A delightful night's sleep

Little Miss Lou thought I was visitng over the long holiday weekend to celebrate her birthday. And she was right, but it also provided the perfect opportunity to give her a suprise bed makeover.

When she went back to school on Tuesday I went into action stripping away the old bedding. In its place went a new bed skirt, white jersey sheets, and the half square triangle quilt.

I anxiously waited the bus drop-off and tried to casually suggest she change out of her school clothes into some play clothes for an afternoon outside. We all followed her upstairs to her bedroom. As she went into her room she exclaimed, "What in the world?!?!? These are my favorite colors." Awesome!

When I talked with her the next day I asked how she had slept in her brand new bed. With a big smile on her face she explained, "It was delightful." My sister further elaborated that as soon as she got up that morning Little Miss Lou was found carefully making her bed, smoothing out all the creases, and proclaiming that her little sister Little Miss Bee was not to touch it.

Yeah, I think she likes it!

The quilt is done!

The quilting is completed and the binding attached. I handstitched 26 feet of binding in 7 short hours. That might not seem an impressive speed but I’m blown away. I had set aside time over the course of three weeks to finish the binding by hand. And you know what? I only needed 20 or 30 minutes here and there over the course of 10 days to get it all done. I’ve clearly gotten better at this hand stitching business. In fact, I really enjoyed it. I was a little sad to see it come to an end.

The next time you see this quilt it will be donning Little Miss Lou’s bed and I can’t wait to see her reaction. I hope she loves it half as much as I do. Stay tuned.

Rainbow Bright

Rainbow colored pencils all lined up in a row makes me happy.

A finished pencil roll makes me very happy.

It's the middle bits of this story where the sad part lies. It was being stooped over my kitchen table for what felt like hours and hours cutting 60 – 1.5” wide strips after ironing 20 bits of carefully chosen fabric that had me feeling sad. Then on top of that there were the pockets, the pocket linings, the exteriors, and the flannel linings. So perhaps it was my insane decision to make three pencil rolls at once that contributed to my unhappiness. My reasoning was that if I was going to suffer through all that cutting I might as well have three items to show for it.

I know I can’t be the only sewer out there who suffers from this logic, right?

Project Report

Huge, huge progress has been made on the half square triangle quilt. When last I left you I was hoping to get all the squares cut apart and ironed by the weekend so I could start the (re)assembly of the quilt top. Not only did I do it, I got two of the blocks put together. Since then I have completed two more.

This weekend brings the completion of the final two blocks. And if I’m really ambition I might even sew those six blocks into a completed quilt top. But that’s something like 120 feet worth of seams to iron so that may be more than I’m up for. Perhaps daydreaming about what the back will look like is more my speed.

What’s on tap for your weekends?

The Half Square Triangle Quilt

My obsession with half square triangle quilts started after the doll quilt. I adored the crisp white with the pops of colors and the precise geometric arrangement. I had to make a human sized one.

It just so happens that my need to make intersects with Little Miss Lou’s need for an Auntie made quilt for her newly decorated big girl room. Of course, that big girl room prominently features her favorite color orange along with doses of white and turquoise. Sounds like the perfect quilt combination!

I had a few oranges and turquoises already in my stash and the rest came as a result of a 40% off sale at Joann’s. Then came the backbreaking part: cutting out 378 squares, each measuring 4 and 7/8 inches with the goal being a finished block size of 4 inches.

I am now deep into the block assembly process. All the squares have been stitched together and I am spending evenings at the ironing board. I alternately snip them apart into their half square triangles and then iron all those seams. (Oh, how I wish I could hire out the seam ironing!) The plan is to get all this done before the weekend so I can start on the fun part, the layout and quilt top construction!

Wish me luck.

No. 4 on the Handmade List