March 31, 2008 - Moving along to the next project

While I wait for the additional caterpillar fabric to arrive, I am starting the quilt for my husband to hang on his office wall. There used to be a door between his office and another office, but it has been closed off. This quilt will cover the old doorway.

He wanted something with burgundy and I chose a dark blue and a tan color to accent. My favorite color combination. The pattern is an Ohio Star with dark blue sashing; it will be 4 blocks wide by 10 blocks long.

March 30, 2008 - The crosswise food fabric

Here's the quilt with the crosswise cut food fabric.

Can't you just see how busy that border is? I can just see in my mind how much better it will look with borders that are a whole row of all those foods the caterpillar ate through. Hope I'm not disappointed!

March 30, 2008 - 2 borders

Here is the quilt with the caterpillar border and the dots border.

I could, I should, be happy with this, put the binding on and be done. But no. I HAVE to have that food border stripe cut lengthwise.

Two local quilt shops did not have that fabric. So I have ordered it online and will take the partially completed quilt to school this week, then finish it after I get back from vacation.

March 29, 2008 - Ackkk!

I have come to the conclusion, like I didn't already realize it, I could never make a living designing quilts!

I've already taken the caterpillar quilt apart twice. This morning I was reading the RCTQ newsgroup and found out Andover Fabrics has a quilt pattern for the caterpillar fabrics.

I took a look, and realized I should have cut the assorted foods fabric *lengthwise* to take advantage of the built in stripe.

Thankfully the local quilt shop carries this fabric so this morning I am off to buy more fabric. It wouldn't be so bad but I am trying to get this quilt done by Tuesday when the class starts their Eric Carle unit and I leave town for a vacation.

No, I am NOT taking any sewing with me.

March 28, 2008 - A quandry...

The 2 border fabrics both have a white background and they sorta merge into one another. So I un-sewed them.



I added the wider border with the assortment of foods eaten by the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I could add the polka dot fabric as the binding and call it done.



Or, I could add the polka dot border, then the border with the caterpillars, then the polka dot binding. In these last 2 photos I have not sewn the fabrics, just set them close together to try to get the effect of how it would look.

Thoughts? Anyone?

March 27, 2008 - Another Diversion

Last week the kids were home for Spring Break so we hung out, and I did LOTS of laundry!

This week I upgraded software on the computers.

The Kindergarten Readiness class in which I volunteer is going to start an Eric Carle unit next week. On Saturday I got an email from an online quilt shop introducing a new line of Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric. I emailed the teacher and we decided to buy some fabric and I would try to whip up a simple quilt for the classroom to introduce the unit. The fabric came today and it is even cuter in person than it was online!Here is the center panel for the quilt.

Oops, I loaded the photos in the wrong order and I can't figure out how to rearrange them. This is the binding.

This is border number 1.

This is border number 2.

Here is the backing.

Stay tuned for updates on the progress.

March 13, 2008 - Off on a tangent

Ruth at countylogcabin.blogspot.com posted photos of some crocheted pot holders she had made. I have never been a fan of doing crochet, especially anything with straight edges! But my Grandma made a bazillion crocheted pot holders that I love to use, and there are only 4 left. She died 18 years ago.

Ruth's pot holders are very similar to my Grandma's so I emailed her (Ruth, not my Grandma!) to ask for directions. She was so kind to write out instructions for me, and off I went to Wal-Mart for a crochet hook and thread.

Here is what I have accomplished since yesterday. A bit ruffly, but it will do. You make 2 and then crochet them together.

Thank you, Ruth, for getting me started!

Karen

March 5, 2008 - Sick : (

I haven't done any sewing for several weeks. I got a sinus infection, then a virus, then got better, flew to San Diego for a conference and had a bad asthma episode, got better, flew home, got sick again. So I have been resting and sleeping a lot and not doing much of anything. Well, except laundry...

The conference was great and the weather in San Diego was an unseasonable 75 degrees! Better than 10s and 20s in Wisconsin.

I'm on the mend so hope to get back to the sewing machine soon.

The photo is taken at Point Loma, the southwestern most part of the continental US.