Crabs Floating in the Tide

Yes, it has been awhile since my last posting. When I started this project, I thought I knew what direction I would go with making this quilt. Shortly after making a couple of the crabs, I realized I didn't want to copy the quilt that someone else made, the one I had posted in a previous post. I wanted to create some form of motion with the crabs across the quilt. Instead of making rows of crabs, I decided to cut the number of crabs to just five and position them heading in different directions.

Then, I couldn't think of how I wanted to do the quilting. I didn't want to do straight lines or lots of small circles. Sadly, the quilt sat for some time until I saw some other blogger's quilt that had been quilted with wavy lines. That motivated me into finishing the project. I found a cute flannel that I instantly loved and knew would work as the back of the quilt. Now, I not only have crabs, but also fish swimming in the tide.

Deformity Crab

I was pleased with the look of my mock-up crab pattern that I completed this week.

I made some adjustments to the legs since I was worried that the points of the legs would become blunted once the blocks were all sewn together.

In the process of making a template, I forgot to make the top of the legs wider.
So, my first crab's legs are too small. The crab's legs looked better in my mock-up. The alterations that I made to the claws still need adjustments. So, first crab was born with congenital abnormalities.

Playing with Design

I spent yesterday evening working on my design for the large crab quilt. I'm changing the look of the crabs for the quilt since I didn't like the representation of the crabs for this pattern.

I googled around to see how others created a crab pattern for their quilts. I found one that was getting closer to a crab look that I liked. So, I played around with that pattern. Here the legs are positioned with widest part of the leg at the base of the crab and thin out to a point, just as a crab's leg is formed.

And here the legs are positioned the opposite with the point to the base of the crab and widen out, which is similar to the look of the legs in the crab quilt above - which I find odd.

I took a poll at home. My husband and son agreed that the legs look better with the widest portion of the legs at the base of the crab with the points away. Now I need to finish sewing the pieces together to see the final look of this mock-up.

Maryland Crabs

Recently, I took a trip back home to visit my family in Maryland. While there, I went shopping at a lovely quilt store (Bear's Paws Fabrics) and purchased some fabrics that I can use for two different quilts that have a Maryland motto...

... Maryland is for Crabs.

Well, this trip home reminded me of a quilting project that is on my to do list.
For a number of years now, I have wanted to make this one quilt with a crab motif. The fabrics on the left will be used as the background for this pattern.

While the fabric with the newsprint will be used as the background in the Crab Twist pattern, Handcrafts by Jennifer.

This crab twist pattern and the newsprint fabric reminds me of eating blue crabs, which turn red from cooking. Marylanders always pick (eat) their crabs on top of a layers of newspapers that are used as the tablecloth/plate. How to eat Maryland crabs (I don't know this person, but he gives a quick lesson on eating blue crabs for those that wish to learn how):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUW6_CTZd9U

For now I leave you hunger for blue crabs, while I go off to quilt. Bon Appetit!

Grandmother Flower Garden Half-Hexis

A numerous years back I made a quilt using half-hexis and the grandmother flower garden pattern using Bali-pops. Since I enjoyed that project, I decided to make another one using the quilt-as-you-go method to attach the rows. After selecting and grouping the Bali-pop strips, I cut them into half-hexis.

The half-hexis were arranged into flowers for the front, and leftover half-hexis were incorporated onto the back. I used my Singer 224 to attach the half-hexis to the back fabric with a decorative stitch.

For the front of the quilt, I pieced the half-hexis together into rows.

Next, I hand-basted the sandwich of muslin, batting, and back of quilt together. After drawing my starting line onto the muslin, I placed my first two rows down on the line and stitched them into place.

From there, I continued to add rows using my Davis NVF.

I decided to use the quilt-as-you-go method for quilting since there would be no quilting lines to distract from the simplicity of the flower garden motif.

Pincushion Exchange

TreadleOn (collectors of people-powered sewing machines that use their machines for sewing projects) was having a pincushion exchange. So, I decided to join the fun by making a chick as my exchange pincushion.

I received this pretty cathedral window pincushion from the host. She posted the rest of the exchange pincushions on her flickr blog. It was interesting to see how creative and clever others were with their pincushion designs.

Interleave Quilts

While researching quilts, I came across Lorrie Cranor's blog post on her Tartan Tango: http://lorrie.cranor.org/blog/2013/05/24/tartan-tango/. I liked it so much that I wanted to make an Interleave quilt. Lucky for me, Lorrie had posted directions on how to make a mini Interleave quilt for her 1 day workshops: http://lorrie.cranor.org/blog/2014/01/19/how-to-make-an-interleave-quilt/. So, I got busy digging through fabrics to make one, which then turned into two mini quilts. The project can be assembled in a day. I'm not going to post directions. One can find them on Ms. Cranor's blog.

Test run #1: The Helix

This pattern is made with the helix template.
I started with pulling fabrics, printing directions, and making a template. I didn't change the scale of the template since I figured it would work for this mini project.

I made my own grid.

I followed the directions for marking and cutting the panels.

Then, I marked the left side with my soft graphite pencil so that I had my reference point, which is handy to have.

Since my Davis NVF doesn't have the perfect 1/4 inch walking foot, the strips no longer matched the grid. That didn't bother me.

Finished with first test run. My husband says it looks like two breast while my son says it looks like an hourglass.

Test Run #2: Hourglass

This pattern is made with the hourglass template.
I decided to use three different colors per strip instead of the two that are in the directions. So, I made a mistake on which piece I wanted cut. Trial and error on my part.

I wanted the orange panel to be sandwiched between the purples. I had to rip out the orange and add a new panel, and then re-cut on the purple.

I love treadling my Davis NVF!

Finished the Hourglass Sine Wave.

The two projects. An Interleave Mini Quilt would make a wonderful gift for a math or science teacher...or even that math geek.

Jeans and More Jeans

A TreadleOn friend had given me four large boxes of used jeans that she never got around to using. Since I have made numerous denim quilts with that stash, I decided to thank her with a denim quilt. I had picked out the cute bandana fabric some time ago thinking that it would look great as a backing fabric for a denim quilt. The solid reds are the strip fabrics used between denim squares, and the red with pattern fabric is the binding fabric.

This quilt was made using what I'm now calling the Mondrian Denim pattern. I just quilted this one different from the others that I have made.

After all the pieces were arranged and stitched into sections easy enough to handle in quilting, I pinned the back fabric on and then used tape to mark my lines. There is no batting in this quilt.

I like using this tape method, but it was a bit tricky when lining up the lines with the next section to quilt. I left all of the tape on the first section to line up the lines on the next section.

I left a gap of a half-inch (green section of the cutting mat) for the space of red strip and used the ruler to line up the lines. My quilt lines are close to a 1/4 inch from the tape.

Then I slowly transferred the tape and quilted. I did this for all of the sections.

I thought this method would save me some time, but in the end I don't think it was any faster than when I quilted inside each square like I did on the last Mondrian quilt that I made.

This will be my last denim quilt project for awhile since it's time to try other designs and projects that are on my ever growing to do list.

Jean Quilt with a Mondrian Theme

I finished the jean quilt with two shades of brown strips and black binding.

I love the batik fabric that I used on the back.

New Endeavors

On New Year's Eve, I started working on my first knit 2-at-a-time socks project. I finally got brave to tackle knitting two socks at the same time. Since I prefer knitting from the toe up and the book that I own, 2-at-a-time Socks, only demonstrates from cuff down, I had to watch a youtube tutorial on how to get started. Once I figured out that technique, my worries faded. Knitting two socks simultaneously is not difficult at all and very rewarding to see two socks materialize at the same time.

And on New Year's Day, I started piecing the baby quilt that will be for my niece's baby boy that is due very soon. The piecing for this quilt is with my Two Spools.