May Mini and other things

When creativity eludes me, as it often does, I usually fall back on copying recreating something that's already been done successfully.

This month it was this very sweet little antique quilt, which I've had my eye on for a long time.  

 

Apparently it was for sale at some point, as part of a group.
Wouldn't it have been fun to bid on and win these?

Well that didn't happen, so I did the next best thing and made my own.

Its just simple nine-patches, but the layout creates a really cool pattern. I'm not a big fan of pink, but I was lucky and found a piece in my stash that worked.

I was surprised at how much fabric it took! The quilt measures 13" x 17", with the individual patches finishing at 3/4" (more or less, haha) I think I had about a fat quarter and a half of the pink, and used all but the tiniest shreds! In fact I panicked near the end when I thought I wouldn't have enough for the binding. I did, barely, but because of my lack of planning I had to cut it on the "length" of the fabric, which means it had very little give. I used some magic though, and made it work.

I machine quilted it in the ditch between the blocks, and hand quilted the diagonal lines. It crinkled up nicely after a light wash and dry.

This is my mini for May.
Go here to view more Montly Mini's.,hosted by Wendy, The Constant Quilter.


Meanwhile, I've been working on what was supposed to be "Lil Orphan Scrappy" by Lynn Wilder. I've been wanting to make this quilt for a long time, but by the time I got around to it my tastes were changing and I decided to use a cooler color palette, and a little different layout.

I don't know about you, but no matter how "precise" I try to be, my small units never turn out perfect. To compensate for my lack of cutting/sewing skill, I sometimes like to use a scant 1/4" seam, which results in a little bit extra around the edges of the unit to trim.

 A tiny trim and now they are now perfect.


Other news:  For some reason your comments are no longer showing up in my email, so I cannot answer them there. I've checked my settings and everything looks right. Hm. I think others of you may be experiencing this? Any tips on how to fix it? Meanwhile, I went ahead and changed my blog setting to https:/ bla bla so it is now more secure.

love,
Sandy

strange and interesting things...

I've been running low (or running out) of some of my favorite thread colors lately, so a couple of weeks ago I put in an order with Connecting Threads. I filled out my order with a few other items, as they have good deals on many things. I noticed they are carrying one of Primitive Gatherings new lines, Indigo Gatherings, which I've been very interested in as good indigo reproductions are hard to find. So I went ahead and ordered a couple of cuts.

My order arrived yesterday. I want to show you what these fabrics look like.

Connecting Threads often prints their own fabrics this way, where the print shows only on one side, and white (or whatever color the base fabric is) on the wrong side. I don't know the term for this, if there is one, but I always have thought the quality was somewhat compromised, compared to what you find in a fabric store. Which might be a reason their fabric is relatively inexpensive. I admit I know next to nothing about fabric printing and might be completely wrong about this, and I would love to hear from anyone who knows more about the topic.

Apparently this hasn't bothered me enough to forgo their fabric, however (I love their "basics" and "blenders"). But the above fabric, albeit slightly discounted, is Primitive Gatherings, by Moda. Would I have gotten a different product had I purchased it from PG? or.. is this a new trend?  Curious minds want to know.

On to another strange thing -

Something slightly disturbing happened with my Pinterest account recently.  I admit I am addicted to  a frequent peruser of this website. Anyway,  few weeks ago I wanted to look at some pins on our desktop computer (as opposed to my  ipad)  and instead of seeing my usual sign-in screen, I was prompted to sign in with Google. So I did, using my Google email and password.

That appears to have been a big mistake. First of all, while signed in with Google, I could only view my pages as a guest. I could not see my  secret boards, and  I could not edit my pins. And I couldn't get in using my original sign-in info, as apparently my original account had disappeared.   Hmm.

Meanwhile, the Pinterest app on my ipad went blank.  Initially I thought it was due to my ipad being so old, and not being updated in forever. But.. very untimely, as the desktop version was already compromised. Then things went even more haywire, but I'm giving you the short version.

Thankfully, the folks at Pinterest dug deep and after a good week of back-and-forth, they figured it all out and was able to restore my account. No more Google (who I'm sure didn't really mean to hijack my account ~) And... they restored the app on my ipad! (so much for the ancient ipad theory) Kudo's to Pinterest!

But what the heck, right??

Anyway, all is resolved, and I'm a happy Pinterest addict once again. 

love,
Sandy