Stitchapalooza

Despite our intentions to spend most of this Spring Break visiting museums and seeing friends in NYC and Philadelphia, a strep scare (ultimately negative) sidelined the younger boy, so I stayed home with him while Child the Elder accompanied his father to a Penguins-Islanders game and spent just one day in the Big Apple. I spent nearly 36 hours sitting with a sick son watching a neverending stream of movies and wrapping tiny hexagons for my neverending River project. I had a really enjoyable time talking with just one child at a time; we don't split them up for one-on-one time often enough. My fingers, however, were literally bleeding from the hexagons. Time to learn to use a thimble. The city tourists were kind enough to take a detour to the City Quilter and brought me a nice stack of cotton prints, always the best souvenir!

So many possibilities for these wonderful NYC-themed fabrics!!

After they returned on Saturday night, we just kind of hunkered down in the house and I put the hexies away for larger-scale projects. I made an entire quilt top for my California fabric "cousin challenge", although said cousin asked me not to post any photos so I will wait a while. (If you're in CT, though, you can see it at Lisa's Clover Hill, and I'll be teaching a class with the VERY EASY pattern on June 8.)

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Open Sew days at Lisa's, then Thursday shopping and basting with my friend Tina. On Saturday morning I went back to Lisa's to pick out some monotone fabrics for a pixelated photo project that I'll be working on this summer. And, while the menfolk were in Springfield last night for yet another hockey game, I whipped up this nifty table runner (also with my new favorite, the Hex n More ruler):

This sucker is 18 x 80, which is a real table-filler in this house!

And, finally, today I added two outer rows to the triangle/hexagon project that I made using the cutaway pieces left over from the Jewel quilt.

The outer border was a good opportunity to practice Y-seams. I cut the strips exactly wide enough to use up the rest of the contrast fabric that I had leftover from my sister's purse.

And THAT's how you spend a Spring Break!

Tangerine Quilting: Blocks 1 & 2

I got a nice start on quilting the Tangerine Tango blocks this weekend. These 18" segments are just the right size for really detailed custom quilting...I'm thrilled with how they're coming out! I'm especially pleased with how the feathers look curving around the grey corners; I'm going to do the same motif in every block. After I sew the blocks together, I'll put some feathers in the smaller grey segments too.

A little pseudo-McTavishing in this wonky log cabin. The smaller strip of grey will be in the corner,  so I quilted it before attaching this block to the others.

Teensy stippling and infinity spirals in the tic-tac-toe block. I haven't decided yet whether to add quilting in the black strips.

Tangerine Tango Sampler setting

Ready to quilt! I used, for the SIXTH time, Maple Island's BQ setting for last year's Craftsy sampler blocks. I love the way this pattern lets the blocks remain center-stage, but with just a little extra something going on between them.

I'm using a really dark steel gray as the background, with a print from RK's new Architextures line (love these fabrics!) as the rings.

This awesome print is even named "Tangerine"!!

Yesterday I cut all of the strips and started assembling the segments; after my class today I jumped right in on the final seams and...voila! I'll start quilting (one block at a time -- another reason I like the BQ pattern is that it works well with the QAYG technique) tomorrow.

2012 Craftsy blocks, ready to quilt! The colors aren't perfect in the photo (taken at night with a flash), but the hue of the lines in the ring print is a perfect match for the vibrant Tangerine Tango blocks.

Scrappy Travels

In a desperate attempt to tame some of the scrap bins (again), I have started cutting strips to make Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt. In working my way through the green bin, I cut 55 strips already. Not a bad start. Now that I have the fabrics for finishing last year's Craftsy blocks, it's time to get started putting those together!

Stay warm, my fellow snowbound New Englanders!

Thin Mints: Quilted

Finished the quilting on Thin Mints last night! I used the spirals that I practiced last year in the Free-Motion Challenge -- because I wanted it to evoke round stacks of chocolate cookies -- surrounded by a wavy line, which I did with the walking foot. As usual, all my quilting is with Sulky Blendables threads, this time using two different colors. Nothing is jumping off the shelf as a binding choice, but the right thing will turn up soon.

The chocolate Pearl Bracelets that I used on the back is peeking out at bit at the top of the photo...I liked how this motif supported the "Thin Mints" name that this quilt gave itself.

spiral quilting close-up

I couldn't pick which photo I liked best, so what the heck. This is just the best darn pattern.

Sisyphean River

I made myself a tiny design board for my micro-hex river project today:

3/8" per side. Yes, I am insane.

Thin Mints

I was inspired to finish these blocks after last week's Modern Patchwork class. I have had the brown strip sets made for this version of the Roller Rink pattern for months, but I finally picked out the accent teals during the class. After I had two blocks together, I had enough momentum to finish the whole darn thing. Then, once the whole thing was on the wall, the stacks of brown surrounded by those minty greens practically named itself: "Thin Mints." Plus, I loved Girl Scouts (and their cookies) so darn much.

"Thin Mints"... 'cause it kinda makes me want to eat a whole box of cookies...