Fabrics and rabbits and cats

.... oh my.
On your right, first prototype rabbit. I like the look of this one well enough, BUT, I don't like the fact, that you really do have to like curved piecing or the way I've set the ears. The ears, I could work on, the curved piecing ... no.
So I had to come up with another way of doing this particular kind of critter, and fortunatly I remembered Ellen's webshots of all her gorgeous Chuck Nohara applique-blocks, and there it was, the prototype for the second attempt at a rabbit
Oh, you want to see it ? OK :-) Go here ... and while you're there, look through her entire album of appliques. The blocks are 4½" finished size !!
ANYways, I then tried to make a rabbit a wee bit like the one of the applique, and the result is the blue and yellow critter. Only 2 pattern-pieces. Nice :-)

And the owls have eyes ! and are slowly turning into quite a family of owls.
As you can see, I have now made a smaller version, and I actually like this format better. One is finished, 5 more are ready to stuff, embroider beaks, put eyes on and close at the bottom. 3 blues and 2 more reds ... enough to make play-pieces for a tic-tac-toe game :-) ... and then I guess that I'll just *have* to make a board as well ... quilted, naturally :-)

The final picture for today is of some of the results of my S.E.X. yesterday. No, it is not a naughty word, it is an acronym. Please note the full stops.
It means "Stash Enhancment eXpedition". So there :-)
A series of neutrals with linedrawings or almost line-drawings (by Carol Endres), two Kaffe Fasset ikat-stripes, two batiks and some soft, rose/brown fabrics. To me, it's a pleasing combination, and they will be made into something ... preferably on the machine ... preferably using BIG pieces (i.e : more than 1/4" square, finished size).

An owl's nest ...

Another colloquial, translated literally :-) The colloquial means really messed-up hair. Quite a bit like DDs at times :-) But this is perhaps rather the beginning of a nest of owls. They have no usefulness, what-so-ever, apart from being cute and rather fun to make :-)
They are presented, with the first one at the back, then one for DH with birch-trees, a home-spun one and a japanese one with daiwabo and japanese indigo.
I think I need to find some buttons so they can get eyes :-)

Owls in the bog ....

Well, sorry, but that's a colloquial Danish expression, meaning that one has a suspicion that whatever is going on is not as it should be. This, however, is not an owl in a bog :-) It is a stuffed owl on my deck.
I first saw owls like this over at Moonstitches's blog. Unfortunately, she didn't make the pattern so she cannot sell or give it away. It's from a japanese book, that I frankly don't have the courage to try and order, even if she does link to Amazon-Japan. So I looked at her owls and was ... envious.
Then she made a tutowlrial and I decided to try and construct a useable pattern myself, and the owl here is the first result. I didn't use cardboard for it's bottom, but a seriously big washer, and I did wrap the washer in a wee bit of batting, to make it softer to the touch and easier to manipulate the fabric for the joining of the top and the bottom part ... but I have made my first owl. Yes. First. I do foresee more in a near future as I tweak the pattern to fit my needs and desires and wishes :-)

And the house is progressing more or less according to plan. What is next on the agenda is to come up with a way I can mark these tinies on the front, without risking it to show once the bag is joined ... I think perhaps a small running-stitch just outside of the seam-line might do the trick ? Then I can get the three of them quilted separately. That needs to happen before I join them.

I got candy !!!

See what the mail-man brought me.

Fabric-candy :-)

And its not fattening at all !! rather the opposite. At least the wallet has a risk of going on a crash-diet :-)
Aren't they gorgeous ? They look even better in real life :-) and what you cannot see is, that they shimmer slightly. Not gaudily. Just enough to change the hue a bit, depending on the direction you have the light coming from, and the angle from which you see it.

I see a doll-quilt in the near future :-)

And the yard for the house is in progress.
One tree sewn, one prepared, 3 more to prep. and sew.

Yes. It will be very cute :-)

... even if my long suffering DH doubts my sanity more than he usually does. Or rather, he doesn't :-) This one settles the issue once and for all.

... naw. He doesn't really understand my need to fidget with tiny bits of fabric, but he likes the results, and he enjoys my enjoyment. Which is good :-)

Moving in ...

And here is the first part of the tiny purse. Only 5 more "blocks" to make ... and then the joining, and quilting and ....
The block is all of 6" tall ... unfinished as it is. Looks rather cute, me thinks :-) And even if I question my own sanity when I make things like this, I do enjoy it too.

Decisions, decisions ....

On your left, the composite parts of the first tiny block for the very small purse I'm pursuing :-)
Yes. It is a 6" ruler to the left of the bits.

Do not sneeze !
Some of these bits are going to finish at 1/8" wide !!!
... when I finish it.
I will keep you posted :-)

And then to the title of this post.

Decisions.

The major decision I'm about to embark on, is exactly what I'm going to do with the small applique-blocks.
Will I finish them, just "with themselves" so to speak ? As on the picture here, or will I combine them with the Baltimore medallion ?

The reason the medallion is back in the equation is, that I want to use it. And if I'm searching deep down into my soul, I know that the probability of my making another 12 or 18 Baltimore-style blocks is not very high. At least not while I still have so many other quilts I want to do and styles, techniques, combinations, colours that I want to play with.
So, I've actually trimmed the medallion, and have now put it up on the wall, along with the small blocks.
Set like this, I need to make 4 blocks that finish at 12" ... and they would very probably be paper-cut style. Either Elly S' or my own ... but I would use all of the small blocks, and with a 6" border (well quilted) it will still be as big as my Dear Jane, and that's big enough to cover a queen-size bed.

The thing is, that I really want this medallion to be a thing not "only" of beauty but also of usefulness, and if the latter is going to happen within a foreseeable future, it needs to be part of something that is not a complete Baltimore-album, 'cause frankly, that's not going to happen any time soon.

And yes. I know. There is some clashing of style there. Formal and informal. "Real" Baltimore and folk-art. All mixed up with each other ... but then ... that's not a bad image of what I am. I can dress up to the nines for a gala-premiere. I can move about in a power-suit and make people think I belong in the executive corridors of a corporation. I can scoop my grey hair up into a pony-tail and dabble around with bare feet in my sandals and a worn t-shirt over a pair of well-washed jeans.
I'm all of that :-)
And frankly, I think it would not be a bad thing to make a quilt that shows this :-)
... And I guess there's no harm done in just starting some 12" paper-cut blocks ... I can always use them for something else, if the above layout is not the one I decide to work with in the end :-)

... on with the new !

A finished trundle-bed for my doll from Gail Wilson
The quilt is not the 9-patch the directions directed me to make, seeing that I really disliked making a 9-patch quilt for the real bed earlier this year
So it turned into a 4-patch quilt, set on point and rather than sashing-strips, it was alternate plain squares. I like that setting a lot, and in spite of my not following directions, I still think it looks cute :-)
Oh, and the colour on the bed is not as directed either :-) I'm getting slightly fed up with the green that goes with just about anything in her kits. Good thing that paint is available for money in shops :-)

And then : on with the new !
Today, I'll start a project from this book (on your left: Yoko Saito "Houses, houses, houses" ISBN 4-14-031131-2)
It will be a small purse of some sort. Which one will be decided when I check out what sizes (and colours) of zippers are available in my hidden storage areas :-)

I hope for a 12 cm zipper in a neutral colour, 'cause I would really looove to make THIS one (on the right), and I wouldn't want to have to go out in the damp, slightly cold streets just to feed my need to make it :-)
BUT if that's what it takes, I guess I'll just have to grin and bear it.

And I'm very happy that I don't have to buy a metric quilt-ruler just for this ... I bought it more than a year ago to have it ready for when I felt I could, with a good conscience, start on some of the many wonderful projects I have in my (growing) collection of japanese patterns and books :-)
Yes, sometimes the squirrel-tendencies are quite useful :-)
So that's what's happening here.
Things are finished.
New things are started :-)
v.g.

No more all alone

The wall is no longer alone and afraid.
It now keeps company with all the small applique-blocks I have accumulated during the past 4 years. Yes. It's been that long since I started the first DearJane Applique Sewciety blocks.
Over time, DJAS changed to Heart-and-Hand, courtesy of Diane Rode Schneck, Dear Hannah-blocks have been added, and a few of my own and of DDs design.
So it really is a quilt with all sorts of designs, motivs and colours ... which is why the preliminary title is "All-Sorts"
(and in case you wonder, yes, I love Bassett's Liquorice Allsorts)

It will not become the huge quilt I originally envisaged, but it will be finished as a "Not quite twin- but slightly too big to be a lap-size"-quilt.

Yes. Just rolls off your tongue, doesn't it :-D

And then a wee bit of eye-candy. The view from our bed-room door.
And in case you wondered, the house you see is not our house, but looks is exactly like it, just mirror-image :-)

Please note the gorgeous pink-flowered pergola on the right side of the picture :-) It looks soooo beautiful right now :-)

You can even forget that immediate cross-the-road neighbour has dug up his entire front-yard right now, and it looks as messy as ours used to do :-)

The wall !!!

I have a downright naked wall in my sewing-room. Look at this !!!

It's the design-wall, and it feels cold, naked and alone in the world ! Ne'er a block to keep it warm and cheerful. Just white batting and a few, stray threads clinging to the surface.

Oh, well. The reason this wall is in such a pitiful condition is actually quite good. At least it is to me. The sampler-top is FINISHED ! Lookeee :

And I started the first block on September 15th of 2006.
Amazing what progress can be made on a project if you actually work on it :-)

And this means, that I now only have one, single project going !
What is more, I'm denying myself the pleasure of starting a new one until the 4 tops I have finished during the past 3 weeks have been sent off to their respective quilters. How's that for incentive to get my act together and go to the post-office :-)

Happy Mother's Day

On your right, the revised version of DD's quilt.
I like this one better :-)
Much better in fact.
Perhaps I have an abhorrence of too much white ! too many clear spaces ! too much space even ??? Naw :-) I could - as I'm sure most of the rest of you - use another 2000 square feet of house ... preferably more ... as long as I don't have to clean them :-)
Yeah, right :-)


And here, on your left, meet Adora Belle.

Gift from DD to me.

On her t-shirt (the Bear's t-shirt, that is, not DDs ... who is not shown on any of these pictures) is the legend : The Beary Best Mom (in Danish, naturally, seeing that this bear was bought in this country).

Just thought you might enjoy it.

And thus, two very pink pictures on a rather pink blog :-) celebrating Mother's Day :-)
... oh, and in case you don't have a pink ribbon in the house, perhaps today would be a good day to go to The Breast Cancer site and press a button there. Someone's mum might be saved that way :-)

Progressing in Copenhagen

DFreind's quilt-top is now finished. Her first attempt :-) But I took over the second half of getting the borders on, after she had taken a year not to get it done ... it then took me more than a year to get it done, but ... at least they are on now :-)

And shortly, it will be going across the pond for quilting

The Sampler is progressing too.
I decided to do the star-corner, and now I'm getting cold feet.
With sashings thrown into the equation, getting just remotely fancy stuff in the border is only really feasible if it's applique'ed, so ... that idea has been tossed ... even though I liked it :-)


BUT, this is where I am right now.
Picture of DD's re-bordered quilt will come when it's finished :-)

That's what quilts are for

As you can see on picture (not a very good one, but it is there) :

This is what quilts are for.

Recipe :

Put a quilt or two down on the floor.
Add one child.
Pile a quilt on top of the bundle.
Lovely :-)

Life goes on ...

Well. It does.
There *is* a life after finishing a QD top :-)

And seeing that the sashing-fabric has arrived, been washed and is in the process of being cut, the sampler is now the thing progressing.
DH could see that this does have quite a punch. Not in the intense way the QD does, rather ... in a very loud sort of voice :-)

It is my priority-project until the top is finished and on it's way to the quilter.
But I'm .... dithering.
Should I do a plain edge, or should I fool around, and make a (visible) star in just one corner ??? (this is a mock-up on the design-wall, nothing more, so don't despair at the bad sewing ... it isn't sewn ... which might explain some things .... :)


Sashings and corner-stones of the upper right corner has been sewn.
Partly at least :-)
I had to see if the plan works as I would like it to ... and it seems that it does :-) Oh, and yes, there is progress on the small applique blocks.
No less than 5 blocks have been finished since I finished the QD-top :-) Not ironed, and not a good picture ... but the blocks are sewn ... which is good :-)

So ... life goes on, and "new" projects progress :-)