Putting a cramp in my style!

Tiny Scrappy Fun - Roseann's Quilt

Now that the teacher strike is over, and we officially have a designated bus pickup time... and I'm settled into my new work schedule (mornings while Allie is at school). I'm having trouble getting back into my groove with sewing!

Here's the thing, I'm tired. (that is so silly for me to say). We've been getting up at around 6 or 7 am every morning... and most days I have almost no downtime while Allie's at school. Sure I have two days a week off work - house to myself. But it doesn't seem like it! 

I'm a late night sewer. Late late. That isn't so possible when you're up so early everyday. I'm usually able to hang out with Wally for a bit after Allie gets to bed, then sew for a couple hours straight. 

Now if I hang out too long, the night is gone. For instance right now - it's midnight. Ordinarily I'd be trucking through, but I just can't do that and wake up a full two hours earlier than normal. Hopefully this week will bring our first real week of normalcy - no strikes, not the first week of school, not the first week of new work schedules. Perhaps the first week of normal sewing!

Gotta finish this Tova!

Here are my goals for the week:

*Finish my Tova Tunic - I just need to finish the collar and hem it!

*Work on my little childhood cancer awareness project. It's been in my head lurking for weeks. Now is the time! There will be a mini tutorial for this too!

*Play with my Tiny Scrappy Fun quilt (Roseann's quilt). 

And maybe I'll play around with some of my new fabrics too!

PS: Just a quick reminder - Please make it a point to eat at Chili's Restaurant tomorrow (Monday). On Monday September 24th Chili's will donate their net profits to St Jude Children's Hospital. Chili's is working toward a cure by supporting St Jude's. Please! Stop by Chili's for a drink after work, or for lunch, or treat your extended family to dinner! Don't forget to thank your local Chili's manager for supporting such a great cause. For Rosemarie, let's beat this!

Just playing

I'm a bit in between projects right now (who am I kidding I have about half a dozen up in the air!)...

I'm at a breaking point on a couple of my projects - waiting for supplies on a couple of them, waiting for further instruction on another. 

I didn't want to start anything new, but came across these random tiny blocks from a year ago. I decided to play with them a little bit. Give them some fresh air and bring them out of the dark closet for a little bit. 

I added a couple borders and pieced a couple of the blocks into sections. I was really diving into it, and I kept thinking, "What should I do with this quilt? Who can I give it to that would actually appreciate it for it's craziness?" It hit me, my sister. :) So this one is going to you Roseann! I hope she likes it. I have no solid layout in my head. None.

So far I'm thinking scrappy but with a limited color combo (limited pink and purple), and I may attempt to come up with a cool quote or something to write in free-pieced letter blocks. 

Don't you just love it when a random sewing night really ignites a lot of fun ideas? I'm excited to keep working on this!!

Without Obligation.

I need to keep resisting the urge to share only finished projects. This place is mine, and my followers are just a bonus --- I don't want to feel obligated to be perfect. Which I certainly don't think my readers are expecting me to be perfect, but sometimes my own thoughts keep me from sharing more of the process.

With that being said, here's a little tiny thing that I tried out a couple nights ago. I was inspired by my DQS11 partner's fav's and also by the resounding "we'd like to see you suffer and make those really tiny" that I got in response to the post of my sketches. I tried the "new york beauty" block for the first time... yes... the first time ever, and I decided to reduce it down by 75%! That's right, this block finished at a mere 4" total!!

It was challenging, but I don't think it was all that much more challenging than the block would have been at regular size. It's paper pieced so that's great. The hardest part was sewing the curved inside and outside parts - since that's my first non-free/wonky curved piecing! Really that was only hard because my presser foot is so huge that it was hard to keep those tiny pieces under there straight (without sewing my fingers!).

I see myself making maybe one or two more of these - this one isn't for my DQS11 partner since I don't think she would appreciate my "in your face" color palate. :) She'll get one that's prettier and more spring colors!

Scrappy Tiny Fun...

Those squares are 1.5" to start, they're not all sewn together yet... but fused to interfacing.

I've been commissioned (hehe don't I feel special) by my aunt to make her some fancy pretty not-wrinkly fitted table covers (not table cloths) for her art show booth. It's time to bite the bullet and start working on them! I hope to be making some major progress on them soon (despite the fact that my family will be in this week... which = not much sewing time but lots of other kinds of fun time!).

This being considered I don't want to start up any major quilting projects until the table covers are finished. So to keep myself from making a million tiny (not so useable) things, I've made a plan to make my little intermissions of quilting time add up. I'm going to work on a quilt I'm calling "Scrappy, Tiny, Fun" (real creative right?). Here's what I'm thinking:

Goals:

• Stay focused on Aunt Kathy's table covers (don't start anything big where I'll want to only work on the new project and not the one which requires my time!)
• try a new color scheme
• try new blocks/be creative
• use orphan quilt blocks (those test blocks from my bee... etc)
• use scraps
• make less mug rug / randomness (these small projects that I do all the time and usually give away since I just love finishing something!)
• to have fun!
• make a quilt I love that incorporates my love of tiny piecing (without becoming to overwhelmed by the tiny stuff).

This entire block is less than 5" x 7" ... average cross is about 1.5" finished

Colors:

• no pink 
• no purple
• (anything else goes... the above can be used very very sparingly)
• mostly saturated and/or solid colors.

 Anyone want to join me? Feel free to do so if you'd like (please let me know - I'd love to be inspired by the sort of blocks you pick out!). This quilt can be whatever you like (duh). I'm choosing to list out many different blocks/block styles that I'd love to try. I've already got about 11 block ideas sketched out in my notebook... I'll just cross them off etc once I finish each one. I may make a mosaic of the different styles.

Adding in a few orphan blocks... I forgot a couple of them though.

Once I have the blocks all completed (give or take) I'll just sew them together into groupings etc. I have a general idea of how I'd like it to look. A modern wacky sampler if you will... with a pieced quote going through the whole thing. Will I be able to pull it off? Who knows. lol...