It's magic!

Hello all, and greetings from my very soggy home! Seriously, it will not stop raining.  As you'll see in the following pictures, there are puddles everywhere, and the grass feels like a sponge.  The sump pump is running quite a lot.  The sad part is that we're still down several inches from where we should be because the last couple of years we were in drought.  Some of the pictures today are darkish because I had to dance between the raindrops to get them, so sorry about that!

Today I am showing off the completely finished Mutant Elephants quilt, complete with a really snappy machine-finished binding!

Well, at least you can really see the quilting! I was going to quilt this myself, but I chickened out.  Just too big, and with limited time in my life, it was better to send it to the longarmer.  I know the turtle and the frog are a little wide-eyed, but I like them.  Plus, those birds are flying, because I forgot to give them legs.  Next time I'll piece some legs in, but for now, they're flying.

I took this lovely little quilt to the park and tried to get some good pictures, but it was really wet.  See the puddles?

Who's going to lay their quilt on that?  Not me!

For this quilt, I did the machine binding again using the tutorial for Susie's Magic Binding, found HERE.  It really is magic! I think it looks fantastic. Look how it turns out:

This binding took me about an hour and 45 minutes, with several breaks, mainly because of the pressing involved.  And stitching that looooong seam in the binding, which was tedious but not difficult. I used my zipper foot to stitch this binding down on the front and it worked great. Plus, last time someone suggested that I do the sides and then do the corners last.  This was a great idea, at least until I get the hang of machine binding quickly.  Even with the "piping," my corners turned out great:

My only trouble with this binding is that I didn't realize that so much of the under fabric would be "lost" and the stripes would essentially be invisible.  Here is a swatch of the two fabrics I used:

See how much of the stripe pattern was hidden?  Next time I'll put a solid on the underside.  The good part is that you can use less of each fabric since they are both cut narrowly, so if you have a really cute fabric but not quite enough for a binding, you can still use it along with something else on the underside. Win!

Everybody have a great weekend.  I'll be checking my north side for moss.  Imagine finding some--wouldn't that be a situation? 

One last thing: The Academic Quilter is now listed on QuilterBlogs.com! We'll see what happens.  This does NOT mean there will be ads.  Still non-profit! But if you are looking for something new or different, head on over there to look around! 

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday.
 

Mutant elephants

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! Good to have made it through the week, isn't it? After one day of mild temperatures, we have plunged right back down to 4 degrees. I understand that many of you who aren't used to the snow and ice have gotten a bunch of it. Be careful out there! Don't try driving--stay home and sew instead!

So, this week I finished up the Elephant Parade quilt top!

Whoo hoo! I think this turned out great, though it is much bigger than I thought it would be. I think I've mentioned before that I just can't ever visualize something by size. Who knows what my problem is, but I was surprised by the finished size of the top. I used a smaller sashing than called for in the pattern, but I think it turned out fine.

 I think I will keep this quilt for myself. Don't tell my kids, but I have a secret stash of kids quilt tops that I especially love that I'm keeping in case we ever have grandchildren.  (Shhh. The stash is our secret.)  I know my niece will need a donation for an auction later this year, and I think one of these would be perfect, so I may make it again. I see that Lorna is working on a zebra quilt, so that could be a nice donation instead. We'll see.

So, why is this post about this very cute quilt called Mutant Elephants? Well, I had taken pictures of the top, so it was downstairs, and Mr. Academic Quilter saw it. He very seldom says anything about quilts, except  "what is that one for?" (Does that question make you crazy too?) He noticed the polka dot elephants that I like so much and what did he have to say about them? "What's with those mutant elephants?" Aaahhh! Now I can't think of them any other way! Has something like this ever happened to you? 

Poor little mutant elephant!

This weekend I have to add the eyes and other details and I may start quilting this up. I should also go shopping for a backing. I like the way Lorna did hers and it seems fairly simple. My modern machine doesn't have a serpentine stitch or a very large zigzag, but look what I found on the "embroidery unit" of the 1966 Pfaff:

I think this little wheel is just wild, and I can't wait to try out this stitch, and maybe a couple of others too. There are also more stitches listed on the other side of this wheel. I'm pretty sure the embroidery stitches were never used,  so I don't know how well they'll work, but it's worth a try.

Speaking of worth a try--a friend recommended these needles and she was so right:

These are fantastic! They are so much better than the universal needles I've been using. They go right through even thick seams. (I get no kickbacks--just passing on a great idea.)

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm cleaning the oven. Whatever you do, I'll bet you have more fun than me!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and TGIFF and Link a Finish Friday.

Working Wednesday

Hi all! How is your week going? I have good news--it's 31 degrees outside! It feels like summer, or would if it was sunny. I am seriously ready to ditch the winter coat. The bad news is that it won't last because we're only supposed to have a high of 14 tomorrow.  Believe it or not, those roller coaster temperatures are a real sign of spring here in Wisconsin. I say bring it on!

So far this week, I've made the right-facing baby elephants for the Elephant Parade quilt. Take a look at this little guy:

I love him! I couldn't have just one oddball baby elephant, so I had to have another one facing the other direction.  I've also fixed the yellow flower and finished that row:

The yellow flower is a little short, but it looks good so I don't care. I just added a wider yellow strip at the top to fix the size problem. Still not sure what I did wrong there. Now all I need to make are the birds and this quilt can go together!

I also pulled out this fabric that was hidden in the dark recesses of a box in the sewing room:

So very cheerful, isn't it? It's an upholstery weight fabric that I used to have folded and framed in the girl's room when they were small. Take a look at the date on the selvage:

That's 1987, folks! I think it's time to either make it up into something or give it away. It kind of screams to become a bag, doesn't it? Either that or a pillow, I'm not sure.

The only other thing I've done is start pulling out fabric for my next quilt project now that the elephants are wrapping up. I earned my graduate degrees at Marquette University and have wanted a Marquette quilt for my office for a long time. They do have knitted afghans and fleece throws for sale in the spirit shop, but we all know that won't do, right? I have one yard of this fabric:

I'm not sure where I got this, but I haven't seen it since. I'm still kicking myself for only getting one yard. I do have a good idea on how to use it, though, so now all I need are some coordinating fabrics:

Not sure why the colors seem so different in those two pictures! The upper photo is closer to the real colors. The coordinates look pretty good, I think, but I might go shopping again. You know, just to make sure I have the right fabric.

Finally, I want to give a strong recommendation to this post by Joanna at Riddle and Whimsy about problems with blog comments and some email systems. I noticed last week that I'm not getting all of your comments emailed to me, and I suspect that it's because you have Yahoo addresses. If you made a comment and I missed it, I am truly sorry. I do appreciate every visitor and comment! I've also noticed that some long-time commenters have suddenly become "no-reply."  Not sure why that it is, but if you didn't change your settings maybe it's related. Anyway, Joanna had some great things to say and her post is really worth reading.

That's the dispatch from the sewing room for today! Hope everyone is having a good week!

Linking to Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday. Come on over and say hi!

Pretties

Hello friends! Well, it has been a hard, hard week around here. I am really happy to put this one in the archives. But at least we are getting to the end of February and March starts on Sunday. You know what happens in March--spring!

Since it's been such a rough week, let's get right to the pretties and feel better, okay? First up, I made the turtle block for the Elephant Parade quilt:

I call him Ted, because that goes with Fred the frog. Ted looks a little chilly.

I bought Lorna's pattern and am an impatient sort, so I made a couple of the flowers, thinking that would mean that I could put together a couple of rows. Well. . .

Yep, that yellow flower (which is red in the pattern) is too small by about a half inch! Not sure what I did wrong there. I'm considering just putting a wider white strip on top and calling it good. Since the first row had no yellow flowers, though, it went together fine:

Indoor picture since it kept bleaching out from the snow outside.

It's looking good. Happiness! This quilt kind of reminds me of the work of the late Pam Bono--does anyone remember her patterns? They were a little fiddly but always looked spectacular when finished. I might just have to dig out one of her books and play around some.

In a few spare minutes, I also made these lovely pink string blocks for RSC15:

Eight blocks! With more strings still in the bin. They may just stay there, though, because 8 seems like a lot.

After I made the string blocks, I tried something I've never done before with the pieces that were too small to use for the string blocks. I made my very first ever crumb block:

Is there a better time for an outdoor picture than when it's 12 degrees and sunny?

Yikes! I have mixed feelings about this, actually. I'm not really sure I did it right, and it feels weird not to have everything align correctly. But it's square (6-1/2 inches) and not "wonky," so it's growing on me. I have a LOT of pink left, so I may make a few more of these.  Just so I can get comfortable with them, you know, not because I like it or anything. Anyone have suggestions on what to do with crumb blocks?

And since this is the end of pink month, let's have one final pink treat:

Strawberry chocolate chip cookies! (Recipe HERE. The dough was kind of gross, but the cookies taste good.) Aren't they festive? The perfect thing to end February with, I think.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I plan to make a blanket fort and hide out until Monday morning. Ha ha, just kidding! I'm getting my hair cut and then doing other dull adult-like things, probably including shoveling some more snow at least once. Good times!

Happy sewing!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and TGIFF and also Angela at soscrappy for RSC15.

Weathering the cold

Hi everyone! Are you all used to the cold yet? I have no more jokes about the cold, so maybe I'm used to it, but I'm still counting the days until spring. (26 days!) It cannot get here soon enough. I know spring brings its own troubles, but at least we'll be able to go outside without the air hurting our faces.

We had a quiet weekend, but we did leave the house many times, once for pancakes. (Yum!) I even went out and walked a couple of miles on Saturday. (I hate the treadmill that much.) I did a lot of cutting for various projects and also made up this guy:

This is the frog block for Lorna's Elephant Parade quilt along at Sew Fresh Quilts. I think he's adorable. I've taken to calling him Fred the Frog. Fred may need an entire quilt of his own. First he needs a mouth, but I'm planning to do all the embroidery of the eyes and other details at once at the end.

One notion that I found really helpful for Fred's eyes and many other projects are these Perfect Circles:

These are Mylar circles in many sizes that you can iron over, trace, gather fabric around, what have you. These are super useful if you're no good at drawing circles, like I am. The set I have goes from about 1/4 inch circles up to about 2 inches, and there is a set for larger circles as well. I really like these. (I have no affiliation with anyone who makes or sells these, I just find them really helpful.)

I've also got some baby elephants to show you:

Cuteness! This is about half of the elephants I have to make. I've cut the others but haven't made them yet. Looking at the pattern, now that I have Fred and some baby elephants, I might just have enough for one row of the quilt. That's progress, huh?

I love the polka dot elephant! Right now I'm feeling like I might have to make another one of these with multi-colored elephants. I suppose I should finish this one first, but the pattern is really easy.

For the Kaleidoscope quilt, I'm making up these two side pieces this week:

Not stitched together yet, but not hard at all. After I finish these, the next step is 12 log cabin blocks, which should also go fairly quickly. There are really only three more steps until I can assemble a large part of it! I am happy with the progress I'm making here, even if some of it has been frustrating.

That's what I'm up to this week. I need to make the turtle block and finish those baby elephants, and then I'll  be all caught up on the Elephant Parade quilt. I'm also anxiously awaiting March's color announcement for RSC15. I'm hoping for purple--how about you?

Hope you are all caught up and doing well on your projects. One good side effect of all the snow and cold is that it forces us to stay inside and sew. Or clean, but who wants to do that?

Linking to Linky Tuesday,  and Let's Bee Social.   Come on by and say hi!

The elephant in the room

Hi all!  Hope everyone has had a great week and been very, very productive. I had a fairly good week, but didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to, in sewing or other things. I blame this:

Notice the sunshine! And the extra-deep snowdrifts!

Pretty! But a pain in the butt to shovel and drive through. And very cold! It was -2 degrees when I took today's pictures. Thankfully, we are just having a normal Wisconsin winter. Our daughter in Maine had 70 inches in 10 days, which is enough to make anyone think twice about leaving the house.

Anyway, I did finish a few things sewing-wise. Mostly I worked on cleaning and sorting in the sewing room (more on that later) and making this guy:

An elephant! Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts is having a quilt-along with her pattern Elephant Parade. It is a very cute pattern and she's basically giving it away as a part of the quilt-along, in that all the cutting and sewing instructions are given on the blog. I wasn't going to make it, I really, really wasn't, but I thought I'd make just one elephant. You know what happened next:

I made him a bunch of friends! I guess I am making an Elephant Parade quilt. Or at least some more elephants. Because after I made these, I thought "who says that elephants have to be gray?" So. . .

Yep, a pink elephant! I'm sure she'll make it into the quilt somewhere. I'm also thinking a polka dot elephant would be darned cute. Maybe a polka dot baby elephant? We'll see!

Anyway, that was what I actually finished this week! Hope you got a lot more done than that. Everyone have a great weekend! I'm hoping to sew and move my fabric into the newly finished closet.

One more thing to mention--if you look at the sidebar, there's an ad for my good friend Leanne's custom embroidery business, The Sewcial Life. You should definitely check it out! She does beautiful work at very reasonable prices, and she made me some fantastic quilt labels. I'll bet she would do the same for you!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Amanda Jean at crazy mom quilts. Stop by and wave!