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.  

 

PQ 15.3 Inside Out: Showing What Should Be Hidden

 

This week's project doesn't count because I technically started it ahead of time.  It is a pair of jeans whose distress was moving far enough north to start causing me distress.  So I ripped out the side seam.  Did some structural repairs and then left them on my mending pile.  For a bit.

I used the darning stitch on my machine to put reinforced stitches at the apex of the worst tears.  Basically any spot the looked like it was going to continue tearing got a hefty patch of stitches.

 Then I pinned some fancy cotton scraps behind the distressed bits.  I probably should have used scrap denim but getting it to lay flat and and be stable took forever and I didn't want to do it all over again.  So it is what it is.

Then I used a zigzag stitch to secure the fabric to the back of the jeans.  Well, actually I had to wait a week while my machine went off to visit Mike at the machine spa.  I think it got cranky about stitching in weird directions on heavy denim.  But Mike was able to save her.  (Although he did happen to say that a 15 year old machine with TWENTY FOUR MILLION embroidery stitches that he couldn't get parts for was probably getting a bit past her prime.  When I mentioned I had a second one I was hoping he could keep alive for me he said it was good I had one for parts.  I wanted to cry.)

Then I forgot to take a bunch of pictures but I basically used all the pretty scraps I have been saving and patched it.  Randomly.  Poorly.  No rhyme or reason.  Well, we can get fancy and call it raw edge applique but that is probably giving it more credit than I deserve.  

No matter.  I stitched the side seam back up.  Inartfully draped it on the door and took a picture.  Voila!  Patched pants.  

And it qualifies for theme because if you knew my mother, you would certainly know that this is the part of patching a pair jeans that should be kept hidden from view with tiny small stitches. 

Project Quilting 15.2 Kansas Sky

So, I've been known to complain about the challenges that dear Trish comes up with each week during Project Quilting.  This week, was no exception.  The headline on the challenge was colors of the sky.  Immediately, I was thrilled.  I have a pent up desire to make a blue and white quilt.  I was going to do it.  YAY!  It would even be a traditional quilt.  No stretching the rules at all.  

But then, I read the fine print.  No blue.  Harumph!!!  I openly declared that I was going to make a quilt that was puke green Kansas tornado sky.  That seemed to strike a chord.  Down in the comments, Robyn Wimmer said "Don't forget the flying monkeys."

Oooooooo......  I got it! I'm going to make a monkey quilt!  You might think that the background color is a pretty jungle green.  However, it includes that puke green Kansas tornado sky.

 

I didn't have any puke green, or the appropriate shades of brown in my stash.  So I ended up getting the proper colors of grunge fabric.  It has a frankenbatting stitched together from scraps.  Remarkably the backing is a VERY old piece of flannel from my stash.  I mean very old.  It is at least 10 years old and probably a whole lot more than that.  

Because it is basically a baby quilt, I decided to tie it with embroidery floss rather than FMQ.  I rounded the corners (it has been a while since I've done that).  It finished at 40 x 40".P

PQ 15.1 Saving Bird Houses

Birdhouse ... nest ... tree ... forest fire ... smokey the bear ... saves trees ... saves bird nests ... saves bird houses

I bring to you my Project Quilting Season 15 challenge 1 'quilt' project.  It contains applique and it contains quilt blocks in the form of yoyos! 

This shirt has meaning for me on several levels.  I was a huge fan of Smokey the Bear as a kid and I still have my stuffed doll and ranger badge.  I also still have my turquoise Tonka jeep.  In fact I use it on my table as a napkin/salt/pepper holder.  All through high school and college I drove a 1953 CJ3B F-head Willys Jeep.  It was beige.  I worked as a research assistant on a project studying high altitude forest fire recovery.  Even though I have since learned the preventing all forest fires was a tragic ecological and environmental mistake, I still do like my smokey the bear. 

Back of the shirt with applique and yoyos.  The yoyos came from an antique store.  I kept looking at the bag thinking I should sew them into a pillow top but I never found the patience to do it.  When I pulled the bag out of my stash while looking for the lace trim, I decided this was a much better way to use them. 

 

An upcycled flanned shirt.  Front with machine embroidery.  Yoyo trim and hem.

 

Back applique.  Image printed on fabric.  Framed in embroidered sisal.

 

Collar trimmed with cotton lace... tiny pompoms on lace mimic yoyos on hem.

Pocket machine embroidered with modified club logo.  Trimmed with more antique yoyos.

Side panels have map fabric inserted into them.

Antique yoyos stitched to hem.  I learned it was easier to do this with a zipper foot.

Close up of yoyos on side panel.

PQ 14.2 An Effort Was Made

 I should have known when I was pulling fabrics a noon on Saturday that I would probably not finish.  However, I was determined not to make a cozy of last resort. Yep.  Week 2 of Project Quilting.  

 

I didn't finish, but I did get the top finished, the back pieced and the binding cut.  The hold up was the unfortunate reminder that one of the spuds stole  asked for the soundproofing boards in the basement.  One of which, I was using to make my quilt sandwiches.  It was about the size of a 4x8 sheet of plywood, but made of something much lighter.  It was upholstered in a gray woven furniture grade fabric.  That fabric grabbed onto the quilt backing and held it tight.  I didn't even need to pins or tape or anything.  And I could put it on a table so I didn't have to crawl around on the floor.  I completely stalled out on finishing when I realized I would have to go back to plan A.  I couldn't even.... By the time I got over my snit, I no longer had the time or energy to make the sandwich.

But then I remembered that the way I easily did my free motion quilting on my last several quilts was by renting time on the sit down long arm at the LQS.  And, would you believe it, they don't stay open all hours on Saturday night for my convenience.  So...  Another project gets added to my WIP pile.  The only benefit is that this one doesn't require any special skill or problem solving to move to the done pile.  It just requires a little less whining and little more enthusiasm.  

On the plus side, I was able to make this entirely out of my stash AND I was able to use up a couple different fabrics without generating a pile of scraps.  So far (OK, I've made it to week 2) I haven't purchased fabric for PQ.  I think that will be my personal challenge this year.  Well, that and at least attempting to get something made each time. 

Project Quilting 13.3: Kitchen Inspiration. A 'Cookbook' Holder.

 

OK Trish, I am pushing the rules here.  But then that is who I am and what I do.  This is a 'cookbook' holder.  Because the cookbook I use the most is my phone or my fire.  It is made using root vegetable fabric; carrots and beets to be precise.  And it technically has three layers that are stitched together.  That flat part in the middle has some cardboard sandwiched between the two layers of fabric.  Ta Da!  Three layers.  Stitched together by hand or machine.  

 

It has been a challenging PQ season for me but I didn't want it to go completely by without completing at least one project. 

PQ 12.6 AB INTRA: Crowded

 

My inner 5 year old is happy with the pink and lace.

 

My inner 12 year old is happy with the denim.

My inner environmentalist is happy with upcycling a messed up shirt into something useful.

My inner fashionista is happy with having something no one else will be wearing.

 

My inner quilter thinks we are nuts for starting on half in half square triangles the night before the challenge is due.

 

My inner old lady says what the heck. I always said I was going to wear purple.

And we all told the inner perfectionist to get back on that galloping horse 'cause we don't see anything wrong with it!

 

This week's Project Quilting challenge was AB INTRA, from within.  Well, there is a lot going on in here but what else would you expect?  

 This is an upcycled denim shirt made with lace and quilter's cotton. The wee small quilt in the pocket is a prairie rose block (from moda bake shop pattern).  It measures just under 4 inches square.  

 

I Followed the Snail's Trail! PQ 12.4

Busy Day.  Quick post.  

 This week's Project Quilting challenge was to be inspired by the traditional quilting block called snail's trail.  It is a pretty challenging block that has been giving even experienced quilters some starts and fits.  

I decided to follow the snail's trail to see where it would lead.  And look what I found!  The snail.

 Over the past year I have been working on understanding pattern design,  It is a non-trivial process.  This is really the first three dimensional pattern I have drafted with which I am some what happy.  I think the issues I have with it are more in the realm of sewing rather than in the pattern design itself.  I am pretty sure that once I shrink it down and hand sew it he will be just fine.  

 As it is, this guy is just over 9 inches long about a bit more than that high.  He is made from quilting cotton and stuffed with polyfil.  Just to be sure he meets the letter of the requirements if not the spirit he has some patchwork appliqued on his shell. 

Bearly There. Project Quilting 12.3 Virtual Vacation

 

 Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a true "cozy of last resort".  Well technically it is a mug rug of last resort.  

This week's challenge was to make a quilt that interprets the idea of virtual vacation, where you've been, where you want to be, where you actually are.  It was the perfect opportunity to pull out some of my 'travel' fabric.  I have a small set of cuts from Hawaii that my mom and my sister picked out for me when they were there a few years ago.  Since Spud 3 was known for his Hawaiian shirts it is a quilt project destined for him.  I also have a stash of fabrics picked up in Alaska on a trip with my sister, the mister and Spud 3. 

Our trip to Alaska was primarily a fishing trip for the spud.  My sister has taken all of the spuds to Alaska for their graduation present.  I just happened to figure out how to tag along one time.  It was a tightly scheduled vacation with lots of people and one car.  I figured I could finagle in one quilt shop during our travels.  I researched.  I really researched and settled in on the Quilted Raven in Anchorage.  It seemed the most Alaskan.  We had a few days there as we waited for my mom, my brother and my cousin, who summers in Alaska to arrive.  

So my sister and I ventured out shopping one afternoon.  We looked at art galleries.  We tried on mukluks.  We had a blast looking around and spent quite a bit of time in the Quilted Raven.  I carefully considered my options and I purchased a restrained amount of fabric and patterns.  

This table runner was made for a PQ challenge a couple years after our return.  It is from the that little stash of fabric.   

Much to my surprise, my sister declared the following day at I needed to go back to the quilt shop. I was happy to oblige.  I could look around again.  There was so much to see.  So we all piled into the car and went back to the quilt shop.  Much not to my surprise, after a very few minutes, my sister decided she was bored with the quilt shop and she and her husband went off to the mukluk shop next door.  

The mister and the spud found fabric.  They found lots of fabric.  They insisted I needed more fabric.  I ended up buying waaay more fabric than the day before.  It took up most of the spare space in my suitcase.  It really, truly wasn't my fault.  

So... I have a stash of fabric from Alaska.  I never had a plan for it.  It was purchased as blocks and fat quarters, a few yards here an there and a couple panel-ish cuts.  None of it is in my usual selection.  All of it is big bold prints with designs that need to be featured.  It has lingered in my stash for quite a while as one of those sets in need of a plan.  

 So I had fabric from Alaska where I have been and want to return and from Hawaii where I have never been but want to go.  Both fabrics seem destined for spud 3.  Fortuitously he was home this week.  So we looked at the fabrics and came up with a plan.  

North to Alaska.  North the rush was on.  

We decided to use the pack of 7 inch squares and one of the panel-ish pieces of fabric.  Spud 3 has an amazing eye for color and design.  He suggested we use brown as the sashing color.  Of course, my selection of brown was limited so.... off the the store to purchase what looked right.  And we auditioned them all.  We sent pictures to the mister to get his opinion.  We selected the perfect fabric and I got started.  

 

I had to do some math to figure out what size to cut the center panel so that the blocks all lined up and fit.  OF COURSE, there were 18 blocks in the pack and needed 22 blocks no matter what.  That meant I HAD to fussy cut four more blocks.  Those of you who know me, know that the two two things I truly dislike in quilting are fussy cutting and sashing.  Yep. This whole project depended on both of them!  

But I persisted. 

I love using clips to label each block.

I got everything cut and laid out and had to wait for the spud to approve the layout.  He can be very fussy about block arrangement and can see patterns that no one else will ever notice but will make the quilt over the top better when you follow them.  I carefully sewed the rows of blocks together.  I was extremely careful to make sure the seams were consistent so that things would line up in the end.  Things were going swimmingly.  And then.... 

My math was correct but I set up the story problem wrong.  Those  perfect 7 inch blocks actually finish at 6.5 inches.  Yep.  Amateur mistake.  So.  I had to figure out how to fix it.  It threw me for a loop and I lost a day. Then I had to work of the nerve to actually cut the panel down.  No way I could get a replacement.  Fussy cutting an order of magnitude worse.

I did get it done, with an assist from the mister.  I did get much of it pieced, just a few things left to do.  But by late Saturday, I knew I was not going to do the quilt justice if I pushed through and tried to finish it up.  This one is too special to risk making more amateur mistakes.  So I had to come up with the cozy of last resort.  

 

There were 18 blocks in the pack I was using.  Seventeen of them were gorgeous and graphic and wonderful.  And then there was the one that stood out like a sore thumb, or paw as the case may be.  This print was just plain awful in the quilt.  So I had to fussy cut yet another block.  ARGGGHHHH!

This little patch of paw prints was left over.  I decided to take one of the rejected browns, applique a bear on to it and make it a mug rug.  It reminds me more of Colorado than Alaska but as I am always going there on vacation it still works.  So.... Bearly There is my cozy of last resort.  

The real quilt will be finished in short order.  I want to have it ready for the spud to take with him when he heads back out.  

Bearly There.  PQ 12.3.  Virtual Vacation.  7 x 7 inch mug rug.  Raw edge applique.  Outline quilted.  Hand stitched binding.  Made near St Louis, MO. 

  

 

Nailed It! Project Quilting 12.2 Fussy Cut Challenge

 

Let me come right out and say it.  Fussy cutting is not my thing.  Now I will tell you, if you ask me, that I don't like fussy cutting because of the waste.  But the truth is I have limitations and I know it.  Not only do you have to position the fabric and cut it out properly but 99 times out of 10 if you waiver at all in your seam allowance you've blown the whole effect.  I do not like it. 

So when I saw that this week's Project Quilting Challenge was fussy cutting, I may have let out a few rude words like '2020'.   However, I set a goal to make something, preferably something other than a cozy of last resort, for every challenge this season.  So I had to do something.  Fortunately/unfortunately I have set another goal to use only stash and I already blew that one on the first challenge because I had to buy two pieces to make it work.  So..... I had to do this with what I had.  

Now I don't go big on prints and designs in my stash other than for magic bags.  The scale is very tiny on those so they don't make for a big statement in a piece.  And I wanted to make a BIG statement  I like to whine and complain about the challenge prompts.  It is just one of those things that amuses me.  I actually find the challenges I complain about the most, push me the furthest out of my comfort zone. They make me think hard and look at fabric in new and different ways.  This one was no different.  

I did have several different ideas for this quilt.  I didn't have a lot of time to pull it together and I was pretty convinced that even if I did go to the fabric store they would not have the perfect fabric for it.  I had to root through my stash to see what I could find.

 This Heather Ross Print from several years ago was on ridiculous discount at one of the big chain stores.  I bought the ends of the bolts of three different prints because I love Heather Ross and I knew I would find a project for it eventually.  Plus, I could tell the Mr that it was HEATHER ROSS so it was as much an investment as his Magic Cards!  

 

Now before you Heather Ross fans get all shirty with me you need to know that with the exception of the one PERFECT motif in the middle all of the bits in this quilt came from the cut edge and were already essentially destroyed before I mutilated them further.   But I did get that one perfect cut!  Nailed it!

This quilt is approximately 13 x 17 inches.  It has fast finish corners for hanging.  It is essentially a ticker tape quilt.  Each little attempt to fussy cut Chloe was stitched on top of the quilt sandwich with a few extra boxes thrown in for balance.  The binding is also stash fabric.  It was the best I could do since I already knew that the local quilt shops did not have the perfect gray gingham.  (I already looked for a a different project.)  The binding is hand sewn on the back.

I quilt near St Louis, MO. 

PQ 10.2 Cozy of Last Resort

 As soon as I heard the challenge, I knew which stash of fabric was going to come out and play.  It was a set of red, white and blues I collected after finding a cute little dress in a thrift shop and deciding the colors were perfect for a quilt.  The reds were easy.  I passed up the white polka dots in my collection as being too transparent.  The blues were harder to match.  I have found that blue is actually a very hard color to match.   They are not perfect but they work.  I tried cutting the appropriate sized triangles and much to my surprise, made it all the way through the stack of fabrics.  Unfortunately, I realized I need twice as many little white ones as large colored ones.

 After much head scratching, internet perusing and seam ripping, I got the hang of using the triangle paper to make flying geese.  It was not entirely self explanatory.  It also required a degree of dexterity that I was missing.  I was making good progress once I got the hang of it all.  However, by Friday morning, I wasn't even half way through piecing.  Even with doing multiple rows at a time to cut down on trips to the ironing board, I just wasn't getting it done.  Another thing that actually made a great big difference was switching from my tiny and sturdy BL9 to my larger machine.  I had to (horror of horrors) change it from embroidery to sewing but that thread cutter and larger sewing surface really make a difference. 

 

Thus it became time for the cozy of last resort.  I call it that because once upon a time, the infamous Quilt Chicken made an air freshener cozy at the last minute just to say she had completed the challenge.  It is  a lovely cozy and a wonderful lesson in get 'er done.

I went to my stash and found the adorable snowpeople in trucks fabric along with the snowflake/star fabric.  I had to argue a bit to avoid getting started on another complicated design.  This was going to be your basic alternating blocks.  A quick table runner.  I did have a blue fabric similar to the red stars but I didn't want to think that hard.  So it is a just a basic checkerboard.

 

I should have started here in the first place.  My skills are very rusty.  There was joy in cutting and sewing simple blocks.  I managed to line up most of my corners and iron most of my seams in the right direction so they all laid flat.  I don't usually even take pictures of the back of my flimsies, let alone post them but I am pleased with how this worked out.

Here it is appropriated shot on a pile of melting snow.  It measures 16" x 24",  The batting turned out to be thicker than I thought, so the quilt is a little puffy for a table topper.  I did a simple cross hatching quilting.  I decided that because I found the walking foot before I found the FMQ foot.  It is the simple things, I know.  An important reminder to self.  Quilting causes the fabric to recede.  I should have quilted over the red squares leaving the snow people to pop out.  However, I knew the white thread would show my errors on the red.  Yes.  I could have gotten the red thread but I didn't think of that until I was already started.

Here you can see my only sort of wavy lines.  It turned out better than I hoped given my rusty quilting skills.  The walking foot is a wonderful invention!

 And an art shot just because I finished in time to try and take arty pictures rather than desperately snapping a blurry shot just to get it linked in time!

PQ 9.2 Little House on the Prairie Points

This was not the best week of quilting for me.  I was on travel for much of the week.  I was able to plan a gorgeous quilt that was going to twin size.  I managed to go to Hancocks of Paducah with that plan in hand.  And I couldn't find the right fabric.  Well, that and the fact that the twin sized quilt wants prairie points.  It would take at best guess a couple hundred prairie points.  Given that I have no idea how to sew prairie points or how to finish the binding once I put them on, making a smaller project to practice seemed like the better idea. 

I do seem to have a theme going this season.  This is an historical picture of some women and horses standing in front of a soddy, a cabin made of sod, in Nebraska.  Because, of course, prairie points make me think of Little House on the Prairie. 

The picture is printed on fabric.  It is lightly quilted with No 3 Perl Cotton.  the binding is my first attempt at continuous prairie points (OK any prairie points).  I learned many things from this.  Making miniature prairie points for a first project is not the best idea.  I have no idea how to finish/attach/do anything with the corners.  This continuous strip thing will work really well once I make it big enough to collect and hide my raw edges and once I figure out the whole corner thing.

So why prairie points for my triangles?  Because I am a rebel.  I made triangles by cutting squares. 

This quilt is part of Project Quilting Season 9.  The challenge was triangulation.  This quilt measures about 5 x 8 inches.  I quilt just outside of St Louis, MO.