Sleight of Hand

Judy was making card tricks, and posted about how easy they are.   All those half- and quarter-square triangles - she has a different definition of easy than I do :)   But her post reminded me that I had seen a card trick block made entirely from squares years ago, and I'd always wanted to try it.

So, I sat down and whipped up 8 blocks, during the second period of the Canada-US hockey game today.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the individual pieces of each block.  Not a single triangle in the bunch.

Since they look like card tricks, but are made differently, perhaps I should call these "sleight of hand" blocks instead :)

A Tic-Tac-Toe Stash Report

Last month, I won the Block Lotto, and now I have 48 lovely tic-tac-toe blocks that I need to do something creative with :)

I decided that I wanted to do a number of small quilts, rather than one large one.  When they're done I'll donate them to the local children's hospital.   So I divided up the blocks and picked a set of 9 to start with.

Since the blocks are all wacky grids, I thought I'd set them in a similar fashion to carry the theme forward.  This layout on my wall seemed a bit crowded, so I bordered the blocks in white to provide a bit more space. The top is now complete, and waiting to be quilted.   The good news for my stash report is that this quilt took 4 yards of fabric, including the backing and binding.

The bad news for my stash report is that I bought some fabric.  20 fat quarters for $25 from Sew Sisters.  So this week I have

4 yards out
5 yards in

Total in this year - 42 yards
Total out this year - 43 1/4 yards

Net this year: 1 1/4 yards OUT 

Still sitting in the black this week :)  Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have been up to with their stashes.

Where have I been

As mentioned on Sunday, I've been away from my sewing machine for several days.  This is sad, and I've certainly missed spending time in my sewing room.  But where I was more than makes up for it.

 Can you tell where I was?  I spent the last week and a half in Vancouver at the Olympics!  I got to see some great events, joined the throngs of people downtown, and generally had a great time.  Vancouver has an odd idea of "winter" I have to admit (14 degress Celcius and sunny almost every day).  But I could get used to that :)

Short track speed skating was great fun to watch.  There aren't usually quite this many skaters on the ice, but a couple of disqualifications and advancements led to 8 skaters (rather than 4) in the women's 1500m final.

And watching Canada achieve gold in women's snowboard cross and women's ski cross was fabulous.  The picture below is from the snowboard cross flower ceremony.

I've been plotting my next quilt since I got there.   Definitely need something with an Olympic theme, to commemorate my trip.  And some of the Olympic designs will lend themselves nicely to quilting, being made up of square and triangles.

Design Wall Monday - Feb 22

This is my plan for bordering the blue celtic square.  Pinwheels in a variety of blues, which will be separated by a dark blue sashing strip.

Hopefully, when I sew all these bits together, the seam allowances will take up enough to allow some sashing.  I calcuated it, but my track record these days is not so great with those calculations.  Looking at the picture, I may have a problem.  But at least pinwheels are something I can cut down if they come out oversized.

You can still see the edges of some of my tic-tac-toe blocks peaking out on the right.  Still waiting for a  few more to arrive, so they're hanging out waiting for inspiration.

Check out Judy's blog for more design walls.

Stash Report - Feb 21

Nothing in, nothing out.  Not a great stash report this week, but at least I didn't add to it.   And I have a really good excuse, which I'll fill you all in on, later this week.

Check out Judy's blog to see more productive quilters' stash reports.

Total in this year - 37 yards
Total out this year - 39 1/4 yards

Net this year: 2 1/4 yards OUT

Hearts and Nines

My celtic hearts quilt is coming along.  The 2 sides are done and attached to the center.   I just need to cut the sashing for the top & bottom and set those blocks.  Then I'm planning a narrow border in red around the outside and bind it in red.

This quilt has been good for my stash.  All the hearts and 9-patches were made from some 5" squares that I gathered from swaps this past year.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, so when this occurred to me I was very happy.

The 9 patch settings are not quite what I had intended.  They came out a bit smaller than the heart blocks.  I had planned to make the setting triangles a bit oversized, so I could cut them to match the hearts - but I got distracted and set them too small.  So, they got an extra red border to bring them up to size.

Tic-Tac-Toe

My design wall today has a number of tic-tac-toe blocks hanging out on it.  Four new sets of blocks have arrived so far, so I put them all up on the wall hoping for inspiration.

Not sure yet what I'll do, other than the fact that they will probably turn into a few baby quilts, rather than 1 large one.   Now to decide if I colour-group them or go for variety, and how to set them.  I have one idea in mind, and I'm sure a few more will come to me over the next couple of weeks.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week.