Friday, September 26, 2014

Small diversions

Hi folks! How has your sewing week been?  I had a great birthday, complete with chocolate cake. How much more can a person ask for? Plus, the weather has been more like June than September, which is great for now but I'm sure there will be a big crash later.

I am still working on the same two quilts. Ocean Waves is about half finished and a little bit stalled because of the 9 inch squares of white I need for the remaining triangles. I guess I'm going to have to suck it up and cut some yardage for those. Burgoyne is zipping right along. The new ironing station really helps. Just have to finish the 4-patches (nasty little things) before I can finish all the blocks. Both of these make boring blog pictures (and some boring sewing, let me tell you), so how about some small diversionary sewing?

First up is the second orange Odd Fellow block:

If you look carefully, you can see the leaves changing!

He's a cutie, even if it was hard to find a "sober" piece of orange. I was worried about the lines in this fabric, but it turned out to be no problem at all. And now we're done with orange! Wonder what the next color will be?

Then there is this little guy:



This is called "You Got Cookies?" and was in the November/December 2012 issue of Quiltmaker. Very fast paper piecing. The best part is that I did find a small piece of white flannel for the hat band and a little bit of green bias tape for a tiny flange at the edge of the hat. I did have one problem with this pattern. Sections 5 and 6 both had to be extended by about half an inch in order to fit correctly. I've never experienced that with a paper pieced pattern before, but I could have made a mistake, so if you make it, measure all the parts first. I think he's darling, even if he was a little trouble.

Last is this little baby:

It's a jungle out there!

This was a very popular item made from this tutorial by Erin at Dog Under My Desk. She calls it an earbud pouch, but I plan to use it for my pedometer because for some reason manufacturers don't think women need pockets in their exercise clothes. They are wrong, and I don't want to make more pockets. This should work well.

That's what I did this week! Hope you got a bunch of sewing done, and that none of it was as boring as making 4-patches.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, crazy mom quilts, and SoScrappy. Have a great weekend!

16 comments:

Quilting Stories said...

Hi Mari! You are doing wonderful things! Your orange is perfect, beautiful block!

Lorna McMahon said...

Love that big orange Oddfellow block, Mari! And that polar bear is simply adorable! Glad you got him to work out. Nice work!

Rachel said...

Love the little bear peeking. I'd give him a cookie! :)

Lana said...

That is just adorable! Love Love Love!

deb @ frugal little bungalow said...

All pretty diversions for certain! :)

Leanne Parsons said...

I loved that bear quilt when it was published, though I still haven't made it. Thanks for the tip. I might get to him someday. I love, love, love that orange block (and orange isn't usually my thing).

Judy@Quilt Paradigm said...

I love orange and I adore your block!! Beautifully done :) I agree about pockets in women's workout clothes! I have very few that have them. I have found the less expensive stuff has pockets! Odd, maybe they thing if someone is paying $100 for a pair of workout pants they can afford to have someone carry stuff for them ;) haha

Deb A said...

Great block and love the bear! Glad you figured out how to make it work. Nice little pouch.

Chantal said...

Wonderful work Mari. I laughed when I saw the name of the Polar Bear Quilt. So original, so cute and so well made. Love the Odd Fellow too.

Sheila said...

Happy Birthday! Love your projects!!!

Nell's Quilts said...

Great pictures. You can definitely see the autumn colour showing through. Love the little polar bear. Worth the trouble I think. Great orange block.

scraphappy said...

What a fun polar bear pattern. I am tempted to dig my old magazines out to find it. Love the orange too. Such a happy color.

Carla A Few Of My Favorite Things said...

Love the stripe in your orange with the pin dots in the white!

LA Paylor said...

I want cake!! Chocolate yep! The bear is toooo cute! Lee Anna at not afraid of color

Quiltdivajulie said...

I agree that 4 patches get boring at the beginning, but oh what they can be part of later!

Great bear!

Cathy said...

Oh, another lovely Odd Fellow. Can't wait to see the quilt made from these.

Cute bear but no matter how cute he's not getting any of my cookies!

4Ps may be boring but sewing the corners on lozenges may have that beat.