Little bits of Batik Patchwork

I've been sewing bits of the Batik Double Wedding Ring quilt I mentioned cutting the pieces for ...

Lots and lots of pieces got sewn together ... squares and arches and melon-shaped navy blue pieces.

... with lots more still to come.

It seems I need eighty-something of these little melon-shaped units. 

I've got twenty-something made.

Pretty good for a start. 

I love the colorfulness, with the navy background.

Double Wedding Ring block trial-run

The other day, I mentioned starting my Batik Double Wedding Ring quilt. 

Here's the test-run for that one:

Got this cutesie fabric cheap. While I'm not really a Tinkerbell fan, the price was right to make a trial-run of a few blocks, using my new DWR templates I'd just bought from Amazon.com.

Found out a few details that proved helpful. Found out I can do it, and the curves aren't really that bad. 

Finishing this one up soon, into a 16-block quilt top that'll measure around 40 inches square. I'll probably sell it as a quilt top, so somebody else can quilt it for a real Tinkerbell fan. :-)

Friendship Bracelets

The other day I came across a bunch of extra embroidery floss I've got.

(Extra, as in, I already had a ton, and then I found oodles of NEW skeins of DMC embroidery floss for 10¢ each at a thrift store, and couldn't pass it up. So, yeah. I've got extra.)

So I suddenly remembered that it's been a while since my girls have thought of making friendship bracelets, and they might like reminding.

And I also suddenly remembered coming across this "20 kinds of friendship bracelets" blog post (thank you Pinterest), so I thought I might get the girls started on some of the easiest ones.

I had fun remembering how much fun I had as a kid making these. I had fun starting these off. And, I just might try some of those fancy-looking ones I've never tried. Hearts in a friendship bracelet? Cool idea. 

Fun way to keep hands busy while watching football with the family. Fun thing for the girls to do with friends and cousins.

Floral Kaleidoscopes - Love them!

I've discovered that I LOVE floral kaleidoscopes in quilts. 

The green one I made a couple years ago has become a family favorite.

And some of the time, I find fabric that just LOOKS like it would make an awesome kaleidoscope.

This fabric was a sheet from the thrift store. (My kids are amused when I see "normal stuff" as "fabric", instead of as the garment or household linen that it actually is.) 

It's not exactly vintage, and not exactly all-cotton. But I loved it, and thought it would make a great kaleidoscope. 

Turns out, I was right: It makes a great kaleidoscope. Love the colors, the roses, the uniqueness of each of the (70+) kaleidoscopes I sewed up the other day.

I'm planning to set these blocks with some solid light-blue-grey in between, to give these blocks a layout like the green one I mentioned above, minus the piano-key border, plus a plain border made of the-rest-of-the-sheet.

Beginning a Batik Double Wedding Ring Quilt

A few weeks ago, I mentioned starting to try some double-wedding-ring quilt blocks.

I made a relatively successful gingham DWR block.

Then I got a cheap deal on some cutesie fabric that would make a good next effort. Cut it and started sewing it. It's almost done. (More on that another day.)

My inspiration? I want to make a double wedding ring quilt with these pretty fabrics.

I got these batiks half-price (oh, joy!), and I was delighted. 

Laying things out to cut, measure, or photograph seems to set off the kitty's radar-sense that something quilt-y is ready for her inspection. (Happens every time. We find it hilarious.)

I'm making it with navy blue as the background color. (Heavy inspiration from this double wedding ring quilt from Jo's Country Junction.)

The navy blue was part of an all-cotton KING size sheet set I bought NEW for $11. Love deals like that. 

So now I've got all these pieces cut out. I marked each side of the the center of each of those curvey pieces. Hundreds of little snips. (Is there a better way? Anyhoo, it's a good rocking-chair activity, and it's done.)

Layout is going to look like this snapshot. 

Exciting stuff. Will post more pics when I have something sewn (and pressed)!

This is a quilt for me, and I'm loving it already. If it's done in time, I might enter it in that DWR Quilting Challenge, but I'm not pressuring myself, because the challenge deadline a pretty ambitious time frame for me to actually have a quilt pieced AND quilted.

And now that I've discovered the wonder that is variegated thread (I think I mentioned that here), I'm definitely planning to free-motion-quilt this thing with this thread. Love it!

Cathedral Window Mini-Quilt - by machine!

Lately, in my ongoing quest to maintain storage-space efficiency, I've been occasionally digging out old projects to finish. Here's one, which I'm pleased to say is now finished!

Years ago, I prepped a mini-cathedral-window quilt, mostly just to see if I could. This was partly because I'd driven past a quilt shop with a display quilt that was made of HUGE cathedral windows. Huge, like at least 16 inches across each window! The whole full-size quilt had about a dozen complete windows. How cool would it be to make one like that? The question was whether or not I could manage cathedral windows. Turns out, I can!

Below is what most of this looked like when I pulled it out a few weeks ago. I'd sewn/pressed/connected the background pieces, and turned-under-edges and fused on the "window" fillings.

At the time I started this, I wanted to see how possible it would be to sew a cathedral window quilt by machine. You know, instead of by hand. 

It's definitely possible. Good to know, since it's definitely faster this way ...

Anyhoo, however-many-years ago, I had prepped the thing, and sewn a few of the couple-dozen "windows", then put it aside. When I got it back out, after a half-dozen years, it was done in an afternoon. (Why do I do that to myself?)

So - it's done!

(For the record, sewing over these layers, the darning foot {below} did not do as good a job as the regular presser foot. Go with a regular presser foot.)

Nifty pattern. First time I've tried cathedral windows. I'm calling it a success.

Here's the back. I think it looks nifty, too.

It's a tiny quilt ... about 22" x 28". 

I made this mini-quilt with leftovers from a set of purple quilt-top-kits I had put together around that time ...

I like this. The whole thing is fabric - no batting. This technique would be great for making a nice, light summery quilt. 

When I get some more projects done, I might have to see about revisiting the idea of making some giant cathedral windows for a giant quilt. 

Mini English Paper Piecing milestone

I've finally reached a milestone in my very tiny English Paper Piecing!

I'm still loving the scrappiness, the colorfulness, and the tinyness!

I still need to add a few dozen white hexagons to fill in around the edges. All the black background area will be white. Right now, the widest point (couldn't resist the smiley face in the corner!) is 9 inches. Eventually, the whole thing will fit in a document-sized frame that's 8-and-a-half by 11 inches.

This has been a fun take-along project, since it's so tiny ... 

I'm linking up (days late!) with Jessica's last-of-the-summer Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts. (Better late than never!) But actually, I DID take this picture on Monday, since I got a lot of sewing done over the long Labor Day weekend. And also, the Monday link parties have been a great motivation to get even a little progress happening. Thanks again, Jessica!