New Homes for Orphans

Orphan blocks that is!

I got the word earlier in the week that preemie quilts would be collected at the next guild meeting. I'd set a personal goal of making and donating at least 12 quilts for premature babies this year. At the end of September I was right on track with nine blankets completed and six of those already donated. So I got out my bags of scrappy blocks and started playing around.


All of these quilts were made from the six inch Shoo Fly, Bow Tie, and Churn Dash blocks I was making a few months ago from my older yardage and scraps. I began by separating the Shoo Fly blocks into piles according to their background values: dark, medium, or light. I knew a strippy set would be fairly easy to pull together quickly and here it is:

It's a little dark, and not at all "sweet," but hopefully someone will be glad to have it. The next one definitely has a more juvenile feel to it, primarily due to the Precious Moments critters I fussy-cut from the large striped print.

I'd had my fill of the Shoo Fly block at this point and got out the Bow Ties for the next effort. Proportionally they seem a little big for such a small quilt top but we're not out to win ribbons here. I really like them set in rings this way. The borders at the top and bottom were added to achieve the necessary length while keeping the top visually balanced.

Finally I got out the Churn Dash blocks to see what I could do with them. This top may have taken the most time to create. I had a hard time finding a subset of blocks that would play well together. I still wasn't convinced until I found this rose print in my stash. Somehow it seems to make the whole thing work.

The quilting that holds the pieced tops to the flannel backs is very simple in all of these quilts. You should be able to click on the pictures to get larger images; you might even be able to see the quilting lines. It's all straight lines that didn't require marking. On the strippy quilt I stitched a giant zig-zag pattern down the narrow lattice strips between the columns of blocks. All the quilts have a double row of topstitching around the perimeters in place of binding.

I have time to make a couple more of these little quilts - the meeting isn't until Tuesday - but I'm not sure I will make any more right now. There are other projects tugging at the edges of my mind. I'm just delighted to be sewing again.

Thrifty Goodness

I went to the thrift shop this morning. It was exciting because I was able to have a nice long browse without becoming horribly ill (and I'm feeling remarkably well even now). There was a lot to see too; all their Halloween merchandise was put out recently and hadn't been picked over too much yet. I found this painted bucket that is just the right size to house one of my potted plants for the season.

It's a grinning cat's face in case you're having a hard time deciphering the image.

One of his eyes is obscured by the plant leaf.

I brought home several small treasures but the most interesting is a set of 5 china salad or dessert plates. I wasn't really looking for such things and almost missed them entirely. Then when I saw that they were priced as a set, not singly, I really had to work to convince myself it was okay to buy the whole collection. I'm accustomed to spending $5.00 or less when I go to the thrift shop. The set of plates was $9.50... plus I had all my other goodies. I'm nothing if not a creature of habit. It's pretty silly how hard it can be to break out of those habits sometimes. So here's a shot of one of the plates:

There were no cups or saucers or anyting else that I could see. The plates are marked off center on the back with Foley China, a horizontal oval with the inscription EB&Co, and Made in England below that. There's also a tiny orange dot to the right of the oval. I don't know what I have here but I couldn't leave those birds at the store!

My first thought was to hang one plate on a wall where I could enjoy it everyday. Someday I'll have to show you the wall of bird prints I have in my dining area. I also have a small collection of decorative plates on another wall. I may eventually hang one of these on that wall. In the meantime I think I'm just going to let myself use them for my luch each day. :- )

Dude!

I just realized that we have only a little more than a week to get our donations in for the Pink Artists Drawing! All the money raised will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. The cool part is that for your little $10 donation (or more if you're up to it) your name goes into the drawing two times for one of the awesome pieces of art that have been created just for this cause. You can see a sampling of the offerings over on Monica's blog. She has created a slideshow too - scroll down past the Donate button in the left-hand side bar (see how easy it is?!)

What are you waiting for? Hop on over there and click away!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Doing the studio tour was an enlightening experience. It took me two days to get around to see them all. I picked up a couple of new ideas for storing or displaying things. What I found most interesting was the distinct line between artists who need a clean, clear space in order to create and those of us who work better when we have lots of visual cues. What some perceive to be mess is necessary stimulation for others. And some of us organize our visual stimuli more than others! I think I could benefit from a little more effort in that department. I doubt that will happen any time soon however. ;- )

I've been struggling to come up with a design for a twin size quilt for my second granddaughter. DD provided me with this yardage she thought would be fun to use, and it will be, but I have been well and thoroughly stuck.

Getting ready for the studio tour motivated me to put away a few things that have been laying about since the end of my last period of productivity and that has helped to clear the creative pathways. I now have a plan for this new quilt top. What I don't have is enough of the right type of print for the background of the blocks! Arrrggghh!

This is the one that I like the best for the background of the liberated stars I want to make:

These are the other pieces I have in my stash that would also work (the triangle print appears again in the upper left corner):

You should be able to click on the photo for a better look.

I've been all over the internet looking for something appropriate. I've called around to my local quilt shops. This type of print just doesn't seem to be available at the moment. So I've put the word out to my quilt guild members. We'll see whether they have anything they can spare. I might have enough on hand to get the blocks made but I'd feel a lot better if I had more to work with. I'm afraid to begin when I'm not sure I have enough to finish. Maverick or liberated is wonderful, but I want cohesiveness in the bargain!

Studio Tour Part Two

When we left off in part one of this tour (see post immediately below this one) we were on the west wall of my studio space, the window wall. Under that window I have one of these rolling drawer units. I use it to store my beading thread, the extra throat plate for my sewing machine, most of my machine threads, and assorted tools and notions. It's placed sideways to allow more room for the chair at the sewing machine. Fortunately it's not less convenient to get things out of it this way. It's also a handy place to store DVD's and my cell phone!


Further along that wall under the window I have a stack of bins in which you'll find the rest of my collection of recycled silk ties. Then there's a pile of containers of cotton scraps. I didn't get a picture of that particular corner of the room. In it I have an antique record cabinet that belonged to my grandfather topped with a TV and DVD player. Turning that corner we have the closet wall.

My orphan block boxes are on the shelf, and a bin with medium sized pieces of batting. There's other stuff stored up there as well but it's not germaine to this tour. The fabric you see here are flannels and other-than-cotton yardages. The laundry basket is full of dupioni silks. On the other side of the closet is my bead storage, and I hang tote bags on the back of the studio door.

Here's a straight-on shot of that end of the wall. No, I'm not trying to show off the pathetic collection of ribbons I've won; I wanted you to see that those are three separate units of mini drawers mounted on the wall. You know, the kind you find in the hardware section of any discount store. I cut up index cards to make little labels for each drawer. This is where I keep my beads and novelty buttons. The bin on the floor has my bulk buttons and sequins. I have a couple of old cutting mats and my mother's old blocking board (she was a knitter) stored behind the door too.

Here's what the top of the banquet table looks like when it's clean. This is an old picture!

This is what it looks like right now behind my sewing machine. There are birds and dolls all over the studio, including back here. The toucan is sitting on top of a Cadbury's tin in which I keep the tags from the ties I recycle. The yellow tin below that is where my rayon threads for decorative machine stitching are kept. The Diane Phalen tin is my portable sewing kit. Except I hardly go anywhere with it anymore. But it keeps the tools I use most often right at hand:

Fresh needles for the sewing machine, my hemostats, a bit of rubber for pulling stuck needles through thick layers, marking tools, Thread Heaven, the sheath for my Gingher scissors, even a pair of folding scissors.

And that concludes this tour of my studio space. Oh, except for one thing:


No studio is complete without the regulation fur-bearing creature!

Added 10-4: Here's the link to the list of the other bloggers participating in this studio tour. Sorry I didn't think to put that up sooner!