Flurry of Finishes

So after not completing ANY projects in the month of January, I'm finally on my way to getting some of these things off my plate.


First up, the B&W couch quillow. This is how it looks all pillowed-up; it's very small (11x12, I think), which makes sense, since the quilt is only a yard of fabric (approx. 36"x44"). Next time I do one of these, I think I need to attach the quillow part so that it's not perfectly flat, and allow some wiggle room to convert it into pillow. Seriously, I love the cheater cloth print - looks like I did so much work, when I really did nothing at all!

Second... I finished up the sling bags for friends Miranda & Carrie, using some of the Cotton Blossoms charms, along with some extra CB fabric I bought to coordinate. These suckers are pretty big, so they'll function quite nicely I think. Miranda's straps seem long, but she is a bit taller than me, and maybe her torso is longer than mine. I'll send Mir's with the baby quilts (more below), hopefully it works for her. I'll see Carrie in a couple of weeks; she's flying down to San Diego from Seattle for the weekend right before my birthday, so we'll head down to spend Sunday with her & boyfriend Dave (zoo or Sea World, not sure yet).

Third... I pieced most of the top for Steve's rocket scientist whirly giggles quilt. I don't know what it is, but these whirly giggles mess with my head. I used Michelle's post as a guideline, but things fell apart in my brain. First, she says that the blocks finish to 9"...so I knew I needed 4 to get the size I wanted for the wall-hanging. Except my brain forgot to factor in that I was working with 5" squares, so I wouldn't actually need very many to complete one of the blocks. I think I ended up cutting enough to make 16 blocks - plus I cut double the amount required for the lime green solid. So I have a ton of extra pieces. These pieces came in handy, because then I thought I would be OK cutting a ton of fabric @ once, with the fabric folded up, so the pieces weren't all going the same direction. So I had too many pieces, some with the whirlys going the wrong way.

Any guesses as to what's wrong with the blocks above? If so, you did better than I did when looking @ it for the first time. I didn't even realize until I came back later that I still managed to get the wrong pieces in the quilt - the bottom right corner is all messed up. But I'm not going to take that mess apart, and try to put it back together again. It will stay how it is. You know how they say the Amish intentionally put an error in each quilt to demonstrate humility and how God alone is perfect? Yep, I'm definitely humble, without even trying! I don't why this has been such a brain teaser, but it has been. I think I'll use some of the extra blocks in a pieced back. I did iron everything, so it's all ready to go.

And now for the good stuff... A quilt for Baby Leah:

Most of the pieces are Tula's full-moon forest cut into 5" squares. I mixed some things up, and there are 2 four-patch squares in there, along with 2 5" squares from the Flutterby line. I'm totally in love with this quilt top, the colors in that line play so well with each other. I know I could have done better with the layout, but I just sewed a bunch of squares together, then a bunch more to form 4-block strips before I laid them out to figure out placement. 120 squares is a lot to work with!

Steve thinks the random owl (which is from the same line) is sort of scary-looking...do you agree? I personally love it (but I'm obsessed with owls, so what do I know?)...

And finally...it's Katie's month for Pieced Together, and here are the fabrics she sent. Basically, she wants something ala-Denyse Schmidt / Project Improv. The white is not to be used in the outside of the block. The red & blue are also incorporated to make the quilt cohesive. A lot of people already have their blocks done, so I'm feeling some pressure to work on this. I think I may make a sample block from some of my scraps, just to get the feel for what I'm doing, since I've never done improvisational piecing before.

On the homefront, 2 days without cable & counting. It's been mostly OK; the rain in LA has caused the HD signal to come in a bit fuzzy at points. And I'm going to miss watching Big Love on HBO. But some oldies-but-goodies (at least, to me) got me thru my crafting weekend: Notting Hill & Moulin Rouge. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player, which I can set on the dresser in from of my sewing machine (and that little thing can pump out the sound).