Crackpot Quilters’ Blog

By Ann

I finally delivered the 2010 Crackpot Summer Quilt to my friend Vivian, who heads the local child service agency I support. Here it is with its End User, who seems to approve. (-:

by Nancy

Ta-dah! Ok, so it isn’t done yet – I have to put on the binding, but I was so excited about how my placemat looked after I trimmed it to oval shape this morning that I just had to share it! 🙂 Still have 3 more to cut…

(P.S. Does anyone else remember Fruit Stripe gum from when we were kids?)

Okay, so right now, every post on the front page of the blog is by Nancy, so I’ve got to do something about that!  So with a little “help” this morning from someone who claimed to be not feeling well enough to go to Meeting, I finally got this hung on the wall:

I’m rather pleased with it.  I wish it were in a location that got a bit better light, so the colors would be brighter, but it’s a good spot for it (and it covers up a place on the wall where the paint is all gunked up).

By Nancy

So, this is how it turned out.  Very crackpotty, indeed!

By Nancy

Here’s the backing in progress.  It’s starting to look fancier than the front!  Maybe I’ll call it “reversible”…

by Nancy

After I finished making my lunch box, I started pondering what to do with the extra flowered fabric from it. (I love this fabric – must use it!  Or not…) Most pressing on my List of Possible Future Projects was a small seasonal table runner/table topper for the small table just inside the front door. (Ok, so more pressing than that might be working on some of my Unfinished Objects, but I was able to ignore this less crackpotty idea.) Currently the table still has this winter runner on it – and it’s nearly July – the horror! Although to be honest, I’m not sure how pressing this need really is, as the table is almost always completely covered with mail that Eric needs to sort through, so I’m not sure anyone but me actually knows that it has a winter runner on it. But I know, so it needs to be addressed! 🙂

I started by looking through Marcia McCloskey’s Block Party for block ideas that would let me show off the flower print. I found a few, but I also got distracted inspired by several of the other blocks in there that looked like they would look good in red, white, and blue solids for a 4th of July block. I settled on Stepping Stones, although my color placement is slightly different than what you see in the book or at the link.   Next, I did a little looking through my stash for red, white, and dark blue fabric.   The red that I chose was fabric that I received from the big box of fabric from Lorene.   In fact, no purchases have been made (so far) for this crackpot project.   After a little cutting and sewing, here are my blocks:

To get the runner to size it needs to be, I added some borders:

Now I’m ready to put the top, batting, and backing together and quilt it. But rather than using a single piece of fabric for the backing (not crackpotty enough!), I decided this might be the time to use up some scraps. To begin, I pulled out this heart block, which I made with scraps just to try making it (and because I was procrastinating cleaning bathrooms). Now, I’m adding 1.5″ strips of red, white, and blue around it until it’s the size I need. More reports as I progress…

(by Cathy)

Well, the domain registrar switch seems to have gone off without a hitch, so I think we can safely continue using the blog.

I had one free hour yesterday, and another one today, so I used them to finally put the finishing touches on this project:

The photography is terrible because I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the glare from the windows, but the vibrancy of the batik print still comes through.  It’s machine quilted with black thread on the top and variegated thread on the bottom, as you can see in this photo:

I still need to put a label on it and figure out how to hang it. I kind of want to do both in as minimal a way as possible, so as not to interfere with the quilting design on the back.  Since it’s pretty small, I’m wondering about three small loops to hold the hanging rod, rather than a full sleeve.  And I’m thinking about a very narrow strip of a label, perhaps inserted between two lines of stitching.  Any other suggestions for unobtrusive label and/or hanging?