It's All Material

I think my little Singer sewing machine and I have come to terms. I still hate the fact a 'beginner' sewing machine has a bobbin you have to dismantle the machine to put in. If I was a beginning seamstress, I would quit before I started. But after two lap throws which involved minky fabric, I think we have come to terms with each other.

Maybe.

Anyway...

I follow the blog of an extremely talented woman. Vicki does it all and does it well. From quilting (tons of quilts) and teaching quilting, to hand dyed fabrics and fused glass, she is the "WOMAN".

While she was on vacation last week, she ran a series of give-aways. The prizes were 'scraps' of her hand dyed fabric and MistyFuse (which I have never tried - yet).

I WON!

It was a bundle of her reds and oranges and a package of MistyFuse. And much to my surprise, when I received the package, there were a lot of other colors in there too.

I have in the back of my wee little brain a phoenix quilt to celebrate the fire, so these will be perfect for phoenix feathers and body.  I can't wait until the idea becomes more formed and I can start on it.

Another idea in the back of my mind is a Montana Memory Quilt. We have a few t-shirts from events and places we have gone, but this year, that's my goal, to gather all the t-shirts and such that I can and make a memory quilt of our time in Montana.

To that end, while we were in Yellowstone last week, at the shops they actually had 'quilt blocks' you could purchase.

I picked up one of the packets (they aren't cheap folks!) and will incorporate them into the quilt some way. Probably around the Yellowstone t-shirt I purchased.

Then last Friday, we toodled over to Avon to Birdseye Mercantile for the background fabric for the Almond Country quilt which started this week. 

Rather than a white or cream, I went with a light, cool grey.

I thought the grey would really make the bright colors pop.

When I picked up the packet for the first week on Tuesday and pulled out my fabrics, I was a little disappointed. The fabrics weren't just 'my style'.

But then I sewed them up and they completely changed!

While I have only done one or two blocks before with curved piecing and my points aren't 'perfect', I really enjoyed trying out paperless piecing on this block (11 more weeks to go!) and deciding which fabric to use where.

Some of the selection is a no brainer as you need the larger pieces to be used for the larger sections, but I tried to group the teal colors on one section and the orange on the other.

But...

Being the idiot I am when it comes to these things, I figured if I am doing one block and it's stretched out over a 12 week period, why not do two! This way I could also cross off a project off my 'to-do' list. And I pulled out some fabric I had purchased about four years ago for a Batman themed quilt for Texter. I think (hope) I have enough of the prints for the points for this quilt.

And this is the results for the first block...

Points are a bit better here and Lady K loves "Batman" quilt. I am pretty excited to see how it will all come together on this one. My thought process behind using the Batman fabric is with the 'spikes' it reminded me of the "POW" and "BAM" on the TV program decades ago. So now I am ready for next week's block.

Once I finished with the blocks, I started on project bags for my knitting. Currently they reside in plastic bags and paper bags and aren't all that sturdy (or attractive) to carry around. I am using the drawstring bag by Jeni Baker of In Color Order.  One this which attracted me to this pattern was the fact it was (1) lined and (2) simple looking to make. I'm all about the simple!

I found this fabric while shopping for my background fabric and what could be better for knitting projects than sheep.

After finishing my blocks yesterday, I set up an assembly line to make 6 bags, three each in two different sizes. I figure that will keep all my current WIP's in order.

Right now, I am waiting for the household to stir so I can finish up the bags. And then I can decide which projects go into the bags and get rid of the bin of grocery bags.

I will be so fashionable when Lady K goes to swim lessons and t-ball this summer!