Another new block for me: windmill

Hello, everyone.

This will be just a short post. The baby quilt will have some 2" x 4" blocks in between the larger ones, so today's block was an experiment in making something that size.

It's a simple little windmill, made of a 2" x 2" pinwheel for the top part and a square with angled roof for the bottom part.

It may or may not eventually get a little door, just to further the resemblance to a windmill.

It did use up a collection of half-square triangles that had been originally put together for the heart block, but left unused.

Stash busting for the win!

Tutorial: the boot block, as I do it (photo heavy)

Hello, everyone.

I looked at the boot block and realized that it's not completely obvious how to get it to go together. Order of operations matters with this one.

This is to make a dark boot on a light background, with a contrast heel.

 There are two different widths of fabric strip used.
On the left, pieces with no diagonal seaming. These are cut to 1.5" for the light strips and 3.5" for the dark square.
On the right, pieces with diagonal seaming. These are cut 1 7/8" wide. The light cubes are 1 7/8" x 1 7/8". The odd width one at the top is also 1 7/8" tall, but it's only 1.5" wide. It could as well be a cube like the others--I was playing around with making the slope at the back of the heel less sharp.

Before proceeding farther, all the pieces were starched and ironed. This got them to stay put while being sewn.



All of the light background squares, plus the one small rectangle, were marked with sewing lines.

These pieces go on top of the partner piece, right sides together of course, and then the seam is sewn from the end which is in the middle of the longer piece toward the end. This avoids the sewing machine eating the corner of the pieces.




The many bits and pieces are grouped into sub-assemblies. Each sub-assembly is pressed before being joined to another piece.


It is good to trim the assembled bits to the proper dimensions right after pressing. On the picture of the boot top edge pieces, you can see how the excess fabric was trimmed off. The after-trimming height of the assembled strip is 1.5".

Three of the sub-assemblies, arranged
in a group. 

The navy solid is the heel, and its rectangular background piece is sewn on. Using a rectangle instead of a square for the background bit meant trimming the assembled piece to get rid of some odd shaping. After the trim, it was laid in the group for the picture.
The longer medium strip is the vamp, the part where the arch of the foot is, and its square background piece is sewn on.
One of the shorter medium strips is the toe. In the first picture, the front background piece is sewn on.
 (Not sure why the proportions look so odd to me.  The trim bits on the right are sewn at 45 degree angles, but they look like who-knows-what here. Probably goofed up in the cropping! Sorry.)

The toe now has its second background
piece.

Here the top edge of the boot shaft has been put together. First a square of background was sewn to one end of the strip, and pressed, and then the second square was sewn to the other end of the strip and pressed.

Using the rotary cutter and the squaring template makes trimming much easier on the squares.

The heel is joined to the toe piece.

Returning to the bottom part of the square, the heel is sewn to the lower background piece of the toe. This is most of the bottom row done. Press and trim if any bits are sticking out in funny places.

The shaft (the part above the foot) 

Here the curved top has been sewn to the square block. The shaft of the boot is done.

The 4.5" long piece of background was sewn to one side of the shaft. Be sure to sew it onto the same side as the toe. Otherwise, you will have to pick the stitches out and move it over. Press.

The vamp of the boot is added to the bottom of the shaft next and pressed.

This is a good time to use your squaring template to make sure the block is still a good rectangle.





The 5.5" long strip of background goes onto the toe end of the boot now. Press.

The block needs to be squared up
after new pieces are added.

The boot sole piece goes onto the bottom now. Press.


The squaring-up got photographed this time.










The last piece to add is the 6.5" piece of background, which goes on the heel side of the block.

If you leave this piece off, it still looks like a boot, but the block will be 5.5" wide and 6.5" tall. This is an awkward measurement and proportion to use in a quilt. I like to add the final strip so the block will be 6.5" square.

The new block with its prototype

Block Play: hearts

Hello, everyone.

The baby quilt will have varied sizes of squares. Some of them are 4" squares, which while somewhat small is a common size and useful for dotting like confetti throughout the arrangement of larger blocks.

I had sketched out a 4" pieced heart design, and stitched up the first one as the lines on my graph paper suggested. It was almost like the heart blocks to be found on Pinterest, with lots of pieces. (I guess those ladies are working from 2" units, not 1"--as their blocks don't have the wonkiness I found in the many seams.)

This was going to be irregular and unpredictable, just because of the many small blocks and seams. I commenced to exploring ways to reduce the number of seams. The first heart was on a gray background.

The first block, on the left, and the second, on the right.

 The first change tried was to switch to two larger half-square triangles for the bottom part of the heart. This improved things a little, but there were still a lot of seams on the top. The many overlapping, angled seams make the final assembly difficult.

I tried again, this time using a technique with half the number of vertical seams.

Tracing the seam lines on the small squares.

 I cut some squares and strips to a wee bit larger, giving room for the angles: 1 7/8" inch instead of 1 1/2". This was to allow for trimming later.

Here the sewing line is being drawn on the back of the white squares. To the right, a drawn seam positioned on top of the strip as it will be sewn.

The strips, sewn, before assembly into the top portion of the
heart. (Face up on left, face down on right)

After sewing the two strips with squares at each end. There is excess fabric at the top, but trimming will wait for one more seam to be sewn: the center vertical seam.














All three of the heart blocks, from oldest to newest.







As the use of many different fabrics isn't one of the purposes of each individual heart block here, I'll try to stick with the third method of assembly.

Block Play: new prototypes

Hello, everyone.

With a new baby quilt in need of creation, new block designs are being tried out.

I looked at boot blocks on Pinterest, but they lacked something IMHO. One thing they tended to lack was a square shape. (I'm just not thrilled with the 5" wide by 6" tall kind of blocks. I'm also not thrilled with the various 5" square blocks...even though that at least allows the designer to have a symmetrical design around an actual center.) This boot block is, as usual, mocked up in glittery fabrics that are on my "sure to tarnish" pile. The half-square triangle boot heel is a little steep but it gets the idea across. It won't be quite as steeply sloped when it's in a matrix of other squares and the bottom 1/4" has been covered by the seam, of course. Likewise for the curve at the top of the boot's shaft--it won't be so "triangle-y" when the seam is chopping off the top 1/4" of the block.

The spiral on the bottom looks much better from a distance than it does in the hand--the light blue puppies print contrasts better at a distance.

Just for pretty: a flower

Hello, everyone.

This is a wild columbine that we saw at Pere Marquette State Park, outside of Alton, Illinois, in June.

It's a low-growing plant, like most columbines. It needs regular water and woodsy soil.

Progress is happening on various projects, but nothing to write about just yet.  And a new baby quilt has been begun. (Yay!)

Progress on the Fidget Quilt

Hello, everyone.

I have completed my first Fidget Quilt.  It was completed with items and fabrics from stash: some red corduroy, quilting fabrics, fuzzy knit binding, a bit of mesh web and a shaped cut of yellow duck, plus some Pure and Natural thin cotton batting for a little bit of body.

Echo quilting inside the flame

The underside of the flame

Layout of flame, zipper, and on the left a tassel and embroidery bits, with candidates for top and bottom edges. Only the cows and sunflowers print was used as the top then was the correct size.

The pool of bits n bobs. Used: the shell, the flame, yellow-bound zipper, flame, and some odd bits.

The zipper got a bead pull--this needed some special treatment, just because the person who gets the quilt will probably pull the zipper pull a lot. I used double stranded Fireline to attach a red bead and a black stone cross, with a small seed bead as the bottom stop for the set. Then I used more doubled
Fireline to go through all of it again. A loop of fabric was added near the top and a jingle bell tied on to it, also. The odd bits of things--an antiqued brass disc, a tiny dove, a beach shell--were securely sewn down. The zip was attached around the edge of the binding with a blind-hem stitch.

 The little barn on the bottom edge got outline quilted.


After all the quilting was done and the dangly bits added, a brown bias binding was added to all four edges.

Ready for delivery.

Walk Report: Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park and South Padre Island Boardwalks (birding center)

Hello, everyone.

As promised, a walk report for today.

The morning was beautifully cool yesterday...by South Texas standards at least. About 70F when we woke up, so we threw clothes on, gave creatures a little bit of fresh air for necessity, and jumped into the truck to go walk.

First stop, the Texas Welcome Center in Harlingen, where we got more detailed driving info for the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park. Friends, this is one of the national parks with no entry charge. (Enjoy it while you can!) We picked up pamphlets there, including a map of the Historic Battlefield Trail through Brownsville. Palo Alto is one of the end points of this approximately 10 mile long trail that goes from downtown Brownsville out to the battlefield along the old, abandoned railroad right-of-way.

At the battlefield, on Paredes Line Road (FM 1847), we found a lovely, clean visitors center with a park ranger in attendance, interesting and informative displays about the battle and its context, and a small, but clean, restroom facility. The restroom is accessible from outside--though I'm fairly sure they lock the front gate at the road when the park is closed.

Shaded picnic benches at Palo Alto Battlefield Nat'l Historic Park. The clumps of grass in the foreground grow on all of the higher ground in the area.

View along the Mexican Army's lines--pennants in red, white, and green for the Mexicans. On the other side, pennants in red, white, and blue for the Americans. The Mexican lines were actually on somewhat higher and drier ground--note the yuccas.

19th Century "shock and awe"--US Army large cannon--this view is from the American lines toward the Mexican lines.

 An overlook with shade and interpretive signage has been placed out in what was the "no man's land" of the battle.

Tracks of some of the many animals that live in the park. 

 We saw tracks and scat of various animals--javelinas, nilgai, possibly other deer, and some burrows that might have been homes for snakes or for crayfish. The ground is low and tends toward the swampy.

It's not easy to pick out at first, but the Rio Grande River was adjacent to the US Army lines at the time. (Or possibly it was already a cut off oxbow, called locally a resaca.) Where the old river bed was, there are no yucca plants or large grass clumps. It has defined banks that are concealed in the natural brushy cover, but the plants growing in the old bed are grayish and short. The plants on the former river banks and general area include Spanish Dagger yuccas, large clumps of pokey-leaved grasses, prickly pear cactus, and assorted wildflowers.

After visiting the park (about a mile or so stroll) we drove down to South Padre Island and strolled on the nature-viewing boardwalks at the Convention Center.

A heron looking for his lunch.

 We have heard that there is at least one American Alligator living in the mangroves and grasses and small water channels here, but we didn't see any.

A crab hiding in the roots of the grass. (The boardwalk is on the Laguna Madre estuary side of the island. No waves to speak of, and generally smooth water.

 While I didn't get any photos of them, there were quite a few diving ducks on the water of the Laguna. They were making splashy sounds when they dove under the ripples to fish.

View toward Laguna Madre.

 We didn't cover all of the boardwalks at the Island on this visit. We had gone over some very muddy, unused, rough road between Brownsville and Port Isabel and needed to clean the undercarriage of the mud gathered en route. Old Port Isabel Road is apparently only used within the city of Brownsville. Going toward Port Isabel, it's basically an unused track. Four wheel drive vehicles strongly recommended. Avoid this stretch if the weather has been wet, as the road surface was low-lying and full of ruts and mud pots even in dry weather when we went.

If you visit the battlefield and then want to go toward the beaches of South Padre, we recommend that you return to the expressway to get to Highway 100 to Port Isabel, or ask the park ranger if driving north on Paredes Line Road will give a good surface all the way to 100.