penny-studionotes-2

Finally, I've carved out a day at home to sew.  I'm treating myself with beginning a new project, a baby quilt that will be called for next month.  I'm going to do "Big Dots" from Quilts Made Modern , a new book by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of FunQuilts.  The quilt will be about 20 big circles appliqued onto a solid field.  I decided to use some of the hand-dyed fabric I made up this summer for the dots (rust to navy above), but I didn't have a large piece of an appropriate color for the field.  I decided to dye up a new piece for this, choosing a pale peachy orange from the sample book from Carol Soderlund's class.  I was dubious about whether this would work, because one is always told that dye needs 70 degrees or warmer to bond with the fabric, and I don't keep my house that warm.  Some people warm up the container by putting it on a heating pad, but I didn't want to bother with that.  Frieda Anderson , who taught at my local guild in October...

I decided to do the "on point" diagonal setting for these blocks, but to take a row off at the bottom so that I didn't have to make more blocks.  The top as is comes to 64" square; I'll add a couple of borders, which will make it a good size for a throw on our couch.  The gray used for the setting triangles and corners is a little lighter than that used for the squares--an accident of different dye lots for this Kona cotton, but I actually like the slight contrast.  This arrangement leaves me with a couple of "orphan blocks," but I have good uses for them.  One of them was not a favorite; I can use it to do some trial quilting.  The other was a much more intricate design than the rest, and in a different style.  I think I'll put some borders on it (below) and make it into a wall hanging; the single block is 15" square: Then I auditioned a couple of different border possibilities:  a sawtooth border and a plain strip (one above the other in phot...

I like to carry appliqué with me when I travel, and a long trip last month--almost four weeks away from home--gave me a chance to finish up a few more blocks in this very long-term project; I only work on it when I'm travelling.  These blocks will be trimmed to 15"; I have one more basted up that I'm still working on.  If I do a diagonal set like this, I'll need to make six more blocks; the side triangles will probably be plain grey.  If I do a straight set as below (to which I would probably add sashing), I just need the one more that's in progress.  Cutwork applique like this works really well for travelling, as I can baste the whole block together before I leave home and not worry about losing little pieces.  I didn't do a lot of planning in the blocks--just picked designs I liked.  Not sure this ends up being the best design overall, but I got a lot of pleasure in the making of it. Being without a sewing machine for a month, and knowing I had to limit...