Angels Staircase Quilt

A friend of mine and Mike's old postdoc, Maxi, asked me to make a quilt for her to give to her grad school friends that are having a baby girl. After a week or so of going back and forth on patterns and fabric, we settled on the Angels Staircase pattern and It's a Hoot fabric by MoMo. It took me a good hour to choose which six fat quarters I was going to use. I had to choose from 40, so this was not an easy task. I am really happy with what I settled on. Here's a picture of all the fat quarters and the ones I decided to use on the quilt:

Once I chose the fabrics I had to cut them into 6" squares and 2" x 6" rectangles. As you can see below, I had the blue fabric as one of the main squares, but after laying a few pieces out, I realized the blue needed to be the accent color. I was lucky that I had enough spare yellow dot fabric to make up the squares and rectangles. I used a little of what was left over from Olivia's monkey and owl, so that was a life saver. Here are the pieces all cut and ready to go:

I spent about 4 hours piecing these staircases together. I had to piece the blue squares with the top rectangle, then the side rectangles to the squares and so on and so forth. I got into a groove, but it still took a significant amount of time to sew these together. I'm glad this is just a crib size quilt -- I can't imagine how much longer it would have taken to make many more of these! Anyway, it was well worth the time. I am loving the staircases. All that is left to do for the top is cut and sew the strips of white fabric that will border and go between the staircases. I need to order the backing and binding fabric, but couldn't do that until I knew which color was going to be the accent color. Hopefully I can find some yardage of the blue fabric as this is an older collection. I'm crossing my fingers.

Here are the staircases:

Beetle Boy Quilt Top

After a couple of weeks I finally learned how to sew hexagons together with a machine using this tutorial: http://www.ladyharvatine.com/2010/03/hexagonia.html

My hexagons are not even close to as perfect and flat as she makes them, but they are pretty decent. And it took a lot less time than sewing them by hand. I still still need to applique the little hexagons on, but the top is almost finished. It's pretty psychedelic, but it's growing on me.

Beetle Boy Quilt

I started in on a new quilt this weekend. This is going to be for one of my coworkers - Stephanie - who is expecting a boy in August. It is turning out to be a little brighter and wilder than planned, but it's not lacking in color or excitement! I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use the "Beetle Boy" fabric with some corresponding stripes and polka-dots. This is by far the most elaborate quilt I've made in terms of cutting an piecing. I still need to attach the little hexagons with beetles on them by hand sewing (not my favorite thing to do) them to the large hexagons, and then I need to learn how to piece the large hexagons together with the machine. It's a good quilt for learning some new techniques.

Produce Bag Dispenser

I've been craving some sewing time so tonight I sat down at the machine and made a cute little produce bag dispenser. I bought this super cute fabric with a gift certificate from Tasha (thank you!!) and have been trying to decide what to do with it. I thought a produce bag dispenser would be appropriate. I bought two yards of this fabric so I still have a bunch to do some more fun things with it. I am thinking a little summer outfit for Olivia would be super cute! I'll have to keep and eye out for a pattern. Anyway, here is Mike demonstrating how handy this bag dispenser is :)

Printmaking

I am getting really excited about the idea of starting a card/stationary business using the block prints I've been making. I posted the Goliath beetle on my Facebook page and got a strong response from people saying they would buy these kinds of cards. It was encouraging so I started to explore the idea more in my mind while Mike was in Argentina. I found a printmaking class at the local City College that is offered through their adult education program. This particular class is aimed at people ages 55+ but I was still allowed in, so I signed up. I really enjoy making the block prints and so far the cards I've made have turned out great. This is something I could see myself actually getting into so this class will help develop my skills and techniques and teach me about materials to use and things like that. Getting some real information instead of just making it up as I go is going to be neat. Mike is even going to join me in the class. It will be a fun way to spend our Friday nights for 10 weeks starting in April. Anyway, if you can't tell, I'm looking forward to this and it'll be fun to see if anything comes of this new interest. For now I'm still just playing at home and creating new blocks. Pictured above is my latest creation -- a wasp.

Ground Beetle Stamp

The second in my beetle stamp collection -- Carabus meander -- a ground beetle. Mike and I made a list of the beetle families we wanted to use to mark our tables. So now we have a scarab and a ground beetle. Thirteen more to go. Here is our remaining list:

Histeridae Passalidae

Tenebrionidae Buprestidae

Cerambycidae Cucujidae

Curculionidae Coccinellidae

Elateridae Chyrsomelidae

Cleridae Dytiscidae

Lucanidae

The carabid took me about 3 hours. Good thing we are getting a head start!

Goliath Beetle Stamp

Last weekend I worked on a second stamp. This time I used a Speedball Linoleum Block. These blocks allow for more control when carving and don't crumble like the rubber blocks did. I was able to create more detail with this block and even though it took about 2 hours to make, the end result is very nice. I think using these blocks, the prints will turn out really nicely for table identifiers. I also have a new business idea! Since these blocks are going to be long lasting, I might as well do something else with them...like make cards. Here is my first attempt. I used Artoz cards from the local craft store and oil based ink. I would eventually buy nicer paper and probably use something other than oil based ink (it takes forever to dry), but I think there is a whole world of bug lovers who would eat these up. Here's my first set of 5 cards. What do you think?!