I found they had removed the new cutting mat from the building- hurray! There were still other fragrances in the air but nothing so bad that I couldn't stick around and see them to the completion of their quilt tops. I did not haul the camera to the retreat with me - although I did think of it! - so you won't get to see pictures of the tops they created but, trust me, they were wonderful. One was all in green and black and shamrock prints. Another was done in lovely spring colors. One was blue and yellow florals, one in very 'country' colors and prints. Let's see... there was also a cat theme and one in bright clear colors for a baby.

The blocks you see below that have the patches of yellow in them are the ones I made at the retreat. I was so happy to have made it through the retreat successfully that when I got home yesterday I cut and sewed up a second batch of blocks.


My original intention was to use the demonstration blocks to make another preemie quilt. Now I have a toddler size quilt to donate instead!

This top is actually very bright in person. I don't seem to have adjusted the colors correctly when I cropped the photo. The stripe I used for the border was one of the fabrics the newest quilter was using in her quilt. I just fell in love with it (with a lot of her choices actually!) when I saw it. At one point on Saturday two of the ladies made a run to the nearest quilt shop for more fabric so I had them bring some back for me too ;- ) Then I had to send my Dear Husband out later in the day for even more of the stripe so I would have enough to go around this quilt in the direction I wanted it to go!

I have very little energy today but I couldn't be happier with the way the weekend went. Well, I'd be happier if I didn't have to cope with these chemical issues but you know what I mean. I have a fabric picked out to back this top; it's one my mother bought and gave me years ago. I was surprised at how well it coordinates with the colors in the blocks. Mom is no longer with us so it means a lot to me to be able to include her in this project. Because she was a knitter I didn't often have a chance to 'collaborate' with her!

Friends and Neighbors

My friend C~ came by again the other day. This time she left me with a pile of orphan blocks culled from her neighbor's bulging sewing room:


About half of them were crazy pieced blocks, the other half an assortment of various pieced patterns. It looked like the crazy blocks had been received in an internet swap, judging by signatures on a few of the blocks. There's a seasonal feel to most of the other blocks. You can see the Santa star in the picture above, and maybe you can also make out that those are chicks in the pastel block next to the star. Yup, there's also a Halloween block at the bottom of the pile! Right now I'm tempted to take each of these seasonal/holiday blocks and use it as a jumping off point for a preemie quilt. That would be half a dozen preemie quilts right there. Or maybe I'll combine them with some blocks of my own for a calendar quilt an older child could use and enjoy. We'll see.

In the meantime, I went through the crazy blocks to see what I could do with them. I think there were 9 when I started. I took one block apart completely. Whoever had tried to piece that one just didn't understand the sew-and-flip process. She had several pieces with loose edges and at least one that was sewn on wrong side up. Sometimes that is a viable option but not in this case! Another block had some great big patches in it but I couldn't make the colors/values work in combination with any of the other blocks. So I cut out the bigger pieces to re-use. I made a new block using some of my own fabrics and the patches from the two blocks I took apart. Then, to get the prescribed size for preemie quilts, I also pieced two smaller blocks.

Played around with the arrangement, sewed them together, backed it with flannel, turned it, topstitched it, and then used my machine to do a little feather stitching in strategic places. I love how quickly a preemie quilt goes together!

There are four crazy blocks left over. I'd like to whip out another preemie quilt but I still have the liberated stars and bits and pieces of bright batiks on my design wall, just waiting for someone to brush by and knock them off...

A Very Goth Post

Here's one of the little vignettes DD created for Halloween. The vase is out year 'round (but not always with purple-black roses!). It's one of my treasures, handmade by local artist Marissa Motto.

When DD was here to help put out Halloween decorations she also did some reorganizing for me. Unfortunately that created new organizing issues. As a result I spent the entire day yesterday coping with a double closet that regurgitated! I hope to get some shelves installed today so that I can put it all back and be able to access things more easily. And then I can get back to sewing! In the meantime I present for your viewing pleasure my "Quilt for Goth Barbie."


Mattel has not made a Goth Barbie but I know there are one-of-a-kind artists out there who have transformed your average white-bread Barbie dolls into Goths. (Remember my love of the macabre?) What kind of quilt would a Goth Barbie want or make for herself? I began by collecting a variety of black fabrics, from velvet to sparkly knits to quilter's cottons. These were machine pieced them onto muslin, in strips. Three strips were sewn together to create the top. (If I were to do this quilt over again I would piece all the fabrics onto one large piece of muslin instead of doing the narrow strips. It got rather bulky in places.) Then I went nuts embellishing it. I embroidered, I beaded, I sequined, I pinned. You should be able to click on the image above to get a really close look at the quilt but here are a couple of detail shots as well:



The skeleton head in the upper left corner of this shot is one of my favorite elements. There are also a cat button and mouse/rat charms on this quilt. The whole quilt measures about 11 x 14"


It was a unique experience to shop in the hardware store for quilt embellishments! I have ball chain on it, and washers and some other kind of chain. And of course no crazy quilt would be complete without a spiderweb and resident spider! I backed the quilt with a skeleton print (there's no batting) and tied the layers together with black cotton floss. This was a very fun quilt to make and came together fairly quickly (because I was having so much fun with it!).

And now for those shelves...