Pins Out

 

The Pantone Project Postcards (PPP) keep arriving from friend Jaye and I need to make some more blocks to go with them. I was sorting out some embroidery threads during the BAM meeting I was virtually attending yesterday and randomly made this very nice color arrangement.

It somewhat reminded me of this combination from the Stitch Happens quilt. 

I did some stitching on the Snake in the Garden piece during the meeting, it's coming along. I still have a lot of stitching left to do, but I'm getting there. This was started in a class with Pamela Allen way back in 2007.

Stitching through the "snakeskin" was pretty tough, that's a very weird fabric. It was the only piece of fabric on the whole piece that had pins holding it down, and I wanted to get those pins out before they rusted in place.

Whatever glue I used in 2007 really has stayed put. It might have been glue stick, I don't think it was fusible. Whichever it was, it worked, all the pieces are still in place. And the pins are out for good.

2 Out The Door

Last BAM Sew Day, I came prepared and actually remembered to donate two quilts I'd been meaning to give away. First was the Faux Goose Chase. It's been a while since I've donated a quilt, and it felt really good to be able to do it. The donation coordinator, Peggy was very excited at the two quilts sizes and told me where they'd likely be ending up, either the NICU or the Veteran's home. I'm honestly happy either way.

This was my first time sewing an entire quilt out of die-cut shapes and it really worked out well.
 

And the second was the Courthouse Steps which I had made out of Fat Quarter Shop monthly Sew Sampler box. It was paper pieced, which is kind of crazy! And not really fabrics or colors that are me.

I do really like the quilting that I did, and how it looked after washing.

I hope these two quilts bring someone, either old or young some comfort. I had fun making these, and it feels good to get them out the door to be used instead of piled up in my workroom.

The one fabric I really liked was this orange one (of course).

And the lime green wasn't so bad either..

On Background

 

And just like that all the main block piecing for Stitch Happens is done. Now it really looks like a sewing machine to me.

Here's how it looks with the other background pieces pinned up in place.

Here's how it looks with the "table" section below. I kind of wish my table looked like this! How fancy would that be?

Here's a close-up of the needle section and I decided that the topsy-turvy print is okay because it reads as "motion" to me. As in the needle going up and down as one sews. It's not that noticeable in a non close-up view, so I decided to not worry about it.

This is the only section I'm slightly unhappy with because the star just disappears. I might re-do that today with different fabric choices before piecing all the sections together.

Here's a close-up of the beautiful bees that are flying along the table section.

I chose not to have the frog faces highlighted, that would have been too many eyes staring out from the quilt, even for me.

Getting Stitchy

 

More and more is getting done on the Stitch Happens quilt, it's really coming together and starting to look like a sewing machine shape. I'm still really excited about how good that multi-colored polka dot fabric looks as the spool 

I'm using my Steady Betty pressing mat to stage the block's pieces and walk them over to the iron and back. It helps to keep everything organized in a way that works for me. Also, it's not floppy so it acts more like a grippy tray.

I almost didn't include more pieces of that yellow/dark yellow ruler print but I think it looks good carrying across from the block to the right of it. And it's a good contrast to the Tula Pink yellows that I have.

I like the right part of this block quite a bit.

It's fitting right in.

Here are two pictures that show the quilt growing.

Maybe I'll put the series of pictures all together in a little video, so you can see all the blocks growing up into a quilt.

This is the last piece of the quilt that I need to piece, it's the needle section of the sewing machine, as illustrated by a series of sharply pointing-down flying geese. Then it'll be the job of piecing the pieces together. Before doing any of that I'll have to decide whether or not the result of following the pattern's four-at-a-time method of piecing FG units ends up higgledy-piggledy directions of the background fabric is worth re-piecing them or not.

Wandering Wednesday-Tucson Briefly

 

We had a very brief window to go out and about in Tucson, so we headed downtown this time. The old Pima county courthouse dome is lovely.

They have a really interesting water feature installed in front of the building, it's a memorial commemorating the January 8th, 2011 mass shooting that occurred in Tucson. This is the one that targeted Representative Gabby Giffords..

This was part of the water feature enclosure, some sort of metal. I like the kind of arcane looking symbols.

The skies that day were quite beautiful.

This art piece, Desert O was installed in-between the lanes of the road going through the center of downtown, It is solar powered and lights up with different changing colors. We just called it the donut for obvious reasons.

This mosaic near the art museum was very cool, the blue ceramic pieces on the side had pictures about several of death's incarnations. The hand in the center was very shiny silver.

I loved this door so much, and I'm very happy with this picture.

And after such a warm lovely day on Sunday, when we were on the plane to leave on Monday, a sudden hailstorm! It caused our pilot to have to physically come back into the cabin to check out the state of the wings. I'm guessing they don't have de-icing equipment at the Tucson airport. Thankfully we were okay and on our way soon.

Right Way Round

Back to work on the Stitch Happens quilts, and I just finished the very easiest section. Well, it should have been the easiest, except for the printed pattern has the illustration with the sizes marked rotated sideways (ie wrong). Since I was using a directional print, that mattered to me, if I'd been using a solid background, it would have been no big deal. I re-cut a new rectangle and it's all fine now.

It's the blank "harp space" between the needle and the machine.

I'm auditioning the red in this nine-patch. This is a very dark red background, but it's the reddest of all my Tula Pink fabrics.

This is how it looks with a more pink magenta-ish fabric, still reads as pretty red, but too balance with the lower right-hand corner, I think I'll go with the first one, and use the other fabric in the rest of the piece.

Now Curcurmin Enhanced

 

No new sewing as I've just gone there and back again to Arizona, for one last doctor visit with the medical study I've been participating in since November of last year. The treatment really worked for me and has been pronounced a success. I'm on the list for the next trial. Fingers crossed on getting into that one. 

I am very done with flying so frequently though for now. That was A Lot for me.

I have to say, when I saw the crazy yellow color of the injection material, I was intrigued. This isn't actually it, but the vial on the left is very very close. The stuff just glowed, not quite neon-yellow but with a very slight green, but this picture comes close. Turns out it's used as a dye and food colorant. It's curcurmin which is a component of turmeric, a spice I cook with a lot. If the good results hold, maybe I can figure out how to dye something this exact color and make a little something to send to the research doctor to say thanks for saving me a couple of surgeries.

 

5 Tulas

 

The newest piece of the Stitch Happens quilt is made up of 5 Tula Pink fabrics, plus one yellow ruler fabric and the black / white background. Once again the number labels helped me a lot.

Here’s how it’s all looking so far. I think I sewed one of the bits (the blue and yellow geese units) the wrong direction. To un-sew or not¿..…¿is the question . Below are the diamonds I’ve cut out so far for the Rock Candy table runner topper thingie

I took this picture of all the pieces before I starched and ironed and started sewing 

Stitch Still Happening

 

I've been working on the Stitch Happens quilt and am pretty happy with how it's looking. I'm using mostly Tula Pink fabrics from my stash, and fabrics from my letters/numbers/rulers box. And then some others too when the dark/med/light requirements aren't met in those choices. 

The little tags that SewHungryHippie included in the sew-a-long directions are useful, especially if I cut and don't immediately sew.

This is what I've gotten done so far, and I really like how the background fabric is looking so far. I'm sad that the complicated star block doesn't read well, I may re-do that one.

As I'm going along, I'm also using the new Fussy Cut Rulers to cut out allll the eyes for a Fussy Cut Rock Candy table topper (why do I hate that phrase so much?) that I'm working on during this sew-a-long. 

Very easy to use, doesn't slip, the dark 1/4" border really helps for figuring out the best position. The little cross-hair is very nice too for getting the centering right.

Sun Break

 

 

No sewing pictures today as I am too busy being outside enjoying the sun. We had lunch outside on the deck which was quite lovely. Now I'm going around checking on all our deck succulents to see how they're doing with all the rain. Some are just fine, some have nearly drowned.

Two new additions to our exterior decor.

The bird feeder which has now been discovered by a squirrel for the first time. Now it will have to have security measures installed or maybe even be moved elsewhere. This morning I heard a commotion out there and it was a squirrel vs. blue jay battle which was quite entertaining. The blue jay temporarily won, and Meg got to bark at the squirrel, but I'm sure he'll be back.