Hip to be a Square - Episode 40

• Episode 40 finds me in a strange place. The first 6 minutes or so are family updates so skip ahead if you want. I talk about felted wool projects and review the book "Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters". Spoiler alert: I like it!
• Nancy's Notions has a good deal on wool felt kits for candle mats. Some of them are on sale for as low as $5.89. I finished the Pumpkin one in 2 1/2 hours this week.

Hip to be a Square - Episode 39

More about the Knoxville AQS show, my trapunto class, and some felted wool projects I've finished up this week.

• My left-handed rotary cutter.
• Fons & Porter Quilt Shop Finder app.

Here is the ornament I finished in Knoxville:

Want to know what it's hanging on? (insert ominous music!)

My grandfather made this for my parents, obviously never knowing the clown phobia that runs through the family. I call him Slasher the Clown. Mostly he twirls around in the wind. And tries to kill you in your sleep.

Here's the felted wool table runner I just finished:

And here's a close-up on the cow action (explained in the podcast):

And here's the tranpunto project I did in my class (the white thread is the water soluble thread used to secure the extra layer of batting):

Knoxville AQS Inspiration

Here are some of the quilts that inspired my from the Knoxville AQS show. There were more, but I couldn't take pictures of them.

One of the Louisiana guild challenges was to create a quilt inspired by Hurricane Katrina. This one used hurricane lilies with some gorgeous applique and metallic thread accents:

Square Peg in a Round Hole. I think the name is self explanatory.

Persian Bouquet. I love the shape of the design, the colors, and the use of black thread to secure the applique. It gives it a an almost stained-glass look without looking heavy.

Revolt of the Bolt. First I was drawn to the subject matter, and then as I studied it some more, I love that the illustrated effect is made even better by the use of shadows to make it look more dimensional.

Wheels of Time. First of all: Gears! Yes, please. Some of the gears are independent pieces that look like they can turn (they are secured in the center by beads). Lots of dimension, and I like that it's a circular quilt.

Hip to be a Square - Episode 38

I'm going to do my Knoxville AQS picture/show recap post separately, but for now here's a podcast to tide you over!



Lots of background noise in the first couple parts of the podcast this week as I recorded while en route to Knoxville for the AQS show. The last third was recorded in my hotel room, and is much quieter.  Lots of introspection this week and not a lot of sewing!

Hip to be a Square - Episode 37

Today's delay in posting has been brought to you by: motherhood.  I spend the first 10 minutes talking about family and cat "stuff", so skip ahead if you only want the quilting talk. More progress on nine-patches, sampler blocks, and a lemony wallhanging.

Houses Sampler 7 and Aunt Grace's Garden 2

I'll start with the one I like best this time:

I'm pleased with how well my points came out for having to sew so many HSTs for the thistles or bear claw flowers, or whatever they are called.  I'm still mulling over what to do with these blocks to give them that "me" touch.

And here's the house block:

To say this isn't my favorite is an understatement. I think the colors have some issues going together - perhaps it's just too many colors in one block given the simplicity of some of the prior blocks, and the cat doesn't really stand out because of the orangey tones of the stripe fabric.  I like the flag in concept, but it could do with some scaling down perhaps (although nothing says "I love America" like hanging a flag big enough to block out the sun by your house - perhaps this house is in Texas?) (note: Texas, please don't hate. I love you and your big hair, Love, The South, aka Sisters in Big Hair).

I don't know that I'll be redoing it, but perhaps it'll go on the back of the quilt.  I did get another set of trees for another "filler" block, but I decided to keep those as 3 separate trees instead of one big tree block so I can scatter them throughout the quilt.

Lemon Wallhanging

I finished this up last night as I waited for my husband to come from rescuing one of his customers who had to land in a field in Tennessee because of a blocked fuel line. Ah, the life of an "aviation widow".  The stories are a little more interesting than those of a "golf widow", which my mom is.

Anywho, here is the finished project, which is now hanging in my dining room.  I used a whole lot of different techniques in this - embroidery, paper piecing, machine quilting, hand quilting, etc. And it's probably the best machine binding I've ever done.  Apparently the trick is to go slow. Go fig - one of the things I'm no good at!

 

Yes, I did pair an inspirational quote from Dale Carnegie with a snarky one from Liz Lemon, Tina Fey's character on 30 Rock. That's how I roll.

Also, here is a very good recipe for Lemon Bliss Cake.

You can click through the slideshow to go to Flickr and see the pictures in more detail, or click here for the set.

Hip to be a Square - Episode 36

Click to play

Well, things are going a little wonky with posting the episodes now that it appears blip.tv has stopped automatically distributing episodes to blogs. I think most people listen through iTunes, but I'll continue to manually update.

This week's rambling includes a finished triangle quilt, Blooming Nine Patch (and nine patch sewing technique), and some progress on other small projects.

• Strawberry Emery from Bird Brain Designs
• Nine Patch "tube method" tutorial
• Vote for my quilt in the Tiny Stitches Customer Quilt Show! You can email your choices (mine is #29) tinystitches@bellsouth.net or call in your vote at 770-565-1113