Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Playing with blocks

Holy cow, it's December.

Anyone else feel a little panicky about that? Just me? Oookay.

So, we are stuck in the deep freeze again. The hubs and I visited our daughter on the East Coast for Thanksgiving, which was fabulous, and then got home to the single digits. Welcome home! It's sunny, though, so it's not all bad. As long as it stays sunny, I'll be okay. No promises for when it snows again.

I have been playing with a few things in the sewing room. Really trying hard not to stress out over any project, so I've done a little bit on a lot of projects. Take a look!

The first 16-inch section of the wintry/frozen Drunkard's Path quilt (which really needs a name if anyone has a suggestion):


Gosh, this will be pretty. I decided to keep the Fairy Frost. And it has my favorite sewing feature--very little matching! (Yes, I see that one block is pressed wrong. I promise it isn't stitched wrong.) For anyone who's interested, the pink and green one went to the quilter this past week. Those last few pieces went together okay. I promise not to make the same mistake again.

(Also, does anyone know anything about the specialty machine foot for piecing curved blocks without pins? I just want to know if it works, because it's kind of pricey. It would be worth it to make this faster, but only if it actually works. Thanks!)

More progress on the winter quilt from Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles:



Another tree! I thought this would finish the center row, but I actually messed up and made the same tree twice. Oops. There are three trees, each slightly different, but I lost track of which ones I had already made.


The mistake will be really easy to fix, or maybe I'll just leave it. We'll see how motivated I am. The rest of the quilt is rows of repeated patterns, so I'm not sure which one I feel like making next. I guess we'll find out next time I feel like sewing on this. (Buy the patterns HERE or HERE.)

Okay, I know I said that I was waiting to make Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, but I was feeling left out after doing the last several mysteries, so I made a couple of blocks for the first step:


They're just so colorful, I couldn't resist! I made ten of these blocks and that's all I am making for now. I figure that this way I can play along without stress and have a start on the quilt if I want to make the whole thing. Worst case, I have potholders or a small table topper. Plus, the colorful blocks really brighten the place up, and who doesn't need that in the winter?

For the rest of the week, I plan to work like crazy on finishing the RSC14 triangle quilt. It really wants to be finished! It's been nagging at me all day. "Put down those curvy blocks and come work on me! I have nice straight seams!"

I may be a little tired right now.

Anyway, hope everyone has a really good and productive week! If it warms up a little, we will be putting our Christmas lights up this week, and I have definitely started shopping. I am starting to get a little holiday spirit!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, and Let's Bee Social. Happy sewing!

6 comments:

Cathy said...

lolol...you crack me up! I love your Grand Illusion fabrics. You're right, they are so bright and colorful and perfect for winter. You've made it further than I have on the row quilt for Cindy. I think I did the snowmen and the cabin but the cabin blended in too much so it got set aside. Love the variety of projects you have going.

Rachel said...

Love those mystery block pieces! The colors are so bright and cheerful! I think your trees look fine as they are, but it also doesn't look like it would be too hard to change one of them. That's a decent place to be. What a lot of progress, especially for over the holidays!

Jo said...

I have used the CurveMaster foot for my wedding ring quilt. Once I did a few practice blocks it worked quite well. I didn't have to use pins....

Kelsey Boes said...

Ah! The trees and the little red house are adorable :) You are totally set for the fact that it's December with that quilt so far along.

Renee said...

Those trees with the cabin are so cute! Love the blue fabric with the stars, it looks like snow falling.

JanineMarie said...

Well, if you ask my granddaughter, she'll say that quilt needs to be called Frozen. We escaped Princessness for three years, but she just turned three yesterday, and is now owner of Elsa and Anna costumes thanks to her daycare giver and is over the moon. Good for you starting the Grand Illusion quilt!