Counting Sheep Pillowcases

Last week, I came across this broad striped fabric and it was so darn cute I just had to have it. It has the entire story of yarn from the sheep and lambs who give it, the balls of yarn that are used to knit and crochet sweaters for trees, and the kitty cats intent on unraveling it all. Since the stripe was in the correct orientation for a pillowcase, I only needed 1 yard. For the borders I picked a quirky green print to go with the grass of the scene, and for the accent strip I chose a muted blue heart soft print to echo the balls of yarn – both from my stash.

Here are full views of one pillowcase and its complement. In the complement to the pair, the focus and green fabrics are interchanged.

I think I am also in love with that green modernistic print. It seems to have just been made for the meadow grass beneath the sheep and the trees.

To give a sense of scale, this is the pair folded in thirds and then in half lengthwise. I did have the foresight to have the green fabric face in the same direction in both pillowcases. (Check out the squiggles' orientation.)

The fabric for the lambs, kitties, and trees is new in 2019 and is titled Fair Isle Friends by Anita Jeram from Clothworks. Anita Jeram is an illustrator for children's books so I am not surprised that I like her work. Also notice from the middle selvage that eighteen dye colors went into this beautiful fabric. The whimsical, lively green is a 2015 design by Cori Dantini for blend Fabrics, titled The Adventurers. Even though a monotone, eight values of green went into this fabric as seen in the dots on the bottom selvage.

These pillowcases will go to a granddaughter. I wonder if she will recognize the following classic book ©2008 with Anita Jeram's illustrations.

Justification for yet more pillowcases:
Pillowcases are my go-to projects after I work on something more challenging and need a break, or come back from traveling and need to segue into the sewing groove. When I come across a fabric I absolutely cannot pass up, I have begun to buy 1 or 1¼ yards to satisfy my craving and then put it to fairly immediate use in pillowcases. I tell myself I am stash busting by pulling from my shelves for the companion fabrics. In actuality, I am buying pretty much the same amount as I pull from my stash, with the non-negligible exception that there is a whopping big (sarcastic tone implied here) net decrease in fat quarter and strip scraps I use for the accent insert.  I loved this Fair Isle Friends novelty fabric and I avoided the pitfall that every novelty fabric calls for another quilt. Craving satisfied. Another UFO avoided. Sewing mode re-initiated. Success!

Llama Skirt

It all started with a notebook from a bargain bin at HomeGoods. This girly-pink, spiral-bound, could-be-a-journal seemed to wink at me to buy it; especially when I remembered I had fabric at home that would go with it splendidly.

I had bought one yard of this llama fabric in November of 2017 at the Houston Quilt Festival.

I'd intended to pair it with this skirt pattern I bought at the same time. It's odd how I am able to remember fabric and patterns from two years ago yet have a hard time remembering where I parked the car in the last ten minutes. Odd but true! This pattern has oh-so-cute designs and oh-so-inadequate directions. Fortunately I have been sewing for enough years that I can do my own thing and be successful. I invested a fair amount of time reading the pattern text to see if there was some new technique that I might learn. There was not. There were absolutely no diagrams to help out, either. But I muddled through and was able to achieve good results, anyway.

I chose View C which had trimmed pockets inset on either side of a central panel. Every little girl loves pockets. I picked a cute polka dot that had the green, white, pink, and turquoise as in the llama feature fabric. Every little girl loves polka dots. I used a scrap of turquoise on the upper edge to tie in that blue accent a bit more. (Alert: I found pattern directions on how to add trim to be wrong and pocket cutting directions to be reversed in terms of width and height.)

I used a flat fell seam throughout so there would be no raw seams to finish. This detail gave the garment the overall feel of a jean skirt. And for the hem, rather than turn it to the inside, I turned the hem to the right side so I could see to make that top stitching straighter.

The waist of the skirt had a yoke effect with a double casing. I put elastic only in the upper casing and the bulk was reduced. I could not tell from the instructions if one band of elastic or two was the pattern intent – the directions used the term waist and yoke interchangeably and furthermore I could not tell from the cover photo. I was happy with one length only. I chose ¾" width – the pattern did not specify. Once again, as at the hemline, I turned this yoke to the outside the better to see and control my top-stitching over the gathered portion.

The completed skirt came out cute and my granddaughter loved the accompanying llama notebook. She now has llama from her "gran-mmama". I will use this pattern again because I like the other design ideas. The big bow on View A is rather striking and I have had a granddaughter request for that version. Every little girls loves bows as well as pockets. I am confident adding the bow is "figure-out-able".

In surfing the web for this post I learned that a cria (from Spanish for "baby") is the name for a baby llama. I also found this poem by Ogden Nash.

The Lama

The one-l lama,

He's a priest;

The two-l llama,

He's a beast.

And I will bet

A silk pajama

There isn't any

Three-l lllama.

Dog Days

Per Merriam Webster Dog Days is defined as

the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere

It is early September, and so the title of this post is appropriate, especially when combined with this feature fabric.

It is titled the Hot Dog Collection © World Art Group for PB Textiles and I paired it with a crisp navy and white stripe, Savonnerie from the American Jane fabric family of Moda to make – what else – pillowcases.

The large scale pattern just begged to be showcased and not obscured through gathering or pleating or cutting up for a quilt. Here is the pair of completed cases for our king size bed.

I chose the stripe border to echo the surfboards and the tan subtle check accent strip to reflect the sand. I do love picking out the fabrics I put together. In a previous post of several pillowcases (dated 8/24/19) I shamefacedly referred to making pillowcases as a stalling tactic when I had a bigger project I was indecisive on. My daughter in her comment said my pillowcases were "stash busting" a much more favorable way to look at this guilty pleasure of mine. One more closeup – don't these pups just make you smile?

The Blues Are Gone!

I finished the last of the blue thread FMQ portion on my Whirligiggles quilt today. Two previous posts tell of my earlier FMQ decisions and challenges. For the red and green FMQ see post dated 9/5/19 and for the other part of the blue FMQ see post dated 9/8/19. An August post dated 8/23/19 describes my pattern deciding process.

This session filled in the straight edge inserts and the bottom edge zig-zag "bowties". The straight edge inserts I did with three lobes, the base where they join and originate being truncated.

Allowing the base of the lobes to occur off the edge of the quilt allows this inserts pattern to echo the size and shape of the lobes within the point of a large outer star it touches. The blue lobes at the bottom are from an edge insert. The green lobes at the top are from one point of a full star.

I did the bowties at the bottom zigzag edge the same way I did the green threaded bowties at the upper zigzag edge – two lobes only and some lazy loops in one third of the triad. The next photo is of a corner bowtie.

The blues are gone! I will do a few smaller projects while I ponder what pattern to use within the white and gray hexagons, Should I use white on white and gray on gray or vice versa to contrast the FMQ stitches? Hmmm.

FMQing Blues

I'd finished the red and green FMQ on the primary colored large stars of my Whirligiggles quilt  (post dated 9/5/19) and the third bold color left to do was the royal blue. I would follow the same pattern I had on the red and green threaded ones. The blue star was central. I'd left it until last because my FMQ gets better with more muscle memory so I'd started nearer the edges.

I started out great. Here is the back of the first point of the six pointed star. I work my way clockwise around the six outer points and inner points. The three lobes came out pretty smooth and my lazy loops within the half of the inner points behaved themselves... that is until where the point of the seam ripper is showing for reference. My machine started making a different sound but everything looked fine on the front so I forged on. I remembered though that I need to listen as well as look. On closer inspection the top stitching line seemed just a tiny bit wobbly so reluctantly I stopped and removed the quilt in order to look at the back side.  This star I was stitching was in the center so removing it was non-trivial.

Yee gads! There most definitely was a problem. All those loops of blue thread on the back side in the second and third lobes (counter clockwise from a back view) would require removal! Aargh!  More picking out! Again!

It had started in the lazy loops of the first star point when I first heard the sound change. 

I did not know the source so I did an entire lint reconnaissance mission, checked my tension and proper threading path, made sure the bobbin was threaded correctly and had no lint lodged under the leaf spring, and did a trial sample. Never did find out the cause. Perhaps I bumped the tension dial, loosening the top blue thread,  when maneuvering the quilt? Whatever it was, it was fixed. Now to deal with the  mess on the back. At least this loopy stuff would be easier to remove, I thought. Not really. Those loops got tangled within themselves and so pulling one thread did not quite do it. Every time I got a long thread to release I gave a little cheer.

  

I wound up clipping off the loops with curved scissors and picking out the remnants with tweezers. These were the tools of my trade. Snipping and extracting made a mess, so I wound up using sticky tape to clear up the shreds so I could see what I was doing and what I had already done.

All the blue fuzzies reminded me of a magnetic hair game I had as a child called Wooly Willy. See the resemblance?

After about an hour or so of picking (in two sessions – I needed a break) I was ready to try to FMQ again. This well confined fiasco taught me a couple things. I will alway listen to my machine as well as just looking. Also, I am typically afraid of FMQing a quilt for fear of ruining it. I have learned that just about anything can be picked out. It builds patience and leads to meditation time. The quilt is not ruined. But I think it may be bordering on more time to quilt than it did to piece! My friend dubbed it my "quilt of woe".

I finally succeeded in putting in that central blue star. Here is what it looks like. The tri-lobes show up in the outer points as do the arcs in the red inner point halves. Those lazy loops in blues on blue do not. I will need to photograph the finished quilt with light at an angle to show up the texture. I still have the edge inserts to FMQ in blue but this was enough for one day. All's well that ends well.

It is reputed that social media can be depressing because people post only positive events and folks who read them can feel their life is inferior. I am not guilty of that sin. I have shared this process so some of you out there do not feel alone. I just had an awful thought! What if it is just me having these mini-disasters? Nah... can't be...

Green-Red-Blue FMQ

After mulling it over for way too long, I finally decided the FMQ pattern I would use on the primary colored large stars of my Whirligiggles quilt (earlier prepping post dated 11/23/17). The larger exterior points of the star would have three softly curving lobes each. The inner point of the star would have half-points alternating between two arcs or fill-in lazy loops. I numbered the sequence so I would not forget the path for a continuous loop from one star point to the next. Stitching the central large lobe first helped me judge the space best to fill in the two smaller lobes on either side. I established the chant, lobe (1), lobe (2), lobe (3), curve out (4), squiggle in (5), curve out (6), working my way clockwise around the six points.

Then I needed to decide my thread color. Having spent hours upon hours picking out white thread, I was not going to put that back in. I chose gray for the back. I had a light gray and a darker gray. Ideally I would have liked a tone in between these two but decided on the darker one would be satisfactory. The lighter was too close to white and brought back painful-picking memories.

But what color to use for the front? Initially I considered variegated options but there was no red/green/blue combination thread... only red/white/blue (too patriotic) or red/white/green (too Christmasy), or combinations that include orange or yellow or purple (colors not present in top). Also stitching with variegated thread occasionally fades in and out of visibility depending on whether the thread matches or contrasts with the fabric. There are five full stars in the quilt top and two partial stars on the edges with five out of six points. I decided I would use red OR blue OR green thread depending what would look best on that particular star. The central full star would have blue thread and it was surrounded by four stars and two five-sixths stars in either green or red thread. Partial bow-ties of the zig zag border on the bottom would be in blue and partial bow-ties of the zig-zag border on the top would be in green. I drew myself a chart to remember these color choices outlining the secondary pattern of large stars in black and labeling their thread color as R or G or B. The red would be a pure red and the blue would be a royal blue. I decided to start with green since that is near a quilt edge and not smack dab in the middle. My FMQ gets better as I build my muscle memory so I did not want my less practiced patterns to fall in the center. I would do that later when I was better – theoretically speaking.

The green needed to be decided and I had three choices in my thread cache. The top was too olive and muted. The middle was decently bright and pure and a good match with the greens, but the lightest one at the bottom would show up best on the red and blue.

I chose the middle one, now on the right, because when set next to the pure bold red and blue threads it seemed to complete the trio best. The lighter one on the left was a tad too yellow in comparison.

I finally got brave and did my first star. This green threaded one is on the edge with five points instead of six.

Here is a closeup of one point. From left to right, star center, lazy loops in half of the inner star point and three large lobes in the outer star point. The quilting does not jump out; it is subtle. So subtle in fact I wonder why I fussed and agonized so much. Perhaps those three lobes should be echoed for a denser quilting but for now I am going with this design for the other two green stars.

To avoid confusion when I moved on to another star, I marked my thread color choice for each star with green, red, and blue safety pins. It was just coincidence that those colors came in the package.

I'd completed the green thread stars and did the partial fill-in triangles on one end. I did not spend a lot of time figuring out what stitch to do in these two triads that seem to form a bow tie. I repeated lazy loops and formed two lobes instead of three since this was a smaller area. My hand is not as steady as I'd like it to be in these edge areas but it is passing. I hope that galloping horse moves swiftly as it carries its rider past.

Next up is the red-threaded stars. My first one on the edge (partial star) went well and I was in the swing of producing my chosen three lobe pattern and lazy loops. When I unfurled the quilt to take a photo of a completed red-threaded star, I was bummed. Unfortunately, I had caught one corner of the quilt underneath and quilted parts of three lobes through it. Dang! I thought I was being careful but my skill at this FMQ business has lots of room for improvement. Back to picking out – again!

My long-arm Heidi is a sit down Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen where the quilt itself is not mounted on a frame. Here is my set-up. I try to extend my work area with an ironing board and concentrate on one quilt section at a time but, even so, these goofs are possible and do creep in.

Once I removed those stitches that held the folded under corner, I was left with this remainder of the lobes still stitched. I went ahead and removed these lines also, so I could have a continuous stitch when I put the three lobes back in. The faint perforation lines remain from the removed lobes but they were good guides for me. On a positive note, I do like how the red lazy loops show up on the blue with green dots.

I noticed on the back side that Heidi had burped a wad of lint at one point. I am fortunate that Heidi is pretty forgiving. When she occasionally barfs these up, like a cat producing hairballs, it does not throw off her tension. I hear a sound and I am learning to train myself to be more attuned to her language when she talks to me.

 Undaunted – though admittedly slightly discouraged – I resume FMQing the final red thread star. 

Here is the final, full, red-threaded star completed. I know, I know – the fabrics are busy patterns so my stitching barely shows up. The lobes show up and draw the eye outward but the red lazy loops on the red /white pezzy print are kind of lost. But I know they're there.

I have the central blue star and blue edge inserts remaining to FMQ, but I will save them for another day. It is night as you can see though my window. I have my color key taped up where I can see it and to help me keep my "eyes on the prize."