Stash Report

I'm still making blocks for 2 quilts, but I've nothing used to report.  I added about 3 1/2 yards this week. I bought mostly remnants and odd sized pieces for my PoD quilt and my RR.

 I'm getting excited about working on this RR!  It is not my style at all, but I think I have a good idea this time.  The ladies in my RR are great at design, and I feel like I'm struggling to keep up with them.  That's not a complaint, that's the reason I joined a RR, to stretch myself and improve my skills.

Used This Week:  0 yards                                                    
Used Year to Date: 67.125 yards
Added this week: 3.5 yards  
Added year to date: 71.125 yards
 Net Added:  4.0 yards

I've seen plenty of blog posts where people are talking about the trees turning colors already.  Not in my yard!  The dogwoods are a little red, but green is what I see here.

 

My summer flowers are still hanging in there too. 

 

Linking up with  Judi:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/09/28/stash-report-week-39-2014/

Just Needs Binding

I picked up my selvage quilt from the longarmer this week. 

 

 All of the fabric including the backing came from my stash.  Some of the selvages were donated by my friend Holly.

 

 This quilt didn't need elaborate quilting, so I chose a simple meander.

 

I hope to get it bound and labeled this week.  Linking up with Sarah:

 

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2014/09/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-little-love.html

My First Round Robin

I did my first cross stitch  round robin through a site called 'Cameo Rose'.  This was back in the late 1990s.  I did a quick search, but it doesn't look like the site is still around.  The woman who set up RRs would take names of people who wanted to join, and it took months to be assigned to a group.  My ladies in my group were:  JLR, MAB, MW, MAR, AA, AG and CT.  That's all I know about them.  I didn't save their addresses or even their full names.  The only way I even have their initials was because I asked them to stitch their initials in their sections.  I didn't think to stitch a date on this piece.  This was before digital cameras were common, so I don't have pictures of the other RRs in the group.

During the time I was doing my first RR, my DH had been laid off and was working long hours at a job he hated.  I was a stay at home mom with three boys, and I needed adult company.  I did not make lasting friendships with these stitchers, but they filled  a void in my life, and got me started on many years of round robin stitching.

This RR had very strict rules:  this was to be a band sampler of  100 stitches across, no more.  I got a little reprimand because mine was 102 stitches across, but the leader said that would be ok.   I don't remember stitching on any of the RRs in this group, other than one that had an Irish theme.  I think one stitcher lived in Georgia.  I had no idea how to pick a theme.  I finally just said for people to stitch what they wanted and use a certain color palette. I remember choosing my sewing basket motif from a Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine.

This round robin is not a masterpiece of design, but it is very well stitched.  The back is as neat as the front.  It also has many specialty stitches:  drawn thread, pulled thread, eyelets, Rhodes stitch, satin stitch, buttonhole stitch, four sided stitch, Smyrna cross and long arm cross.

If you are out there JLR, MAB, MW, MAR, AA, AG  and CT,  thank you again for your work on my first round robin.  I treasure it!

Linking up with: http://www.quiltinjenny.blogspot.com/2014/09/tbt-throwback-thursday-noahs-nine-patch.html

September Gypsy Wife Blocks

I finished my September Gypsy wife blocks yesterday.  They go so quickly compared to my POD blocks!

 

 I'm tempted to go ahead and do October's now too.  I thought I would just make Gypsy Wife small, without the border.  But I saw one with a border in Fall/Winter Quilt Sampler yesterday, and I really like it.  Maybe I'll put a border on mine too.

One More Block and Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Last night I made cauliflower pizza crust. It was a good night to try a crazy recipe because my DH was out, and I had backup food for my teenager, who I knew wouldn't eat it.   It was better than I expected it to be. It was a little soft, but not much softer than thick pizza crust can be.  The bad part is it takes more time than I like to spend on dinner and dirties up more dishes.

 You first have to cut the cauliflower into florets.  Then you grind the florets up in a food processor so they look like crumbs, cook the crumbs in the microwave, and then (and this is important!)  put the cauliflower into cheese cloth and squeeze out all the water.  Combine the cauliflower with parmesan cheese and spices and press it out onto parchment paper into a circle.   The crust gets baked before topping and then baked again after topping.  I found my recipe in a magazine, but I found the same recipe when I googled cauliflower pizza  crust.

 

I would make this again.

 

I also finished another book block for my HP quilt:

 

 

This block has The Philosophy of the Mundane:  Why Muggles Prefer Not to Know, Spellman's Syllabary,  Numerology and Gramatica,  and Magick Most Evile.

 

I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to put Project of Doom aside soon and work on a couple of other projects.  I have September Gypsy Wife blocks to make, and I got a RR in the mail last week.  Good thing POD doesn't need to be done until May!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Problem of Perspective

The original  Project of Doom quilt is very two dimensional.  If a book is leaning, it is leaning to the side and not backwards or forwards.  I want to include a couple of blocks that do have a 3-D perspective.  Here's  Zonko's bag:

 

The problem with this bag is that it is sitting on the background, not on the bookshelf.  A magical Zonko's bag COULD sit in mid-air, I suppose, but I want mine to sit on the shelf.  So I need to take out  the background under the bag and put in shelf fabric.  Depending on how that looks, I'll have  to decide if I need books sitting right up against the bag. or if I can leave the background fabric on the sides of the bag. 

 

This is getting more complicated than I thought it would be!  Keep in mind that I am not an artist, and my drawing skills are about at a third grade level.

Design Floor: Project of Doom Take Two

I have 10 completed blocks for my Harry Potter quilt.

 

I have completed the sewing of four more, but they still need titles.  There are 30 blocks in the main body of the quilt.  I'm going to have more magical things on top of the bookcase.

Here's a close up of my crystal ball block.

 

 I really like the fabric of the crystal ball itself.  It is white with silver swirls and small stars on it.

 

For comparison, here's the same block from my first POD quilt.

 

 

I'm still not sure which background I prefer.  The black background presents certain challenges in this quilt.  For example, Harry's glasses have black frames, and I've already established that black objects won't work in this quilt.  http://sewingoutofmycomfortzone.blogspot.com/2014/08/an-issue-of-contrast.html  So if I do the frames, they will have to be on the top of the bookcase against the stone background.

 

To see other design walls:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/09/22/design-wall-september-22-2014/

 

 

I Was 'That' Customer Today

I met a friend of mine in Virginia Beach this week, and we hit a couple of the quilt shops down there.  I had never been to 'Sarah's Thimble' before, and she hadn't either, so we enjoyed looking around the shop.  It is small but had a good variety of quilting fabrics:  modern, Japanese, novelty prints, batiks, and several shelves of sale fabrics.

I saw a fabric that would have been perfect for one of my POD books, so I asked the woman if they cut fat quarters.  She said no.  So then I asked for 1/8 of a yard of the print I wanted, and she said she could only cut 1/4 yard pieces.  I only needed a piece about 3 inches by 10 inches, so I said ok, I'll have to buy it somewhere else.  She lost my business.  I wasn't going to spend much today, but my mom lives in VA Beach, so I'm down there a lot. Now I probably won't go back.  There are 3 great shops within 25 minutes of my house, so there is really no need.  When fabric is $12.99 a yard, I  don't like to buy more than I need.

While I was in Virginia Beach, I finished the embroidery on two more blocks.  Again, I haven't washed out the soluble canvas yet.

Dreadful Denizens of the Deep, Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration, Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks

Flying With the Cannons, Intermediate Transfiguration, Death Omens:  What To Do When You Know the Worst is Coming, Asiatic Anti-Venoms

Here are the same two blocks from my first POD quilt.

  

 

 

 

 

Stash Report, Net Added

I'm back to  counting yards added instead of yards used.  UGH!  In my defense, I've been sewing a lot just not finishing a lot.  I bought 2 fat quarters for my new POD quilt, and I cut a bunch of trash scraps for a mystery scrap quilt that starts in January.

I also finished two more pillowcases, but I never counted this fabric in, so I can't count it out.

 

 

 

The two fat quarters I bought this week have very specific places in my POD quilt.  This one (Timeless Treasures of SoHo Patt#Sea-C 1731) will be for the 'Dreadful Denizens of the Deep' book.

 

 

The next is for a delft china tea cup (Shabby Chic Brands).

 

 

Used This Week:  0 yards 
Used Year to Date: 67.125 yards
Added this week: 0.5 yards  
Added year to date: 67.625 yards
 Net Added:  0.5 yards

To see more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/09/14/stash-report-week-37-2014/

Why I Stopped Quilting For Fifteen Years

On Throw Back Thursday, I want to show you the quilt that stopped me quilting for 15 years.  In 1990 I made my first quilt.  It was a baby quilt for my second son, and we all called it The People Blankie.
 

 

 

 

Both of my kids loved The People Blankie.  To stop fights over it, I took an Amish Star class and made my first son a quilt too (no picture because he took this quilt with him when he moved out). 

Then I took a class making Pineapple Placemats (no picture because I gave them to my sister as a shower gift).  Then I had what I thought were a lot of scraps leftover, and I decided to make a scrap quilt.  I enjoyed making the pineapple placement blocks, so I decided to make pineapple scrap blocks.  I made at least 13 of them before realizing that not all of  the blocks were the same size.

 Why?  Because  I was a new quilter, and there were at least 40 pieces in each block.  I also didn't have as many scraps as I thought I did, so I got some from my mom who sews but doesn't quilt.  Her scraps weren't all 100% cotton, so I had some raveling from the beginning.   I put all the blocks in a closet and shut the door.

When my third son was a year old, I decided he needed a quilt too, so I put 9 of the blocks together and made one. This quilt had multiple problems, the biggest being the blocks weren't all the same size.  Another problem was not all the pieces in the block had good contrast with the muslin I chose for the background.   The third problem:  it was an ugly quit. 

 

 

I really don't remember my third son using this, but he must have at  some point.  I do remember he preferred The People Blankie too. 

 

After making the quilt I had some ugly pineapple blocks left over that were either too big to ease or too small to stretch into the quilt.  I ended up making 2 pillows out of them, and my kids used these pillows to death.  One of them fell apart and was thrown out.  The other one needs to be!  There's a big hole on the back.

 

I don't like making ugly things, even out of scraps!

 

After this disappointing quilting experience, I stopped quilting until 2007.

Candle Block

I finished cross stitching the titles on one more block last night.  This one was easy because it only had two books.

Sonnets of a Sorcerer and Achievements in Charming

 

 

 Here's the same block from my first POD quilt:

Another Book Block

I finished stitching the titles on another book block last night.

 

These are Famous Fire Eaters, Magical Me, The Dark Arts Outsmarted and The Healer's Helpmate.

I changed the basilisk fang to a vial of felix felicis, and the order of the books is different.  Here's the block from my first quilt. 

Snitch Block

I finished one of my favorite POD blocks yesterday.  Here's the golden snitch sitting on a pile of books.  Notice there are no titles to embroider in this block.  Yeah!

 

I like the way the pages in the bottom book look worn, like the book has been dropped in the bathtub.

 

Here's the snitch block from my first Project of Doom quilt.

 

I still haven't decided which background color I like best.

Stash In Equals Stash Out

One yard added this week.  Since I've done the POD quilt before, I know what sorts of fabrics I'm looking for.  I found one yard of a red print I had to have for one of the blocks.  It was 50% off too! So now I'm back to stash in equals stash out.

Used This Week:  0 yards 
Used Year to Date: 67.125 yards
Added this week: 1.0 yards  
Added year to date: 67.125 yards
 Net Used: 0 yards

I did finish two of pillowcases for my cousin Sarah who picked up a couple of Row by Row kits for me.  I never reported this as fabric in, so it can't be reported as fabric out.

 

And I finished the embroidery on another POD block.

 

 

These books are:  Magical Theory, The Dream Oracle, Rune Dictionary, Invisible Book of Invisibility, and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality 

I've finished the piecing on 3 other POD blocks but don't want to show them until the titles are on.

To see more stash reports:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2014/09/07/stash-report-week-36-2014/