Finish 9 for 2012 - Scoot, Santa! 2

Yay!!  I think I can just squeeze in one more finish for this year and reach 10. That will make me happy.

The twin of Scoot, Santa! makes me happy, too!  Now we have one to keep here in Colorado. My aunt has hers now, and that corduroy was a big hit with her. (And her cat!)

Thanks to these great hosts for superb inspirational link-ups! You should check these places out for more cool projects folks have finished. :D

* Link A Finish Friday at Richard's *

WIP - Scoot 2 almost there

Black - check. Green - check.  Time for white and meandering - 

Almost finished with this twin's quilting! Then just some quick lane lines by hand and the binding.  :D

2012 Christmas Quilt Show - Scoot, Santa!

I love these virtual quilt shows! Thank you to Michele at Quilting Tutorials for hosting the 2012 Christmas Quilt Show.

The link-up is open until Nov. 30, so if you have a Christmas or Winter quilt to share, why not join in?  :D



 I'm super excited that I finished "Scoot, Santa!" in time to share it.

Making this quilt was a special treat from pre-conception to finish. It was a naughty thing to do, because I'm supposed to be strictly working on UFOs. But I was shopping on Etsy one day for a sweater for our Siamese and when I saw the Santa on scooter fabric, I just about died. You see, everything "scooter" makes me think of my aunt with a big smile. So there was no way I could pass up that yard of fabric, and this became my November NewFO.

So, I gave myself hard-fast rules:  1. It *had* to be sewn into a quilt in time for this year's Christmas; 2. I had to use *only* other fabrics from my stash; 3. I must break a quilting rule - if I was going to be naughty, I needed to get my "rebel" on in full!

Two weeks ago I came up with a concept, and had a most successful dig through the stash.  The execution went off without much of a hitch - I just had a momentary pause when I saw my original road strips laid out and hated how overpowering they were. After sleeping on it, I realized I just needed to trim back the yellow. I couldn't bear to let go of the roads - Santa needed them. Plus, the shape was reminiscent of Santa's buckle.

The broken rule? You see how I put the background greens on the diagonal? Well, I didn't feel like piecing strips to make them long enough, and I sure didn't feel like cutting wide strips on the bias, so I cut them long-wise on grain and sewed them so that the edges of the quilt were all bias. This would really upset some of my older-generation quilt mentors, as it poses several potential problems - stretching as the quilt is pulled on, warping as you're working on it. . .  But I figured it was a smaller lap quilt, so I'd give it a whirl. This is only 48" x 54".

Because of all that bias, I used a ton of pins to baste it - spacing within 3 inches.

For the most part, I did horizontal lines about an inch apart, using my walking foot. Between all those pins, the good amount of quilting, and a heavier-than-usual backing of fine-wale corduroy, I had no problems at all with rippling, and it is very sturdy! 3 strands of gray floss worked perfectly for the hand-quilted  lane lines.

*Love* that backing. It's a gorgeous claret red. Nice and heavy/comfy for a New England or Colorado-mountain home.

The Santas were placed so that their scooters were on the level of the roads, and I did a simple free-motion meander with loops and snowflakes (yes, it was a tad challenging with that corduroy).

And I even had the perfect gold-on-black fabric for the binding~!  I succeeded in all three rules - everything I needed for this project came from stash - all support fabrics, the backing, the batting, and even all the threads.

The best part of all: There was enough of everything to make a twin so we can keep one here in Colorado~! I only needed to splice some batting together.  :D

So now that you've let me share my "Scoot, Santa" before it flies away to its new home, why not go on over to the Christmas Quilt Show and take a look at the many other wonderful projects people are sharing?  :D

~*~*~*~

I'm also linking this up as my finish report for this week's Friday and this month's NewFO:

Thanks to these great hosts for superb inspirational link-ups! You should check these places out for more cool projects folks have finished. :D

* Link A Finish Friday at Richard's *

WIP'n Santa

::snicker::  Couldn't resist that post title.  Probably got up way too early.

Time to quilt!

I use a ton of pins when I domestic-quilt with a heavy backing such as Minky, fleece, or - in this case - corduroy.  I find my preferred 4-inch spread to be too loose, allowing too much give and resulting in unwanted pulls on the top between rows of stitching. 2.5 - 3 inches seems to solve that problem for me. First time I've done a corduroy back, so we'll see if that's still sufficient!  Spray basting would never stand up to the weight of this on a sofa-cuddler size.

I had designed this on paper and in EQ to call to mind a road that Santa was scooting on superimposed by a big chunk of the novelty fabric.  After constructing the oblique background, I laid the squares and "roads" out to find the slice points to insert the strips. . .  and I hated the overpowering effect of the roads. 

So I took them out from one top and let them sit overnight. (To my hubby's consternation, who wanted to shoot pool before bed.)

And the next morning, the un-stripped one was boringly bare and missing the whole concept of the road for the Santa on each square. Staring at them side-by-side some more, I wondered if there was just too much yellow. So I trimmed those way down, and that solved the entire problem. 

Such a huge improvement from a tiny adjustment. Design amazes me sometimes.  :D

Oh, I almost forgot - I have some patterns I'd like to give away. They're on This Post. If you'd be interested in any of them, leave a comment there. 

Thank you to Lee and this week's host for facilitating this motivational link-up!

WIP Wed - 14 Nov 2012 - Let's Get Santa Scooting!

I'm busy at work on the patchwork border for my Once Upon a Star project. 

^ Those are going around this:

And I've started a brand new project!!!  I am so very ready for something NEW! And this is totally new, not from my UFO list.

It's qualified, though. I'm on a serious mission to sew up the 400 Gazillion projects I already have, so I have a strong rule about buying anything outside of what is needed for current projects. But somebody had this totally cool Santa scooter fabric at their Etsy shop when I was purchasing a sweater for our freezing cat, and there's a very special reason why it had to get to our house. So I bought it under strict conditions. The rules: It MUST become its destiny this Christmas; It MUST be used ONLY with existing stash; and the project MUST break a quilting "rule."

So I mulled over a design and then combed through my holiday tub. The black and just a smidge of gold will frame off the scooter fabric and make some other design elements. 

These greens will create a rule-breaking background. The burgundy-red is actually a fine-wale corduroy for the back. Not exactly rule-breaking, but unusual and warm. No way I'd use it if I were going to free-motion quilt this project. But I'm planning simple organic lines with a walking foot for almost all of it, so it should be OK. The metallic gold-gridded black will be used for the binding.

The whole thing on paper is rather reminiscent of Santa's belt and buckle somehow. Just wait 'til you see it in a week.

SOOOOO antsy to get this sewn up!!  :D


Thank you to Lee and this week's host for facilitating this motivational link-up!