Out of my system

Yesterday, I was so motivated to work on embroidering my little mini.  I put the final borders on, spray basted it to some batting, and took it with me to karate.  After my class, I sat through my youngest son's class, first drawing on some freehand vines, then getting going on the embroidery.  In a perfect world, I'd have gone home to stitch some more, but like a moron, I declared on here yesterday that I was going to make a Pine Burr Block.  I'm too proud and stubborn to not follow through, so that's what I did when I put the kids to bed.

I'm happy to report that I got that out of my system, and can now go back to my mini.  Let's just say, I didn't find making the Pine Burr Block quite as addicting as LeAnn over at Nifty Quilts.  From now on, I think I'll satisfy myself with seeing those beauties come together over on her blog, instead of in my sewing room.  I love the way my block looks, but getting there...whew!  LeAnn obviously has talents (and patience and persistence and vision) that I just don't possess!

I cut my 12.5" square piece of muslin, cut out the fabric I wanted in the center of my block (surprise, I didn't quite follow the directions - I wanted a focus fabric in the center, not the burrs), and cut my first ring of 3" squares to then make into prairie points and set around the center.  I could tell RIGHT AWAY that this block was going to take more time and fabric than I was anticipating.  I immediately trimmed my muslin down to 10.5" square.

A couple rows (and a couple hours) in, as I cut and folded and pressed and pinned and sewed and repeated, I went ahead and trimmed it down to 9.5" square.  I swear to you, if I had left it at 12.5", I'd probably still be working on it.  Holy moly!

And not only is that block a lot of work, it is also HEAVY!  I could rename this post, "The Heaviest Quilt Block EVER!"  Or, I could rename it "Orphaned at Birth," because I feel pretty confident that I won't be making any more of these blocks.  I kid you not, I used nearly a full quarter yard of fabric on just the teal color.  There is probably over 1 yard of fabric in that one little (heavy) 9.5" block!  I can't imagine how heavy a whole quilt would be made this way.  It would smother a child or small pet.  You could use it as blackout drapes.  Folding it would constitute a weight training workout.

IF I were to make another, and that is a huge IF, mind you, I'd go ahead and just use my scrappy, pre-cut 3" squares.  That would reduce a lot of the time from cutting, and would make a nice dent in my precut stash.  Or maybe I'd use larger squares?  We may never know.

For now, I'm going to finish that puppy off into something useful - maybe a hot pad for setting hot dishes on the table?  Or a candle mat?  Or what?  Any suggestions out there in blogland?  After all that time and fabric, that block is going to become SOMETHING!!!

Sidetracked!

I was cruising blogs yesterday morning, and came across a Pine Burr quilt block on the Nifty Quilts blog, Nifty Quilts.  Inspired, I rushed downstairs in my pajamas to start making one right away.

I got down there to discover that I hadn't yet unpacked the car from my booth, and hadn't yet cleaned up from the frenetic activity of preparing for the booth, so I had to put my enthusiasm for that block on the back burner while I unpacked and straightened up.  Honestly, it is nicer working in there when I don't have to move piles of stuff to get to the ironing board or the cutting table.

While cleaning, I came across a package of fabric scraps that I tried giving away earlier this year, but I never heard back from the person who won.

Determined to do SOMETHING with that fabric other than put it back into my stash, I whipped up a little top that used all of the yellow, all of the blue, and nearly all of the green dancing pigs. (I did put the green dot back into my stash.) It measures about 24" square, so now I just want to find a border fabric and finish it off as a baby or doll quilt.

I also realized that the fabric I wanted to use for the Pine Burr block hadn't been washed yet, so I threw that in the machine, and went upstairs to shower, eat and visit more blogs while I waited for my fabric to be ready.  And came across a cute little mini on Joe Tulips Quilts.

Back down to the sewing room I went, not to make a Pine Burr block, but to whip up this little mini.

Right now it measures about 9"x 13" without the outer border. There will be an embroidered vine with leaves around the outside and in the two background columns and hopefully some tiny button flowers.

The outside borders aren't sewn on yet, but I'll do that this evening and start the embroidery.  How cute and easy and fun!  I have a feeling I'll probably make another, too!

But first, this evening, I AM going to make a Pine Burr block.  Hold me to it!  Come back tomorrow to see how I did.

Finally, according to Random Number Generator (I don't know how to do the screen shots so you can see which number is chosen...if you want to let me know how, I'll be forever grateful), the winner of my last giveaway with the fabrics I bought in West Virginia (to which I added a half yard of a neutral from my last shop, making it a total of 1.5 yards of fabric goodness) is commenter #2 - Julie of My Quilt Diary!  I'm very happy to send this fabric to her as she is always helping me out with scouting ideas for my boys.  Send me your address, Julie, and I'll send this to you.  I've never sent anything to Japan before.  Fun times!  Seems like many of my giveaways are won by people outside the US.  My last winner was in Canada.  I guess I have international appeal...  :)

Enjoy your Monday, everyone!  I know I plan to!