My Monday Design Graph Paper

It finally happened, I had an idea for the back of my crumb quilt (what a cliche... I was in the shower at the time)! The front has been done for a long time. I think I know how I want to quilt it and I knew that I wanted to use certain pieces of really old calico fabric in the back in the spirit of 'use it up' but I didn't want it to be really ugly... I will make the back like one of the blocks on the front, only bigger and sort of a combination... a wonky heart inside a wonky star...

what do you think? Sort of 'giant crumbs'. Now I have to see if the pieces I have in mind are big enough and if I have enough gold for the heart, it is called "Hearts of Gold" after all.

I also finished the last 7 pillowcases for my friend's pillow case drive for the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA. I posted more about it here.

The top princess one (the upside down one with the pink ribbon trim) is going to my daughter since I promised her her choice of the princess ones. At least she picked the one that I sewed together with the princesses standing on their heads! I love the Aunt Lindy's Paper Doll ones, I used up the scattered clothing fabric I had for the cuffs and bought the yardage for the bodies in the clearance section of the LQS. It is an older line and I was lucky to find it - I thought I might have to make do with a plainer pink or blue. The ones below are the set I finished on Friday. So I have 12 cases to send to Sara for the collection she is making in celebration of her daughter's (too short) life. Hopefully her collection for the hospital will help to cheer other children who have to spend too much time there.

Gee, I haven't done this much sewing in many weeks... can you tell I am procrastinating! Back to work! If you have some time check out the other great quilt designs swimming around over at Patchwork Times' Design Wall Monday.

I have made Crumb progress... but only in my head!

I had really wanted to get a few things actually quilted... this is called 'quilting' right? Not 'piecing'? However (and there always seems to be a 'however' in my life) I got caught up in a piecing project (shocking I know!) that is for someone else and has a deadline and must be sent out to quilt which will take goodness knows how long. So, all my limited sewing time has been spent doing that. It is turning out fabulously, if I do say so myself (see the past few posts and tune in later this week for a photo of the final top photo) but it has kept me from completing even the small top I was actually quilting in January when I ran out of the right color thread. Drat, foiled again!

So this is a re-hash of the final crumb top, Hearts of Gold. I plan on quilting it... and this is where the 'progress has been made - I made an actual DECISION! with a gold toned variegated thread in a large overall meander. I don't think it can stand too much of a pattern since there is already so much going on. I may do a straight line grid to stabilize the whole thing before I start. I will also certainly take special care with my hearts - probably echo quilt around them a couple of times and work the meander around them. There are a few other crumb tops, some of them actually quilted! over at the Crumb Round Up.

The Big Crumb Quilt Reveal!!

So this is it... the big reveal of the crumb quilt from the Crumb Along with Jo at Jo's Country Junction. OK, I'll admit that mine is not quilted yet... but it is on the list of UFO's that WILL be finished in the Finish Along this year so It may be the first large quilt I have done in a while that gets finished inside a calendar year (if I get busy since I really started mine last spring when Jo did her first one, well before she decided to do a crumb along)! WooHoo, go me! So this is it... it is about 64" square and I think I will call it Hearts of Gold.

I think one of the things that makes the chaos all come together is the unifying color, in my case gold, and the 'motif shapes' mixed in. The stars, 4 patches, flying geese and yes, those little hearts I fell in love with give the eye something ordered amidst the chaos... a 'negative space' if you will. I am not normally a 'hearty' kind of person but something about those little hearts struck me and I couldn't get enough of them. I even made hand warmer bags with hearts done this way and posted a tutorial in this post. 

 After looking and pondering and consulting with some IRL quilters I think that I will be quilting this one in a largeish all over meander with special attention to the hearts. I will likely echo quilt a couple of times around those and nestle them into the rest of the meander.

I can't wait to see the other Crumb quilts that will get posted over at the Crumb Quilt Check in today, including Jo's latest. Go on over and check them out, I bet there are some spectacular ones in all different colors!

Designing progress

WooHoo! I will admit that the first photo is what WAS up on the design wall this weekend - borders for the crumb quilt, Hearts of Gold. It is now FINISHED (the top anyway) but I will wait to reveal the whole thing until the BIG reveal of all the crumb quilts from Jo's Crumb Along on 1-31-12. I hope to have the back made by then and maybe even have it layered, although I doubt there will be much quilting done on it.

I really need to figure out how to take photos of my wall without the flash washing out the colors!

This is a little TEASE photo of one corner of it but you will have to wait until the 31st to see the whole thing (and for me to get a decent photo of it since this one is back-lit and you can see every seam allowance!)

What is on the wall right now is the beginnings of a quilt I am contemplating making for my son's teacher for her retirement at the end of the year. If I plan it right I can have a light colored square for every student she has taught in her many years at our school. It is still in the planning stages and it looks a little odd the way I am putting the 9 patches together because I am working out of my drawer of full and partial scrap 4 patches and 2.5" strips.  We will see what comes of it, maybe  a charity quilt if it does not come out right for the retirement gift. 

For more of what other's are up to this week, hop on over to Patchwork Times and check out Design Wall Monday.

WIP Wednesday... or not.

Oh MAN! I got all excited that I would be able to link up this week with all the other Work In Progress Wednesday sewers over at Freshly Pieced. After many weeks of little or no progress on anything vaguely quilt related I have gotten a few hours of crumb piecing in during the last week trying to come up with the border length I need to finish my crumb quilt Hearts of Gold. Unfortunately, Freshly Pieced is taking a holiday break from WIP Wednesdays so I have no one to link up with. Oh well... there has still been progress, link up or not!

I have these and a whole string of others, plus the 4" squares I have left from the original 40 I made this past spring before I even began the main quilt. It felt really good to sit down and piece again. I am hoping to quilt the flimsy I had up on the design wall at the beginning of the week...

I decided on both the gold and the red for the ribbon and it is all fused down and ready to be sewn. I think I am going to add some machine done trapunto under the wreath when it is ready to be quilted. That should add some dimension to both the wreath and the ribbon. I hope to add some texture and 'drape' with the quilting. I just need to work up my nerve. It has been a while since I quilted anything and the last time it was a nightmare because the machine kept misbehaving. That issue was never resolved and I ended up tieing that quilt. I am not sure I want to go through that frustration again. Let's hope the machine plays nice with this one!

Finally progress on the design wall!

Yea! I have some progress to show on the design wall today! I have been finishing up the blocks for the crumb quilt and finalized the layout of the main body of the quilt and decided on a border treatment. I can't wait to start sewing the body together! First I am trying to finish up more of the 4" blocks I need for the border. This is what the layout looks like so far.

The final 8" block and a few 4" I will add to my next post about Art Every Day (I have some catching up to do!). I can see the light at the end of the crumb tunnel... although I can't say that I'm all together happy about that. There is something about these little blocks that are SO fun to make!  Maybe I'll try to lead a class on it or something... it does seem to be catching on!  It will be a releif to get it off the wall and out into the natural light to get a decent photo of it! Hop on over to Patchwork Times to see what else is going on design wall-wise this week in blog-land.

Wednesday's creative pursuits

I actually got to sew today! So my 'art' today for Art Every Day are the new crumb blocks I made and the new layout I am testing on the design wall. I will also link this post to Jo's latest Crumb post over at Jo's Country Junction as she is the hostess of the Crumb Along that spurred me on with this project.  Along with this I have actual progress to report on my hexie project for both WIP  and One Flower Wednesday! Yea me!

So let's get rolling. These are the new crumb blocks that were made today. I have eeked out a few others, or parts of others in the past two weeks but these made it onto the wall from the sewing table today. I made/completed 4 4" blocks and two more 8.5" wonky stars. I have been contemplating how to finish this quilt off. I think I may put a 2" border of my accent color (gold) and a row of 4" crumb blocks all the way around. By my calculations, if it is a 7x7 layout of 8" finished blocks plus the 4" of border I should need 15 4" blocks for each side plus the 4 corners, for a grand total of 64 blocks. I started out with 40 4" blocks and have used maybe 20 of them for the wonky stars and a few 8" blocks. I need to get busy making more 4" blocks. Fortunately, they are fun to make, go quickly and use up lots of very small pieces!

This is the top half of the layout with a sample border. What do you think? I can stretch my border blocks by making some longer than 'regulation' like the line of flying geese shown above. That is a fun size to work on too. The gold border will be sections of various length of the gold fabrics I have in the stash (I think I will pull the orange square out of there... too distracting). More of this quilt can be found by searching for the tag "crumbs".

My hexie project has been creeping along. I did not get to work on it much this week, but it is showing progress. All full flowers and both half flowers are attached now (although both need an additional petal)  and I have a whole stack of  new green hexes ready to go. A blue border on this one is looking more and more likely, I will keep you posted!

Thanks for stopping by! I am enjoying 'making' myself work a little at a time at one of my many projects and passions on this, day two of Art Every Day!

Possibilities

This weekend, in between watching middle son get excited over dissecting a shark and taking little daughter into a mini clinic to have her hurting (infected) ears looked at and getting her cold from last week myself  I worked a little on the crumb quilt that I expect I will call Heart of Gold. What possibilities! I am getting really quite excited about this quilt and am running out of wall space. I managed to piece a number of new blocks in the last week and this weekend got the new ones up with the old ones to see what more is needed. Wow,

The whole collection, minus un-grouped 4" blocks yet to be sashed or made into stars

what possibilities! I also put together a few sets of 4 4" blocks in little 2x2 window units with sashing to make them the right size. I think I like the dark sashing with no setting blocks, the light sashing is just too distracting, as is the high contrast setting block. Do you see the units I am talking about? What do you think? I need a few more wonky stars with crumb centers (does anything with a 'crumb center' sounds like a dessert, or is it just me?) to scatter around and I will probably add a few more other blocks with flying geese and other things to have enough variety. I do still want to sample a lay out with no wonky stars, maybe an on point setting... lots to think about. I also need to decide on how large it will be. If it is less than 60" square I could submit it for a guild challenge in February that it is perfect for, but I have some misgivings about that including, but not limited to the fact that I might want to make it bigger than that. Of course at 7x7 I run out of wall space so that becomes a problem in and of itself. What do you do when you run out of wall space? Floor is not a good option for me because of where the sewing machine is and there are too many children and dogs running around in this house to make it practical to leave it there for any amount of time.

WOOP WOOP! linear editor just kicked in - gonna have to
fix the vertical mismatch on  these sashing peices!

an example of the light sashing - distracting right?

I also have laid out the third border for the Moda quilt that I've been working on. I was optimistic that the "short sides" wouldn't take as long to applique because they wouldn't have as many flowers on them... NOT SO! The 'short' side is made longer because the two long side borders make the quilt wider so there are JUST AS MANY flowers on the short borders as the long ones... sigh. This is going to be a longer term project than I first imagined! I will post photos when there is more progress.

For more of what other people are up to check out Design Wall Monday.

Crumb-y progress.

I tell ya, the word "crumb" must have a thousand and one puns and I am determined to use them all before this is over! is it even really a pun, or is it called something else? I will leave the semantics to some one more language-centric than I.

Anyway, it's been a long week here at Cut'n It Up. The reading program at the elementary school is in full swing and that means a few days a month dedicated to processing reading forms, filling out certificates and awarding prizes. The first month always comes with making stars with names and photos too, which takes FOREVER. It especially takes a long time when nearly the entire grade is participating. It is great to have so many enthusiastic readers... it just makes for a lot of work for the volunteers.

The whole collection from this week

So, it was later in the week than usual that I got to sit down with my scraps and sew up some more blocks for the crumb quilt. This week's assignment was using triangles, which I have a lot of left over fromother stuff. I used to fond of the pinwheel arrangement, but recently I have really liked the broken dishes look. So I used that a couple of times, it seems like a lot of 'structure' for a crumb block, but it is growing on me. Since I have lots of 4" blocks to incorporate I made one broken dishes that will make a 4" block all by itself (it is in the group of 4 4" in the picture above). I was really surprised to come across those particular HST's because they are from a quilt using Thimbleberry fabrics I made in 1999 and gave to my mother the Christmas of 2001.  My 'assigned' triangle blocks are below. I will try to use the strip of triangles in at least one more block if I can because I like the repeat.

I made 6 more wonky stars with crumb centers to include in the mix as well as a few heart blocks, two new stars and finished up a four patch. I like the harlequin look of the green and gold heart and the bird house fabric is making a few more appearances. They are too cute!

I hope to be putting a few of the 4" block arrangments together with some sashing (what color should I use?) and getting everything I have up on the design wall this weekend. I am anxious to see what it is going to look like all together. Check out the rest of the work going on with the Crumb Along here.

Have a great weekend.

Things I've learned ...

The sort of directed sewing  I am doing for the Crumb Along using my scrap heap with no fixed result in mind has taught me some interesting things and reminded me of others that I had forgotten. I talk about some of the design considerations and things I am contemplating with this quilt in the design wall post yesterday, but here is a list of things I have learned, in no particular order...

A sampling of blocks on the design wall. 

1. I have a LOT of blue and green in the scrap pile and very little of the red in the pile is true red; there is rust,
    maroon, burgundy, wine, claret (I am sensing a theme here in the names of the not-quite-reds!)... You get 

    the picture.

2. There are lots of leaf prints in my scrap pile too, and they are not all greens.

3. Whereas I seldom actually follow patterns, I usually have an end in mind when I begin and am a fairly 

    traditional piecer - this project is pushing those habits into a newer, open ended, free-form space unfamiliar
    to me but not altogether uncomfortable.

4. I tend to tilt things to the left more than the right. This is a problem when you are trying to get things to look 

    random... everything tilts to the left! I am making a conscious effort to correct that now.

These are my tiny gems, just 4" big, they are so CUTE!

5. I can completely ignore the passage of time, thirst, aches and pains (the house burning down around me 

    most likely) when involved in sewing/creating. I knew this of course, but I don't often get to experience it 

    anymore. The first time I remember it being quite clear was in college. I was going to stop by the sculpture 

    studio for an hour or so on my way home following an science lab. The next time I looked up the guard 

    was there telling me to leave so he could lock the building. It was 1 am. Most often now I go upstairs to 

    sew after the kids are asleep for 'just 30 minutes' and it rapidly becomes 2 am. My husband knows about 

    this time warp problem I have and doesn't expect to see me again until morning (and then I'm asleep!). Of 

    course, now that the sewing room is also my 11 year old son's room I can't really do that anymore except 

    when he is gone camping, like this weekend. Of course when the kids are awake there is no chance of 

    sewing uninterrupted for long periods. They are persistent little beggars those children.

I like this star built around a bird school house.

6. I have a linear editor in my head that can be muted, but not turned off completely. My stars can have uneven points, some sharp, some not, the centers don't have to be square and the 'valley's' don't have the touch the center square... But the corners of the center square MUST line up with the edges of the adjoining star points, or come very close to it, or the whole thing looks wrong to me. What's up with that? Similarly the hearts can be uneven, skewed, funky shapes... but the valley between the heart lobes must make a nice point and there is a certain shape to be achieved with the outer slant or the whole thing lacks pizazz. I suppose it is the same part of my brain that used to cause me to straighten the pictures on other people's walls when they weren't looking and can tell if they are off 1/8th of an inch from across the room. It's pathological. Oh, and to add an interesting twist, all this only applies to MY work. I can admire and appreciate all sorts of wonkiness in other people's work, I just can't do it myself with satisfaction. How's that for a double standard? This is also a realization that is not new to me.

7. I really need to move the ironing board closer to the sewing machine... I am wearing a track in the carpet.

8. Crumbs produce a massive amount of strings and little bits of thread - I have taken to keeping a lint brush 

    on the ironing board to capture them before they breed.

9. I may have enough blocks for two quilts and I definitely have a second color family happening (clear, 

    brightish pastels) in a few blocks that might have to become a small quilt of their own.

sample layout of both large and small blocks together

10.Last but not least, I still have lots of sewing to do and it will be a massive task to get them all up on the board and move them around to get just the right arrangement of blocks. I have some new ideas, maybe an on point setting? Maybe staggering large blocks with sets of two smaller blocks... LOTS of possibilities.

I have been adding four patches to my blocks for a few weeks, so I am ahead of this week's lesson over at the Crumb Along. I will use this week to make more of the blocks I need more of to balance my layout. I also found another use for cute little crumby hearts that don't fit with my color scheme which I will post more about later in the week, so come back and check it out! Happy sewing!

A heart of gold!

Oh My Goodness, I am having SO much fun with hearts in my crumb blocks. I fell head over heels for the first little one I made and I have been wanting to make more and more. I really like the red ones that others in the Crumb Along are making, and the pieced ones too. See the link above for Jo's great directions and a bunch of links to what other crumbers are up to.  However,  since my accent color is yellow/gold my hearts are gold. THAT will be the name of my quilt I think, when I'm finished.... Hearts of Gold. That means I will have to make a bunch! Woo Hoo! I hope to make much progress in the wee hours this weekend since the 11 year old that lives in my 'sewing room' will be off camping with the scouts.

And Oh My Goodness am I horrible at stars... star points specifically. Ack! I think it has to do with the angles and the non-mirror-image nature of any angle that is not 45 degrees, BAH! I have definite preferences about my points that let my passion for symmetry and regularity show through (I have tried to let loose, really, I just end up not liking the result!) and I am SO bad at meeting those parameters while still trying hard to make it suitably unkempt. This is very bad news since I have a bunch of 4" blocks that I am thinking of making into stars themselves. That is 40 blocks that will require 4 goose blocks each... 160 goose blocks with those infernal star points! Yikes, my quilt plan may have just taken a turn away from its original path. Oh darn, I'll just have to keep practicing!

This is the idea I have for a the final product... many stars that are crumb blocks in the middle and have various colored points with a neutral background (left) interspersed with large crumb blocks containing star blocks  with gold star points (right) as well as heart blocks, blocks with 4 patches, and groups of 4 of the smaller blocks. I am trying to get an idea of what it will look like... I think I need to actually make more blocks. Sigh. I WILL figure out a faster way to make those goose blocks and get them to come out the right size, I WILL even if it kills me, which it might.

 Happy stitching to all and to all a productive afternoon!

Crumb-tastic!!

Well, it has happened again. The crumbs have taken over. I am both liberated by this crumb piecing business and constrained at the same time. I tend to work on more than one block at a time so I can have a continuous line going. I also probably spend too much time thinking about just the right color and pleasing shapes and proportions in the attempt to make every block balanced and beautiful. As a result of these two habits the entire cutting table near the machine is covered in scraps and partial crumb blocks. I can't get anything else done (hemming pants, the Greek chitons I am supposed to be making for scouts...). Each time I go in there I end up piecing blocks in an attempt to finish some of them up and get them off the table. By the time those are finished there are three more started... and on and on!

Anyway, I started out with a big stack of 4" crumb blocks already from last spring which you can see some of in this post. I don't think I want to do a lap sized quilt of blocks that small so I am going to try to come up with an alternate plan. I may make some or all of them into wonky star blocks. I could alternate wonky star blocks and 'solid' crumb blocks of the same size. I may toss the star idea entirely and just do a layout using two different sizes with sashing between. All have pros and cons which I will examine at a later date when I have more blocks to play with on the wall. All this to say that I am doing some 4" and some 8.5" blocks. I liked the way Jo's blocks have a little structure amid the chaos with the stars or flying geese etc. I started to incorporate four patch sections to the larger blocks before the Tuesday lesson and really like the window-y look and I think the 4 patch satisfies my eyes' craving for symmetry somewhere.


I am totally in love with the little geese I have been working on since Tuesday's lesson over at the Crumb Along as well. I love their crookedness as I am not normally a crookedy quilter. Yes, I will admit that I DID use a ruler to trim them, but only so the sides would be straight, not square (this is a big thing for me, making things that aren't square! LOOK, I even cut off points on purpose this time!) I am using a "planning to be random" approach... geez, I'm such a dork! Obviously a couple of these still need some work, but they are almost there.

I am also cutting a few 4" blocks along the way when I get a piece that works just right for that size. The good news is I am churning through the scraps, the bad news is I still have a ton and found a whole big lot  in another place yesterday when I was searching for just the right scrap to finish off a goose block (insert eye roll here... apparently I am not acquainted with the concept of RANDOM). So what do YOU think?

Feeling Kind'a Crumby

I am joining a "crumb along" over at Jo's Country Junction. See the pretty button over there on the right side bar?  KaChow! I added a button to my blog without (too much) technical assistance! Go me!

This will be my first quilt-along type activity! I hope I can keep up... I tend to quilt in spurts. You know, one can only ignore household responsibilities for so long before they suck you back into the vortex! I am not exactly starting from square one on this (no pun intended) as I got the crumb bug back when Jo was first working on her own crumb quilt earlier this year. I started making 4" squares literally out of my scrap baskets. I had gone through the bins trying to weed out the small from the medium and larger scraps. The small ones ended up in a shoe box; actually overflowing out of a shoe box onto the floor near my machine's foot pedal. About that same time I was working on some exchange blocks that had a lot of seams and I used the crumbs as a leader/ender type of thing. Well, when they began to come together they pretty much took over and I couldn't stop myself. Victoria over at Bumble Beans Inc calls this kind of thing "made fabric" and *claims* that is can be done "15 minutes of fun" at a time... I'm here to tell you, it takes me longer. I just can't stop! I finally decided to cut it off at 4" squares to give me shorter time goals... 'just one more 4" block' takes less time than 'one more 6" block', see. (OK, stop laughing) I ended up, after some very late nights of "just one more..." with something like 45 blocks. At that point I stuck them in a shoe box and left town; always a sure fire way to break a habit or cure an obsession. 

I may stay with the 4" blocks, I may make the 4" ones into wonky stars and make more blocks that finish the size of the stars so I can do an alternating layout... I will see how it goes. I do need to decide on a unifying color. Jo has her solid red, I think mine might be the bit of gold in many of the blocks. I will have to be more conscious about adding it now. I may also add some structure to some of them, like Jo's tiny stars and flying geese here and there. More experimenting, more fun (and more late nights - only the sewing room is now a bedroom for an 11 year old so maybe not). This could get interesting. Do you want to use up some of your crumbs? Check it out, follow the button, 'crumb along'!