It’s Weather Vane.
So now you can see the three light pieces of “background” fabric I have. They’re not extremely light, and the value differences among this set of fabrics is fairly narrow. Because of that and because each fabric has either more than one color or a variety of values, the divisions between the pieces in each block don’t stand out. I like it that way. It’s mellow.
is to make a new lap quilt. The old one is dated 1984, and it’s getting a little grubby.
This is the fabric I’m using:
Most of it is a collection of quarter yards purchased in a bundle at Schoolhouse Fabrics in Floyd, Virginia, in 2002. Yep. This is fabric in its prime.
Since I can’t decide on one block er am flexible in my choices er prefer to be spontaneous er like variety er am a Crackpot er don’t have a plan, it will be a sampler quilt.
I haven’t done any serious piecing in a while so I decided to go back to the old standby–Marsha McCloskey’s Block Party. This means that however many blocks get done will be nine-inch blocks. To make it easy to get started, I decided to group my fabric into sets of three, with varying colors and values. Then I looked for blocks that used just three colors. I eliminated all the blocks that called for measurements of 1/16 inch (indicated in the book as +) because my rulers don’t have that marking.
My first block was Ohio Star, and here it is:
The second block was Perpetual Motion, and here it is:
Now, what shall I make for the next one? Get out your Block Party book (I know you have one) and make some suggestions.
by Nancy
Now that Christmas has passed, I can post a picture of the crochet Christmas ornament I made for Ann, Marty, and my German host parents. It was a lot of fun to make!
This has been a tea-infuser intensive Christmas for Ann, who loves tea, is something of a tea snob, and makes her tea with a tea infuser, which she prefers to call a tea bob. Therefore she was truly delighted to receive a Rubber Ducky tea bob from Rebecca for Christmas. Totally cute, totally Crackpotty, totally wonderful! And totally needing photodocumentation.
Here she is ready to dive in.
And here she is hard at work. She appears to be doing the back stroke. She straightens up once her tea leaves get soggy and heavy.
And here she is hanging out with her friends on the kitchen window sill and celebrating a job well done.
Now imagine Ann’s total amazement and delight when Ducky was upstaged two days later by another avian tea bob! Meet Percy the Penguin.
Here he is at the ready, awaiting the hot water. Note the timer on his right flipper and the slightly baffled look.
And here he is in action:
Note that the tea bob is submerged and the timer is set for 5 min. Also, note that Percy is slightly cross-eyed.
Finally, here he is at the completion of his task:
Note that he has successfully raised the tea bob, thus preventing over-brewing. What a bird! I regret that I do not have the hardware to provide a video of Percy in action. It’s really pretty funny!
Crackpots will be happy to learn that the problem of Too Many Tea Bobs has been solved by taking Ducky to the Cute Little House. Cute Little House, Cute Little Tea Bob. Perfect.
Once again this year, Marty has created stunning Christmas ornaments as gifts for Crackpots (and possibly others). They are just too lovely to hang on our Christmas tree, where they tend to get lost among all the other ornaments. So this year, I finally got smart and decided to give them pride of place hanging from the dining room chandelier. Here is another photo showing them closer up. Gorgeous!
by Nancy
Here is this year’s Project Linus Pattern from the Jan/Feb 2011 Quiltmaker. I think it’s quite cute, and I have plenty of bright colored scraps from other kids quilts that I could use for the sailboats. I don’t think I’ll be making any blocks before Christmas, though – too many gift bags and other things in the works!
by Nancy
I’m pleased to report that I’m making good progress on the train quilt, seen in this post. I finished machine quilting it and sewed the binding on to the front. Now I just need to hand sew the binding to the back, and it will be done. It feels nice to work on a flannel quilt when the weather is cold! It was not as much fun to do the machine work in the sun room, which is not well insulated. 🙂
by Nancy
I finished my second crocheted mitten last night, and it’s mostly symmetrical to the first one! Yay! Good thing, too, because here’s how it looks here:
(by Cathy)
Look, I actually made something!
It’s a carrying case for our new digital camera:
I made it from the sleeve of a felted wool sweater that I happened to have lying around. And now a certain small person is done with Quiet Time and I must go.
by Nancy
I just finished getting a Christmas package ready to mail to Germany, which involved making a gift bag for Martha from some very cute light purple snowman fabric. I am pretty sure I received the fabric from another crackpot, possibly Marty, either as a gift or as part of a fat quarter exchange. Does anyone recognize it? Well, after the gift bag was done, I had some scraps of the purple snowman fabric left. It wasn’t enough for a whole gift bag on its own, but I had some scraps of white snowflake fabric that I had used for the bag lining, so I combined the two and came up with this:
one side
second side
I haven’t made a lining yet for the bag. I think it needs one because the white fabric is a bit thin, and there are lots of seams on the back. The lining might just be plain white, or maybe something scrappy will present itself.
P.S. Pictures were taken with my phone, uploaded from there to the blog, and then I wrote my post on the computer. Much quicker than getting out the digital camera, taking a picture, downloading it to the computer, and then uploading it to the blog!