Feathered Star

Here is what I have been painstakingly working on over the past month.  It was kind of a personal challenge.  I did good but not as good as I would have liked. I am calling this a practice run.

I have Marsha McCloskey's book Feathered Stars and have also followed some advice from Erin Russek of One Piece At A Time.  That has been very helpful to me because I used a rotary cutter and Marsha uses templates.

My Mom being the traditionalist she is, saw this, and said, oh, Lori, you have to make two of these for the kids. Argh! Does she know how long it takes to make one.  How exacting every stitch is?  I did say that to her but her reply was, "Its worth it, this is an heirloom type quilt."

While we are on the subject-  I think scrap quilts are heirlooms.  Not my Mom apparently. Really, I have seen people say that on their blogs and heard people say that.  I am not totally in agreement with that statement.  Think of how quilts first go started.  They were made from scraps.  They certainly are heirloom, are they not?

The Itty Bitty Nine Inch Patches

They are two! inches! finished!

As annoying as they are, they are so freaking addictive to me right now.  Why?  I dunno. Maybe it helps me forget the personal and familial challenges of the last two weeks.  I am not going to over analyze it.  I am just going to go with it.  Two inch nine patch thrust.

Here are my adaptations, what works best for me with Joan's Nine Inch Patch Grid.

1. Take special note of the lines going vertically, the dotted ones.  She did say this in her workshop.  I am saying i again because it really IS important.

2. Make sure you are accurate in your cutting.

3. Make sure you sew on the line.  If you sew to t he left of the line (along side it) you will have a slightly less than two inch patch.

4. Now, here are my things that work from me.  Sew all the vertical lines and then clip as directed.  Sew the first two horizontal and cut that line off.  I do this because as you are sewing down the bulk of them is a bit cumbersome.  The patches are completely sewn on that row anyway.

 

5.  Also, when sewing the horizontal row, things can get fiddly.  You need to make sure all the bulk is where you want it to be.  You also have to make sure your sewing lines stay straight.
 
6.  Here is a real IMPORTANT tip.  Check, every single time you go to use your iron to make sure the sticky glue dots are facing up- not down on your ironing board.

7.  This is kind of going backwards a bit but I like to make all the grids ironing after each nine patch is placed, this way it does not move around while I place the rest of it.  I just do it enough to stabilize it.



8. When placing pins in the line and making sure they come out the other side, I just stick my pin in through the font and over to the side, this way I don't have to pin it twice.  I turn it over and check to make sure it is lined up.

Scrap Therapy Plus One... Little Squares

A few of the ladies from my guild and another guild attended a class with Joan Ford. She is the author of Scrap Therapy: Scraps Plus One and Cut The Scraps: 7 Steps To Quilting Your Way Through Your Stash.  Here is a link to her blog- Hummingbird Highway.

Here are some of her quilts.  Way nicer in person.

See how tiny these little patches are.  In her quilt, 99 Bottles, there are around 500 give or take.  If you want details see her book Scraps Plus One.

Here is my box of scraps to work from. I wish I had brought more 2 inch ones.  At the last minute I decided I wanted to do blue theme.  But in the end I am going with whatever for a total scrappy quilt.

Here is our teacher, Joan Ford.  A real good sport that thankfully has a good sense of humor.  We might have become just a tad rowdy on her.  Nothing out of the norm for our group.  No one would ever call us straight laced.  Just a warning there.

This is all of us, ah hem, except for the people that just would not get their tails out for a pic.

Video About Social Media

Social media is a great thing but it really has a bad side too.  Like all things it is about balance.  If you try to ignore all the social media out there you really miss out.  Likewise if you spend all your time with the computer or your phone you really miss out on REAL people, REAL experience.

This is a really great video.  All so very true. 

Aquas, Corals, Oranges and Turquoise

Design Seeds

These are all the colors I have been wanting. Not sure exactly how I will go about it or what I will do...  Want to focus on the coral and aqua.  I wonder why I have this in my head.


 
 

Easy Paper Bow

I totally love this bow because you can make them so easy.  You can style up your package exactly how you want it to be.  You could even use some cartoon paper for something a little different.

You can find the tut and template here at How About Orange. Have you been to that site How About Orange.  Lots of fabulous ideas things to look at.

Ceramic Jewelry Fun

I took a class last summer.  Yes, I am finally getting around to posting this.  It was a class on making small ceramics for jewelry.  The class was reasonably priced and honestly if I was not big into quilting I would probably be big into ceramics.  Always loved that medium.

There is a great coop in downtown Rochester. They use to have a dark room there.  I would go there and develop my black and whites.  I thought I was so cool, dont yah know.

The teacher made up a few stamped greenware for us to share.  Very cute.

Some of the teachers stuff.

Supplies

 

She fired us up a slab to put our stuff on.  I was called pineapple. 

Some of my friends stuff. She has a bit more experience than me.  Well, a LOT more experience than me.

I had a blast.  I took the class with my friend Mary Pat.  We made all kinds of little do dads that I really need to hang on wires and necklaces, etc.  Put them to use.  My favorite was my very experimental turtle.  I wasn't sure if he was going to hold up but he did pretty well.


 

The Baubles

Doll Clothes- Jacket

My daughters received an American Girl Doll for Christmas last year.  I have made a few outfits with my daughters for the dolls and few on my own.  I guess I was so busy making doll clothes that I never posted... Matter of fact there are quite a few projects that I never posted.  In the coming months I hope to get it all out there.

This is one of the first things I made for the American Girl Doll.  It fits her just fine.  If you would like the pattern it is Simplicity 5733.  

The pattern was very easy to follow. The one thing you should not neglect to do is it is turn up the hem on the sleeve before you sew the sleeve closed. Lesson learned.

I used a pair of jeans that no longer fit my daughter I thought they would be perfect for a jean jacket and skirt.  The skirt is not in the pattern - that was my creation.  I used the actual hem of the jeans for the bottom of the skirt.

Lamenting Lavender

For about five years now I have had some beautiful lavender out in my front walkway.  I wish I had taken more pictures of it. Sigh.

The lavender during a hail storm.

This past winter, this frigid, subzero, freezing winter, killed my lavender (and my 10 year old sage plant).  I have harvested lavender from my yard for a couple years now.  I use it to make sashes, bath salt mixes, decorate and freshen my bathroom and have even used it for cooking.

Instead of crying over spilt milk, or rather dead lavender, I bought some new plants last night.  They won't be as glorius as they were last year, but I will have lavender.

My Mother was/is such a great gardener.  Her backyard looked like a park, many beautiful flowers and beautiful layout.  She had a vegetable garden as well but my Mom loved her flowers.  She still does but doesn't necessarily have the strength anymore to tend to her garden.  The flowers have mostly been replace by hastas.

Now, me, on the other hand.  I love to draw flowers, they are quilted into my quilts.  I doodle them all the time. But as for my yard, I am a practical gardener.  So, most of the plants around here have some type of usefulness- quince, herbs, mint, lemon balm, raspberries, blueberries, aloe... and lavender.  It was my two fold experience.  Beautiful flower with all kinds of usefulness- even if it was just to smell and keep the bees happy at the very least.

A view of my front walkway from my window.