pq 12.5 and new sticks

A week ago, Project Quilting announced the latest challenge "You're Crazy."  As in crazy quilts.  Oh boy.

I've seen plenty of crazy quilts.  My mom has a really cool old one that I believe is probably handed down from somewhere in the family.  I've seen my mom do some blocks and stitches and stuff.  But it never really appealed to me.

Also, other than flannel, my entire stash is quilting cottons.

But hey, this is to be the inspiration, not a specific, narrow direction.  So I went to the internet for some visual inspiration.  There is a quilt out there, I think, that has the maker create crazy hexagons and then join them.  It seems vaguely familiar as something my mom made, but I didn't delve deeper into it beyond the shape because I wasn't going to create a whole quilt and time is of the essence here.

Since this shape isn't quite regular, I opted for paper piecing scraps onto a phone book page.  An old phone book, though I don't think a missing page in a current phone book would even be noticed...  And I pulled some scraps from "the bin."

For whatever reason, my brain said turquoise and grey was the direction I needed to go.  So I went.

It didn't take very long, nor did it use up very many scraps, but whatever.  Every little bit is a win.

Oh, let's see the very boring back (because somehow I managed to find the ONE page that had almost no printing?):

Then I had to embellish it.  Because, to me, this wouldn't be "crazy" if I just left it here.  Of course, that created a problem with "can it be a pincushion?" because I seem to be having a pincushion year, but I shoved that thought to the back of my brain and pressed on.  I dug through a few places in my sewing room where bits and bobs have been stashed and found I had more than I remembered.  Just as well - more variety to choose from.

The butterfly is actually a brad.  I debated putting it in there and then went "whatever, it'll be fine" and stabbed it, quite effortlessly to my surprise, through the fabric.  I googled and read up on some stitches (which, having done no marking and the light failing quickly and being my first attempt at most, are nowhere as tidy as their examples) and picked and chose to find some I thought simple and quick.

I had a hard time not stitching every single seam, but, as I said, it was getting late and my light was failing, so I just called it good enough.  This is an experiment and a learning experience, so I can decide when I'm sick of it and call it quits.

I layered it and quilted along some of those bare seams.  Not a lot, but just enough to keep it from sagging apart down the road.

(The back is leftovers, too, from a remaining part of strip I didn't need from the Midsummer Solstice quilt.)

The binding corners look better here, on the back, sadly.  I sewed it to the front and flipped to the back, as always, because if my binding is gonna be uneven and wonky, I don't want THAT on the front.  I maybe should have done it opposite this time?

The front?

Finished.  I have no idea what I am going to do with it.  Too lumpy for a coaster/mug rug (though about the right size) and I was lazy and didn't bother to tackle any way to hang it.  So for now it lives in the bin of tiny PQ 2021 projects that I have no idea what I will do with.

Onward!

Monday was March 1st, which meant more, new sticks!  It was all I could do on Sunday last week to keep myself from pulling them early, but I made myself wait.  Never mind it was the second thing I did Monday morning.  (First, you gotta feed the kitties.  I mean, if you want to live!)

Needle felting posed a small problem.  My local quilt shop has a needle felting class about once a month on a Saturday.  That day was yesterday.  Four hours smack in the middle of a 9-hour shift at work.  I have been getting scheduled fewer weekends now that we have a college gal working with us up front, but isn't this the way this always happens?  The next class has been scheduled for April 10th, so this stick will be delayed a bit, but since it looks like the class will be funky, pointy mushrooms, I'm in!  (The Easter eggs this month were cute, but mushrooms are way more my jam!)  So I will not complete all my sticks this month.  I debated pulling another and holding this one until next month, but until I finish the other three, I'll just hang tight.

The "from Snow Day" is scraps.  From the Snow Day quilt (top) I completed in December.  (Scroll down a bit in the link - past all the cats...)  There were a LOT of bonus half square triangles and some yardage left and I stuffed it all back in the cute box the kit came in and set it on a shelf.  I need to stop doing that, but that is part of the sticks goal this year!

I have been saving photos and such as I come across them, that I feel would be good for stray half square triangles, as that is about half of my sticks scrap projects.  Unfortunately, screenshots (which is the case here) don't help me find or credit things later.  But, since the layout was simple, I didn't really need a pattern.

I modified it a bit and actually made the units with red to give it a more Christmassy vibe and hope to make it look a bit like a wreath.  That's okay.  The goal wasn't JUST the half square triangles, though they were the biggest part of the problem.  Yardage can go in the stash pretty easily.

But every single one of those half square triangles needed to be trimmed.  That is a lot.  So I trimmed each stack of units as I needed them.  It was a little tedious going back and forth, but kept my arm from falling off.

I had exactly enough of the green units to make five blocks.  I guess that just means this was meant to be?  I used my wool pressing mat here and you can see how flat and crisp these look.  But I can say that larger pieces press flatter more easily with this than smaller ones!

To keep those points from being a huge pain when sewing the blocks together, I decided to do skinny sashings.  And since I had some 1" strips left from this project...use them!

I thought the red cornerstones gave a nice pop, but worry maybe I should have done more at each block intersection?  Too late now!

This measures about 7x35" and I plan to quilt it up as a table runner.  Not for me, though.  My cats just lay on everything and my hubby spills food on everything, so this will find a new home eventually.  Once I get it finished.  Perhaps the craft bazaar at the local church where my local quilt guild meets (eventually)?

So there is one stick more-or-less complete.  I consider a top enough.  Because this is the year of making the Rack of Shame collapse under its own weight.

That moves me on to the new quilt stick.  (Because, like previous months, I'm procrastinating the longarming stick.)  One from a pattern I have already downloaded.  I don't have very many, and about half are patterns I have actually made, but if I've paid for them, why aren't I using them?  The one I chose was one that had been on my Pinterest board for a while.  And in July of 2019 (I know because the download is dated), the designer shared a little about the rough time she had been going through and I decided to support her dream and buy a few patterns.  I don't remember a lot, just that she was being treated very unfairly and she had a few patterns I liked, so a few dollars from my pocket helping her seemed reasonable.

"On Point" was the winner.  (But let me tell you, when searching for that pattern name online, you get a lot of patterns set in that manner and none of the actual pattern you want!)

Part of my decision was the abundance of blue fabrics.  This pattern seems like it would be good in blues.  I seem to accumulate blue faster than any other color.  I don't do it on purpose, but my blues no longer fit in their allocated spot, so I guess it's time to carve out a third blue quilt.  (The first two being my Blue Squirrel (currently the extra quilt on my bed!) and Triple Crown made for donation.)

Ah yes, more grey and turquoise will do nicely.

I may have bought some dark grey in a larger quantity than what I had on hand to keep the values the same...  I had some larger chunks of darker grey, but none large enough to do the whole thing and none in similar values to keep it from looking odd.  At least in my mind's eye.

I cut and cut and cut.  Not as much as I cut for the project last month, but it was a lot.

And then I sewed and sewed and sewed.

My Angler came out to play again.  It saves a lot of time, even if it seems a bit fussy on a machine without a table.  (Heck, it might be fussy on a machine WITH a table, but how am I gonna know?!)  The pattern has you making half square triangles two at a time, so it seemed to take forever and like two bobbins, but I got it done.  And decided I would cut in half and press and trim units per block.  So cut apart four, press and trim eight half square triangles, then sew them to appropriate squares.

As with the table runner above, I decided this would keep my arm from getting fatigued.  It may not have been as economical with the energy needed to keep my iron running, but, well...trade-offs!

Just a little bit ago, I finished the center of the star quarters, as you see pieces of in the photo above, and pressed them all.  And somewhere in the sewing, I realized I was again this month sewing in groups of 128 and 256.  What is wrong with me?  But truthfully, this pattern only calls for 32 stars.  (Well, okay a few more because of halves and corners...)  They just have a lot of parts.

I have the stacks ready to go next to my sewing machine for the next round.  I cut, pressed and trimmed the first set before turning things off for a bit.  To blog.  Maybe to nap.

This gives you a sneak peek of almost a quarter of the block!  (And I love that dark grey.  It looks black, but it really is a darker grey in good light.)

Slow and steady on this one, but it's only the 7th, so I'm not panicking yet!  And once all these units are sewn together (and the dreaded half square triangle trimming has been completed), this should speed up.  I still have to construct the partial blocks, but there are fewer of those.

Lastly, once these are all completed, I need to decide if I want to make the quilt larger.  The pattern finishes at 51x77", which is kind of narrow for what I usually like to do.  I have enough fabric for more, but decided to stop here and assess how much time I have left.  I only need a top, but it seems every month throws me for a new loop, so I'm being a little conservative.  (The loop this month may have actually already happened late last month, as the roof of our old, huge, hip-roof barn caved in under the weight of snow.  We are currently waiting on insurance to get their crap together so we can get it taken down.  We will be hiring someone to do the work, but have no idea how much that will actually require of us...  Thank goodness there was little in there.  We (well, I am) hoping to find a company that will take it down and repurpose the wood, not just toss it in a landfill.  I know there is value there, but how or if it will benefit me is unknown.  But if we can, between the insurance and wood, get a new barn/garage put up in its place (that will be nowhere near as awesome), and break even, I'll be happy.)

No cat photos this week.  They've been plenty mischievous, but I just haven't been quick on the draw with the camera.  Rest assured, Freddie is still being aloof and only wanting pets when it is least convenient, Finn still loves his chin and eyelids scratched (yes, eyelids), Toby is being a wild meanie towards Gabby, and Gabby, when Toby spends the night in my bedroom with the door shut (where he, as soon as the light goes out, turns into the snuggliest, purriest beastie known to man), is still tearing through the house, stomping on the piano and shredding any papers I leave in her reach.

Happy quilting!

Katie