Quilt-y Kaleidoscopes and Mitered Corners!

I've been fascinated by quilt-y kaleidoscopes ever since I knew they existed.

Octagons, hexagons, (more hexagons!), squares, you name it. (This post has pictures of a variety of  kaleidoscopes I've made.)

So, I have been interested to see some of the things Jinny Beyer has done with border prints in kaleidoscope-like designs. (Some of her free patterns are in the Free Patterns and Quilter's Block Library sections of her website.)

Imagine my surprise when I found, at my favorite thrift store, a big bundle (5+ yards!) of Jinny Beyer fabric!

I had no idea what to do with it, but figured I would come up with something!
These designs are border prints, with a lot of symmetry built in, to make it easier/prettier to get geometric designs and mitered corners to work.

Lately, most of my quilt backs have been pieced quilt backs. In some cases, the back is pretty detailed. Like a whole 'nother quilt. Because, really, I have enough fabric. I don't need to by more. So a lot of my currently-in-progress quilt "backs" look a lot like quilt tops.

Anyhoo ... Here's a quick look at my latest kaleidoscope-like quilt bits for a quilt "back".
Each of these squares was made of 4 matching triangles ... That way, the stripes make mitered corners. Very cool.

I'm also auditioning some of the fabric for borders on some coordinating stuff ...

 I'm having fun! More details later!

Knitting sock toes and heels

I have discovered the Three-Needle Bind-Off. This was eminently helpful in my sock-toe knitting last week. (I'm just not very good at Kitchener and Grafting methods of closing up toes, and those always turn out weird for me.)

Turning the sock inside out for the event was odd, but I managed.

 

Next came "afterthought heels", which were new for me, but worked out just fine. Actually, it was just like knitting the toe.

So, my latest new socks are finished! Last I checked, I've knitted something like 9 other pairs of socks; so this makes at least number 10!

The pattern was Geek Socks from Knitty ... I love the variation from the usual "plain" stripes in my self-striping sock yarn. The yarn is Spring Stripe from Red Heart "Heart & Sole". 

Self-striping sock yarn is my FAVORITE, but one of these days, I'm going to try some traditional stripes.

Crumb quilt beginnings

Not long ago, one of my favorite quilt blogs mentioned a scrap-quilting technique that intrigued me: using adding-machine paper tape as foundation paper for long strips of crumb quilting. The middle of the post in the above link talks about it, and references this post from QuiltedTwins which explains the process simply and well.

So I've been trying it! Fun! So far, I've got 155 inches of yellow crumb quilt roll, and it's about two-and-a-quarter inches wide.

In some ways, I'm on a quest to use up more fabric. (In other ways, using fabric seems to convince me that I should definitely buy all fabric that's bargain-priced ... so that's kind of a problem.) :-)

Anyhoo, this is a fun way to use up a bunch of random scraps. While I suppose this sort of "border" is more time-consuming than some, it's also lots of fun.

The paper gives a nice stability to a piece of "made fabric" that would otherwise be impossibly skinny. (Like other blocks that are "foundation-pieced" on paper, the paper will get taken off in the process of completing a quilt, but for now, the paper is great.

In between seams on the paper-piecing, I used my Christmas trees as Leaders and Enders (see Bonnie Hunter's awesome explanation here), and so now, I've got another 50 trees almost done.

 

So, check back in a few days for more on what I'm doing with this crazy adding-machine tape foundation pieced crumb quilting. (Can you tell I don't know what to call it?! Haha!)

O Christmas Tree ...

I recently bought a new tool and wanted to try it out ... The Tri-Recs ruler set intrigued me, and to make blocks out of triangles that are different than my usual 60-degree or 45-degree ones, it made sense to have the special ruler set.

It happens that I had collected a bag of super-random Christmas prints for pennies at thrift stores, and I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas Tree quilt ... something like the ones I've pinned on Pinterest ... this pin or this pin or this one.

In between other things (and to test my most-recently-cleaned-and-oiled sewing machines), I sewed together a few dozen of these:

I think they'll make a fun Christmas quilt ... eventually!

Candles

Lately, I've enjoyed having candles around. Since I enjoy them, and since I've been using my candles a little more lately, I've gotten curious about the processes for making jar candles.

With a little extra candle-wax around, and a bit of informal research, I've started trying to make some candles (even if "making" just involves re-melting candle wax and pouring it!)

I'm finding that pouring candles can be kind of a messy business!

But I'm loving the results -- lots of great candles, without the usual expense!

I'm enjoying my candles, and my candle-making!

Doily quilt?

For several months, I've been intrigued by the idea of putting doilies on quilts.

So I've been "rescuing" crocheted doilies from thrift stores, and pondering how to make a doily quilt.

Recently, I happened upon some crochet thread, & decided to crochet a few tiny doilies, so I'd have more doilies to try on quilts.



 

A few free patterns later, and I've got some tiny doilies!



 

 

Check back in a week or two, to see what I've been doing with these!

  

  

 

 

Update: See this blog post for a finished view of my first doily quilt!

 



 

Seen at my local Thrift Store

I thought this was neat. Not neat enough to pay money for (since I've always got that that feeling of "Oh, I could make that so easily!"), but interesting nevertheless. 

It's a pillow, embellished with T-Shirt Yarn. What a great idea! Simple concept; striking result.

Nifty, and so simple to construct ... there's a line of stitching holding the T-Shirt Yarn embellishments in place. I like it.

So, I didn't make this, and didn't buy it, but wanted some pics for future reference ... I may try this idea sometime!

Quilt-As-You-Go T-Shirt Dresden Plate

So - this was fun ...

With some leftover T-Shirt fabric, I cut some Dresden Plate shapes ...

So that I could try my hand at a new way to quilt a Dresden Plate quilt block.

Nice thing about T-Shirt jersey cotton? The fact that the edges won't fray, so, no need to finish the outer and inner edges.

So, I got my rainbow of colors cut ...

Sewed the "plates" together ...

... and admired them ...

... amused that my middle daughter (who was also admiring them) happened to have a matching nail-color that day!

I made 5.

I made a couple of extra quarter-"plates", to try out some quilting ideas.

I quilted these practice ones onto some denim & batting. Might turn them into pot-holders, since my kitchen could use a few, and since they're kind of random and messy.

I chose a swirly design, and I was thrilled at how great it looks, but how easy it was!

I had fun quilting these ... onto some black cotton jersey fabric that used to be a Twin-Sized T-Shirt sheet.

When I was trying to figure out how to quilt all this stretchy (knit fabric) stuff together, my oldest daughter suggested that I cut the black background (and the batting) into squares, and quilt the 15-inch squares, instead of trying to quilt a big, stretchy 50-inch square.

I love how the little edges give this a bit of a 3-D effect ... they're not going to fray, and they are securely sewn on, but they're free to curl up a little.

The backs of these Dresdens look pretty neat, too ...

Love these!

So, now I've got 5 blocks with one Dresden Plate each ...

And I also quilted some plain black blocks to go in between ...

On the black, I quilted with variegated thread (of course!)

So, one of these days, I'm going to put all my Quilt-As-You-Go T-Shirt Dresden Plate blocks together into a little quilt ...

Stay tuned for more details, when I get some more finishing work done.