8/23/10

Design Wall Monday, August 23, 2010

First of all, I did a lot of work on my blog this week because I launched a Free Giveaway! in the form of Fun Fact Friday FreebieIf you'll click on this link--or on the new button I've placed in the right hand corner of my blog--you'll find the rules. 

What it boils down to is this:  I ask you a fun fact question about yourself.  You answer the question by commenting.  That's your first chance to win.  If you are a follower, you have a second chance to win.  If you post my button on your blog, you have a third chance to win.  That's potentially three chances to win!  If you win, you'll get a free fat quarter.  I'll be doing this each and every Friday, so check it out for a chance to win a fabulous prize.  I don't know if you think a fat quarter is fabulous, but in my mind anything free is fabulous!

As for my quilting, we had construction going on at our house all week.  My goodness, what a lot of racket.  They banged and hammered, sawed and crashed all week long rebuilding our deck.  The deck serves as the roof to our daylight basement family room.  It had a waterproof membrane on it, only the membrane was no longer waterproof.  There was a small amount of water damage on the ceiling below.  Turns out it was never built to code, and so it was a very expensive and involved fix.  I'm so glad my sewing room is in the far reaches of the house so I could retreat there and get some relief from the noise. 

Poor Gracie was so petrified that she hid in the most remote closet in the house.  Even knowing she was there, I had a hard time seeing her.  At one point she came to the edge of the doorway and looked at me with pleading eyes.  I brought her some food and water and coaxed her out a little so she could at least get something to eat and drink.


George was so disgusted by the whole thing (cats do not like noise) that he decided to take up napping for the week on the little bed I made for him.  (Catnip sprinkled around the edge makes it all the more inviting for him.)


So all that retreating into the sewing room gave me a chance to finish up the last of the nine blocks for my "Flip Flops" quilt.


And here is the completed top.


Here it is with the fabric for the back. 


I bought this fabric quite some time ago, and I don't have enough to use for a border around the outside of the quilt.  I think it would be cute that way though, so I'm going to see if I can find some more.  If any of you have some, maybe we could work out a trade.  Let me know.  In any event, I'm going to do some searching and see if I can find another yard or so.  I haven't given this quilt a name yet.  Any suggestions? 

I'm going to quilt this one myself.  I think I'm going to do something looking like sand dunes on the yellow squares and around the flip flops.  It pretty much amounts to closely spaced wavy lines with little open areas to give the impression of dunes.  Then I don't think it would be very difficult to do some free motion quilted flip flops in the sashing areas and around the outside.  It would just be a kidney bean shape with a sort of upside down "V" for the straps, and then connect it all with a little line and a loop.  I'll bet I can do it, and it just so happens that I have a new Downy quilt to practice on!

So after I finished that, I started cutting on my next quilt.  This quilt is called "Dutch Treat," and it appeared on the cover of the March/April, 2010, issue of Love of Quilting.  There are a lot of borders to cut and construct, and I spent quite a bit of time doing that.


Don't you love that tulip print?  It's not the same as what they used in their version of the quilt.  I actually purchased the tulip fabric a long time ago.  Then when I decided to make this quilt, I wasn't sure I had enough.  I was going to go after it anyway and just wing it if I needed to do something else to make up the difference, but then I had the colossal good fortune of finding a little bit more.  As it turns out I had plenty.

I did purchase the center panel, and I've never purchased a panel before.  If you look at theirs, it has a white background.  But it also came in a black background.  Since my tulip fabric has a black background, I picked that one.  I ordered it online and they incorrectly sent the white background.  When I called them about it, they let me keep the white background and sent me the correct one at no extra charge!  That's good customer service.  That would be Portland's own Fabric Depot.  I've never actually visited Fabric Depot, but people around here love it.  I am definitely going to get over there soon because I have a 25% off my entire purchase coupon.  That is a good deal.

So now, after all that cutting, I've totally messed up my hands and I'm not going to be able to sew for a couple of days at least.  This makes George very happy because now that the noise has stopped, at least temporarily, he's itching to get out for a walk.


Guess I need to get my lazy bones up from the computer and comply with his request.

That's it for me (for the second time).  I'm bummed because I wrote this all out yesterday, then "published" it with a scheduled time to post on my blog. Then when I went back later in the day to write a new post, it had vanished! It's possible that I didn't save it or publish it, but blogger automatically saves a draft every minute or so. It should have at least been in my drafts folder. Not there either. So, I either had to write it again, or I not post to Design Wall Monday this week. Since I'm wrote this, I guess I've opted to post.  Hopefully, this one won't disappear on me.  I think I'll save it before scheduling it to post and maybe I won't lose it again. 

I'm looking forward to seeing all of your work for the week.  Be sure to play Fun Fact Friday Freebie this week for a chance to win a free fat quarter!  And don't forget that if you are a follower, you get two chances to win.  And if you post my button, you'll have three chances to win! 

Take care.  Hope to see your comments right here on Friday.

9 comments:

Chris said...

I wanna make a flip flop quilt too. It is on my list. I love yours!

Tamera said...

You could call the flip flop quilt "Summer's Last Hurrah" since summer is almost over.

Barbara said...

Thanks, Tamera--That's a good idea!

Sally Hamilton said...

The flipflop quilt is precious. I live close to the beach so anything beach related strikes a cord with me.

Beth said...

how about using the flip flop fabric for the border...and using the left overs to piece your back? I don't like MAKING a scrappy back..but I DO like the look of them. I like to use up all the leftovers from the front, even the orphans that were rejected.

Barbara said...

That's a good idea, Beth, and believe me I'm thinking about it. I posted a picture of the fabric on a quilting forum, and I might have a lead on the same fabric with a yellow background. That might be very nice too. Someone has generously volunteered to check their lqs for me. We'll see.

Cherie in St Louis said...

Your poor kitties! Gracie looks prepared to disappear at the slightest noise.

The Twilight Quilters Coven said...

The flip flop quilt is very whimsical. I like your ribbons as thongs. I made a similar quilt a couple of years ago, but I appliqued the thongs.

I always like to read posts that include critters.

Vicki H. said...

I think your flip flops are very cute!! The new quilt is going to be very pretty. I had a new roof put on a section of our house and surprise it was leaking because there was nothing underneath the shingles. After the fix it has not had any water. I was shocked that people would actually build something and then take shortcuts. Amazing, I would never try that quilting so why would you with a house?