A Prairie Home Quilts

Oh, wait.  These are supposed to be Halloween noises. I guess it should be shrieking in fear. Here is my “shriek” block for Tonya’s Slither Eek Boo quilt.

Tee hee.

Okay.  It’s really Ludo sleeping on my “shriek” block.  All fabric is fair game for him as a prime sleeping spot.  My plan for “shriek” was to make it with long, pointy-type letters.  I sketched out my original idea on a piece of scrap paper shown at the bottom of the picture below.  Then I drew the letters out a little larger and gave some thought as to what part of the letter to form first, second & third because most of the letters had three parts.

You’ll notice in my drawing that I forgot the “r” so youngest DS drew an “r” for me at the bottom of the paper.  I made a note for myself about remembering to allow for the seam allowance at the end of all my points because I didn’t want them getting chopped off.

Here are my letters in the order that I stitched them together.  The “e” was the most difficult.  Actually, not difficult but fiddly.  It didn’t quite turn out as I had planned in my drawing but I didn’t want to keep messing with it.  It’s an “e” and it’s got pointy parts.  You can see from the “r” that I started with straight pieces of fabric.  I sewed the background fabric bits on at an angle to make the points.

Here is “shriek.”  It’s pretty large — about 9″ x 24″.  Another important thing to point out is how much more background fabric it takes when you are being fiddly with the letters. It took more of the purple background fabric than I thought it would to make the block.  More seams equals more fabric used.  I really like how the block turned out though, and I only chopped off a very tiny tip at the bottom of the “r.”

Tonya, this was a lot of fun to do and to see what everyone else came up with!  [You can see more blocks here and here.] I have more word quilts planned in the future.  Thanks for letting me play.

This is the block I’m using in a quick project I started to have a gift for my mom for her birthday.  It’s going to be a small wall hanging — about 26″ x 26″.  Although, if it were really a “quick project,” I’d have it done already, right?  Maybe it’s just that I’m not quick. . .  I’m using the Free Inklingo Collection to make LeMoyne Star blocks and half LeMoyne Stars to make the bud blocks.  I’ve pieced the inset seams by hand and pieced the rest by machine.  Next time, though, I’m doing the whole thing by hand because I was disappointed that some of my points will be clipped off.  I’m able to be more accurate when I hand piece.

I added a strip of fabric to two sides of the half-star bud block to make it the same size as the full LeMoyne Star block.  I was too lazy to do the “pot” part the correct way  (I found this block in an antique quilt, btw) so I just did a half square triangle block and trimmed it to the correct size.  The finished size of the LeMoyne Star block in the Free Inklingo Collection is 4 1/2″.

I used photo editing software to play around with a cropped image of the block to decide on my setting.  This one just wouldn’t do.

Next up. . .  This one’s better but it’s still not “there” yet.

And finally, yes!  That’s it!  I like this setting the best.  Although we’ll see what happens when I add the border fabrics.

Ludo thinks if he hides this block, he can claim the wall hanging for himself.

He doesn’t know that Grandma has already seen the block and she’s not parting with the wall hanging.

Here is a picture of the Christmas gifts I’m making for youngest DD Rachelle, DDIL Koren and future DDIL Heather.

Can’t see them?  Look real close. . . They are right here.  Yup, Ludo’s really good at hiding things!

Here’s a closer look. . .  That’s as much as I can show you because a couple of the aforementioned people read my blog.  *smile*

He sure is cute. . . when he’s sleeping!

I’ve had this done for a while but haven’t updated the blog.  The hand piecing went quickly and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think that means I’m up for hand piecing a whole quilt top of hexagons.

I have this all basted and ready for hand quilting, and I have about 300 sets of fabric hexagons together for the quilt top.  I need to start basting them to the hexagon paper pieces.  I’m also experimenting with another (new-to-me) technique that would eliminate the basting-to-paper-pieces step and lets you hand piece the hexagons together without using a whip stitch.  If I’d known about it before I started cutting up my fabrics into squares for hexagons, I probably would have used it instead although I don’t mind using a whip stitch to sew the hexagons together.  It goes quickly for me.  I’ll post about my experiment with Inklingo in a few days — after I have a sample finished up so I can post a picture of it.  Oh, and it’s not that I don’t have other hexagon quilt ideas in my head that I could use this new technique on, you know?  LOL

Guess who thinks this project is his?  Yes, Mischievous Ludo.  He claimed it long before I had it finished.  I’m sure when it’s completely quilted and on the table, it will be a daily game to keep him off of it.

Last night as I was trying to square up Jessica’s quilt top before sewing on the binding, our youngest quilt inspector, Ludo, would not leave me alone to get it done. First he jumped up on the cutting table to see if he could help…

Can I help?

Then, unfortunately, he decided it was a good spot for a nap…

Think I’ll take a catnap right here…

Later on, I finished trimming and went to sew on the binding. Guess who showed up to help again?

You *have* to let me help now…

It’s impossible to sew when he’s laying right there. He attacks my hand the minute I try to put the presser foot down. [sigh] I just let him be and a short time later…

Hmm… think I’ll take another catnap!

Today I finally got the binding sewed on. Not without more “help” from Ludo, I might add… (What is it with cats and quilts?)

This is the mystery quilt pattern Jessica and I both started over Labor Day weekend last September. The mystery quilt is called Chain Event and it’s from an email loop called A Pocket Full of Mysteries. Mystery quilt designer Dorothy Young hosts a mystery weekend a couple times of year. She shares her pattern for free during the mystery weekend. I actually started 2 of this particular pattern and I’ve finished one. It’s my Autumn Night quilt. I entered it in the Fiber Arts Show that’s this weekend. (I can’t believe that there are only 2 pictures from the 2005 show on that link… somebody needs to get some more up there!)

Tomorrow morning, dd Rachelle, dfs Alice, Cindy and I are going out to breakfast and then heading over to the quilt show. Hopefully, I’ll remember the camera and have a few photos to share afterward.