The Story So Far

I just had to take a look at Slither Eek Boo so far. Isn't this fabulous? If you click on the photo, should get a really large pic to look at.

Today is the last official day to make me a block for this quilt. I know there are more wonderful blocks to come - I've seen some of them and they're fantastic. I might just end up with two quilts cuz look at how massive this thing is already. I cheated and slipped in some blocks that I haven't posted about individually yet. That's coming, I promise. I got three more packages in the mail on Saturday (from Judy S, Cherie and Beena) -- I'm so far behind now!

But I so so love all the work you guys have done. Amazing stuff.

Pokey is my sweetheart again. After I sat down and started hand quilting yesterday, Bibi jumped on my lap. That drew Pokey out from under the bed. Whew. So all the cats are good, I'm good and my sweetheart arrives tomorrow. I've got chores to do, so signing out now. Ya'all take care.

Hooty Hoot

It hurts to be so disorganized. I got a little notebook to write down info on the blocks that ya'all have so wonderfully sent to me. Now of course I've lost the book. Grr. I hope I have properly attributed these blocks.

First off is Hoot by Valerie of Quilt Messing Around. Whee, she gave me a bunch of extra space to cut down/quilt in. It's a wonderfully hooty hoot and I'll definitely quilt some owls in there for you, Valerie.

And what is that next word?

Kimberly made me a clank and after she had it all pieced together realized that the a was backwards (which makes it a g). I understand about that - I just did a backwards y yesterday. I will most definitely use the block in a quilt, not Slither Eek Boo, but a quilt. I find mis-made words and letters charming. (As always, please to send your rejects and extras to me if you're not going to use them - I love them!)

Anyway, Kimberly redid the clank. This time she drew inspiration from the font Angular. That is a fun font. I hope to try some of these someday but oh my that X would be difficult. And I can understand passing on the K. Great job, Kimberly!

Jen D (whom I don't think has a blog) made the next couple of blocks: Luck and Free. They are wonderful and what's even more amazing is that Jen is a new quilter. Years of experience sewing, but not quilting. Now she's working on even more words - woohoo!

I have even more blocks to show you -- from Brenda, John, and Sharon -- but they're going to wait until another post. I've got to have something quilty once in awhile. Brenda included a wonderful sweet prezzie that is already proudly displayed. Thank you all!

Pat me on the back, I managed to successfully fluidify Pokey on the first try today. (If that makes no sense, read the last two posts.)

After Thursday's horrendousness (and believe me, it was just that), Pokey did forgive me. She didn't spend too much time in hiding, came out for lovings. She even came to bed with me and curled up beside me, which is rare for her.

I managed to do the ickiness with just one jab today (after a trip to the vet's to get smaller needles) and it went as well as it could. Only now she's hiding under the bed. I want her to come out and forgive me instantly - she'll even get some Fancy Feast that's been pureed with extra water.

No more tuna for the baby. I knew the sodium in the tuna wasn't good but had no idea the vegetable broth was bad for her too. (And yes, there's vegetable broth in Tuna Packed in Water. Rather misleading.) Vegetable broth is bad for cats as well as dogs because it may be made with onions which are bad for both species, as is garlic. I had no idea. You can read more about that here.

I think I have finally stopped shaking, more than an hour after the procedure. I know this will get easier, although I think it's going to get progressively harder to find the little Pokester. I think I'm going to go handquilt now. Maybe my baby will come and sit on me... Even if she won't hand quilting rarely fails to soothe me.

We did it!

Sorry, yet another kitty post. No quilting content at all. You'll see it here again someday, I promise.

I'm not going to go into the gruesome details, but woohoo, managed to give Pokey her sub-cutaneous fluids all by myself. I'd been reading about how lots of cats can't stand to be confined while this is happening to them so I tried to just hold her by the scruff. No, not with Pokey. Putting her in a shoebox didn't help either. In the end I wrapped her up thoroughly and completely in a towel so she couldn't move at all. After that she didn't struggle whatsoever.

She's got the whole hunchback look going now (where all the fluid is pooled up) and I wish she'd come out from under the bed so that I could just double-check that everything is okay. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. I hope she still loves me. She was still sweet this morning after two aborted attempts so I think we'll be fine.

Thanks so much for all the encouragement and support. It means a great deal. 

I just realized I haven't had anything to eat today. Wow, that's so unlike me. Gotta go grab a late lunch/early dinner.  Later.

p.s. seconds after I hit "publish" Pokey came in and let me rub her head a bit. But when it looked like I was going to get out of the chair she was off like a shot. Still, she's up and moving and there's no fluids gushing... I take that back. She's somewhat damp. She came by for some more love and a quick belly rub. So I'm not sure I got all the fluid in there, but got most of it! 

Oh dear

Time for a Pokey update. The results of her last blood test weren't good. In some ways the results were worse than or the same as the first time she went in last month. So not what we wanted to hear. It appears that she may have Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) due to a genetic condition - Siamese cats are predisposed to CRF.

CRF is terminal, although some cats live for years with it. Pokey is still a happy, playful girl and I'd have had no idea she was sick if I didn't know otherwise. She's only 5 years old, so I'm hoping that her youth and vitality will help her through this. I've been making myself a little crazy studying Pokey's test results and reading websites. Unsurprisingly I'm hoping that something else (something easy to cure) is to blame but I think the odds are slim to none. 

I now have to give her sub-cutaneous fluids every other day. I know that I have to be calm and relaxed to do it so that I don't make her anxious, but that's easier said than done. Pokey and I went to the vet yesterday so that I could see them do it. I don't know if I'm ready to tackle it all by myself tomorrow. The good news on that front is that my husband is coming for a one month vacation - he gets here Monday. We'll see if he's good at helping hold her still or at the very least holding the bag of fluids up. 

Our trip to the vet was an adventure. The streets near the vet were covered in water because of all the rain. I decided to approach no closer after seeing one car partially submerged. I backed up, parked a couple of blocks away and carried Pokey through the water, which went above my knees in places. One of the staff took us back to the car in a 4-wheel drive pick-up. I sure hope the floods had receded before everyone there got off work.

I haven't been good for much of anything the last couple of days. Three packages arrived in the mail but I haven't been able to open them up. Don't want to associate them with this moment. Okay enough whinging. If I can just get a good night's sleep tonight my outlook will improve immeasurably.

Growing

Playing with my 4-Letter blocks. Don't these look awesome? I was noticing that there are three different ways here to make capital G's. The elongated L under other letters is popular - I love how it looks but I've never tried it. So much fun to see what ya'all come up with. And there are more blocks to come - woohoo!!!

I love working on a collaborative quilt like this. I'd be more than happy to make a block for anyone else who wanted to do this. Maybe a swap or a group who'd be willing to do blocks for others too? If there's interest maybe someone would be willing to organize it. Someone who isn't organizationally challenged (like me). Whoever the blocks are for could pick the word(s), sizes, colors or whatever. Just like I did with the halloween noises and then with this one.

Is anyone out there a beginning quilter who's tried the letters? Besides the daring Belinda whom I've already harassed on this topic. If you'd be willing to tell me about your experience and answer some questions I'd love it if you'd send me an email (listed in my profile).

Alright, I have to stop goofing off and get to work on my to-do list. sigh. Wish I could play all day like little Pokey. Play and sleep.

This is Pokey's new toy. It was supposed to be a feathery thing at the end of the wand, but the wand broke 10 minutes after I got it home. Still, this bit of it has been a big hit.

Let Them Eat Cake

Whee, more fun blocks from ya'all. Have I told you how much fun I'm having? I hope you're having vicarious fun as well.

First off, we have name blocks. Sara H of Sara's Scraps sent me several blocks as well as her name - you can read how she made them here. Look at how easy her A's are - very graphic. Sweet Cher of Marathon Quilter and Siobhan (aka Sio) of Scraps and Threadtales made names too. Seriously, folks, I don't need any more names. I have to get these blocks together already!

Moving on to Slither Eek Boo (aka Halloween Noises) blocks. Siobhan sent me a big Groan - I love how she did her O - it's got character. And Great n too. I guess when you're working large you have more room to play.

Australian blogger Natima of Not Just Nat made me the wonderful Hiss - the black fabric has subtle cats on it. And take a look at Nat's workspace - so full of color and I love the rugs.

Look at the really fun argh Cher made - it has so much character.

And now we proceed to the happy four-letter word quilt, which needs a new name. First, Sio decided that Cake was her favorite four-letter word. I do understand about that. It's a little long, but I have plenty of room to play with if someone else's block is too short.

Chris B aka ChrisQuilts is full of joy - french joie that is. Wonderful. Chris has done some great work with letters. Take a look at the header on her LQS's blog where she works. (At the shop, not the blog). That is a great ampersand.

Karen Griska sent along the Give. I have to admit I was thrilled to hear from her - Karen is the talented author of Quilts from the Selvage Edge and blogs here. I keep seeing selvage work on the blogs I read - very fun. But I think my favorite quilt by Karen is this one - it's got such an incredible utility quilt look to it, but modern.

Cher is Hope-ful (love the red and purple color combination). Sara H's favorite words are Sing (perfect background fabric) and Amen (love the changes in fabric on the latter).

Aren't these blocks incredible together? I love them all. Thanks to all of you for sending them as well as extra bits of fabric for getting everything together. I also received a couple of fun orphan blocks. Sara sent the house (appropriate since I've recently moved). Chris B experimented with free-piecing a dog and came up with this block. I think what he's missing is a whole bunch of playmates.

Which is a perfect segue to linking to Lynda's wonderful Dog Show quilt. I love how she's free-pieced these fun dogs (plus a curious kitty) and embroidered names.

I have been so remiss in links. They kinda snowballed out of control and I'm not sure I've even remembered them all. Sigh.

Check out Janet's fun Princess Lily quilt - she used a variety of sources to come up with sweet quilt.

Another fun quilt for kids is Nancy's free-pieced whale quilt for Owen. She made that in April - I knew I was behind...

New blogger Stitchinscience created a really fun free-pieced word to be the center block of a round robin. Will be fun to see how that one turns out.

Scrap Basket made a beautiful stained-glass inspired banner. 

ROZ of Roz-Counterpane has been churning out little word quilts like crazy. She started in April and just finished her fourth. So go read through her archives - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Whew, I'm caught up. I just hope I didn't forget anybody.

It has been raining like absolutely crazy here. We got over five inches yesterday. The skies were sooo grey and bleek, I didn't get much accomplished at all. I'm hoping for a bit more sunshine today.

Here's your kitty pic for the day: Habibi and his brother Howler together on the cat tree. It's amazing they can fit in there...

Play More

More delightful blocks to play with! First off are Magpie Sue's wonderful PLAY and MORE. I think they're going to have to go together in the quilt. Play more. I love how the background plaids went together so that there are some diagonals in there. And great A above the L.

Judy S sent me this really fun LAFF (great way to get around the letter limit!). To get the letters to dip and play like this she really did some fiddling, including a Y-seam (eeek!!!). Judy previously made these fun lettered quilts. Kathy R made HOME - this block really sings with the brights against the black background.

For Slither Eek Boo, Mismatched Quilter Katie made this Trick or Treat. Katie has the most remarkable way of piecing the letters using lots of angles. I look at it and have a hard time figuring out how she's done !

And thank you Helen B aka Mimi for this fun Mu Ha Ha - I can almost hear the different pitches in the evil laugh.

While I'm getting caught up with what's been arriving in the mail, wheee, fabric from the Fabric Square Shop. I love this Winterscapes line from Benartex - these flowers with the rings just grab me.

Moda's Snippets. I'm not sure why, but these patterns and doll clothes (or is it little kids' clothes?) appeals to me. Maybe all those years of my mom sewing clothes for me. And sewing doll clothes. My mom was crafty that way - she even knitted an evening dress for my imitation Barbie.
Sweet by Urban Chiks. I love the fabric that looks like airplane propellers. The roses too for some reason....

This morning Pokey had to go back into the vet for a check up and yet another blood draw. The vet wants her to drink more water so I get to give her more of the tuna sludge (tuna packed in water thrown into the blender along with additional water) so long as I thin it out even more. I've been thinking of it as homeopathic tuna. So oh boy, more tuna water when we came home from the vet! I just hope she doesn't get sick of it.

After her tasty snack and a good grooming she's back to herself. I've heard her hunting cries, but can't convince her to play fetch with me. I've been throwing socks down the staircase for but she won't go down to get them. Inevitably hours or days from now I'll find them in a heap somewhere. She won't fetch them when I want her to, but she still enjoys doing it.

I have so many links and things to share with you, but have run out of time. I'm off to West Palm Beach with my friend Susan. Woohoo, more playing!

Blocks Slither In

Mail call continues to be marvelous here at Chez Lazy Gal. What a blast

First off, this amazing slither for Slither Eek Boo. Lynne did such an amazing job constructing this block. I included my toes in the pic so you could get an idea of the size of the letters.

I shared quilt pics that Julie P shared with us in this post. Well, Julie sent me this fabulous name block. That is a great way to do a u - it'll look fab when the seam allowance is taken so there's just a tiny tail.

More blocks for the 4-Letter Word quilt. Lynne is growing, Rachael is snug, and Julie has a great big grin. I love the little divot out of the bottom of Rach's u. Once again Julie has found simple ways to make great letters - love the r and n. I never thought of making a G that way either.

Meanwhile, Quiltdiva Julie (not Julie P.) is taking a great big joyous leap:

Kim B sent this baby block. It's a bit big for the ongoing project, but I'm sure to use it somewhere fun. That is a perfect capital Y - I never get mine to look that good. The blocks have my baby Pokey's seal of approval.

My friend Susan is in town so I'll be goofing off this week instead of nose down to the grindstone stuff. Yesterday we had Mexican food for lunch - woohoo. But I have been good. I finished two little quilts for my someday book and got another one pieced together. You know what, I don't think I ever told you I'd finished Raspberry Rumspringa. Well I did on May 5th and I'm so pleased with it.

I need to go chain myself to the sewing machine and get more accomplished before it's time to play. I leave you with this pic of Habibi. Someone tell me how this could possibly be comfortable. He looks like he's trying to be an owl swiveling his head around backwards.

Folk Art Birdies

I am fabulously in love with this fabric, Birds of Norway by Michael Miller.

Pokey's been enjoying it too. Get those strings, baby!

I've since bought even more fabric than this. Much more fun to go to quilt shops than work on that writing I'm supposed to be doing.

Woooohoooeeeee!!!!!

Oh wow, talk about a fabulous mail day! I hit the jackpot today. What a thrill.

First off, a wonderful name block from Cheri of Jovaliquilts. She wrote about making the block here. 

While you are visiting Cheri, check out the fungly quilt her Project Linus group made. I love it and was so taken by the aqua and red sashing and cornerposts that I had to buy some fabric that color this last weekend.

I now have enough (more than enough!) name blocks to make a fabulous name sampler quilt. That is a project that is really high on my to-do list. I know I have a Sio (name block that is) arriving soon!

Kim B sent me my very first happy 4-Letter word block. Whee. I do not believe Kim has a blog (yet) - correct me if I'm wrong, Kim.

AND Kim sent me a MWA ha ha ha.  Isn't that a fabulous evil laugh? And Rachael sent the slurp and the cackle. Aren't these all incredible? And they look so fabulous together.

Here's a close-up of cackle. It's 4" finished. Wonderful detail - look at that loop on the k.

It's worth mentioning again what an absolute blast this halloween noises Slither Eek Boo quilt is. I LOVE it. It is sooo fun. I would so happily make more than one of these quilts - you guys send blocks to me, they will get used. Maybe not immediately, but most definitely.

I also got a couple of experimental letters. I love these blocks too. They're a great learning tool - how busy fabric can cause problems. Both of these Ms would be easier to read if they were completely surrounded by background fabric. But um, yeah, still hard to read. 

Thank you all so very very much. You made my day and it was already a great one. I got together with my quilting friends and quilted and chatted and ate food. yup, wonderful day.

I keep forgetting to mention this, but I got the results back from my thyroid uptake scan - I'm all healthy, no cancer. woohoo!!! I'm not the only one who is doing well: Pokey is doing fabulously too, though very cranky because she wants her tuna mush (with her medication in it) NOOOOOW. 

A Chorus Line of Sorts

I told you the other day that I was thinking of a skeleton chorus line for Boo? This is how I doodled the idea. In pen. The leg in the air just looks goofy to me.

Hmm, how about with a bent knee? Don't really like this either. [I was pondering eyes and claws instead of the skellies - that's what was going on elsewhere in the page.]

Okay, straight leg. This isn't a real chorus line kick, but it is kinda fun.

I sketched the design first in chalk for the rough placement and then used my new Sewline mechanical pencil to mark it for real. So far I am really liking that tool. I found it a bit difficult to erase, but I suspect that's because it's puffy with all three layers (rather than just erasing marking from the top only). I'll let you know how well it comes out when I'm done. 

Anyway, this is where I'm at so far:

I'm doing the quilting with purple perle cotton size 8. The skellies don't look like a chorus line, but they do have their own groove going. Lily is so not impressed.

For more examples on my quilting in this style with the perle cotton, check out my threads tutorial. The "trick" is to practice your doodling. Doodle, doodle, doodle. And don't try to get too detailed - you'll notice these skeletons are anatomically challenged...

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. It is excellent, as are his previous two. Anyway, I bring that up because he discusses the 10,000 hour rule. Which is, that 10,000 hours of practice "is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert--in anything..."

I'm not saying I'm a master hand quilter. But I find this idea interesting. I wish I knew how much I've actually hand quilted over the years. I think I might actually be nearish that 10,000 hrs figure. Ten hours a week for over 20 years.... Sure every week I didn't actually quilt that much, but I quilted more others...

And you know I've doodled a LOT. I took notes but when things got a bit dull at school, university, meetings at work.... doodle doodle doodle.

Okay more now about the Hope is a Four-Letter Word quilt. hmm, that one probably needs a new name. The quilt will be for me to use as a teaching tool in classes and hopefully in a book. Fingers crossed. I'm keeping it, it's not for charity.

This is who I've got so far. 

care       Mary C

free        Jen D

glee       Cherie

grin        Julie

grow      Lynne

joy         Nancy   (I love that she's rebelling and doing a 3-letter word instead)

love       Kim

play       John

play       Magpie Sue

sing       Sara H.

soar       AnnieO

warm    Laura

wish      Kathy

Just One More Sara and Chris Daly want to play too, just haven't chosen a word. Rachael is mulling it over.

Diana, you came up as no-reply so send me an email. You are considering doing glee or folk. Either would be great. yes, we already have one glee, but that doesn't matter - people are allowed to have the same favorite word. Have you free-pieced letters before? K is a bit trickier than some of the other letters, so folk would be a bit harder.

For a beginner, hope is a great word - those are all easy letters.

So happy you guys are playing with me. Later!

Help Wanted: Hope is a Four-Letter Word

The other day I had such a good conversation with Brenda of Scraps and Strings. We've been e-friends for a couple of years and it was wonderful to finally put a voice to the words. She really helped me think about my whole book plan and how I need to simplify. Completely right about that. Not that Brenda herself is sticking to simple - look at these fantastic BOOs she made for Slither Eek Boo (aka Halloween Noises).

Talking about a simpler project... I was hoping a few of you would help me by making blocks for a much easier quilt. If you haven't make letters before then the Halloween font sampler is incredibly intimidating. I understand that. So here is a much easier project. I'm hoping that a few of you who've never made words before will dive in and play. I'm looking at you, Ms Jan - this is a very doable block. 

Here's the deal. For this quilt we're sticking to the Brick format. All the words that get sent have to be finished off into a block that is sized 6.5" x 12.5" unfinished. (If yours is too small or a bit too big, no worries, I'll play with it.) I've used the Brick setting before to make this quilt, but that time I wasn't making the blocks all the same size like I want to this time.

Using the free-pieced letters, make a happy, positive, wonderful four-letter word such as hope, home, live, love, life...  Fabric should be bright and happy. If you're using repros then think double-pink, poison green, cheddar, red, chrome yellow... The fabric doesn't have to be bright bright, see?

I'm hoping I'll get 13 blocks from ya'all though I can certainly play with more or less. Since folks like a deadline, how about June 15th. And if you signed up for Halloween Noises and would rather do this instead, that's a-okay. you can do both too. This one isn't a fancy font sampler though, it's a bit more rustic and straightforward.

Just jump in and start making letters or get out the graph paper. I played around with Hope yesterday.

For making the word this size, I discovered that I'd cut the letter fabric 1" and 1.5" wide. The background fabric would be cut 1", 1.5" and 2"  

That 2" cut would only be used to make letters in that big area of the P. When you know that you have a limited amount of space to make a word, then you want to use your skinny strips in the middle of the letter. That gives you lots of room to cut down the sides (or the top) if you need to. So make your H more like the top figure in this illustration, not the bottom one.

In my drawing, I placed the letters half an inch apart (when finished) although when I work I usually make the space half that size. Additionally, if you make each letter in a different, contrasting fabric you can butt them up against one another.

Okay, this is your chance to play with letters. Don't figure you'll get the letters exactly how you want them on the first go. You might have to experiment a little. Remember, I like letters wonky and imperfect - these letters aren't for you, so they don't have to be as perfect as you might want them for yourself.

If you get into a jam, or just have a question, please ask away.

To sum up, unfinished block 6.5" x 12.5"  four-letter word in happy fabric due on June 15th.

Please, please, please, I hope someone will do this. Oh, and I'd love to hear if you had any problems along the way, any kind of advice you'd give to others. 

I was thinking about doing a Lily brick quilt before I changed to this one. Had to get a pic of Lily with her name.

ya'all take care....

Julie's Quilts

I love hearing from ya'all. Recently, Julie Post sent me a couple of photos of quilts she'd made using the free-pieced letters and kindly gave me permission to share them with you.

Julie made this Scrappy Trips Around the World for her in-laws. It has the names of all the grandkids. Isn't it fabulous? Those stars are a wonderful touch as well.

The next quilt contains the names of the tractors that Julie's family or their friends have owned. The words started out as a border for a different quilt but were too wavy for Julie to use. So she took the borders apart and reworked them to make this fabulous quilt.

Julie says: "I followed your advice of... Add if it's too short and cut it off if too long. There was no plan except to lay out the blocks and start adding things."

Julie did such a great job. Congrats on making these wonderful quilts full of memories.

In other news, Pokey is doing really well. She can jump up on countertops again. We just finished playing fetch - I threw a rolled-up sock and she brought it back. At least for a few times - eventually she just looked at me as if to say "why did you take my toy away?"

Boo

My husband questioned whether the photos I took last week of Pokey on the flag quilt were staged. Nope, that's hardly ever needed. Case in point, on Sunday I pieced a little quilt. 

Got the word done, how much background does it need around it?

Now with the border fabric

This is a good indication that I'm not as worried about Pokey as I was a short time ago. Last week as soon as she gave me the signal for belly I'd have dropped the camera to give her some loving.

Now I'm letting her do the Belly Love Wiggle while I take photos. Not to worry, she gots lots of loving not soon after.

As you can see I was thinking about centering Boo in the middle of the quilt...

In the end I decided I liked the boo off-center. 

I bet you can't tell that I'm having a real longing already for Halloween. There's definitely a reason (okay, more than one) that I love the JaMPatch in Stuart - they love Halloween too and already have some fun fabric rolling in. That's where I got the great spider web fabric. I was thinking about using it for the letters but went with this option instead.

I think I've decided how I'm going to quilt it, but am not sure. There's a big part of me that wants to do spider webs and spiders, but maybe that's too expected. I keep going back and forth on options. Don't think the skeleton chorus line is going to work... I did start quilting the letters in red quilting thread but it wasn't bold enough - I need to use perle.

I've got a new blog for ya'all to check out. Laura's Cloth and Mind. She just free-pieced her very first word and it's fabulous AND she's been making wonky houses that are amazing. She's really gotten into the multi-stories and complicated roofs. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Please give her some encouragement and a welcome to blogland.

That first word that Laura made? It was rattle (plus a surprise) for the Halloween Noises quilt. That's not so much the name of the quilt as the description. I'm already thinking of it as Slither Eek Boo. Anyway, here's what we've got so far. If you don't see your name here send me an email. Any additions, corrections, adjustments?

argh                                   big leaning                                                        Cher

bang                                  BIG                                                                     honeybee
boo                                    maybe big and skinny                                     Patti
boo                                                                                                                Brenda
clank                                                                                                             Sarah
eek                                     wide/narrow maybe getting smaller           Marge
groan                               short and fat                                                    Siobhan
grr                                      tall, skinny, leaning                                        ChrisQuilts
gurgle                                rounded and flat                                              Lynda
hiss                                    snake-like SS                                                    Tracey in CT

hiss                                    fat, uppercase                                                   Natima

hoot                                   rounded                                                             Valerie
howl                                  thin and growing                                              Dionne
moan                                 mix of big and small                                        Beena

mu ha ha ha                                                                                                  Mimi

mwa ha ha ha                                                                                               Kim

rattle        Laura
screeeech                          spiky                                                                  Clare
slither                                low and wide                                                    Lynne
slither                                possibly leaning                                               Rondi
snarl                                   straight up and down                                      ForestJane
slurp                                   rounded and curvy                                           Rachael
squeeeak                                                                                                        Kathy
thump                                wide/narrow letters                                        Cheri
trick or treat                     overlapped                                                        Katie
wooooo                                                                                                          Sharon

I'm not much of a planner when I'm making words. I have a tendency to just chop and go. To see a completely different way to work, check out Lynne's planning for slither. Lynne plots, plans, and does a lot of work with paper. She's on the opposite of the spectrum. Both ways work, you just have to play around until you find what works best for you.

Clare meanwhile has plotted and schemed and hatched an idea making spiky letters for screeech.

If you aren't sure how you'd like to do your word or would like suggestions, just ask. As far as fonts goes, hmmm, looks like we could do with something angular.

We now have a SHRIEK up for grabs if anyone would like to take it. Which is not to say we can't have dupes... Cuz we can, just let me know.

Halloween Noises so Far

Right after I published that last post a thought occurred to me.  You know, this Halloween Noises quilt is going to be a blast to hand quilt. There are so many really cool things I can do with it. If you guys use some solids or mostly solids - and leave the backgrounds large for me to cut down as needed - I'll have some great places for quilting. These are details from my Dear Mummy quilt to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. This quilting wouldn't have worked on top of novelty prints.

The background doesn't have to be light colored - I have a large array of colors to choose from in the perle cotton and embroidery floss. I hope you guys can come up with quilting ideas too, so I don't just do my usual spiderwebs...

This is what I have so far. Let me know changes or additions.

argh big leaning Cher

bang  BIG Honeybee

boo maybe big and skinny Patti

boo Brenda

clank extra angular Carol E.

eek wide/narrow maybe getting smaller Marge

groan short and fat Siobhan

grr tall, skinny, leaning ChrisQuilts

gurgle rounded and flat Lynda

hiss snake-like SS Tracey in CT

howl thin and growing Dionne

moan mix of big and small Beena

screeeech Clare

shriek really tall and skinny Lynne

slither low and wide Lynne

slither possibly leaning Rondi

snarl straight up and down ForestJane

slurp rounded and curvy Rachael

squeeeak Kathy

thump wide/narrow letters Cheri

trick or treat overlapped Katie

wooooo Sharon

The deadline to make the blocks is end of May. In the mail on 1 June, right?

Honeybee, I wasn't sure from your comment (and you're no-reply) if you just wanted to do bang or also wanted grunt rattle and howl. which would be really fun. All depends on how ambitious you're feeling. Send me an email if you want to chat about it, otherwise responding in the comments here works too.

I am so enjoying reading about the thinking that is going into some of these words, forming the letters by how they sound or by what creature it is that makes them. So very cool. Ya'all are wonderful.

I am happy to have more people play along, believe me. It might be one large quilt or a pair, who knows, I don't. It's just fun to play and explore.  It's so marvelous to see ideas that I never would have come up with on my own.

Anyone want to be the evil mastermind plotting to take over the world and do a mwa ha ha ha? Or an alternate spelling thereof. 

If you're new to making the letters please don't think that you have to make it complicated. Those O's don't have to be rounded (unless that's the font you've chosen). And every letter or word, no matter how misshappen you think it might be, can find a home in one of my quilts. Seriously. Maybe not quickly, because I am sloooow, but eventually.

One thing I forgot to mention in the last post is that I rarely use the graph paper to make an exact copy of what I've drawn. In fact, I don't think I've ever done that. But I use it as a guidepost. Cut fabric strips this wide, this bit will need to be at least this much long...

Okay, gotta run. Ya'all take care.