Full of Soup

I can finally report a somewhat successful evening of quilting! Full Disclosure: I went to a full day workshop with my mom’s quilting teacher, Margaret, who has been teaching quilting for 30 years. She spent a full hour holding my hand and wiping my tears and teaching me how to do this.

Step 1: Find a lot of things that are circles!

Take a piece of fabric and a piece of fusible web and put the “right” sides together. The right side of the fusible web is more course and has all those spots of glue. Pro tip: When someone gives you a bunch of free fusible web so you can go home and start right away without forgetting how to do this, don’t lose that fusible web then go to an overpriced quilt shop and pay top dollar for Designer’s Lite Luxury Apparel Fusibles.

Trace a circle on the fusible web side of things and pin it all together.

Quilt exactly on the line. EXACTLY, I SAID.

Cut about a 1/4 inch away from the line you just showed. Don’t ask questions about why my demo includes three different pieces of fabric. We will stick to this fabric for the rest of the demo.

Cut a slice through the fusible web. Do not cut the fabric.

Turn it inside out. Now you have the glue side on the back and the fabric side on the front. You can cut more of the fusible web off if you are worried that it will affect how your finished quilt will feel as long as you leave about an inch around the edges.

Okay folks. I was really inspired by the quilts at the Somers Quilt Show that had blocks of maritime flags and the mariner’s compass that I went ahead and purchased some solids and started mapping out my project.

The flags are made up of five solid colors and most of them are pretty simple square blocks. My plan is to make a quilt with 6×5 10″ blocks with 2″ of sashing framing them and filling in the negative space in blocks A and B.

I already have black fabric, so bought these Kona solids for the flags and the grey will be the sashing.

There are 26 blocks, so the plan is to make four mariner’s compasses for each of the corners to make a 30 block, rectangular quilt.

I can’t really front here, this should be a super simple quilt and adding on the 1/4 inch seam allowance around each block should not be that difficult, but somehow I’ve already managed to screw up block Q and block K. Scroll up and look at how simple those blocks are. BLOCK Q! I’ve decided to change the blade on my rotary cutter. I mean, that is the only explanation. I’ve also decided to give Bounce another shot.

I bought a few things at the Quilt Show.

At Somers, I got this animal print that I ‘d like to make something for my niece with. She has a play kitchen so I’ve been thinking about an apron or some hot mitts, but I’m not sure how much use she’d get out of that. I think she’d love a bag, but the print is pretty large and I’d like to use all of the animals. I’m just not sure what to do.

I also purchased these prints at the quilt show for myself:

These actually go well with what I have leftover from my Mug Rug project. I just wish I knew how to make clothes.

I like the bold colors in this print. I think it would make beautiful kitchen curtains.

In the last stretch of cold weather when most people were dying for a warm sunny day, I, for the first time, started feeling anxious about summer. Summer is by far my favorite season, but it kind of means hanging up the quilts and spending time outside. So I had been looking for a more portable project to keep my hands busy.

Crewel is the same thing as embroidery, but the thread is two strands of wool wrapped around each other rather than one.

I didn’t realize this when I bought it, but each window and roof uses a different stitch. The instructions are exceptionally clear and I’m learning so much.

And also able to enjoy the parks.