catching up

So what have I been up to in the creative department since my last post, you might ask?  It is my blog so I will tell you even if you DON"T ask, LOL.

I made a few more "granny square" blocks using the Blue Elephant tutorial but not following it exactly.  As I said in my last post, 8 pieces of it can be strip pieced so that is what I am doing.  Also I think from here on out I am going to call this by its original name Album Block.   BlockBase lists 8 different ones for what is a very similar block if you add a square in the smack dab middle of the block.

LOL DJ asked me why I had my pillows lying on the floor and the bed unmade in the middle of the day.  Pictures of course!  I still need to trim down the blocks.  I am shooting for 20 blocks and pairs if I can, reversing the two colors. It might make a larger than usual donation quilt but kids come in all sizes.  BUT I set it aside.

My sister caught up to me on facebook with a knitting question.  She wanted to make a baby blanket for someone using a pattern that she wanted to reduce just a bit in size.  I thought I had an answer for her but needed to verify that I was correct and the change would work.  So I drug out the knitting supplies and went to work.  I was not seeing a pattern emerge as I thought and discovered that I was not doing the yarn overs it called for correctly.  I was increasing stitches but not leaving the bigger holes that the picture showed.   I considered continuing on since I was having fun knitting!   I could tell there was a dramatic enough change in the previous rows, to my eyes anyway, so I just unraveled it.  Should I want to do this for a child I would pick a soft green or yellow rather than the leftover yarn from the replacement golf head covers that I made DJ a few years back.  I love to knit but wish I had more time to do it.

DJ's birthday is today but  we went out for lunch at Golden Corral yesterday.  He told me not to make any cake or pie for him since he knew he could get as many desserts as he wanted at the buffet.   We still have cookies left from the sew-in if he wants a homemade treat.  Actually I sort  of have plans to make him some "not a birthday" cupcakes in a week or so using this recipe for Nutella Fudge Brownie Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream Frosting    A pal who decorates told me what I needed to get to pipe icing so I'm ready to play but down the line.   I can even do filled cupcakes with this giant syringe like thing from Wilton called Dessert Decorator Plus.  Let the fun begin!

I knew I was going to be sewing with the FABs today on the Sister's Challenge panel that Cher had sent us sometime back.  You can read about it in this post.  I had cut out my choice of pattern about a week ago but now I can talk about it, LOL,  Most of the fabric was purchased with birthday money from the Belles and DJ so I am happy to have the chance to put it to use.

I didn't think out of the box too much here.  I chose the My Sunshine pattern by Kathy Deggendorfer who designed the fabrics for In the Beginning Fabrics.  We had to use the panel in some manner so I elected to cut the little animal squares into 4 1/2 inch squares and then made cheesecloth of the larger panel.  I bought a 2nd panel so I could get more blocks out of it, or 3 repeats of the 8 main motifs that way and augment it with other sections of the panel and a companion floral.   The squares of the panel were not quite square so I framed them with black as the first rounds of the log cabin.  I felt it needed something like that since there is so much color and detail in the block centers that a bit of separation would help.  One side of the block is blue and the other essentially green.  Each log will finish at 1 inch for a 12 inch block.  The quilt will be about 90 inches square.

Here is what it looks like in my work space.  Messy but the information I need at my fingertips.   I plan on keeping the 2nd panel intact to put on the back of the quilt.  At this point I am approximately 1/4 of the way done since I will be doing 4 strips on either side of the centers.  One thing I did not consider when I started this:  the centers are directional prints.  I will not be able to rotate the block for the traditional Barn Raising set.  I will have to be very careful to not have birds flying upside down, rivers floating backwards and mountains upside down.   Oh, I can do it correctly but need to be watchful and follow the drawing across the row.  I have the duplicate centers separated out in groups so will just do them one at a time rather than chain them as shown in the pattern.  Also I prefer to cut them to size so they do not get all wonky and off square.  I have tried it the other way and was not happy with the results.

I won't have much to show for my efforts for a few days anyway.  Norma was working on something using a Sidelights pattern for hers but rearranging things.  Pat some 9 patches and Cher, some lettering while Pam was considering treating as though she was looking out the scene from a window.  I'll be anxious to see how our challenge pieces turn out!

And sew it goes-----