Friday, November 23, 2012

Keeping Busy During My Lay Off

So, I thought I was making this hat for a girl at work that is receiving chemo and had to shave her head.  She's got a number of cute hats that she wears and I had never made a hat and wanted to give it a try.  When I was done, I realized that the stitches leave a sizable hole that would expose her scalp.  Not only could that be awkward for her, it would get chilly.  So Bethany, with the big hair, became the new owner of my first hat.  I'll figure something else out for Jodi that has a closer weave.  And maybe a softer yarn.
 Look what I finished!!!!  Christmas Wishes is done.  Well, the top is done.  I'm counting that.  I started putting the filler blocks on at the retreat a few weeks ago.  After the first strips went together, I realized that the quilt designer put different sized checkerboard blocks next to each other.  I guess, when she did it, it was fine.  She used different colored fabrics for all of her blocks.  When I did it with red dots next to red dots, my head exploded.  I seriously wanted to set the whole thing on fire and move on.  Alas, I took a week to cool my jets and think.
I took the strips apart and made new filler rows.  I mixed in LARGE checkerboard, so that it's obvious that they weren't supposed to be aligned.  I used fewer small checkerboards and added some plain squares that I plan to quilt in.
 This cat was the last block to get done.  I thought it was weird that she had a bunny, baby birds and posey type flowers in the quilt and my head almost exploded.  But, she's Australian and Christmas lands in the middle of her summer.  So, it makes sense to me now.
This block is a little different from the original design.  The Santa is supposed to be embroidered on top of an appliqued circle.  I couldn't find the right background for it, so I just did the standard background.  Grrrr, I loved that appliqued circle, too.

The houses have our family names embroidered on them.
The stars in this block have the kids names written on them.  It's pretty anti-climatic.  The ink isn't dark enough, the lettering is too small.  But, am I going to re-do them.  Heck no.  In her pattern, she made pockets out of these stars.  Then the kids are supposed to write a wish on a piece of paper and then put it in their pocket.  How cute is that?!  Too cute for me apparently, I just appliqued those puppies on...



 The center without borders.  I'm so excited at this point!
Then, with borders.  I bribed Ethan to hold one end of the quilt for me.  I also changed up the borders.  I added the small white and beefed up the outer.  I think the designer had only one 4" border in a white/red print.  However, she posted a picture of someone else that did a scalloped border.  I may steal that idea.  We'll see how I do on the quilting.
The designer is Red Brolly, her blog  is one of my favorites.  If you like to embroider or always wished you did, you need to visit her blog.  She has everything, from stitch tutorials to free patterns to baking recipes.  Seriously, very generous with her free patterns.

Last but not least, I made some pumpkin pie.  My friend Dana e-mailed this pattern and thought it was right up my ally.  She was right, I love it!



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