I think the worst of the fever has passed...

It all started innocently enough.  My daughter and I were out running errands, one of which was to pick up a bag of cat litter.  While we were in the pet store, I decided to take a look and see if they had lizard litter, aka crushed walnut shells.
Aha!

Indeed they did.  They were out of the 5lb bag, but the 10-pounder was only slightly more expensive than buying a half pound at a quilt shop, so I grabbed one.  Then the very helpful young man who worked there told me that there was a sale - buy one, get a second one at half price.  While the thrifty part of brain was going "Ooooo!", the sensible part was asking "Just how many pounds of pincushions are you planning to make, exactly?", so I just got the one bag.
Which is probably just as well.
The other day, I left you at this point -

but I didn't stop there.
There were more.

Many more.  Originally I was just going to make two.  Honest.  Three at the outside.
I don't know where it all went off the rails.
And even with that stack up there, I still kept having more ideas.
Like fussy cutting this cute little kitty.

 And making a log.

The log was the first one I completed - stuffed and stitched and ready for action.
Because I needed a place to park my needle while I filled the next one, of course

I've been making four-patches for leaders/enders for over a year, so I always have lots of those laying around.

And I got to use some cute fabric for the backs, too.

A three inch Ohio star was fun.

Especially with this on the bottom.

For this one, I not only got to test out my Dresden ruler,

but I also got to learn how to do the buttonhole stitch on my sewing machine!

That cushion is bigger than the last bunch - finishing at about 5" - so I framed a 3.5" square for the back.

This next one is my favorite, I think.  I used a modified monkey for it.

And then I though, "Why settle for just square shapes?  Why not branch out a little?"
So I made this.  From the top, it just looks like a pinwheel -

but step back a little and you'll see it's a biscornu.

And then...  And then I remembered that I'd just spent 5 months playing with improv and make-it-up-as-you-along and being liberated, so I just grabbed the closest scrappy bits and made a more freeform sort of construction.

I'd gotten down to the very last pincushion when I had one of those slap-myself why-didn't-I-think-of-this-an-hour-ago moments.  From the very first step, I'd been struggling to keep my homemade paper funnel lined up with the opening in the pincushion, while simultaneously trying to dump in walnut shells.  Three hands would have been useful.  Possibly four.
It finally dawned on me to just pin the funnel to the fabric.

Duh.
The last one definitely went a lot more smoothly...

So here's the whole gang!

Well, except for the log.  That one's already been put into service and didn't make it into the group shot.

And I still have about half a bag of lizard litter left.  In other words, I only have half a bag of lizard litter left!

Do you suppose that sale is still going on?

Glitter, glitter, everywhere...

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself this week.  I made a thing.
Actually, I made two things.
When I started Jen Kingwell's Glitter, I traced out the template shapes in the book (Quilt Lovely.  Terrific book!), added seam allowances, and cut templates from gridded quilter's template plastic.

They're useful, but flimsy.  I can't use them directly for rotary cutting - I have to either trace around them, then cut using a ruler, or line up the ruler on top of them and try to cut without anything slithering around.
I had wished many times for cutting templates, but thought I'd have to either do without or pay through the nose for someone to custom make me some.
After all, those templates are all laser-cut, right?  And I don't have a laser.
But then.
Then.
I was reading a blog post somewhere (and I foolishly didn't bookmark it and now can't remember where) where the quilter referred to cutting her own templates out of a clear plastic sheet using a utility knife.
Lightbulbs went on in my head.  There were trumpets and bells and the smell of fresh-baked cookies.
Cut my own templates???  Seriously???
I started shopping around for plastic, but could only find large sheets - much larger than I could ever use, whether or not this even worked.
Then a smaller lightbulb went on.  "Picture frames," I muttered to myself.  "Cheap picture frames."
And I found this one

for a grand total of about a buck and a half.
I cut off a hunk with my handy utility knife, traced around my flimsy templates, and used my quilting ruler to cut straight lines.
Score, snap, and woohoo!  I made templates!  My very own custom templates!

I drilled holes with the point of the knife blade so I can mark the seam allowance intersections.

Then I labelled them, and colored along the edges of each template, so they wouldn't become invisible when I set them down on my cutting table.  (Ask me how I know that's a good idea...)

You probably guessed that I had to test them right out.
I've discovered that the background pieces of the block can be cut almost perfectly out of rectangles measuring 3.5"x4.25".  By cutting those rectangles in pairs, either wrong sides facing or right sides facing, I can cut the reversed pieces at the same time as the regular ones.
The easiest way I've found is to first place the template in the corner, matching those right angles, then line up a ruler along this edge:

Cut along the line

and then stack the pieces, matching that angled edge.  There's a tiny bit of extra along the bottom, because the 3.5" measurement is just a wee bit more than necessary.

Drop the template on top of the stack, and slice away all the extra bits.

 And you get this!

Tada!
And since those pieces were so nicely laid out, I had to  do this.

And before I knew it, I had this.

I've found that all the pieces for these blocks can be cut from 3.5" strips and charm squares.  The background corners I just showed are 3.5x4.25 rectangles, and the four squares are just a 3.5" square cut in quarters.
The main fabric in each block fits beautifully into a charm square. 

And now I've got a perfect use for those charm squares I end up with.  (I don't know how it happens.  Stacks of them just turn up out of nowhere.  I'm starting to suspect the monkeys...)



Since my Glitter is a scrappy quilt, I'm linking to Scraptastic Tuesday.  Come see all the scrappy fun!

Gettin' Thrifty again...

Long time readers might remember this post - cuz I am all about the thrifty.

While thumbing through a recent KnitPicks catalog, I saw a great idea - a box/bag for holding circular needles. Perfect!
But.
My intrinsic stinginess thriftiness dragged its little heels. Hmmm... I thought. $23? Pricey...

So, I got this:at the store where I work. After my discount, I paid about $3.20.

I've already stowed a few circular needles. Now I just have to finish a few things in order to reclaim the needles.
Is this the first step toward being organized?

Knitting accessories for the thrifty...

Knitting doesn't have to be an expensive hobby.
Here's what you do when you don't own a swift:


I don't have a ball-winder, either. But I have an All-Natural, Organic Nostepinde:

And, though I now own an honest-to-goodness real-life Lazy Kate, I'll always have a place in my heart for my first Lazy Kate:

Nothing wrong with Lo-Tech...
(And, yes, those are Long Trail bottles. This is Vermont, after all...)