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/