Scuffy

When I was in high school (and I'm not saying how long ago that was)....  I had an amazing teacher.  My graduating class nicknamed her Scuffy (and I'm not telling you why either).  She to this day, so I hear, teaching with a passion that one would hope to ignite even the most electronically inundated mind.  I adored her and in the history of all of my teachers she was by far my favorite. 

Today I am Scuffy, not because I inspire classrooms full of children (though hopefully I'll be doing a bit of that this November for the Great American Teach-In but more about my plans for that another day), but because I twisted my good foot so now even my normal limp is out of range and I have been sort of "scuffing" along since Tuesday. 

Let me see here, what have I been up to since blogging last?  Oh yes I made a wall hanging, it's a little thing barely bigger than 1' square, but I hope the person I made it for will like it.  All I have left to do with that is make and add the binding.  Who would have thought it would take so much work to talk myself into making a yard and a half of binding?  Good Grief.  Do you have times like that?  It seems like such a paint to get everything out for such a little thing.  Perhaps I'd be quicker if I commited myself to making the binding for something else too...  Hmmm, like maybe the Patisserie Quilt...

People that work all the time amaze me.  Sometimes I just want to curl up with a book, or something else quiet.  Like now, the only noise in the room is the slight hum of the computer and the click of the keys.  I love that peace and tranquility.  I'm certain a love of things quiet comes from parenthood as I didn't care one way or the other for it growing up.  Shoot in those days I could read through just about anything.  Hu, I guess I still can; as when I was sick over the weekend I was reading on the couch while my daughter watched Sponge-bob, what is it with that show anyway?  DH and I used to comment that simply having it on makes our IQs drop.  These days it must have plummeted low enough for us to stop mentioning it.  Perhaps it's like a big mess that you hope will go away if you ignore it. 

Does anyone know how to make a Giant Spiral?  I need one, something like 8"-10" out to about 30", well I'm off to go see what I can find on the Internet, wish me luck.

Christmas Quilt-A-Long Sick

Boohoo!  I missed the Christmas Quilt-A-Long Yesterday.  I had a terrible tension headache that kept me on the couch with my head nearly inverted as it was the only way to keep my head from giving me to much grief.  The good news of course is that I had things I'd planned to do, so now I'll be needing a rain-check day.  So be sure to look for that in the next week or so.

On a better note, while feeling depleted I am in fact feeling quite improved, so though I'll be taking it easy for now hopefully I'll be feeling like myself soon (good thing too as the floor is begging to be cleaned). 

No worries about my dd, she enjoyed going from sitting on me to playing all of her favorite games on the computer so my day of rest didn't bother her in the least.

Quilt Basting Day

Basting Day Quilt Pile

Today I had that Quilt Basting Day I was looking forward to.  First I basted the Practice Freemotion Quilt for the freemotion quilt along and then the Denim Patchwork - I decided this one wont be puffy patches, but I'm not entirely certain how I will quilt it perhaps a simple trace of some of the flannel butterflies on the backing - only time will tell, and then I used my last big piece of batting to baste the Christmas Hodgepodge Quilt.  No worries on batting though as I have enough to take care of that Christmas Wall Hanging I mentioned here as well as a second secret project that I'll be working on next Saturday as part of Sue's Christmas Quilt-a-Long and sadly even though that should be wrapped up quickly you wont be hearing another word about it until Christmas.

The Christmas Hodgepodge Quilt is a really pretty quilt, I ran out of basting spray so it is the only one that is pin basted.  I found myself a bit startled by it as I was basting it and again now that it's puffy with batting.  I have high hopes for the finished quilt on that one.  While I have every intention on filling it with freemotion quilting I think I will make some aspect marks for things like the large snowflakes and so on.

Sunny Asleep on Kitty Kamp Pattern

When I was in college I took more than a couple of art classes, the first of which had a through if overly cautious first year teacher, she gave so many high quality handouts and so much sketch work that to this day I have everything from her class in a binder that I keep near my sewing machine.  So last night when five year old dd wanted to read one of my sewing books I happily let her have her pick.  Surprisingly she grabbed that old binder and out slipped a pattern given to me by my friend Vicki, some of the pages got a little mixed up and it wasn't put away so here is Sunny taking a siesta right on top of it.

She was in Labor on Labor Day

My mother hates that joke.  I can just see her cringe as more than once I have said "my mother was in Labor on Labor Day".  Now over the years she's learned to pipe up with "and I never worked harder a day in my life".  Of course she and I know that's not true as I wasn't even a big baby, unlike another child she had... 

Butterfly near the Quiet Pool

So anyway Labor Day babies pay dearly for their birthdays all through early school years.  Why?  Because  if you celebrate early - you don't get to invite your friends from school as school isn't in session yet and if you celebrate Labor Day weekend only your family can come and if you hold it a week or two late, you still end up being best friends with the family that is trying desperately to have one last family getaway before settling into the grind.

But what is great about being a Labor Day Baby is that when you start dating you can tell everyone to remember your birthday is Labor Day weekend, and then they will hit your birthday about 50% of the time.   So that's better anyway. 

Did you know there is a Tron Monorail these days?  Not really a fan of the movie, but hey I've seen it.

But this year my sister took all those less than ideal celebrations and threw them out the window with a delightful trip to Walt Disney World.  Oh yes that's what I said.  DH and I rode all the rides in the Future World of Epcot before noon, no waiting - no joke.  It was awesome.  Then my sis and I enjoyed splendid shopping all over Epcot.  We had Cloud Creams in Norway (call them cream curls, cream horns or Cloud Creams I don't care they were wonderful).  Pizza in Italy, a boat ride in Mexico, fish and chips in the UK (okay my sister had Fish 'N Chips I had Bangers and Mash), and then capped off the evening buying perfume in Canada. 

This was being written in the sky while it was just DH and I,
how sweet!

We stayed at the Polynesian which was wonderful.  I think the humidity is lower there, as it felt so nice to feel the sun's warm rays. 

The morning sun filtering through the Kukui Nut Tree imported from it's native Hawaii

I do hope that you too enjoyed your Labor Day weekend.

No Fuss Snowball Blocks

I loved working on the Snowball Blocks in my Patisserie Waltz Quilt so much that I thought I'd put together a little tutorial for you, after all I haven't posted one in a while and they are so easy you'll be wanting to make them more and more.  Not to mention you'll wonder why you didn't go ahead and make this block sooner as opposed to waiting all this time.

We're going to make a 12" snowball it will be 12.5" while we worth with it of course and will then sew in at 12.5", as a bonus we'll end up with 4 half square triangles which can be used for just about anything else (hint hint - like the back!)

Diagonal lines on HSTriangles

First cut your base fabric.  Cut it at 12.5" square.  Next you will need your corner fabrics, mine are purple.  For those cut four squares of fabric at 4.5" each.  On each of the corner blocks draw a line diagonally across the fabric from corner to corner as seen above.  Please note my corner fabric is a batik with no set top/bottom, but if yours is a standard print you should draw your line on the backside (wrong side) of the fabric and sew the two pretty sides together.

Line the entire small corner square up over one corner of the large square of fabric pretty side kissing pretty side.  Now sew right on top of the line you drew.  Do that for each corner or chain stitch for as many as you like.

Now that you have your almost snowballs.  Some people would cut off the corners fold the print down and call it a snowball block, but just one more step and you will have your bonus half square triangles.

See the second line of stitching next to the first on the blocks to the left vs. the single row of stitching on the blocks to your right?

Now adjust your sewing machine needle over to the right as far as it will go line the edge of the presser foot.  Line the presser foot edge up with the line you stitched.  Does that look like it will leave enough of a seam allowance?  If not draw an offset line 1/2" from the first line you drew.  Now sew using your last row of stitches as a guide or the second line you have drawn. 

Once you have two lines of sewing simply cut between the two lines.  Be careful while you cut the corners off not to accidentally nick any of the other blocks or any other part of the block itself. 

These already look like snowballs!

After they have been cut apart simply press them open.  Now wasn't that easy?  I know for certain you'll be seeing more Snowball Blocks in my quilts in the future.

All done!

Are you wondering what to do with those leftover half square triangles?  Simply square them to 3.5" so they will sew in at 3".  Perhaps I might end up using mine to make some Ohio Stars...

As always feel free to click on any of my images to see them larger and if you still need to see them with more detail you can click on them again when the larger image appears.