Category: Making

quilts

A Great Big Red Block

 

This block is 21 inches square. That’s big! For Sew.Quilt.Give. last month, we were asked to make one block following these instructions from Dining Room Empire. If I ever do something like this block again, I’ll do the math ahead of time and make a 4-patch out of it. Twenty-one inches is almost bigger than my cutting mat – this block may not be properly squared up as a result. Everyone was supposed to make their block one color, out of lots of scraps. We’ll see if my red selections turn out to be more saturated than everyone elses. If …

quilts

A Beach Blanket Quilt

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Back at the beginning of the summer, Stash was approached by the local portion of the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases for contributions to their silent auction portion of a fundraiser they were planning for later in the season. We put out a call for donations, and I committed to making a quilt. Since the fundraiser’s theme was going to be “Beach Party” (referencing the movies that made Ms. Funicello famous), I attempted to go with a beach blanket theme for the quilt. I’m not sure I’ve quite captured the idea, but this is the quilt that resulted. …

quilts

Tutorial: Blackford’s Beauty

 

Over at Stash last month, we held a little Christmas in July event. One of our activities was a Block Challenge: make a block (any block!) from any of our Christmas fabrics, bring it to the shop, and vote on your favorite of all the blocks on display. We announced our winner in early August. ‘Course, none of us who work there were eligible to win, but that didn’t stop us from making up some blocks of our own. And because I seem chronically unable to pick the simple project, I made up a complicated block called Blackford’s Beauty. Had …

quilts

Shattered Glass Blocks

 

I didn’t really want to but I had to take a break from Sew.Quilt.Give. in July, despite the call for any star block I might want to make. I love star blocks and star fabric and stars in general. One secret ambition: to make a starry night quilt, something that’s sort of a mash up of Van Gogh’s painting and those deep space nebulae photos. Yeah, someday… Anyway, August blocks! These Shattered Glass blocks come from this tutorial from the Undercover Crafter. These are a lot like theses blocks I made for the Craftsy 2012 BOM (which I’m still working …

sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Too Many Variables Can Spoil the Soup

 

Back in June, Stash featured some lovely large scale dahlia fabric. I thought the fabric might make a fun version of Amy Butler’s Liverpool. I like to think I was mostly right. I made the tunic length (the pattern can work up as a shirt, a tunic, a short dress or a long dress), lengthening it 3/4 inch to put the waist at the right spot for me. I didn’t make any other adjustments. The pattern is well written, with detailed descriptions of each step. I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to shaping garments even though I’m …

quilts

Another Finish!

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Hooray for another finished quilt! This one is my “Blogger’s Block of the Month” quilt, begun in the fall of 2011. I wasn’t able to stay current with all the months, but of the three (!) BOMs I started at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012, this is the only one I mostly kept up with. I’d like to say that I’ve learned from this experience: either keep it to one BOM at a time or don’t sign up for things with a specific schedule. The latter seems unreasonable and the former seems unlikely. Oh well. The fabrics in the …