This was pulled from the dryer yesterday morning and hung on our side fence this morning for its photo op (Thing 2 is in Columbia at the moment, unavailable for display purposes):
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| "front" ~ 72" x 90" |
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| "back" (also ~ 72" x 90") |
Silly me thought this would be plenty of fabric:
In reality, that was enough for nearly all the triangles (a pink bandana was cut up for the final two needed). For the strings I ended up using 15 more white/pink/red fabrics from my stash, as well as 4 more from the "Take and USE" Community First! Quilters' stash.
I sewed the strings, connecting strips, and binding down with this nice pink-to-red variegated thread I had on hand:
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| "Plum Berry" |
I'm adding a mental note here in case another one of these is in my future: the bobbin thread for the joining strips needs to be something you won't mind accidentally seeing (if the second/fold-over strip doesn't quite cover the stitching).
After getting Heart You photographed (and back in the dryer because it was foggy and almost misting outside), I got started basting the Disappearing 9-patch.
It took a couple of attempts to get everything lined up. The first time, I didn't have the backing straight so it was skewed just enough to be short at two corners. Since only 16 blocks had been pinned when I discovered this, I was okay with unpinning my work and doing it correctly the second time around.
After this is basted, I may play around with another NQR sewing project that has piqued the interest of the CF! Quilters: making stuffed animals. Apparently those sell out almost immediately at the Community First! market events. I have a bunny pattern and an enormous stash of small-wale corduroy (and some white denim), as well as some eggshell foam that's been cut into small pieces. I'm thinking of making a prototype with that and throwing it in the washer/dryer to see what happens. If it's a winning combo, that's a LOT of real estate that could be freed up in my studio!
I look forward to seeing the bunnies, it sounds like an ideal project for the corduroy.
ReplyDeleteIt's so annoying when the backing or batting end up short at one corner. I tape a button in the center of the table. It's bumpy enough that I can center the layers. Stuffed animals? Now you'll need to lay in a stock of fiberfill.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of cocktail-sized toothpicks that are crossed over each other and taped together. I stick that to the center of the table and it generally keeps everything true. What I hadn't done this time was secure the backing with its seam lines parallel to the table's edges. I'd only planned an extra 3" for the backing, and came up a bit short even with that, so I couldn't afford to be sloppy or cavalier about lining up everything.
DeleteHoping the cut up foam pieces will be a good substitute for the fiber fill, because I seem to have collected a never-ending supply of foam slabs.
C