needles (the other kind)

Eye of newt and toe of frog

...And wool of bat — okay, cotton/poly blend, because I bet bat wool beards like a mofo — and binding that looks like a blind-worm did it.

Last week my four-year-old son saw the frog fabric in my stash and admired it. He asked me what I was going to do with it. I told him I'd probably make a quilt out of it someday. "Will you make a quilt for me?" he asked, with the adorable acquisitiveness of the very young.

"Sure," I said, and set to.

A simple pattern, a bunch of fabrics I had hanging around, and a few nights' work later, Charlie has a quilt. And I, mirabile dictu, have disposed of those pesky frogs, some anti-social orange fireflies, and two horrible yards of Tom and Jerry fabric that have been consigned to the backing.

Finally Finished Friday: Nest

Finally Finished Friday, but, uh, slowly shared on Sunday.

My Nest quilt, which I am calling Noisy Nest, avec Legos:

I am especially happy with the way the bird tracks march around the corners:

The back of the quilt.  I wanted to use up any spare parts I'd cut, and big chunks of the more distinctive prints — i.e., the ones that might not fit easily and/or inconspicuously into another project:

 

And the label.  The crack in the egg says Julie 09.  (The workmanship says, "Wow, you're lousy at handwork.")

We are already enjoying the quilt immensely:

(Charlie, age 4, pretending to be a bird in a nest.  "I eat slugs!  Have some slugs, Mama!  They're not disgusting.  They're sweet!  And juicy!...Like...steak!"   Thaaaaanks, but I think I'll pass.)

Project Improv block, take 2

This is another stab at a charity block for Project Improv. I think it's a vast improvement on my initial take. Just by spending time looking at the photo pool I've gotten a better grasp on improvisational piecing — just in time to make a block I'm not embarrassed by.

Special bonus: All scraps!

Square-in-a-glare

I spy, with my little eye...

...a really crappy photo.

These are the twelve fabrics I'm sending for the I Spy swap.  Here's a better shot of the ones at the bottom left:

I am not entirely sure what I was thinking five years ago when I bought the Charlie Brown fabric, the Warren Kimbleish cows, and the oh-my-God-kittens, but I was happy to have them in my stash so I pad my swap offering painlessly.  They will be, I am sure, to someone's taste.

And I've finished the last of the blocks for the Mod Sampler Quiltalong.

Loving my blocks, loving the sunshine, hating that terrible photo.

Also hating that my sashing fabric hasn't arrived yet.  I wanted to wait to choose it until I had several blocks together.  I made a terrible mistake: I ordered it from an online shop that was having a 50% off sale on everything.  That means I should be receiving my fabric sometime next millennium.  I am sure the fact that it was cheap will be of great comfort to me when I am too crabbed over with lumbago, quinsy, dropsy, and other old-timey-sounding age-related diseases to actually sew it together.

Finally, my Nest quilt is bound.  Tonight, a label.  Tomorrow, a photo.  Nestward, ho!

Sidetracked

I've gotten quite desperately sidetracked.  What with one thing and another, I haven't finished my Nest quilt yet.  I've gotten the binding stitched to the front of it:

...but I've yet to drag it to the family room for the several hours of handwork it now requires.  I need there to be something truly awful on TV for me to get motivated.  Some eight-hour totalcrapathon of a show I'd be embarrassed to admit I watch.  Note to self: check local listings.

I've also been occupied cutting out novelty charms for a swap on About.com's quilting forum.  A million billion years ago — 2001, I think — I made an I Spy quilt for my nephews.  I've borrowed the quilt to use with my younger son, but I'd like one for us to keep.  So I've spent a fair amount of time getting my fussy cut on.

Most of my prints are cute and innocuous, but I could not resist this bloodthirsty item:

I'll be interested to see whether anyone noticeably recoils.  Could be worse; there could be dangling limbs.

And, most absorbing, I've also been participating in Oh, Fransson's Mod Sampler Quiltalong.  I've been having a great time — this quilt wasn't part of the plan, but I'm really pleased with it so far.  I've finished five out of six sets of blocks:

...and am having a fine time decapitating the birds in Anna Griffin's Sierra print.