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Curved Piecing

I am currently working on a very large quilt and I'm trying a bunch of different techniques that I haven't really done before. The most obvious one is curved piecing and, I do not like it Sam I am. I do not like the templates, and the wonky way you have to manipulate the fabric, and how long it takes. But, mostly, I do not like the end result. It's just not crisp. Maybe that's because I lack skills and practice and this kind of thing, but I'm just not loving it.


The block doesn't want to lay flat and the edges aren't straight (although you can't see that with my crop). I guess I'm just a bit of a perfectionist and am unsatisfied with the lack of perfection. Not that my work is usually perfect, but I can at least usually expect consistent results. Behold the crispness of the straight seams:



Ah... that's better.

They're Breeding!

It wasn't the best light for taking pictures this morning, but I just couldn't wait. We now have a grand total of five buggy guys (with no plans to make more, because I am so done with curved piecing!).

I haven't done any research yet on bean bag games we can play with them, but Simon has made up a few of his own. First is "Throw Them in a Bowl". This involves tossing them into a plastic mixing bowl. He walks right up to it, drops the bug in, and then wriggles with glee. The even more popular variant on this game is to place the bowl far, far away and then make Daddy toss the buggy guys in the bowl. Crafty kid. The other favorite game is called "Zoom... weeee!". This involves placing the bean bag on top of the coffee table and sliding it off with as much force as possible. While it is flying through the air, he yells, "Zoom! Weee!"

Baby Giftage

Here is a baby quilt I recently made for a friend who is due any day now. I wanted to make sure I got it done in time, so I went with an Irish Chain and used various soft hues I found in my stash. After I pieced it together, I thought it was maybe a little too simple, so I decided that the quilting itself needed to be a little bit special.


Making the template for the heart wreath took a very long time, which was somewhat frustrating since I'm sure someone has done it before and I could have just copied it. But, I suppose this way I was able to be sure it was exactly the size I wanted. In any case, marking the quilting for this quilt took the most time of any other step along the way. I get impatient with what I perceive to be wasting time.


And, finally, here is a little doll quilt I made for the new big sister (2.5 years old). It is made from the same fabrics as the baby quilt. This was my first doll quilt and I love it. I love how fast it was to make and that it coordinates with the other quilt. Yay baby gifts!

Little Buggy Guy

Yes, I know it's been a looooooooong time. I don't want to get into it right now, but I probably will eventually. In the meantime, I've been crafting again so I want to post while the urge is in me.

I've been working on a BIG quilt for a long time (intermittently) and it involves curved piecing. This is a big pain in my butt since I hate templates. It also results in a lot of weirdly shaped scraps. Well, I had all these half circle scraps and I thought I could make them into something fun and this little guy just appeared. The idea for this bug bean bag was totally inspired by these bunnies. I've only made the one and plan on making more, as I have lots of scraps. I think I can improve on him. He doesn't look all that buglike to me. And his legs look weird. But Simon loves him. He keeps saying, "Mommy made a little buggy guy for Simon." Now, I just have to come up with some kind of game to play with the bugs. You know, other than just throw-them-around-the-room.

Almost Time for Trick or Treating

This year for Halloween Simon is going to be a spider. He is going to be a spider because we got the costume through Freecycle last year in a bag of toddler clothes and he loves it. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be making his costume since I had some ideas, but I really don't need more stress. So, I decided to fill my need for making him something by making him a bag to carry around for trick-or-treating purposes.


My husband was a little luke warm in his reaction to the bag. After some probing, he tells me that he doesn't like it for Simon because it "looks like a purse". I argue that it is in fact a tote bag and there is nothing girly about it. According to his logic if it is quilted, then it is a purse.

I finished this bag over a week ago and have been meaning to post about it all this time. But, I ended up going to NY to visit family for a short week and after we returned it rained for four days. We definitely needed the rain, but it did not make for good photo taking opportunities. I haven't been working on anything else lately, except for making my list of Christmas gifts I need to make. I told my husband that I wasn't going to make as many gifts this year, but my list is perilously long and I'm afraid I'm going to have to cross some things off. I'll keep you posted.

70 Days until Christmas!!!

Last night I started stressing out when I realized that Christmas was almost two months away and I had many more projects on my list than I previously thought. In order to put things in perspective, I procrastinated from all my Christmas projects and rifled through my stash for Halloween-type fabrics.


I love making things entirely from the stash. I know it's not really free, as I paid for it at one time, but it sure feels like making something for free. And, truth be told, I do have a lot of things that actually were free. So, yay for bargains, yay for Halloween, and yay for procrastination!