Baby it's cold outside and SEVEN more Lazy Punk blocks!

Baby it’s cold outside! Last night the temperature dipped to 4^oC which is about 39^oF! Chilly but I love it! I threw open the windows and put one more quilt on the bed, Butterscotch Ripple. It was bliss - cold air and a warm quilt. Even Forest Gumby was cold so he spent the night on my bed on the new quilt! I love the feel of a freshly machine quilted quilt. They are stiff but gradually soften up.

And when I got up, Gump decided to have a lay in on the warm spot! Life is good when you are loved and have a warm quilt.

 

 Last night my fingers were flying and I managed to appliqué seven blocks for my Lazy Punk quilt which was inspired by Jennifer Kingwell's Steam Punk quilt. And here are the first five of the seven. They all need a good press and a trim but you get the idea. They will all be set on point which means some of the motifs in the hub cap centres look like they are on their sides. They will be correct when they are on point.

And here are the sixth and seventh. I may make some revisions to these two block but I'll wait a little bit before I decide. I like to have some "uglies" in a quilt and the first of the two blocks ticks that box! I am not happy with the wedge made of striped fabric in the lower right corner but it does look better on point.  The arcs are all the same fabric, a blue bookbinder print but it is a drab section of the print on the striped wedge so I might just replace the arc with a brighter blue. And I might do something with the hub cap.

I do like this next block but the hub cap is a bit of a snooze fest! What I've been doing with boring centres is creating a compound hub cap.

I started with this fabric which I really like but when it was placed in the centre of a block it too was boring. I resolved this by fussy cutting a centre from another fabric to make a compound hub cap.

And this is the compound hub cap. Much better. And that is what I might do with the last two blocks I showed you. We'll just have to wait and see!

That's it for today. I will be away for the next two days but will try to post if I can but I can't promise.

Making Hexagons, Butterscotch Ripple is bound and a Lazy Single Girl!

I hope you've enjoyed the two instruction booklets I prepared, Easier Than Pie - English Paper Piecing for Beginners and Easier Than Pie and Beyond - Where Foundation Piecing Meets English Paper Piecing. Both are available under the tab "English Paper Piecing and Hexagon Fun". One of the things I did not explain is marking the foundations for foundation piecing. I'll do a separate booklet for that one and will include instructions on constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing hexagons so that you can create hexagons like this one!

Close-up of Hexagreens by Karen H, 2009

 

Butterscotch Ripple is bound and I think it is quilted as much as it is going to be quilted. I may go back sometime and add more to the hexagons but then again there are many other projects that scream "make me"!

 

In this picture you can see the backing fabric! I think the soft robin's egg blue is a nice contrast to the butterscotch colours on the quilt top. Love it!

One of the projects that screams "make me" is the Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt.  It is a beautiful large wedding ring style quilt with lots of open spaces for lovely quilting. However each piece is cut from a template and then pieced. I came across  a quilt that was inspired by Single Girl; this one is called Lazy Girl. Now that name got my attention! Tina of Paisley and Lace has a free tutorial for this pattern that does not involve cutting individual pieces from templates. She calls her version the Improv Lazy Girl Quilt. It is pretty free wheeling and I've got stacks of bright scraps that would be perfect for this quilt.

I decided to have an afternoon of piecing to make a change from quilting. This is what I've made so far.

They all need a good pressing. For now I just press the seams open with my "educated thumb". That's a term I learned from my home economics teacher when I was 12 years old and it always stuck with me mind you I use my index finger instead! I push the seam open and then put my fingernail in the midpoint of the seam and run it along the open seam to press it open. I then do the other side. Be gentle so as not to stretch the fabric.

Once all of the arcs are made I'll give them a press with the iron and homemade spray starch. I'll do the same to the backing fabric.

The arcs will also have to be trimmed so that there is a quarter inch seam allowance.

The Lazy Girl Tutorial calls for an 11" block (four blocks make the complete circle) but I'm going with 10" finished. Why? Well in keeping with the theme "lazy" and making do with what you have, I had to draft my templates and my graph paper is 10" x 18" so that decided it for me - a 10" block it is. From a more practical point of view  I can cut four blocks from the width of the fabric but if the block were 11" (11 1/2" with seam allowances) I would only get three blocks. The arcs and background are pieced but I'm thinking that perhaps applique would be faster albeit lazy but after all the name of the quilt is Lazy Girl! I'll give it some thought.

And now for a quick look in the garden!

Another Turk's cap lily

Mountain ash berries are ripening

Tiger sniffing the obedient plant blossoms

Until I post again, happy sewing!