PQ 15.6 A Busy Bee Week

I knew when I saw the challenge that there was no way I was going to actually finish my project this time.  I love Irish Chain quilts.  I have made several.  They are probably pretty close to my favorite block.  I really wanted to try making a double or a triple Irish chain. I pulled the fabric for one.  But good sense got in the way of a grand plan.  

So I grabbed this busy bee fabric that the Mr made me buy a whole bolt of.  And I grabbed my favorite white solid that I buy by the bolt and I used my handy strip ruler to cut it all out.  I discovered... OK... I finally completely convinced myself that my ruler with attached cutter is finally crap and must be replaced.  So I used the strip ruler for cutting the whole thing.  Even with the nerve-wracking make the folds perfectly parallel or it with smile... and not in a good way...  it worked great.  

I know from my long experience as a bench scientist that if you use a different instrument you introduce a variable and can get a different result.  Imagine... that works in quilting too.  Use the same ruler in all directions.  Use the same thread.  Use the same sewing machine.  AND your corners actually will meet mostly.  This is the squarest neatest quilt I've managed to make.

 

I DID completely finish piecing the entire top.  It is 70 x 98.  However, there is a LOT of white space and very little time.  The quilting is really going to stand out on this one.  So I decided to wait until I have the time to do it right.  

 

Thus I present you the pillow coozie of last resort.  One of the leftover blocks with an envelope back and a machine stitched binding  

It is 14 x 14 inches.  Imagine it with a pillow form. 

And that is the end of the first season I have finished all 6 projects in a very long time.  Thank you Kim and Trish for a wonderful, motivating season. 

PQ 15.5 Very Shy Wearables

I seem to go out of my way to find a way to break the RULZ or at least interpret them as uniquely as possible.  That means that over the years, in addition to coozies of last resort, I have also made wearables.  Typically shirts that I upcycle into something I actually want to wear.  

So when I saw the prompt for this week's challenge, I said "Trish.  Seriously!?!"  Literally.  I said that.  To her.  She said the best way to break the rulz was to follow them since the rulz said to break them.  

 

Meet the Very Shy Monsters Who Live Under the Bed.  They are one of the many types of denizens of the WaggonsWestTraveling Chicken and Monster Show.  They are very shy.  But the part of their story that I do know is that they collect glimmers of happiness and save it for a gloomy day.  (I will write their story as soon as they tell me the rest of it.  In the meantime, if you are interested, you can read about some of the other denizens in books 1,2 and 4 of the Traveling Chicken and Monster Show Adventure Series.)

Visitors to the TCMS often ask if the monsters are backpacks, bags, pajama pillows or tooth fairy pillows.  They do have small pockets, they have to have somewhere to hold all that happiness, but they are not really suitable for bags.  I've been meaning to try and prototype a Very Shy Monster bag so I took this week as an opportunity to do so.  

For a first draft this one isn't too bad.  I did a simple bookbag style just to see how it was going to be to work with the fleece and a lining.  The lining in this is an old tablecloth.  Unfortunately, I only had a satin ribbon of a suitable color for the strap so that isn't too sturdy on this one.  And I didn't add a zipper or any sort of closure.  The next version will have bigger eyes, snaps and a real strap.  But I am happy with it for now.