Old dog, new tricks

Hi all!  Hope everyone managed to survive the storm okay.  Even by Midwestern standards, that was an impressive amount of snow. (We had about 21 inches.)  And it's still hanging around, too.  I understand it snows regularly here, so why aren't they better at clearing the roads?  It's a mystery.

While we were snowed in, I actually didn't sew much of anything!  I. . .cleaned.  I know, I can't explain it either!  The hubs and I also watched some movies and then went out on Sunday and dug out the cars.  That was exhausting.  Other than that, I have been learning some new things and I did do a little bit of practicing this new technique.  Take a look:

Free pieced houses!  Who knew I had it in me?  (I told you I was obsessed with houses.)

For those who don't know, free piecing is a technique that involves no patterns and no measuring.  You simply cut pieces (with scissors!) and sew them together, trimming and pressing as you go, then square up at the end.  Some people make things really wonky, but wonky makes me really nervous, so I tried to make things fairly straight.  These were my first two:

Really simple, right?  Even these were really hard for me, so I made them and then had to take a break and get my head around things.  When I settled down, I made two more:

Look, doors!  For some reason, I was a little happier with these, and a lot calmer, even though I made a few mistakes.  Trim everything off straight, really!

So the only thing left to do was make a house with windows too:

Ta-da!  I'm actually pretty happy with how this one came out.  It actually looks like a house!  By the time I made this one I was getting a lot more comfortable with the process and enjoying it.  "Free-pieced" does not mean sloppy or poorly constructed, and it took a few tries to convince myself of that.

If this technique made me so nervous, why did I try it?  Well, it's always good to try new things, especially if they're outside your comfort zone.  It's how we learn and grow.  Plus, I have really been impressed with some of the free-pieced quilts that I've seen, and I am really looking forward to getting Julie's new book on free-pieced barns and trying some of those out.  My real goal is to make some free-pieced letters, so that's the next thing for me to try.  Now THAT will be nerve-wracking!

I think I want to live in this happy house!

Hope you're having a wonderful week and that your streets are all clear.  Midwesterners, you have no idea how lucky you are.  Want to come out and give the East coast some snow-clearing lessons?  They need them!

Sharing at  Linky Tuesday,  Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.
 

Scrappy snow day

Hi all!  Buried in snow yet?  Yep, we've got a bunch--about 10 inches-- so far.  Not sure when it will stop, but I have a bunch of things lined up to do, including making brownies.  Hey, I've got to keep my spirits up!

I just have one thing to show today for Scrappy Saturday:

These are about half of the blue hexies that I've basted from the many scraps that I've been cutting.  These are big, 2 inches on each side. And no, I did not cut hexagons!  I just had squares (and to be honest, I got a little lazy and some of these are just pieces of fabric in no shape at all) and folded them around the paper hexies.  Here's how they look on the back:

I'll trim the seam allowances as I stitch them together.  The seam allowances won't be perfect, but cutting hexie shapes takes way more time than trimming away the seam allowances.

So, I'm not really sure what to do with these.  Right now I think I might make a block of each color and then join them all together at the end.  I don't think I want another month-to month project, and I'm not sure that I want blocks of hexies.  Maybe I'll just mix them together and stitch them together randomly.  I can't decide.  Anyone have an opinion?

Okay, I just did the math and that's a lot of hexies.  Probably breaking it up into blocks is the best idea, because otherwise I'm likely to be left with 500 loose hexies and no quilt, and that would be very sad!

Hope everyone is warm and dry this weekend.  Stay in and sew!  The snow has a way of melting eventually if you just leave it alone. . .

Guess I'll stay in!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC16 and Oh Scrap!

Neighborhood

Hi everyone!  Are you all ready for the snow?  Apparently we're going to get buried over the weekend.  All I know is that we have had next to no snow all winter (which is weird) and now we're apparently going to get it all at once.  I tried to go to the grocery store today, but that was a serious mistake.  It was a zoo!  I didn't need bananas that badly, so I didn't stay long.

Before the snow flies, let's talk about this lovely little quilt top I just finished:

Neighborhood

Not the greatest picture (it's cold and windy) but I love it! I have been obsessed with houses for a while now.  I am so tired of living in this condo that I could just scream sometimes.  I know I should feel grateful that I have a nice safe place to live that is tucked away near a park and everything, but I miss my house so much.  I keep thinking about all the improvements I would make to this place, but then I remember that I can't do anything about that ugly bathroom floor.  Sigh.  Spring is coming, and then we'll be looking. 

I guess for now I'll make do with these pretty house blocks! I did not make these.  Back in September, I got to "adopt" these blocks from Julie at Floribunda Quilts.  Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework had a Quilty Adoption event (and is having another in March, so be ready) where people could offer their unfinished projects that they had lost enthusiasm for to others who would finish them.  I won Julie's beautiful blocks!

These were apparently made by several different people, and they are all great!  They have all sorts of bling, too:

How cute are those beads?  And check out the roof of this house:

What pretty decorative stitches!

I set these blocks in irregular rows with this beautiful blue-green Kona cotton.  (I need a Kona color card so I can keep these names straight.)  I didn't want any straight rows or anything like that.  I tried to work it out on graph paper, but in the end I just sat on the floor and arranged them the way I wanted, then measured the spaces between them to cut the sashing.  It was a process, but it worked!

So, I now have this little top that measures about 50 by 50 (or so).  I've named it Neighborhood, because what else could it be?  Because of the buttons and such, I'll have to quilt it up myself, which I am totally looking forward to.  Could take a little while, though, because I have to figure out what to do with that negative space.  Maybe I can quilt in some trees or something.  Here's where the graph paper will come in handy!

Thanks to Julie for such great blocks! Since she had wanted these to be used for a charitable purpose, this may get donated to my niece's high school auction for their student activities.  Not sure if I can have it done by then, but I'll try.

Here's hoping your house will be okay this weekend.  Stay off the roads and stay in and sew--it's safer!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish it up Friday.

A badger for baby

Hi everyone! Wow, it's bracing out there, isn't it?  It's a beautiful day here--lots of sunshine, temps aren't too bad-- but the wind will knock you over!  I tried to get pictures of today's work, but they were blowing so much that I was afraid I'd end up chasing the blocks all over.  So, indoor pictures, but at least there was a lot of sunshine.

So, anybody out there have any grandchildren?  Our son and daughter in law are expecting their first baby--and our first grandson--in a few weeks.  You know what that means--a special baby quilt just for the new little one! I am making him a quilt from Lorna's Forest Friends pattern.  It's going to be a great quilt for a little boy whose parents love the outdoors.  Here's my first block:

A red fox!  How cute is this little guy?

Lorna has written such a great pattern.  The directions are very clear and there are a lot of illustrations.  The pattern has a lot of pieces, but it's very easy--all straight stitching!

I'm not sure how Lorna will feel about this, but I adapted the other fox block into a different kind of animal:

It's a North American Badger!  Hey, this little boy is a Wisconsinite, so he NEEDS  a badger!  Badgers have those characteristic black and white stripes on their faces, which makes them very striking.  I know this one has no eyes yet, but badgers have black eyes in the black stripes, so I figured that I will stitch in some eyes with dark gray thread when I quilt it up. (Yes, I'm quilting it myself--it's for my grandson!)

This was way more difficult to adapt than you would think.  I cut the pieces out of  paper and tried to find a way to make Lorna's pieces work, but I ended up drawing lines and then paper piecing the sections.  You can see that even that wasn't perfect, because the ears are weird, but I think it came out acceptable enough.  And I have much more respect for pattern developers now, and I thought they were great before.

Anyway, I'll be working on this for a little while, but he's coming in February, so a very little while.  I finally got the fabric ordered for the wedding quilt, too, so I'll be plenty busy.

Hope your fabric doesn't blow away!  I hear we're having a winter storm this week, so maybe I'll get extra sewing time.  We'll see!

Sharing at  Linky Tuesday,  Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.