Funky Rooster

I saw this funky rooster block on the side bar of the Attic Window Quilt Shop blog a long time ago. I've always loved the funkiness of the design.  I had an empty spot on my wall of quilts and decided the Funky Rooster would be a perfect fit. I went with a funky shaped background that measures around 16" squarish. 

I found some of my brighter fabrics and fused them down to a mottled lighter grey fabric. I stitched everything down with a simple black straight stitch. I like the cartoon feel of a black outline stitch especially with the brighter fabrics. I decided to hand stitch a turquoise button on for his eye.

He's quilted in my standard crazy all over wiggle stitch and I went with the stitch and flip method because I didn't want any binding. 

For now this is where the Funky Rooster resides on my quilt wall.  I'm going to be ordering some curtain rods and clips so I can hang my quilts. Right now I am using the Command poster strips. That means anytime I want to rearrange the quilts or add more I have to unstick the ones already hanging. The strips aren't overly expensive but it does add up if you're like me and you like to add or rearrange quilts almost weekly. Plus, with the curtain rods the quilts will hang away from the wall and be able to breathe a little.

How do you hang your quilts?

Talk To Me Tuesday #32 Working from the UFO Bin

Several years back I purchased a couple medium flat rate mystery boxes of fabric. The boxes almost seemed magical because I just kept pulling out more and more fabric. Most of the fabric was novelty I Spy fabric. It was one of the big crazes back then. Mixed in among the fun fabrics were several baggies of quilt blocks. This week I decided to turn some of those blocks into quilt tops. I'll worry about getting them quilted after I pick up some batting. I'm waiting for my budget and the sales to collide so I can get enough batting for several projects.

Here are some pics in case you would like a closer view than what you get in the video:

Christmas table runner

Pinwheels

Mystery hsts

Star Wars drawstring bag

Construction vehicle drawstring bag

Autumn trees drawstring bag

         

Cupcake drawstring bag

You can find the bags in my RsIslandCrafts Artfire shop if you're interested in any of them.

TTMT #31 I put a hole in my quilt on purpose

Quick Tip for pressing seams open

TTMT #30 brown and green HSTs and more

HST 16 Patches

I've been busy trimming, pressing, and sewing hsts for my February UFO project. 

So far I think the purples are my favorite. No surprise there.

I like the blues in general but there's just too many floral prints for my taste but I'm someone will love them. They won't be as noticeable once sewn into a quilt so that helps.

When I started trimming hsts I was feeling a bit cocky and decided not to press the seams open. They came to me already stitched and pressed to one side so I was being lazy. I did end up pressing the long seams open on this group of 16 patches though. As I'm trimming the brown and green hsts I am re-pressing the seams open. For such small (3")  hsts there is just too much bulk otherwise. I don't normally press my seams open so this is a different process for me. It's a necessary step but not one I'm too fond of though.

TTMT #29 HSTs Galore

February's UFO

It's time to see what UFO I will be working on for February. This month's lucky number is #9. Number nine is a gallon size bag with individual sandwich baggies of hsts. A few years back I purchased a couple medium/large flat rate boxes jammed full of mystery fabrics. I don't remember the price but it had to have been a steal if I bought them. Among the random fabrics were some color sorted 3.5" hsts.

Of course they were all untrimmed. As I was trimming them down to 3.5" I found that a few of them would lose their points at 3.5" so I decided to just trim all of them down to 3". That way they would finish at 2.5" when sewn together.

I started with the blue baggie. If you know me you know these are not my colors. I'm all about the brights and strong colors and these feel a bit muddy and muted to me. Once I cut them down smaller I felt better about them. Still not my style but at least I can work with them now lol.

I think I will sew them into color chunks to start with. After that I'm not 100% sure what they will become.  Maybe they will become a lap quilt or I might just leave them as color block minis. We won't have to wait long to find out.

WiP Parade

While I have several projects waiting their turn to be worked on I'm only actively working on a select few. I've just lost interest in some of my other projects. Oh, I'm sure the time will come when I feel drawn to them again but for now they're just hanging out in the craft room on my new project rack. I'll have to show you that sometime soon.

I've gone back to knitting dishcloths. I knit these when I have just a few minutes, like while making dinner. For quick and easy knitting I just stick with Grandmother's favorite dishcloth pattern and I like size 5 needles.

The nerve damage in my neck makes my hands numb. During the Winter it also makes them very cold. I have a ratty old pair of fingerless mitts but I decided it was time for an upgrade since the original pair was knit flat because I didn't know how to knit in the round at the time. I wanted the mitts to be form fitting so I went with a pattern that had ribbing. I came across this pair which uses one of my favorite stitches - the waffle stitch. I'm almost at the knuckle ribbing on the first pair.

I added a few more white hexies to my mini red, white, and blue wall hanging. I started using beeswax and I really like how it strengths the thread and keeps it from tangling. I also like how it "twangs".

My youngest Robbie (18) was so excited when he received three pairs of hand knit socks for Christmas last year that I decided to make him a box of socks this year. Instead of 12 pairs like most knitters have in their box of socks, I'm aiming for 6 pairs. Robbie wears a size 14 and that's a lot of sock to knit. I imagine I could knit him a pair a month if his socks were the only thing I worked on all month but that's not gonna happen lol.

Do you have any special projects you're working on this month?