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Last year in May i told you about Frederick the frog and his quest for a wife.
http://www.brunerwoman.blogspot.com/2011/05/frederick-need-wife.html
Now Frederick and the other members of his pond are a quilt.
In his search for a wife, Frederick spoke with all the lovely lady frogs in the pond.
Frederick may have believed his momma a bit too much when she told him that he would be King of the pond....several of the lady frogs thought he was a bit spoiled
One actually told him he looked silly in his crown... Frederick thought she was a bit rude.
But it seems most all of the lady frogs like Frederick...but, alas, no one wants to be his wife.
So, Frederick is still living on his same lilypad...still wearing his silly crown....and still talking to the ladies. in fact...talking is not all he's doing. there are now 3,857 little Freddies and Frederickas hopping around the pond. LOL
Here is the back
A closer look
Now i have to find a child who is having a birthday and who likes frogs. Frederick has many stories to tell a child. but not all his stories are G rated....so some of them will have to wait for
Later
I really need to stay off the internet...LOL
I watched a video the other day....a link from someone's blog....and this lady was creating fabric that she used for bags and art quilts. she called it slashing. i was mesmerized.
So you know i HAD to try it. the sewing part is easy......it's the slashing part that is hard on the fingers.
It's kind of like making chenille. inside are 6 or 7 layers of bits and strips of fabrics....all kinds.
These corners get tacked over...flower-like.
I'll be working on this some tonight....but don't expect a lot...it takes some doing. i shall show you when i have made considerable progress...but it might be much
Later
This is another Aunt Sophie project. she had these fruit blocks in her stash and i put them together. they are rather old fashioned and not my style but it will be a donation quilt. aunt sophie will like that it was finished.
I did a large loop the loop quilting on it...very fast.
Although the fabrics were blue and red...i used a dark green thread...it seemed to work the best.
I pieced some floral fabrics for the back...more stash busting.
Two different prints.
This was just a quickie project for a Sunday afternoon. probably less than 3 hours start to finish...counting piecing the back.
The rest of the quilt tops in the to-be-quilted cabinet are ones that will need custom quilting. i have taken care of all the quickies.
I've been thinking of strip quilts lately.....i have a huge tub of strips....perhaps i can play with some of that
Later
I haven't quilted anything for my friend, Marquita, in several months. but recently she brought me three tops to quilt for her. here is the first one...a mystery quilt.
She says she doesn't like it much...but i sure do. but i like scrappy quilts.
It is a joy to quilt for her...her piecing is excellent.
And her quilt tops are straight and square.
And she presses and trims.
What more could you ask for?
She didn't want custom quilting done on it...so i did Baptist Fans with my Quiltazoid. i think that always works for sampler/scrappy quilts.
I think she's gonna like it more now...at least i hope so. she now lives about 3 hours away....so i will leave this at quilt class tomorrow so she can pick it up
Later
I found something last week that i have to share with you. i'm not even sure how i got to this blog....but sure glad i did. go look at www.sewkindofwonderful.com Jenny created a new ruler that cuts curves with your rotary cutter. and she has awesome patterns to use that ruler with, too.
She shares how to make her Urban 9 patch block....here it is.
Isn't that the coolest thing since sliced bread? i just love those curves.
Of course, don't look at my bottom corners. i didn't QUITE get those to match up. but this was my first block. it's a bit tricky to understand just where to cut to get it right. but i believe i will improve with practice. and i think these primary colors will make a great baby quilt.
This comes out to a 12.5" block. it took me a couple hours to complete it....but that was cutting and figuring out instructions. once i cut those arches out of the 9 patch....it was like WOW!....how cool is that. you don't realize how exciting that is until you do it. i wasn't sure i could sew those curves easily but it truly wasn't hard. just a bit fiddley.
Oh...and Jenny's customer service is superb. when i got my ruler...it came broken. i belive our postal people out here in the sticks are gorillas. i let Jenny know it was broken but i thought i could glue it back....she immediately shipped out another ruler to me. .... no questions...no problem. and that one got here just fine. thank you, Jenny, for great customer service and a great product.
Don't know when i will make more of these blocks....since i have other pressing issues at the moment....but just had to try a block. now it will live in my mind and marinate until it pops back up
Later
Today I got Kay's Iris quilt finished. got the binding on it and it is ready to go. this baby was on the frame for way too long...about a week. i just couldn't get my mojo going. so yesterday i made myself finish quilting it and today i got the binding on it.
Kay brings me embroidered blocks and i turn them into quilts for her. it seems like this might be the third one with irises on it.
I really didn't have any fabrics in my stash to piece this quilt. but my friends came through. i got the purple/gray stripe for the sashing from Brenda. and the darker paisley in the border from Maralie.
I tried to make this lighter so you could see the actual fabric. the weather is cloudy and my pics suck these days.
The back is a muslin and i used a panto on it. the panto looks like iris...so i thought that was appropriate.
Two more Kay quilts to go. i keep trying to come up with something different each time and it is getting more than challenging. but i seem to pull it off each time.
I'm taking it for show and tell at class on Monday so the ladies can see how i used their fabrics...then i can call Kay to come and pick it up.
Now i'm tired and have to wander home and take my daily nap so i can do some hand applique
Later
I found some cute box patterns the other day. So i decided to try one of them. this pattern is from Aunties Two Patterns and is called Fused and Folded Boxes. i especially like the magazine one. that was my reason for buying the pattern.
But the first box i made was the other one. it is 6x6x10. the pattern uses stuff i never heard of...Inn-Spire...it is a very heavy duty stabilizer. and i mean heavy....it is very hard to bend it to go through the throat of your machine when putting on the binding. Actually....i was supposed to buy Inn-Spire Plus...which is fusible on both sides...but naturally i messed up that part. so i had an extra step when i used Steam-A-Seam II to fuse my fabrics to the Inn-Spire. got to remember that for the next box.
But the box got made and it is totally cool. i will have to toss that sewing machine needle and put in a new one, also. you have to sew very slowly...and the machine does this thunk, thunk, thunk with every stitch. but my little Janome Gem was truly a gem and sewed right through it....slowly.
Of course, i had to ramp it up a notch....so i made a lid for my box. it cried for one...really.
I wasn't sure i wanted to put the buttons on the side. but once i decided i DID want the buttons....i decided to add beads, too. after all....i have about a gazillion beads and have to use them somewhere. this is one side with beads.
This is the other side. i'm here to tell you....getting that needle through that hole for the buttons was a pure bitch. i tried just a large needle and broke it. i finally used the pointy end of an old school compass ... remember those things? that made the hole and then my needle didn't have a problem. but that was still hard... i was going through 3 pieces of Inn-Spire...6 layers of fabric, plus the fusible. i have holes in my fingers and hands.
The box sides are folded in ...so the buttons actually hold the sides in. there are buttons on the inside, too. here is the inside. it looked a bit boring to me.
So, i made an insert to go inside the box. it helps to hold the bottom of the sides back where they belong and i think it just looks neater.
See? .... neater. and if you put something a bit heavy in the box....the extra support on the bottom couldn't hurt. in itself the box is a bit hefty.
I finished the corners of the top by just gluing the same fabric that i used as the binding around the corners.
And folding it over into the inside and gluing that also. i'm trying to decide what i want to do to cover up the zigzag on the top where i put the pieces together. it would have looked less conspicuous had i used some thread other than black. LOL i'll probably glue some kind of trim on it.
Here are the inside buttons.
All in all....i really like the box. when i make another i am going to use some other stuff that i have for stabilizer that is not so heavy and tough. the Inn-Spire stuff is pretty expensive. and steam-a-seam 2 is not cheap either. so, counting the cost of the pattern and fabric and stabilizer and sas2....this box cost about $35 to make. hahahahahahaha how many do you want? hahahahaha
This first one took me most of a day and part of the next day. i figure i'll get faster after i make a couple. i have 2 other box patterns to try out, too. one of them is by this same pattern maker. i'll let you know how that goes
Later
