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....