Tetris 3

An ETSY customer commissioned me to make a tetris quilt top for her mother-in-law a couple of months ago, which somehow I never posted on here. So this one is Tetris 2. (Tetris 1 being the one I made a year ago for my step-daughter.)

As soon as she saw it, she ordered another one for her husband. Apparently they are hardcore Tetris fans. She is going to quilt both tops herself. So this is Tetris 3. I always rearrange the pieces, so no two Tetris quilts are just alike:

Can you see my mistake? I just this moment, as I was uploading this photo, saw it. Guess I'm not quite done after all...

How in the world did I miss that?

Coincidentally, one of my recent purchases was this seam ripper:

Called Seam Fix. The big white end pulls the thread pieces out of your fabric after you've ripped out a seam. Pretty handy thing.

But back to Tetris, my friend Mandy always says the piece at the top makes her physically nervous because she wants to grab the controller & fix it before it falls:)

And as soon as I get this one fixed, I'll be starting on yet another Tetris commissioned quilt. This one with some slight color changes. I can think of worse ways to be busy. The various piles of laundry in the other room are but one example.

Hope you had a great Easter and are having a wonderful weekend. My daughter and I joined a huge worship service (about 15,000 attended) held in a park downtown. The weather was perfect, the music was wonderful, and I fully enjoyed just spreading out on a quilt, enjoying it all.

After which we had a nice ham dinner & some egg hunts.

Ok, one more picture - one of the items in my daughter's basket was a mask of a cat. Little did I know what perfect timing that gift was since she had just lost her second front tooth:

How adorable is that?

Tidy Tuesday, the one in which I actually have a helpful tip

I haven't posted a Tidy Tuesday in a couple of weeks because, honestly, I haven't been very focused on housework. I've been in a complete sewing zone, which was helped by a few commissioned orders. This weekend, however, I reached my limit with the messy house and tried to play catch up all in one day. That didn't work so well for me:) But it's a great deal better than it was.

And one of the better areas (here comes the tip) is in my drip pans. You all may know this and may wonder how I don't, but it wasn't until this weekend I discovered the tip of using ammonia to clean my drip pans. There are many sites discussing it, but I found it here. Previously, I've tried everything - soaking in scalding water & soap or Pine Sol, running thru the dishwasher, scouring pads, which would just get shredded without budging the dirt. I resigned myself to dirty drip pans most of the year until I finally broke down & bought new ones just so I could have clean ones for a week or so. Before I went to bed Friday night, I sealed each one in a ziplock bag with just a splash of ammonia & Saturday morning, I had this, after a brief wipe:

Not perfect, but you should have seen them! I think I'll do it again this weekend & see if I can't get the rest off.

Since my "clean all the things" rampage Saturday, I've slipped back into my sewing zone, but out of necessity. I've had a plan for my daughter's teacher appreciation gift for several months, but received a phone call from the PTA last Thursday saying that teacher appreciation had been moved up to this week. Thanks for the notice, guys! I guess no one makes hand made gifts anymore? I wasn't going to let my plans get derailed over a bumped up deadline, so I got to work.

This teacher is all about reading, which is probably a good trait in a 1st grade teacher, and I think she'll like it. She has done an amazing job with my daughter, who I feel owes it completely to her that she is probably reading several grade levels ahead. And she now has the courage to try a word. She tries all the words. Every moment we're in the car, she's reading something from a sign somewhere & I'm usually frantically looking around to see what she's reading.

Unfortunately, it was raining yesterday, so I didn't get the best of pictures of it. I echo quilted each book and then hand quilted with some pearl cotton around the word. I wish I had a close up of the word, but for whatever reason, it didn't occur to me yesterday. I did get a close up of that tilting book:

Because with all those irregular angles, I was super proud to have the corners meet so nicely. I was sure I'd either cut one off, or end up with a book "floating" above the shelf. I think I audibly squealed when I peeled back the binding to see that perfect little corner:) As a bonus, each piece, even the white ones, were taken from my scraps. That makes it even more fun for me.

My next project

I made my daughter a backpack when she started kindergarten, but that was 2 years ago and it's showing some wear. She never actually wears it as a backpack, instead just holding it by the handle, but when she's going to her granny's, she always uses the shoulder strap of her overnight bag. So that has me thinking she would prefer a messenger bag to a backpack.

My first step was to consult an expert, so I bought the Molly Messenger Bag pattern by Pretty by Hand.

This is the first Pretty by Hand pattern I've bought, but I've read her blog for years and just love her attention to detail. I figured if anyone could walk me through it, it would be her.

My daughter is very into Monster High and has been for a year now, so I was excited to find this iron-on patch on ETSY:

But imagine my surprise upon finding this next fabric right in my very own closet:

How great is that? I eventually remembered buying it to make her a pillow case, but I certainly haven't thought about it again since purchasing day. Wonder what else is in there...

Anyway, then I found this great stripe:

Reviewed my Kona & Moda Bella cards for a pink (Moda berryliscious), and pulled some Kona Coal & Kona Black from my stash:

And I think we have all we need for a great messenger bag, don't you? I love working with fabric lines, but when something like this comes together by accident, it's extra fun, don't you think?

In other news, I did get my table runner bound:

And the commissioned tetris quilt top done:

That's it for me this week. What are you working on?

Linking up to Freshly Pieced for her Work in Progress Wednesday.

This has been a busy week!

First off is the tetris quilt I was commissioned to make. Still waiting on the purple to arrive...

And then a friend of mine wanted me to make some gifts for her upcoming trip to her home country of Belarus. 

A hooded towel with a flower and the letter "M":

Some pot holders using the colors red, gray, white & black: 

And some pot holders using walnut & cream, for which I used my Aster Manor scraps: 

But I didn't leave myself out, because I made a pillow cover (still in progress) using my beloved Salt Air: 

The Kona color is pond, if you're curious. 

And a table runner with the same fabric line: 

Not one piece of Salt Air shall be wasted!! And obviously I've been putting the hexagons together for a while. I'm very much looking forward to sewing that binding to the back tonight. It's been a long time since I've gotten to do a binding, and that's my favorite part!

One more pretty picture before I go - this lovely bundle is Rock N Romance by Art Gallery Fabrics: 

Ok - two more pictures, just because I know you want to see more:

I feel pretty sure these are destined for my bed. I'm developing an unnatural affection for them. 

Linking up to Freshly Pieced for her Work in Progress Wednesday. What's going on with you this week?

Two stacks, one plan

This stack of fabrics:

is one purple short of a tetris quilt.

I've been commissioned to re-make this quilt in a lap size.

This stack of fabrics:

is just for fun. It's Sweet as Honey by Art Gallery Fabrics. Not my typical style, but the oranges and aquas, as well as the super soft feel of the fabric, just drew me in.

I have no immediate plans for it, but I'm looking forward to figuring it out.

Who knows when I'll baste again

My daughter was invited to a birthday party a couple of weeks ago at a skating rink. I was there about 5 minutes when I assessed the situation - I could either sit in a chair with nothing to do, but not be rude by looking bored for the duration of the party (similar to looking busy at work when you have nothing to do), or I could see if I could still skate. After all, I was pretty good at it once. 30 years ago, but still - once.

Can you guess which decision I made? From that point on, I very happily sat on my chair and pretend to be mesmerized by the 7-year-olds inching their way around the rink.

So, basting a quilt on the floor has been completely out of the question these last two weeks, and based on the sensation when I accidentally bumped my shin against the toilet (softly, even) this morning, I have no idea when I will get to baste.

The only thing that makes sense in that situation is to make another top, right?

The fabrics are Kensington by Riley Blake and the pattern is Hexagon Garden. I love both. I originally was going to make this for selling, but not only did I fall pretty hard for it during it's construction, the piecing isn't quite accurate enough for selling. I should have starched the jelly roll strips prior to piecing knowing the whole thing is made of triangles. And I should have had the proper triangle ruler instead of just using the 60% mark on my straight ruler. Given those two factors, I'm pretty proud it turned out as well as it did.

This particular section turned out really well. Which is why you're seeing it. Overall, it was a fairly easy pattern. I'm really sure I'll be making it again.

I miss covers

I have always liked being under the blankets. I prefer heavy blankets - the weight of two quilts is just perfect. I've never liked those fluffy, weightless polyester filled types. And my favorite thing to do with them is pull them right up over my head, and then I tuck them around my face so I can breath. Warm ears, cold nose - that's apparently what does it for me.

One of the first things I did upon becoming an adult was to learn to crochet, and for 20 years after I pretty much had a crochet hook in my hand every non-working moment. I made a lot of doilies, but a ton of afghans too, for both babies and adults.

And then three years ago I took up quilting and have made a pretty impressive number of quilts since. So I guess you could say that I've devoted my entire adult non-working life to making covers.

But now I've reached a peculiar stage of life where I can no longer enjoy my covers. In fact, they torment me.

Each night, I will get in bed and pull them up as I've done for the last 47 years, but it's a matter of time until the heat comes. The heat that defies biological science given the temperature of the room. I try to outsmart it - I know it's temporary - so I determine I'll just keep the covers in place and wait it out. You simply can't do this - it's too intense. But I know if I throw all covers completely off, I'll just get cold, so I try to inch the covers down. Just below the shoulder, I decide, is probably the perfect place. The heat disagrees. So, waist-high then. That should do it. NO! Knees? NO! And on we go until the only thing under the covers is the left foot. The heat demands that should go as well.

Fine. I have no covers. I lay there, damp from my own perspiration, under a ceiling fan, in a room about 68 degrees. Now I'm cold. So, I try to outsmart the cold. Just the left foot perhaps? Freezing. Somehow colder. Fine - knee-high, both feet? Nope. Waist-high? PUT SOME COVERS ON ALREADY!! I still try to stop at shoulder high, but it never works - I'm never comfortable until they are in place all the way up to my ears.

And that is when the heat comes back. All. Night. Long.

Maybe I should take up painting now...