Wedding Ring WIP (and other stuff)

So with a new month came the start of a new quilt. My brother is getting married in a month and I had planned on making him and his soon-to-be wife a double wedding quilt. I had seen the one by Victoria Findlay Wolfe  and loved it, so I wanted to make a similar one for my brother (unfortunately for me, her book on double wedding ring quilts doesn't come out until next year).

This is it so far as I got ( I apologise in advance for the photos in this post. They seem really blurry to me, but I can't seem to fix them. My husband keeps telling me we need a new monitor, maybe he's right this time :)

I didn't get much finished on it yesterday as it was Canada Day and we spent the day out at the Millarville Races.  It's kind of a country fair with a farmers market, combined with some horse races. If you've never had the experience of feeling and hearing a horse thunder past you at a million miles per hour, you should, it's something else that's for sure.

My kids rode the mechanical bull, petted goats, lambs, pigs, bunnies and chicks forever, and participated in the kid races. But by far the biggest draw was the big pile of dirt that was loaded with money for kids to dig in(in Canada our $1 and $2 denominations are in coin form). I swear they spent hours digging through that pile planning their retirement (they found two nickels).

It was about then that I wanted to be back home sewing. After all a month is not that long. I managed to finish some of the improv pieced fabric that I will use for the quilt. I keep second guessing the fabric choices and changing how I'm piecing it all together. The pile of material I pulled was enormous and gradually some of it has been axed.

I'm a little nervous as to how this is all going to come together. Hopefully there will be enough cohesive fabric to give it some unity. I'm already working with more black than I ever have before.
I also gave in and bought double wedding ring templates (instead of making my own cheap cardboard ones. It just about destroyed my inner cheap side to do so). But I have to tell you I already love them. They are going to make cutting so much easier (and probably more accurate as well).

And not everything is in the midst of chaos and cutting. I did manage to make some more pouches (seriously I need an intervention) and a snappy manicure case for my sister's birthday.

I am in love with the pattern I made for the arrows. And Essex Yarn Dyed linen in Flax goes so well with Anna Maria Horner prints (just saying).

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and

Mini Finish

The beginning of my week was this- don't worry this isn't a post about food.

I was hosting and doing all the food for a bridal shower for a family friend. I was in the kitchen for two days prepping and cooking and setting up and... and..

And I thought I'd never get to my sewing machine, but here it is!

So the mini quilt that I am doing for the swap is done! Hurray!

It measures 23.5" x 25 3/4", which means the one side is a little longer than the 24x24" maximum size allowed, but I figure if you average out all the sides then it comes out pretty close. I wasn't about to make those little triangles any smaller, I'll tell you that.

I'm not even going to tell you all the problems I had with this quilt (yes, I will). You'd think that a mini quilt would mean that there are less things to go wrong.

Wrong.

It was mostly the quilting. I couldn't decide (surprise, surprise) how to quilt it. So I started with circles, and didn't like those, so I unpicked it all (well, I should say that I didn't like the way I did the circles. Or, no, actually it's my machine... yeah, my machine does terrible circles).

Then I tried some straight line stitching, and ended up unpicking all of that (all in all, there was a lot of unpicking going on). I ended up quilting it pretty organically, in other words, I just did what I felt like. There's some symmetry, but not much.

I finished it off with a scrappy binding. I hand stitched the binding on (I can hear the collective gasps of disbelief now). There was no blood, but I did manage to stick the needle up underneath my thumb nail a couple of times (don't ask how...it's me and needles, it just happens). Anyway, it looks way better than when I machine bind my quilts (the fault of my horrible machine again of course).

I included some pockets on the corners so that it be hung easily. I put pockets on all the corners, just in case the recipient likes to hang it one way or the other. 

Most of the material is Denyse Schmidt with some Anna Maria Horner and Joel Dewberry thrown in (because I can't help myself when it comes to AMH).

Anyway, I'm now off to host and organize a party for seventy kids at the church today.

Party at the beginning of the week, party at the end- it's how we roll around here!

Linking up: Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF

Mini Quilt WIP and Triangle Tips

So I decided that I would do this mini quilt swap. The Schnitzel and Boo swap.

I've never done a swap before (not even swapping gum with my best friend in middle school/junior high. Did you? Really? Haha, gross, or you loved your best friend way more than me. Although, I have to say that if my best friend needed gum and I was chewing some, she got half. Gross, yes. So I might not be a swapper, but definitely a giver. Don't want your germs, but I'll for sure give you mine).

Anyway, so I decided to do the swap (not the gum, the mini quilt). Along with, I think, like 600 other people. So far, so fun. My swap partner- that is, the person I am giving to- likes Denyse Schmidt and hexagons (that's all I'll tell you in case I give my partner away). Um, I have never bought any material from that designer before and I'm kind of a lazy quilter, so hexes are not my sort of party.

So I got some Denyse Schmidt (ha, always a reason to buy fabric) and then decided I'd do hexes via triangles. That way no y-seams, no applique, no English paper piecing (I have strong thoughts on English paper piecing... and so do you, so we will just leave it at that).

I've done a triangle quilt before (see here, it's still sitting waiting to be basted and then quilted...still). I always just make my own triangle templates. That way I can control the measurements and type of triangle (I tend to go isosceles, not equilateral. And let's be blunt, scalene is just absurd- poor thing will never make it into a quilt).

I used Adobe Illustrator to make my template this time, although I have used good ol' paper and pencil and they still seem to work just fine. Illustrator can measure your object for you, so as I draw a triangle I can see how big it is. Then it is just a matter of printing it actual size, cutting it out, and pasting it to a cereal box for some stability and thickness. I leave a quarter inch around the template to account for seam allowance. I guess I could do this in Illustrator, but it's just as easy to do it on the cutting table. While I'm making my triangle, I also fill it with smaller triangles. This gives me the template for a smaller triangle that I can use in my design also.

I was going to try and create an isometric grid so that I could design the little quilt in Illustrator, but then I found this website which tells you how to create an isometric grid yourself. It also provides you with a PDF that you can import into your photoshop/illustrating programs, or print out and use good ol' pencil crayons to colour in your design.

I just printed it out and drew in the design. I had planned to make some of the hexagons smaller, but, well, I'm lazy (told you), and I wanted the hexagons to fill the space. I felt like making them smaller would leave me with more negative space (white background) than I wanted.

I also cut my triangles off a quarter inch from the top. This makes its easier to sew for me. All I have to do is place the top of the triangle so that the two top points meet the bottom triangle's edges. That way I don't have to do the regular "place the triangle tips 1/4" apart", (or whatever you're suppose to do) thing. In fact, it's probably better to cut all the corners off your triangles- less bulk in the seams and easier to piece- but I'm always so impatient to sew that I usually settle for only one corner.

I'm in the midst of sewing it right now. I might even get it done this week (there's a little part of me that laughed at this). If you want to check out some of mini quilts being made you can check out the Flickr group or on Instagram at #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap.

Oh, and look one template has already been goobed by the boys (it was encased in playdough, don't ask why...)

Linking up: 

Later is Better than Never

Later is better than never, so I'm posting this WIP a little later this evening.

Also in keeping with later is better than never, my brother got engaged this week! You know that movie the 40-year Old Virgin... well, he's 37. And up until this point has also been living with my parents. Really, he's every terrible cliche that has gone into every confirmed-bachelor-finds-love movie. So listen folks, MIRACLES HAPPEN! (That was a quote from my grandma concerning the whole affair). Or maybe happy endings really do come true.

So needless to say, I decided I should make a quilt for their wedding. A Double Wedding Ring one, you know, because that won't be hard, and like, I have nothing else going on at the moment (can you feel the sarcasm running off that one?)

Ha, but like I'm going to pass up an opportunity to make a quilt! And a DWR is traditional.

Look, honey, I have to make a quilt for their wedding! I can just hear the justification in my voice as I say that to my ever-supportive husband.

Meanwhile, I signed up for the Mini Quilt Swap over at Schnitzel and Boo. I've been stalking my victim and changing my design everyday. In terms of colour, so far I've got some greens, purple and oranges. A secondary colour scheme I suppose. I'm still waiting for some more material I ordered to arrive.  Then I need to get to work! I can do it right? We have to have the quilt gone and in the post by the 25th of this month!

And hogging the design wall is the bargello that I've been working on. I've been slowly sewing the rows together. I finished one piece. The strips to go in-between each row are 3/4", which means they are 1/4" finished. Um, they're skinny, but I'm hoping the effect will be worth it.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, I used the scraps to piece together a musical themed Sew Together bag for our music teacher, who is moving. (Yes, another one)

Of course, I didn't get a picture of the whole thing. Just the treble clef. The whole thing is about 5" tall. I found the pattern here and reduced the whole thing by 50% so it would fit on the side of the bag. So holy super small pieces Batman!

So, better late than never?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

Fabric Cartel Mules and Fabric

 

So, for the past few months I've known that my parents were going down to see my sister who lives in the States. They usually drive (I know, insane, but cheaper) which means that they have the opportunity to haul stuff back. And when I say stuff, I mean fabric mostly.

(I know, you're wondering about the Kool-Aid. It's a great dye for Easter eggs and you just can't find the flavours here that you can in the States.)

Alexander Henry

Someone called it the fabric cartel, and I the lord dealer of it all, run it. Well, mostly I order fabric, send it to my sister and have my parents bring it back to me. My parents are my fabric mules.

Wee Wander by Sarah Jane

I mean, come on, no one stops old people at the border. And they drive a minivan for crying out loud. Drug dealers would love to have such people muling for them. The thought of dogs sniffing for Anna Maria Horner fat quarters makes me giggle.

Anna Maria Horner Field Study, Tula Pink Salt Water, Amy Butler Hapi

Why do I have to do such a thing? Well, you'd think that the free trade agreement NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that our country so willing signed would mean I wouldn't have to pay steep tariffs and outrageous shipping fees, but no.

Tula Pink Fox Field, Anna Maria Horner Field Study

(I also ordered some clothing from Lands End and had my parents bring it up. When they crossed at the border, customs asked where the clothing had been made. So apparently it even matters where things are made? Crazy!)

Sweet as Honey by Bonnie Christine

I'll admit it, I'm cheap and although I am not immune to the idea that I should have instanteous everything (like how can it take so long to load a movie Netflix!). I am willing to wait a few months to save myself hundreds of dollars in shipping fees.

And the end result is worth the wait!

WIP and Copyright

In case you haven't noticed, I've stalled somewhat on the quilts that I already have on the go. So, of course I decided to start another. Because that makes sense. It was that or more bags, and no one needs to see more bags/pouches, especially me.

Part of my fabric haul from my parents foray to the States was a stack of  Modern Solids by Alissa Haight Carlton. They are beautiful fabrics. And the colours, oh the colours! SO lovely!

I have always admired Bargello quilts, but not the scrappiness of them, and decided to do a modern take on one. I'm using the book Bargello Quilts by Marge Eddie. I loved the look of the cover quilt and wanted to do something like it, but with more negative space and in solids.

The pattern calls for only 15 colours, but there was no way I could decide which 15 (I have decision issues). In the end (like after days- told you I had issues), I narrowed it down to a mere seventeen colours, which altered the pattern somewhat (OK, maybe a little more than somewhat). I'm pretty much on my own now.

But my inability to follow that pattern got me thinking about patterns, and the issues of ownership of a pattern. I recently joined Plum and June's New Blogger group and there has been some great discussion about copyright and intellectual property rights. When does a pattern cease to be the right of one person and start to belong to another? How much innovation or change has to happen to make it your own? And what credit should be given and to whom?

I know there has been issues with scraper sites stealing peoples' blog posts and using them without linking back to the original sites and making money off of the content without permission (it's what those sites do, well some of them- the evil ones). But I'm talking about patterns and designs here. Stealing the exact block or design of someone else is an obvious dishonest and unethical thing to do. But what about when there are changes made, or a different method employed to make the block or pattern, what then?

And it seems to me that many block designs ultimately are usually riffs of a traditional block that was created somewhere down the line. Is using your own pattern scheme enough to call the design your own? I've seen someone use a disappearing nine-square patch pattern (which I think is common enough) and sell it as their own pattern.

In the art world, there are actual laws as to how much innovation or copying can go on before it is the property of one or another. In fact, some parroting and use of other artists material is considered satirical or commentary rather than 'stealing'. I'm wondering if the same rules apply to quilting (which some could argue is an art, some argue is a craft- that's an argument for another day)

Well, whatever the case I've used enough of Marge Eddie's pattern to know the quilt I'm making is more of her design than mine (well, so far...?). Guess we'll see how it goes.

Linking up:

 

Batman Piano Bag

 

I wasn't kidding when I said that I recently have been in a bag mood (quilt avoidance mechanism was the term actually).

My finish for this Friday is a bag (surprise, surprise, something to do with a superhero)! A Batman bag to hold all my son's piano books. He started piano this year and our home has been filled with the melodious sounds of Hot Crossed Buns and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ever since. And the Star Wars theme, he had to learn that of course! He really enjoys piano though and I'm hoping he sticks with it.

 
I also made him a couple of boxy pencil cases to go with it, and to hold the felt markers he got for Christmas (yes, I realize those are Sharpies, and yes, I realize sometimes I'm my own worst enemy! Surprisingly, he hasn't coloured anything he's not suppose to and he hoards them from the young ones so they don't get them).

To make the bag, I cobbled together a few bag tutorials that I found on the web, adjusted the size to fit his piano books and viola! I used a medium weight interfacing on the bag, but not on the pencil cases. I now wish I might have on the larger boxy pouch, it probably could have used it.

And now I swear I'm done with bags (for a little bit anyway)! And since this is a blog about creation and destruction, I'll add that three weeks after we got our brand new piano last summer, the eldest "polished" it with his geode (a crystally, sharp, pointy, hard rock).

Our piano is now graced with large (and smaller) circular scratches on the front! Dum dum dum dee de de- insert Moonlight Sonata or Pathetique No.8 here..... Or watch my son's favourite, ThePianoGuys (playing what I wish wasn't a favourite of my sons... ugh...boy bands).


Have yourselves a great weekend!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF.