I must like ambitious projects

I have a knack for finding ambitious projects and deciding that I must tackle it as well.  The latest of these is the Tokyo Subway Map quilt posted by Oh Fransson.  It is just so wonderfully striking.

Over the past week or so I have sifted through my scrap bins and stash to cut all of my colored squares.  It was not a small feat.  It requires 624 patterned pieces, 85 colored solids, and 891 white squares (which I have not finished cutting).

They look so pretty all lined up!  I had a difficult time deciding on the light and dark blues and greens.  I found my stash was full of plenty of blues and greens of not only various values but also simply different shades.  A lot of my "dark" greens looked pretty terrible together.  I sorted and sorted, rearranged again and again, until I finally put them all aside.  Eventually, I did get it all worked out with some help with of a wonderfully patient friend.  It's amazing how much a new set of much more talented eyes can help.

After I had temporarily given up on the blues and greens, I decided to just make a block that didn't require any of those colors.  I needed to see a little progress after so much cutting and sorting.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to love this quilt!

Just in time for cooler weather

Last week is was quite warm and windy here in Ann Arbor. I was enjoying having the fresh breeze with the windows opened in our condo. The only downside to this was the repeated slamming of our bedroom door. Finally, after a rude awakening in the middle of the night by said slamming door, I decided that I needed a doorstop- fast.

After a quick search, I hoped for this tutorial for this well thought out and cute, little nine patch option. It came together relatively quickly although it was a lot of steps for a doorstop. However, if I wanted a simple doorstop, I would have just purchased one from the store. I opted to forgo using the fusible fleece the pattern calls for and use batting scraps instead. I just couldn't justify purchasing fusible fleece when I have a plethora of batting scraps laying around. It worked wonderfully and I can't imagine the fleece out have provided better results.

I have been enjoying small projects lately. They're refreshing in the midst of all of the long term quilting projects I have going. I have also found them to be useful at trying out some of the accessories that came with my sewing machine. For example, on this project, I was able to use the seam guide for the quilting on the back.

I don't often do straight quilting so I hadn't learned the joys of this accessory yet. It's really great! It definitely made things quite simple and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The finished doorstop certainly looks great in our bedroom! Too bad as soon as I completed it the weather became too cold to keep the windows open. I guess I'm now well prepared for next spring!

Scrappy Bee: September

In my scrapbusting quilting bee, April requested a refreshingly simple block using fun blue and green fabrics.  The blocks were made using the Birthday Cake pattern found at Oh Fransson. 

Despite congratulating myself too soon on block making success and having to spend a little time with the seam ripper, these blocks pretty much came together without a hitch.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this quilt comes together.