Current Crackpot Crochet Project

June 15th, 2014

by Nancy

On the crackpotty crochet front, my current project is these crochet mandalas:
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They’re from a pattern by Lucy of Attic 24, one of my favorite crochet blogs. She warns that mandala making can be addictive, and she’s right!  I had a great time making the first purple one, just picking the colors as I went along.  Then, I made the middle one by reversing locations of the purple and yellow.  I liked the purple one best, so I made another in that color pattern.  My plan is to hang them somewhere in my classroom at school.

The Story of Anna’s Quilt

June 8th, 2014

by Nancy

Well, no one has posted yet in 2014, and I think it’s time someone crackpotty posted something crackpotty, so here you go…

Back in May 2013, a fantastic young woman, Anna, graduated from Bloomington High School South. I had the honor of being her Confirmation Sponsor at First Presbyterian Church and wanted to give her a special gift for graduation. Of course, a quilt came to mind. This idea didn’t come to mind with enough time to make a quilt for her graduation, but I did think of it in time for her graduation. So, I gave her a “quilt to be made” for graduation. That way, she could have some say in the pattern and colors.

In June 2013 Anna and I made a trip to JoAnn Fabrics. She didn’t have any definite ideas about colors or patterns, but she said she liked red and wasn’t opposed to flowers. After lots and lots of looking, we chose these fabrics:
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Then, over ice cream, we chose this pattern from Quiltmaker Magazine:
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The colors would be a lot different and there wouldn’t be appliqué in the borders and there probably wouldn’t be as many hexagon flowers, but we had a starting point. I didn’t know if I could finish by the time Anna left for college, but my hope was to have it ready for her when the weather got colder.

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Umm, well. Then in July I got a part-time German teaching job and life got much busier. Time to adjust expectations. But there has been progress…
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Even when my sewing machine had to be relocated temporarily for the sunroom windows to be refurbished, I continued working.
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The quilting is done, and now I am sewing on the last of the hexagon flowers! My new goal is for her to be able to take it with her when she returns to college for her sophomore year.
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Not quite fully-pieced

December 10th, 2013

And even once it’s fully-pieced, there’s of course still a lot more to do before it’s a Finished Object. But I’m still quite impressed with this:
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Oswald’s Quilt

September 6th, 2013

by Nancy
Oswald's quilt (547x800)

Yay! I can finally post a picture of the quilt I made for our pastor and his wife’s new baby. It was actually finished a little while ago, but I had to get a picture of the quilt and give the quilt to them before I could put a picture on the blog, and that took me a while.

Scrappy Saturday – Yellow

June 3rd, 2013

by Nancy

The Scrappy Saturday color for June is yellow.  Interestingly, several of the others participating in Scrappy Saturday mentioned that they don’t use yellow often or only use it in small amounts in quilts.  I love yellow!  It is definitely my favorite color, and I like using plenty of it in my projects.  Let’s see what I have to show off my love of yellow…

There’s Helene’s Tulip Quilt:

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Scrappy Butterflies:

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My scrappy yellow heart, which became a bib:
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And my crochet afghan:

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In any case, I have plenty of yellow scraps, so I got to work with them on Saturday and made a 10″ block:

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Not Really Finished At All Object

May 27th, 2013

So here is what I was finally able to finish piecing this weekend:

Mystery Quilt Center

Alert readers will recognize this as the central block in this quilt, whose previous status was documented here.  I had this central block pieced except for the last two seams for over a month — possibly two months? — before I was able to sew those last two seams!

But sewing those last two seams was enough to allow me to lay out the following on the floor:

Mystery Quilt laid out

Which is the entire quilt top, more or less.

Alert readers will also note that the corner log cabin blocks have been painstakingly taken apart and re-pieced, and are now no longer 1/4″ too small in both dimensions.  Taking them apart and re-piecing them also allowed me to change out the fabric in the outer “logs” to match the GIANT PURPLE TRIANGLES OF DOOM so that I get the same “floating” effect that Ann did in her rendition of the quilt. Silver lining, maybe?

Anyway, I’m very pleased with it! The next step is, well, sewing all the pieces together (which is what I’ve been doing all along, isn’t it?) but in this case, actually putting the whole thing together.  I don’t expect this to happen quickly, because long seams take a much longer time to set up, pin, sew, etc. than shorter ones. But this is the largest thing I’ve pieced to date, so it’s exciting, and challenging!

40 Down, 9 To Go

May 27th, 2013

By Ann

 

Here is the current state of the Quilt:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJust 9 more blocks to piece! My goal is to have the top completed by All Together Week.

Finishing May Blue Scraps

May 27th, 2013

by Nancy

Saturday was the last blue Scrappy Saturday for May.  I finished up a 10″ block of blue scraps:

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I also finished 70 of these 3″ rail fence blocks.

IMG_8780 (1280x652)I hope to turn them into a reusable grocery bag.  I had some extra duck cloth in the basement that I planned to use for the bag, but when I got it out of the basement, it smelled sort of funny.  So, I threw it in the wash this morning.  It came out very wrinkled, so we’ll see what it looks like after some pressing or whether I need to come up with a Plan B.

Finished!

May 26th, 2013

by Nancy

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Here is my finished Crackpotty Project!  I am so pleased with it.  It’s a weekly meal and activities organizer.  There are little clothes pins on the sides for each day’s dinner and activities.  I made two little pockets out of cardstock to hold the extra meal and activities cards.  I’m very happy with how it turned out.  Now I just need to clean and organize the kitchen this week so that it looks as good as the organizer!

The Start of a Crackpotty Project

May 25th, 2013

by Nancy

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School’s out!  My plans for the summer include running, sewing, and (I’ve warned my family about this one) cleaning and organizing my house.  Next week I’ll be tackling the kitchen.  To that end, I started a crackpotty project today.  It involved some very enjoyable time spent at Hobby Lobby obtaining supplies: scrapbooking paper, cardstock, paint, stickers, and a picture frame.  The plan is to make a menu planning and activity organizing board inspired by something  I saw on Pinterest.  So far painting the mini clothes pins has been fun!  More updates as I make progress.