Sunday, September 27, 2020

Even my squirrels are procrastinating these days

Though even my tangents are starting to develop tangents, I think.

I did get a few more Jacks blocks sewn for the RSC.  Since I'm cutting out red squares and triangles for Sand Castles 2 anyway, it's easy to just cut a few extra and make another Jacks.

I really need to get the Jacks bin down and count my blocks, though.  Seems like I decided long ago that I had enough blocks, but here I am still making them...

While I was scrumbling around in my fabric looking for RSC candidates, I came across the bacon fabric I got for the back of my dad's quilt.


 It just hooted and waved at me until I agreed to make a cake stand with it.  Who can argue with bacon?

My other sewing time pretty much went to sewing more 4-patches for Sand Castles 2,


and I've started string piecing the corner triangles for the blocks, figuring it will be less onerous a task if I get a head start on it.  (My method is here.)


In my typical mingy fashion, when I have strips that are too short, I just sew them together to make a longer string.



And then this squirrel came out of nowhere and I ended up watching a metric butt-ton of rulerwork quilting videos.  I have a bunch of quilts that I want to get quilted where working with a ruler would be perfect. (Especially as wobbly as my free-motion non-skills are...)  Had to give it a try!

I was smart enough to keep it small scale.  I cut two 10" squares of scrap fabric and backed them with squares of batting.


My first experiment was on this fabric where the quilting wouldn't show.  (Am I not wise in the ways of quilting?)  I didn't mark anything, just practiced sewing along the edge of the ruler.


For side two, I actually made some marks to keep me in line.  (That's what those little flashes of orange are - a washable marker)

You can see the quilting better from the back sides where I'm marking darts.


And ta-da!  For my practice piece, I actually made something useful!  A microwave bowl cozy, which is something that I'd been coveting all along!


And since it was a practice piece, I won't even mind if I spill gravy all over it!


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  I'm late to the parties as usual, but come see the fun!




17 comments:

cityquilter grace said...

you are brave...i wouldn't dare sew with bacon fabric...too tempting...LOL

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Looks like you have been pretty productive in your sewing room! You tempt me with your RSC blocks every week.

Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

Libby in TN said...

Yeah, it's been that kinda week. I'm surprised it took you this long to make a bacon cake stand! Smart to practice the ruler quilting on something small.

Wanderingcatstudio said...

mmmm bacon cake....

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Love the cake stand made with bacon! I made a couple of those soup bowl cozies last winter - they are handy!

Miaismine said...

Oh! Your bacon fabric made me laugh! I love it! LOL! Your red blocks are too cute! Wow! You are certainly an amazing piecer! Nice!

Mystic Quilter said...

Good luck with the quilting - practice makes perfect they say. My FMQ is a no go presently.

Angie said...

I keep wondering if rulers will get me motivated to do more of my own quilting. You're tempting me! And bacon cake - YES PLEASE!

MissPat said...

I know there was a trend when bacon was added to everything, but tis the season for pumpkin, so I think a pumpkin cake stand is in order. I'm intrigued with the black and white string triangles for the new sand castle quilt.
Pat

Auntie Em said...

What a fun post! You had me at "who can argue with bacon" LOL! I have zero free motion skills, so your attempts looks perfect to me.

Magpie Sue said...

That was one brilliant squirrel that showed up to help you make a microwave bowl cozy! (I hadn't even realized there was such a thing.) I don't see any reason why you should stop making Jacks blocks... unless you can no longer get into your sewing studio of course. ;-)

Chantal said...

Jack looks real good in red but not as good as the bacon cake! Can't beat that! So clever to turn quilting practice pieces into bowls. Got to get some 100% cotton batting so I can make myself some too. Hope this week will be better for you. ♥ ;^)

Sally Trude said...

Uh oh...now the cat cakestands are worried about your intentions. In any case, it’s always fun to see your posts with flurries of various projects that I imagine happening all at the same time.

Louise said...

Bowl cozies are a great size to experiment on. After you wash them a few times, they get pretty wonky anyway, so any quilting oopsies just disappear :)

Ann said...

A bacon cake stand! And the microwave cosy. So clever. I need to make one, too.

Kimberly Smith said...

I made a pillow case for my teenage son with that same bacon fabric. You need squirrel fabric, lol.

Cathy said...

Every time I see a bowl cozy I think "I really need to make some of those" but I never do. Now I'm thinking again....

I used up a lot of my bacon fabrics in masks. I think bacon looks better in a cake stand block.