Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Hanging Out

So here's my block for the Modern Quilt Guild's QuiltCon Block Challenge.  It's the very first block I've ever designed.  The idea is that the six inch center block or "the quilt" can be different every time while the background stays the same.

"Hanging Out" by MissEnota Minnesota

Although I can see a couple of mistakes in the piecing what I really want to know is what anyone thinks about the block itself.  Is it cool?  Should I put borders on the six-inch center block?  Would anybody be interested in a tutorial?  (I have a second version of it that together with this would make a quilt.)

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Oh Knitty - Your Date is Here!

Mer-Man sighting

Knitty Prefers her Men Sweatered
Tell me this isn't the best thing ever.  I found him on page 67 of the Summer 1949 McCall's Needlework magazine which I picked up for 50 cents last week.  "A young man's fancy may turn to mermaids, sailing ships, anchors, water-spouting whales..." indeed!                                                                                              

On the Quilt-Along front.  Blocks 7 and 8 have come along.  I haven't fretted too much about inaccuracies as I go but I do love each and every corner that lines up (for they are few and far between!)


That's enough eye-candy for now.  I'll see you again in August.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Try and Try Again

This month I signed up for my first swap ever.  This is in keeping with some of the advice I received during my giveaway in order to get more out of blogging.  So when I stumbled across the Rapid and Tiny Zakka Swap group on Flickr during the sign-up period for July, I recognized the opportunity and immediately joined up.

After filling out a little questionnaire about my likes and dislikes (I found this difficult) I received one from my swap partner at the beginning of July.  She basically likes a ton of cool things (retro, 80s, pop culture, color, woodland whimsy, adorableness, felt, etc...I mean, too many to mention but awesome ones) but I was stumped anyway.  Eventually I came up with this:

Needlebook #1, cover
Needlebook #1, inside

 I used a couple of patterns/tuorials for this one.  First, the overall quilt/page/pocket design is from here (although I deviated in size) and the embroidered sewing machine detail is from Makoto's Cross-Stitch Super Collection. Finally, the spool and sewing machine blocks are a free pattern from here.  This was my first paper-pieced block ever and it was fun!  The thing was, although I learned a ton doing it, I really didn't think it ended up A) Tiny or B) Rapid; it's actually kind of bulky and loose.  Also it's GIANT.  Almost 7 inches square.  It's cute, but it wouldn't be very practical for on-the-go projects...



So I started over.




Needlebook #2

If you've wandered around the blog, you might have seen another one of these hexagon needlebooks.  This is the kind I made for my mom on Mother's Day and the kind I use myself, all of the time.  It's compact, portable and gets the job done.  This is what I'm sending to my swap partner.  I hope she wouldn't rather have the giant one.

In any case, I'm mailing it out tomorrow.

Edit: If you'd like to see the needle book I received, it's on Flickr here.

And I signed up today for the August RATZ swap: Name Tags.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Building Blocks

Block 6, Olfa, and Chips

Block 6 for the Beginner's Quilt-Along didn't come together until this afternoon.  I usually jump right in as soon as the mystery block is unveiled on Thursday mornings but this time I delayed gratification. The new blue flowers print is from Moda (another remnant); the others I've announced before and as always, the little horses are in there so I changed the block name from "Go on a Picnic" to "Go on a Picket."  The windmill effect of this block delights me.  It reminds me of Kansas and Oklahoma.


Oh - and I've named the frog, "Chips."


Here are the first six blocks together.  Please excuse the picture, it's late and they are all together bigger than my sewing table.



Have a good night!

~MissEnota 

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Home and Away

I've been away since Friday...up north at the family lake cabin soaking up the sun.  Although it was difficult to leave, we have a big weekend planned with a concert, hanging out with friends at a "beer-lympics," and a family reunion after that.  I have no idea what a beerlympics consists of except that there will be beer, teams must dress as their country (we are Japan) and there will be games of skill.

Isn't it amazing, all of the variety you can get from half square triangles?!

But until then, today is Thursday and that means another block for the Beginner's Quilt-Along.  For the fifth one, I used some brown LouLouThi by Anna Maria Horner and the yellow is Flying Stripe by Ellen Luckett Baker for Moda; they were both in a remnant pack I purchased with my commission for the tutorial at Sew,Mama,Sew!  My thinking is, I'm too new of a sewista to have built up enough scraps of my own but my sewing table is steadily being encroached upon by new fabric piles.  Again, there's another little machine-applique on this block because I just can't let one of these go without the horse treatment.

My town is full of occasional sales stores.  These are thrift/antique shops that only open for one weekend a month (it starts today.)  Most of them are elaborately themed and fun to paw through as the merchandise has been hand-picked and staged like a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot.  I'm about to walk out the door and explore a few of them but first, I'll leave you with a recent garage-sale treasure.

Almost 3 yards for 3 dollars.
That's it for now.  Take care!