Expanding the quilt

I decided that the green and blue jelly roll race quilt isn't quite big enough to be useful for the adult-sized people we have in this house, so I made some stars today.



This block is called a Ribbon Star.  I found it on YouTube, and it's so fun to make!  It's entirely made from 2.5" inch strips, so I opened another pack of the same fabrics that I used for the jelly roll section, plus some white strips left over from Emma's quilt top. 



I did up six stars today, three that spin to the right and three that spin to the left.  My initial plan was to put three on each end, alternating left and right as shown in this picture, with a wide white and colored sashing in between.

However, now that I have it laid out, I'm not sure about the alternating.  Maybe it would be better to have the top row all spin one way and the bottom row all spin the other?  And maybe also use four blocks in a row instead of three, with narrower sashing?



Any thoughts?

And again...

This is way too much fun.



This is two packages of precuts, 48 strips, and measures 60" x 63.5", unfinished.  It took approximately three hours, including pressing.  It's ready to go for backing and batting.

Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Suddenly... a quilt.

Well.  That was unexpected.

Emma and I went on our annual back-to-school thrift store jaunt to Tri-Cities this past weekend for school clothes, and (as always) found ourselves in the craft store as well.  I was just browsing around and for some reason ended up in the fabric section.  I had no particular plan in mind, but when I was confronted with a rack of packages of pre-cut quilt fabrics on a screaming deal sale, I was suddenly seized by a violent desire to make a quilt.  Immediately.

Emma picked out green and white.



These packages are a highly convenient, if somewhat pricey, way to start a quilt.  Each package contains 24 strips measuring 2.5" x ~40".  Precut and ready to sew!  Getting them on sale was perfect, because normally each package is about $25 and that's too spendy for me.

I've never worked with these before, so I decided to keep it simple and just do a basic jelly roll race pattern.  A "jelly roll" is what the precut strips are called when 40 strips are packaged in a round wheel, and the jelly roll race quilt is a popular easy pattern using these pre-cuts. For Emma's quilt, I used a total of 96 strips (48 green, 48 white).  This will give a quilt top that's approximately 80" x 96" (queen sized), oversized for Emma's full-size bed but nice and snuggly.

You start by sewing all the strips for each section together end to end, into a gigantic long strip.  I alternated green and white strips when I assembled the initial long strip for each section.



Once the strips for each section are attached, you whack off 18" from one end so that the seams don't line up when you fold it in half, then match up the two ends and sew a long seam down one edge, thereby halving the length and doubling the width.  This first seam is very, very, very, very long. You end up with a piece that is two strips wide.



Then you fold and sew the long edge again four more times, until you have a piece that is 32 strips wide.  Because of geometry and the laws of doubling, Emma's quilt had to be made in two pieces, with the second one half the size of the first (16 strips wide).  So I made the two pieces, sewed them to each other, and hey presto- a quilt top!



How fun is that?! I actually like the randomness that happens with the folding and doubling, though that one spot where the green breaks is a little jarring to me.  Emma says she likes that spot best- it's the path through the hedge.  Go figure.  There's really no good way to predict or arrange the colors without making yourself crazy; you have to let go and embrace the serendipity.

This was a really easy project that only took an evening and a half.  I can't wait to finish it off with the backing and batting, so I can make MY quilt.  Because... ahem... of course I couldn't stop at just one when the fabric was on sale...

I did something this weekend I haven't done in a long time. I pulled out my cross stitch supplies. I haven't stitched in years, but I suddenly just felt like making something.

I didn't, however, feel like jumping right into one of my unfinished projects. I did pull them all out and look at them, and I really should finish them off because they're pretty. The two big ones are Great Blue Heron from Crossed Wing Collection, and Gathering Place by Stoney Creek.

Anyway, I didn't feel like doing a big project. So I made a little piece of frivolity.



I charted out my snail avatar and stitched it up. I thought it would be cool to have a "nametag" at the Sock Summit, and this is sort of an unobtrusive way to do that. Am I a dork? I'm afraid I may be.

It's about 2" x 2.5", and is stitched with two strands of floss over-one on 28-count Monaco. I was originally going to make it into a pin, but Emma was quite emphatic that it should be a necklace.



So in addition to making the twisted cord to go around the edge (4 strands of 5/2 perle cotton doubled on itself), I made a twisted cord for the necklace part (2 strands of 5/2 cotton, doubled on itself). It's entirely hand-stitched around a base of cardboard and batting. I love the way the twisted cord finishes off the edge.

I'm not entirely sold on the necklace idea, and attached a safety pin to the back in case I decide to remove the neck cord and wear it on my tote bag instead of around my neck.

Emma loves dresses. The pouffier and longer, the better. More princess-like, you understand. Since she's growing a mile a minute, she's outgrowing lots of her clothes. There are a couple consignment shops in town, but they are still somewhat pricey, and don't often get in things her size.

To address the issue of having something for her to wear, I bought fabric for a couple dresses last week. She had definite ideas about length and color, and I had definite ideas about price per yard as well as the lack of pink fake fur and scarlet sequined knits. Eventually we came to an agreement. Here's the first of two dresses, which I made on Saturday.



It's a heavy cotton, with a slubby multicolored rayon thread about every half inch. I like the fabric, it's machine washable, and think it will hold up to school and playtime. She can wear it now with a shirt and leggings underneath, and she will be able to wear it this summer as a sundress. At $2.00/yard from the clearance bin, the total cost of this dress is about $4.00 (1.5 yards of fabric and a zipper) plus four hours of my time and a commercial pattern that will be used again. That beats anything I've ever found at the consignment shops in this town.

So that's what I did Saturday. Sunday, I finished spinning the first two ounces of the merino top I won.



My camera refused to capture the colors correctly, but they are so beautiful. There's emerald green, teal, royal blue, and violet. Gorgeous deep jewel tones. The top was almost-felted, but I did some aggressive predrafting and it opened up and is spinning well at 60 wraps per inch.

I split the top lengthwise and spun one half straight through, for long stretches of each color, and split the second half lengthwise again for shorter stretches. When I ply them together, it should make a nice marled yarn, which I will use to weave. I was going to knit some lace, but the fiber is so bouncy that I think it would be better woven. I have a feeling that knit lace wouldn't hold its blocking and would just rebound into a lace-blob. It's dreamy soft, and would make a nice stole or something.

So that's what I did with my weekend. It was fun, I felt productive, and got lots done (including putting up a new clothesline).

Today was Monday, and what a sucky Monday it was. That is not a phrase I use lightly. It feels like swearing, which I don't do. (Yes, I'm square.) The morning started off well enough. I finished the report I was working on last week, did some other things, then half an hour before it was time for me to leave, I was called into my supervisor's office to have a meeting with her and the department head. They said I wasn't in trouble, but they weren't smiling.

Turns out that there isn't enough work to go around, and as the most recent hire and the only one who's not full-time, I have to go. I'm not fired, but I just can't work right now. For at least two and a half months. Perhaps during the summer field season, they said. I will be the first person they call, they said. They are extremely happy with my work, they said. They hate to let me go, they said.

This is not how my life is supposed to be. I hate worrying about money. As someone anonymously commented on my last post, it is indeed a good thing that I didn't buy that lottery ticket. My stars have slipped back out of alignment.