Life in the Scrapatch: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

Monday Morning Quilty

My current quilty project.

I am linking up this morning with

Plum and June's

hosted today

@ Gemini Stitches

Today I am quilting this long overdue group baby quilt

for the The Quilt & Needle Quilty Aunties

These little giraffes have been on a wandering adventure.

Soon they will be migrating home.

I call this pattern "Animal Walk"

This pattern is one I designed on EQ for the Quilty Aunties.

The star chain block is called "Garden Steps."

The applique giraffe pattern I drew myself.

The blocks finish at 9" square.

This is how the quilt arrived, sandwiched and pinned.

After experimenting, I did have to completely remove the pins,

smooth the front and back and repin according to my own method.

Apparently I do not use many pins when I quilt, but I am careful not to

get folds and to keep my backing flat. Works for me. ;)

Katniss stalked the giraffes while I contemplated the quilting.

Then Katniss helped me thread my machine.

The baby grandma and I decided on a variegated orange/green/yellow thread.

Katniss is such a good helper.

Ready, set, quilt!

I am quilting this on my home machine as I do for most quilts twin and smaller. This quilt is a toddler size.

I like to rent the long arm at my LQS and do FMQ on larger quilts.

I am doing straight line quilting in the sashing, star blocks and border.

In the sashing I decided on a diamond criss cross design.

I mark the sashing with pins as I go to keep my pattern even. I mark with and remove pins on each section as I go, first one way and then the other.

Progress!

I use three tables set together to support a quilt while quilting on my home machine.

Here is a similar quilt made by the Quilty Aunties for the little brother with zebras instead of giraffes and a blue/green/yellow colorway ...

These quilts measure about 60" square for the boys to enjoy as they grow.

Spring has finally arrived in my quilty corner!

Today is sunny and Katniss has moved to enjoy the tulip patch and windows

on our enclosed front porch.

Time to quilt!

Have a happy quilty day!
:)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Random 5 and Feline Friday

1) A cat on a leash.

Does not get much more random than that!

2) This is Katniss.

Last summer we adopted Katniss at 2 and 1/2 last years old from a shelter where she was taken in as a stray and got her name, but they and no idea what her previous life was like. She appeared to have a bad leg and has an unusual gate for a cat, so I thought she might have been hit by a car at one time, but she might also have been kept in a cage and just never learned to run and jump. Katniss is not very street smart and does not seem to understand about cars. She learned to jump from our older cat which she watches and imitates constantly. Now very active, she loves to run and jump around the house. Every time we take her out on her leash, she acts like she has never seen any of this before. It is fun to watch.

Katniss is now an indoor cat that

we will only take out on a leash.

She is a very happy cat.

To see what my kitties and I were making indoors this week Click Here

3) Spring is arriving at last in my corner of New England.

Like the one in this picture,

the tulips outside in my quilty corner are just budding.

4) Our first tulip of spring!

Now blooming inside in a pot in the corner of my enclosed front porch.

5) A Fabric Circle Cutter

Also really random .. ;)

Click Here to see what my kitties and I made with this

Linking up again today with the random fun of

Random 5 Friday @ A Rural Life

and

Feline Friday @ Sarah Did It!

Thanks for visiting my scrap patch!

Have a happy weekend!

:-)

Shaking My Pom-Poms, Part 1

Shaking My Pom-Pom Scarf

in the spring breeze!

This is sew much more than a pretty scarf!

This scarf has pockets!

A pom-pom tool holder!

A mini-pincushion!

This is my new

Sewing Chatelaine Scarf

and Pom-Pom Pin Cushion Cone!

I was the very lucky winner of this lovely squishy from Sophie Junction in her
In Your Words Blog Hop Giveaway.
I have been fondling these pretties from time to time
and musing on the perfect project. Thank you, Sophie!

When the Shake Your Pom-Poms Blog Hop was announced and I started thinking of what I wanted to make for this blog hop an image with her striking star flower block popped into mind. Something I have never made before.
I love to try new ideas.

I gathered materials and ideas to think for awhile. It was a nice sunny day in my sewing room

Butterfly helped

Katniss helped by snoozing all day in the sunny basket on the cutting table. Her plan was to keep Butterfly from grabbing the basket. Butterfly did not care much...

Butterfly was busy helping me with the thinking process.

It took a lot of thought ...

so she decided to sleep on it.

this took some time

Finally the sun moved off the cutting table and Butterfly

moved to my thinking chair to do some more thinking.
Butterfly thinks better when she is hanging upside down off the chair
... and has been well petted.

My plan was ready for the stitching stage.

I had found a beautiful mottled blue/purple satin at JoAnn's

and bought a skinny 1/4 yard

I wanted to the focus Sophie's beautiful star flower block.
The pattern for this Daisy Star block is a freebie on Sophie's site...
Sophie Junction

I also wanted to use some of the pretty squares she shared and I wanted to add purple from my stash and I had been thinking of making a crazy quilt type scarf with the satin for the backing.

Butterfly and I had decided that we did not want to cut the squares up too much and to just enjoy the pretty fabric and add the print border.

I started sewing ... in a hard molded folding chair
so that Butterfly might continue helping in my sewing chair.

I sewed the squares to a long piece strip of muslin

as if making a string quilt

I pressed each square as I sewed

added border fabric strips to the sides

I hand stitched echoes in four perle cotton colors around the star flower.

This is not part of the quilting as it only goes through the muslin.
I have not added the backing yet.

close up of hand stitching

I machine stitched some decorative stitches.

Added a small pocket with decorative machine stitches and trim.

I found that I could tuck my favorite embroidery scissors through a pom-pom and use the cover to hold it in place.

Then I added the satin backing by pinning and sewing together
pillowcase style on three sides with fronts together
and then turned inside out to finish the bottom edge by machine ...

By now Katniss was awake to inspect my work and offer her help
by trying to catch and eat these butterfly pins
as she seems to think they are bugs.
I have to watch Katniss very closely in my sewing room.

On the fourth open side I tuned under the hems and added a strip of the pom-pom trim and used the same decorative machine stitch
that I used on the small pocket through all layers to close the seam.

The star flower block is actually a large pocket!

Close up of my finished sewing chatelaine.

I added a small purchase pin cushion I had that was a perfect addition.
The roomy large pocket is very useful for putting those little balls of perle cotton that Katniss likes to chase and other hand sewing items.

The small pocket holds several of my tools and keeps them handy and I can actually walk into the other room and take the pins and needles with me so I do not have to worry about Katniss getting into them if they are left in the open if I want to make a cup of tea
or to take my hand sewing to a comfy chair in another room.
I like!

Katniss says,

Time for our giveaway!

[This Giveaway is now Closed]

15 charms - 6" squares

Some of these are left from Sophie's giveaway.
Some I added some from my stash.

2 chances to win:

1st: Leave a comment on this post

2nd: Leave a comment on the NEXT post
"Shaking My Pom-Poms, Part 2"
... click HERE

I also made this

Ice Cream Cone Pom-Pom Pincushion

For pictures and how-to for this pincushion, click on this link
Shaking My Pom-Poms, Part 2
to open another post.

ONE random winner will be drawn
from all the comments on these two posts.

Winner will be contacted by email
so must have an email address for me to reply.

This giveaway is open to anyone anywhere in the world.

I use google translator to read and reply to comments in other languages.

This giveayway closes at Midnight Eastern DST on April 30th.

Winner will be announced and emailed on May 1st.

Good luck wishes!

Please visit my quilty friends on all of today's blogs

to see what's shaking:

Friday, April 26th

April 26

Cherry Valley Designs

Life in the Scrapatch (You are here)

Felt free på Åsly

Love it Sew it

Patchouli Moon Studio

Dreaming In Patchwork

In The Boon Docks

Jane’s Quilting

Thanks to
Madame Samm @ Sew We Quilt

and to

Thearica @ Pigtails and Quilts

for cheering this wonderful blog hop!

Butterfly says,

"Thanks for stopping by visiting in our Scrapatch Sewing Room!"

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Shaking My Pom-Poms, Part 2

My Ice Cream Cone Pom-Pom Pincushion!

I was one of the lucky winners of the Pom-Pom makers from

Madame Samm and Thearica
at the start of this hop.
Sew I just had to put my nifty gifty to good use!

This was made from the package of the two smaller pom-pom makers.
I have made Pom-Poms years ago using small plastic rings but these new ones are certainly "high-tech" pom-pom makers.
Can pom-pom makers be considered "high tech" ? ;)

For the base I used a melamine cone shaped ice cream cone dish.
I bought this dish locally a few years ago, but they a available online ...
type "ice cream cone dish melamine" into your favorite search engine.
This base is heavy and not breakable.

The pin cushion stands up nicely next to my sewing machine

I have a circle cutter that makes cutting the round for the top easy.

I do like my quilty gadgets.

It made a heavy base filled with ground walnut shells and a ball of fluffy poly batting on the top covered in the same fabric as the border on my sewing chatelaine. I am sorry that my camera battery needed charging so I did not take pictures of this part of the process. The cone base filled with the walnut shells is heavy enough to keep the pincushion cone upright so it does not tip over. It is actually the best pincushion I have ever used near my sewing machine. Heavy duty and visible.

After securely gluing a piece of muslin to the top of the cone to hold the walnut shells and ball of polyfil in place, I sewed the circle to the top around the edge of the muslin then ...

I sewed on some pom-pom trim.

First "scoop" on my ice cream cone completed!
... hmmm ...
Time for another scoop!

First Butterfly and I made a "test" pom-pom.
Here Butterfly spys Katniss approaching and pulling at the yarn trail hanging off the table. Katniss is a very playful three year old cat.
Butterfly at 12+ years prefers to watch her antics.

As I was "shaking my pom-pom"

Katniss offered to "test" the test for us.

Katniss really shook this pom-pom

... and was then lost it on the floor ...

... so Butterfly and I made another pom pom

winding the yarn and closing the pom-pom maker

cutting the pom-pom

After cutting, you tie a piece of yarn securely around the middle.

opening the two halves of the pom-pom maker.

Butterfly guarded this one for me to keep it from Katniss
who had already lost the other one somewhere and was looking for
a new one to pounce.

Then I sewed it securely on the top of the first scoop and added
a flower garnish on top ... and ...