Crackpot Quilters’ Blog

Here are Cathy’s and my completed Quilt Pink blocks. I think you get a nice secondary star pattern in the middle. Cathy gave me hers when I was there at Thanksgiving, and I finally got mine done, too. I mailed them off yesterday, so they should be at Quilt Quarters in plenty of time for the Dec. 1 deadline. (Sincere apologies to Rebecca for not getting a kit to her! I have it here and kept meaning to mail it but never got to the post office and then it was so late that I figured that by the time you got it you wouldn’t have time to sew it and send it in by the deadline.)

We’re ready for our favorite vehicle-loving guests.

Andrew’s quilt is halfway quilted! Well, technically it’s slightly less that halfway but I’m close. I have all of the lines of the grid pattern that go in one direction done. Now, I need to do the other direction, plus quilt in the ditch around the border, which is why I’m just a little less than halfway.

We are, by the way, more than halfway through NaBloPoMo, and I think we’re doing marvelously!

I can’t believe I did that! The equivalent of forgetting to include an attachment or enclosure to an e-mail or letter.

OK, Here’s the photo:

So obviously the previous post was not the fabric for baby Blanka’s balloon quilt. Here is the correct photo. A post coming soon will explain what the previous photo was, although Crackpots probably have a pretty good idea.

So I am the only Crackpot who has been slacking off during NaBloPoMo, and I have nary an excuse – no small baby, no mathematically insistent pre-schoolers, no exhuberant beading project. Obviously I am just a slacker.
So, in the interests of trying to make up for my negligence, here is the first of several posts: the fabric I bought a few days ago at Joann’s for a quilt for Andrea’s as yet unborn baby, little Blanka, the first (I hope) of our Hungarian grandchildren.

The plan for the quilt is to make five paper-pieced hot-air balloon blocks, using the pattern from one of Nancy’s baby quilt books. The blocks are rectangular, 8×10″, and I will alternate them with plain “cloud” blocks, so the quilt will be a 9 patch. Each balloon is made from 8 fabrics, plus the “basket.” I bought enough cloud fabric for the backing, but I have no idea at this point what I will do for borders. Or for the baskets either, for that matter. After all, if I had it all planned out, it would not be Crackpotty.

I fear I may have given the wrong impression in my previous post about trying to finish Andrew’s quilt before starting any other projects. That may have implied that I’m only working on one thing right now. That is certainly not the case! Here is one of the many other things I have in progress:

One of the women in my quilting group found a pattern for a quilt with a variety of different, unique baskets in a magazine and suggested that we each make one of them multiple times and swap, so that everyone has a quilt of multiple baskets. I shouldn’t really be starting any new projects now, but how can you say no to that? My basket isn’t very hard, though it is a combination of a little piecing and mostly applique. I am proud to say that I didn’t purchase any fabric for it, just some applique thread. I don’t think I’ll make all of my baskets the same – that might get boring, since I need to make 10 or 12.

I finished my two Quilt for the Cure blocks.

Once I decided where to put the different pieces, they went very quickly. They were easy to put together. I used my new 12 1/2 inch square ruler to square them up. I was surprised to find that they were slightly larger than expected. I guess I’ll have to recalibrate my 1/4 inch seams.

The new 12 1/2 inch ruler was purchased out of frustration with trying to square up blocks on a previous project. (The 40% off coupon pushed me over the edge.) So far, I’m delighted with it. I used it on my current project, which will be revealed in my next post.

Thanks, Nancy, for the block kits!

So, it’s all basted and now it’s quilting time! I’m just doing a simple diagonal grid allover, using a varigated red-yellow-green-blue thread. Hopefully it won’t be too bright and take away from the piecing. I like the subtle look of the clear monofilament best, but it’s very slippery and my maching tends to come unthreaded without my noticing it, which is really annoying when you’re quilting very long rows. I’ve done a few rows so far. The quilting is not hard, but it is time-consuming to get it positioned under the machine and deal with all the quilt bulk. I’m trying to do a little bit every day so it gets done reasonably soon. This is both because Andrew really wants to sleep under it and because I want to start new projects but am trying to be reasonably disciplined and get this done first.

I’ve found a side benefit of NaBloPoMo – I’ve been posting more frequently so I can actually remember how to upload a photo and put it in my post without referring to the instructions every time. 🙂