Guessing Games

I am generally excited by guessing games. In its most simplistic form, the scientific method is just a guessing game, albeit an educated guessing game, but a guessing game, no less. So the problem plaguing my crafty existence deals with the EPP 3" half hexie pinwheels I have been sewing for my 30's repro quilt. Twenty two of them are already finished (and there was much rejoicing.. yaaay).

The problem is: How many of these stinking things am I going to have to make before the quilt is an acceptable size for an adult to use? You see, I have absolutely no idea (hence the 'guessing game' intro) but I have fabric cut for 33 more. Hopefully that will at least get me close. All that is know is that I need to put on my big girl panties and head down/power though some half hexies. I mean, I could plot it out and know for sure, but then it wouldn't be a guess.

I also started working on a little something for a local quilt show. I have never entered anything into a quilt show before so I am nervous. The entry form says that I need to have a 4" hanging sleeve on the back of the quilt. Does that mean a 4" wide strip folded in half lengthwise for a 2" wide pocket or an 8" wide strip folded in half to make a 4" wide pocket?

I'm going to be purposefully sneaky for now and only show you teaser photos. This first photo shows 48 identical blocks that are missing one more piece. I still need to make 32 more. Sheesh!

Also, I am ridiculously amazed at how well those 4 seams met up. All 48 blocks look that tidy! I did modify the pattern a tad to eliminate a few extra seams. I hate superfluous seams. The original block pattern had the green triangle as a HST that was then sewn to a grey square and then sewn to the strip between that and the yellow triangle. No thanks. I would much rather get rid of all those failure points and bulk, because really, that's what seams are to me... Places to mess up. Here is a close up of the tidyness that is this block.

I just noticed one more seam that could be eliminated when I make 32 more of these. The strip to the right of the pink HST could easily be one continuous strip! Spwee!

Now on to cooking! My boyfriend's family was in town last weekend which meant he and I spent a good amount of time cooking. I had no idea what to do for breakfast on Sunday, so I went a recipe I have been tweaking: Lemon Poppyseed French Toast. The recipe might finally be perfected which means it could soon be unveiled. I leave you with a picture of it. Omnomnom.

Piecing, Love, and Fox Bag!

This week I converted a nearly forgotten UFO into a WIP! This L-O-V-E was the first thing I ever made with paper piecing. I used all of my most favorite fabrics at the time. My initial plan was to have this be the center of a quilt and surround it by blocks in coordinating colors. After countless bees trying to get blocks that matched, I ended up with about 40 blocks in similar colors, but only a handful actually matched. Bummer. Then there is the size: Each letter is 8.5" x 10.5" (8"x10" finished), so even sized up with double border, it really wouldn't work well with standard 12.5" blocks. So with all that, I put this away over a year ago and forgot about it completely...


...Until today! I really wanted to try out making some prairie points because I am thinking about using some for my next mug rug swap project. I don't like the old school kind for the border and prefer the interior borders. So I went hunting for something small to use prairie points on. Then I started thinking about the genius advice my boyfriend gave me.

I was getting discouraged about still not having the ruler to make the Houndstooth cover for my cedar chest upholstery project when he suggested that I make multiple covers as pillow cases and use utility foam to hold them to the chest instead of stapling to a board and screwing to the chest.

I decided to kill two birds with one stone! That's a bingo! Obviously I was never going to finish the LOVE quilt, so I ripped out a bunch of stitches and reworked it. Then I framed LOVE in grey linen prairie points.


Now I just need to figure out how to quilt the thing, and how to make this into a cover for the giant piece of foam. In the process, I learned a few things about prairie points.

1. Do not use linen without starch for your first try at prairie points.
2. Make sure the open sides of your triangles open towards the direction you will be sewing so you can avoid having to straighten every single triangle.

There was also other progress made! I finished the purse for Secret Tote Bag Swap. Now I am in the process of filling it with goodies so I can ship it out. I can't say any more about my partner since they do not have the bag yet. I keep having the urge to make fox stuff because of the "What Does the Fox Say?" video.


This past weekend was spent at the new house and I had a little bit of free time. In that free time, I was able to finish a whole lot more EPP half hexagon pinwheels. Oh! I decided to make the pinwheels turn this way. I haven't ripped the stitches out of the one going the other direction. Maybe I will still make a whole separate quilt to avoid ripping stitches.


My boyfriend and I even got a little more painting done in the future sewing room. We finally did the ceiling! Right now, the entire house is that tan/brown color on all walls and ceilings. It is fine in its own right, but a little boring. It is insane how much bigger the room feels with white ceilings. Hopefully this weekend we can finish painting the sewing room.

Grading Mania!

I love the end of the semester because it is the end of the semester which means I get a break from teaching. I hate the end of the semester because it means I have such an insanely large pile of stuff to grade.

This semester, I stumbled upon papers from two students who obviously cheated since whole paragraphs are IDENTICAL. I have a warning in my syllabus about academic dishonesty and plagiarism, so I know I should report them, especially since they are college students who need to learn about the real world. 

I have no idea if I should report them or not. This is the first time this has happened to me, and the paperwork seems daunting. Ugh. Any opinion?

Anyways, now for happy crafting stuff!

I finished the April and May blocks for Color Bee Shocked.

This is the April block for Caryn. It is a GIANT block, 24.5" unfinished!

Here is the May block for Karrie. This one is also large and ends up being 17.5" unfinished. (The group used this tutorial over here.)

I also mailed out my pouch for the Pretty Little Pouches Swap. Here are the two sides, with some goodies.

Lastly, I was able to eat some Brussels sprouts from my garden! Yipppeee!

Now I have to go back to work at grading. I should really try to have everything graded by Thursday afternoon since I am going on an amazing road trip to Texas Star Party, the best Astronomy viewing party in the world this weekend! I will try to bring pictures. :)

HS: Home Sick or Hand Stitching?

I am fairly certain I have contracted the bubonic plague.

That means I have spent nearly all of the past two days snoozing on the couch. For an insomniac, being able to actually sleep is already impressive enough, but sleeping during the day AND night illustrates how sick I truly am. 

In between naps I have been doing some hand stitching. This is what will be the front of the pouch I am making for the Pretty Little Pouch Swap. 

Here is a reverse shot showing the hand stitching and thread colors! 

The back of the pouch is going to be the green version of the woven fabric panel I made in this tutorial over here.

I also managed to start this ridiculous bit of applique for myself. Apparently this is what a fever does to my brain. The fabric styles are so random, which makes me like it more. This version where it is now is definitely underwhelming, don't you think? 

My TA Josh suggested more flowers to add depth. So I cut out more wildflowers and am playing around with this now. I will need fusible web for these additional flower bits because my machine applique is not too great yet. It still feels like something is missing, though. Any suggestions??

Well, I'm off to go back to sleep. Maybe I won't get banished from work tomorrow. Or maybe I will and I can fit in more napping and sewing.

Three Jobs?!

I officially have three jobs again. Which means this is going to be a short post (I always say that...). So now I can say that I am an adjunct professor, a scuba shop employee/dive leader, and the newest addition to the list is swim teacher. I am teaching Baby & Me swim classes, which is terrifying! Anyways, on to crafting!

I finished potholders for a former professor/mentor of mine who is now a friend.

Then there was the craft sale. Here are a few photos of my booth. I didn't sell too much, but it was fun! I ended up finishing 20 grocery bags, 10 purses, 5 zipper pouches, and like 10 potholders. Plus all the other stuff I had been selling for a while.

I also finished the potholders for Potholder Pass! These bad boys are already in the mail.

Here are close-ups of the stitching:

Then I finished the April block for Get Your Hex On.

I had some luck in the garden and was able to eat snacks from my tomato plants this morning. Spweee! I even setup a bunch of tubs and trash cans since it rained for the first time in a year.

Aaaand, I finished the April block for newBEES.

I also worked on a washi dress and stuff for Pretty Little Pouch Swap, but neither of those are ready to share! Woot! I'm off to bed. What have you been working on?

Farewell, Spring Break

Spring Break has officially ended. Truth be told, it ended yesterday, but I was [am?] still in denial. Luckily my students are now well rested and are being cooperative and dare I say it, pleasant. *Gasp!*

I barely made any progress on anything over the week for I was too busy trying to avoid doing anything. Plus, I was out of town for the last three days of the week.

Speaking of out of town time, here are two photos that show the hilarious distortion that can happen when using a GoPro. Both of these pictures are taken on the same camera, with the same settings, and of the same building (just from different sides and at different distances) but one has major fish eye and one is normal. I'm sure the distance is what makes the difference. I'm so thrilled this fish-eye effect doesn't effect underwater photos. The pictured building is the public library of Fredericksburg, Texas.

Ahh, back to crafting. The only things I did manage to work on were little. Mostly because all of the quilts I am making have no deadlines since they are just for funsies.

Here is what I have done so far on the Honeycomb Stitch Along. The hexies have been appliqued down, which is very exciting for me. Actually since this photo was taken, I have finished the embroidered honey bees, but all of the natural light is gone so no photos of that can be provided.

The final project I accomplished was the completion of a grocery bag pattern I had been meaning to try. The pattern is by Michelle Patterns and can be found here.

I had a dream last night that the plastic bag ban had passed here instead of Austin (fingers crossed it will pass here in a few years!) and woke up thinking holy shit, I gotta make some bags! To try out this pattern, I made two matching bags, one for myself, and one for my bff. Background story on the fabric selection: neither my bff nor I eat shellfish (she has religious reasons, I'm just allergic). Somehow though we have this inside joke about the "celebratory lobster." Way back in high school, her mom bought us a life sized plastic lobster from the dollar store and from then on we would pass it back and forth whenever one of us accomplished something awesome. Then it branched out into lobster cookie cutters, and anything lobster themed we could get our hands on.

Imagine my surprise when I found lobster fabric at a quilt store while visiting Denver, Colorado last year! Spweee! I had been holding onto it, knowing whatever project it was used in had to be matching for the two of us. Then I decided grocery bags would be the most appropriate.

So here is the one for her with a browny tan/red flowery handles and lining.

And here is the one for me with blue and white damask handles and lining.

Yay! Hers is going to be a birthday present. Nothing calls for a celebratory lobster like a birthday! ;)

Five Quilt Finishes

I have been out of town for the past 12 days, but am home for the next 12 hours until I leave town again for a few additional days. Upon my return, only 1/14 nights will have been spent in my bed, 4 countries will have been walked in, and 4 major cities in Texas will have been slept in and visited.

I should be soaking up this precious at-home interlude with some quality sewing machine time, but it feels silly to start something now. So my back-up plan was to blog, because, well, why not?

Look!

A blog!

INCONCEIVABLE!

Ahem. Instead of saying it has been so many months since my last post, I will say it has been 5 quilt finishes since my last post. All 5 of those finishes are in this picture-heavy blog, so please keep reading (or scrolling without reading)!

So what have I been working on over the past few months? Lots, actually.

I started working with English paper piecing, especially hexagons and have truly fallen in love with their portability. As a professor, I often find myself with 10 minute breaks while my students are taking daily attendance quizzes, or between classes. Such a short amount of time is not enough to run up to my office and accomplish anything worthwhile, but hexies fill this time quite nicely! I can baste up a few hexies during a break, and stash them away in seconds. All of the supplies take up as much space as a pencil bag, which means it all fits nicely in my purse.

Here are the hexies I have done, thus far. They are for an eventual quilt for myself. This quilt is going to be an ongoing project.

On the cruise I just returned from, I started sewing some into rosettes. Yippee! There are no pictures of that stage yet.

Now, on with the quilts! This one is the baby quilt for my cousin, his wife, and their new baby, KT.

The reason I am leaving town again tomorrow is to go visit them and meet the baby! She was a premie and had some health issues. This meant she was in the NICU when I tried to go meet her. Luckily, she is out of the hospital and healthy as can be. So excited to meet her!

Her father (my cousin) and I were like brother and sister when we were growing up, so she definitely feels like my niece.

Here is the pretty back fabric for her quilt. Notice that it is not babyish at all. Yep, that is common with me.

I even made a cute little reversible tote bag to give the quilt in! That would be pink starry fabric on one side, with sock monkeys on the other!

I also finished the wedding quilt for my friends on time! It came out better than I expected, considering I made up the pattern and the sheer size of it. The groom is very tall, and this turns out to be big enough to almost completely cover him.

In an interesting turn of events, I actually got to sleep with this quilt last night. The couple I made it for hosted a New Years Eve party/slumber party at their new house, and the quilt was up for grabs so I snagged it. This was very exciting for me, because I had never used a quilt of my own making. Mmm, it was so warm. Now I am exhilarated and ready to speed up my personal quilt projects.

I also finished the door-prize quilt for the giant Christmas Scuba Club party thingamajig.

And even completed the two surprise quilts for another cousin's kids. These are the quilts I was stuck on way back here.

Chloe's quilt (Pattern found here) just needed to be basted, quilted, and bound. It came out nicely! FYI: Both of these quilts are tied because the batting was a thicker loft and I found it frustrating to quilt on the machine.

Jonathan's quilt was completely started over with a new pattern and new fabric. For whatever reason, my brain is not capable of completing the Moda Zig-Zag pattern. From now on, any zig-zags I do will be with HSTs.

Here is his new quilt, that is actually completed! (Pattern found here!)

And a close-up shot of the Spider Man detail on his quilt:

The backings ended up being the same as originally planned. Yay!

Wooo! Five completed quilts and a photo-heavy blog post: I am on a roll!