Plaidness

As you can see, there is plaidness happening in my quilt studio!  I got a bunch of wonky 9-patches done to go along with the plaid kitties, and now I'm working on wonky stars.  I'm kind of stalled at the moment, as I was finishing the name banner for my granddaughter.  More on that in a moment. . . .

I'm really not sure quite where I'm going with this piece.  I'm trying not to stress about it, but it's trying to creep in on me.  I don't know why. . . .this is supposed to be fun.  But this working improvisationally is actually kind of hard to do.  Fun, but also hard. 

If you remember from my previous post, I'll be adding the names of all my kitties to this quilt using Tonya's Unruly Letters.  I considered using a different plaid for each cat's name, except for 2 things.  One, the plaids are all woven and many are the loosely-woven homespuns, so they'll be difficult to work with for the little fiddly bits.  And two, I think that the plaid will be too difficult to read.  So, I looked for some fabric to go with this quilt. 

What goes with every color of plaid??  I finally found a fabric that I think works.  I've had it in my stash for years, waiting for the right project, and I love it.  It's a small check in purple with tiny different-colored hearts on it, but the print is so small and subdued that it reads as a solid from a foot away.  I think that it will work just fine.  But, I have yet to make one of the names to test it.  That's up next, I guess.  I really need to figure that out so I can know what direction to go in next. 

Here is the finished name banner for my GD, all bound labeled and already gifted.  We gave it to her on Saturday (along with some "spy" walkie-talkies!).  It seemed to be a hit.  We were watching the girls while Mom and Dad went snow-shoeing.  When the parents came back, this was the first thing she showed them.  And then she asked her Dad if they could hang it in her special reading spot.  I think that's a success! 

I put 5 little tabs on the top edge of the back so that we could put a dowel in there to hang it with, and so it would be evenly supported.  At 31" inches long, it needed the support.  That took a little thought from me.  I caught the tops of the 1 inch wide tabs in the binding and hand-stitched the bottom edge of them down.  For my little quilts, I just hang them with straight pins, but I don't think my son and DIL would do that.  I wanted to make it easy for them to hang this up.  I need to remember how I did it so I can do it again, so I took some pix of it.

And now, I need to make one for little sister, who's birthday is next month.  I have the border fabric picked out, and just need to find the fabrics for the letters.  Oh, and find the time to do it. 

I seem to be having an explosion of creativity lately, which is good.  Except for the fact that I can't sew fast enough to keep up with myself.  And my quilt studio LOOKS like there was an explosion in there!  *grin*

On Monday, I took a class on how to use my new (in November) Brother sewing machine.  I finally learned how to use the needle threader - Yay!!  I also learned other useful stuff, but this was something I just couldn't for the life of me figure out from the directions in the manual.  Now I get it.  I'm a visual learner and I need to "see" how it's done.    

I've got some links to share with you.  I've been spending probably too much time looking at quilt blogs etc. lately, and have found some fun stuff.  Maybe I'm late to the party and everybody already knows about all these, but for those who don't, here ya go:

First up, Tonya has started a new blog for all things "Unruly" - called, amazingly enough, Unruly Quilting.  It's a place to share all your Unruly-ness.  She's also requested "Bah Humbug!" blocks in Christmas-ish red and lime green.  I'm just blown away by everyone's creativity on this blog!  You should see the wonderful bugs and letters that everyone is making - it's just awesome. 

Leeann at Quilt Whangarei has a great tutorial on how to do the Disappearing 4-Patch.  I'd seen some quilts made with this block around the internets, and couldn't quite figure out how it was done, so this is great to know.  Another fun, easy quilt technique!  Check it out and give it a try. 

The Bent Objects blog, by Terry Borders, is just so inventive and funny.  He does some amazing things with wire.  His creations are difficult to describe, so it's best to just go take a look.  Terry also has a book out - "Bent Objects: The Secret Life of Everyday Things", which is available at both Amazon and Borders.

More in a similar vein is Stupid Creatures.  John makes stuffed toy monsters and clay "Beasties", some of which are pretty darn cute and some are funny.  Check out the toys here and the clay Beasties here.

Over at BoingBoing website, they had a competition to take something that is usually computerized and remake it with natural media.  Be sure to note the QR Code Quilt made from recycled clothes.  (No, I don't know what QR Code is!)  But all the entries were inventive and fun.

Do you like to take quizzes that purport to tell you about yourself?  Well, here's a couple for you.

First is the free on-line quiz to find out what your Meyers-Briggs Personality Type is, in case you don't know.  This is fun and gives you a description of your personality type.  This is a good tool to help you understand yourself and how you act and react in the world.  Enlightening! 

Second, How About Orange blog has a link to a quiz to find out what your design type is.  This one is a visual quiz - which picture appeals to you the most.  Different and fun.

Well, enough folderol for now.  Time to get busy!