Tuesday, May 5, 2009

One of these things is not like the others...












I only wear handknit socks (unless the shoes need thinner socks), and though I toss most of my socks in the machine, some of them have to be handwashed. I usually save them until I have a bunch, and then wash them all at once, and hang dry them in the bathroom. Ya think maybe my feet generally prefer rose/orange?


I finished assembling another 10 blocks for the Whatever Quilt. I have 40 now, and since I am quilting these projects myself, and my sewing machine/arms/table can't handle bedspreads, I have scaled down the size of the projected quilt. The blocks are 8 1/2", so I figure I can get by with 70 blocks (7 wide x 10 long) with a 5" border all around. But we'll see as I go- maybe I'll skip the border and just put another line of blocks both ways. This quilt will be a mish-mash of colors and patterns, and a border won't unify the design anyway, so maybe it's unnecessary. (you may note that I had a bunch of triangles left from the Figgy Pudding quilt trees to play with).


I got the Froggy quilt sandwiched, pinned, and quilted. It went very well- my machine quilting is still nothing to brag about, but I'm getting better. And the thread didn't break even once! I have the binding sewn on, and just have to tack it down, though that won't happen for a couple of days (AI tonight and tomorrow night, tomorrow we're taking a day trip, and I have a couple of knitting/crochet deadlines that are the evening priority at the moment. But this is a Christmas present, so there's no hurry beyond the fact that I want to cross it off my list).


I've been assembling Bee themed blocks- I won a couple of quilt square auctions on eBay, for many different bee-themed fabrics, and I'm bordering them with 2 1/2" strips of assorted greens (her room is green, you see. Frog Girl's room is blue- and the froggy squares just happened to be all blues). I think this one is going to be adorable too. I will do likewise with a set of Ladybug squares and pink for another quilt. SuperHero boy quilt will be a snap. Book Girl is more problematic- I don't need a specific color, but finding fabrics with book designs is proving to be difficult. But, as I said, Christmas is a long way off, and the hunt is part of the fun.

3 comments:

South Dakota Press Women said...

I swear I have a pattern for a bookshelf quilt. The design is various stripes assembled to look like a bookcase. I think it was Fon's & Porter but it wouldn't be too hard to recreate. I'll look around.

LizzieHelen said...

I found this for a bookshelf quilt--probably better as a wall hanging:

blocksquilt (scroll down)

Baby book shelfseveral different quiltsLots more by Googling "bookshelf quilts" or "book shelf quilts" or "library quilts". For some more "themed" fabrics, try searching for "Novelty fabric", usually kids. Quilters Studio has some cute fabric--tho most is for little kids.

Kathleen Taylor said...

LizzieHelen- thank you so much for the link. I love the notion of piecing books on a shelf. I also appreciate the suggestion to google *boolshelf*- I tried every variation of "book" and all I got were books on quilting. I'll give that a shot.