Whitniffic Whatnots

I am so behind on sharing my projects! Let's hop back in time for a minute. The Moonlit Paths mystery quilt-along was in full swing and I was scrambling to complete some baby shower gifts for my husband's best friend and his wife, but I never shared the rest of the journey with you! Let's see... I think we left off around the middle of June, last year... yikes! I really liked the format of this quilt-along. It was a weekly pattern release, which kept me excited and engaged, yet wasn't too unrealistic to keep up with. I did the crib sized version, and while there were several sizes to choose from, I felt like this size gave me the perfect amount of work to do each week. Eventually, the final pattern revealed itself to me (Shelly Cavanna has a very distinct style), and I couldn't wait to get it sewn together. My estimation of the final assembly... which was pretty much spot on. It's so pretty! Mr. Helpful Cat on the assembled blocks....

Remember those beautiful antique wedding ring pieces I brought home last June? Yeah, I barely did either until I went through the heaps of UFOs in my craft room (I'm working on simplifying and finishing stuff... but it's not really going so great yet). Anyways, this quilt came together really quickly -until something new and shiny came along- and I just recently finished up the last bit of top stitching and binding. But let's go back to the beginning... I loved the vintage-y 1970's-vibe I was seeing in all the little prints, so I used the colors in the designs as my jumping off point. The orange and purple stood out most to me, in addition to yellow and teal. Look at that tiny hand-stitching! In keeping with the theme of old to new, I headed to my local St. Vinny's and picked out a bunch of solids that grabbed my attention. All in all, I spent about $14 on about 7 yards of fabric, give or take; some of them were irregularly sized. Par for the cou...

Holy moly, this thing turned out HUGE! I'm a bit frustrated that it took me so long to finish it up; I picked up the shirts from Ed and Martha over six months ago! It really isn't a complicated quilt, I just get myself into too many things at once. I'm working on that. I'm glad they've been patient with me.  I finally got around to assembling the 10-foot long rows this past week, and I think the quilt top turned out great! The arrangement of the blocks mostly has the effect I was going for, although I just wish that there was a bit more blue punch to the square two right from the center. I tried to arrange the different colored shirts in a pattern that made sense, while still keeping Ed's most meaningful shirts toward the middle. It actually kind of reminds me of a Scrabble board.  I guess we need a bigger garage. I'm sure my hubby would be on board with that. Eh? Maybe, maybe not.  This thing is a beast, though. The quilt top itself w...

I tried telling people years ago that cross stitch was cool again... and I WAS RIGHT! Pay no attention to the random pet hairs... I'm in this crazy cross stitch group on Facebook that features non-traditional subject matter, from naughty words to feminist themes to potty humor and beyond. While I don't consider it my style to be crass or subversive, I do appreciate the modern approach to a very old craft that is normally associated with "grannies" (not that there's anything wrong with that, either). This group has introduced me to a variety of interesting new project ideas, including the concept of a temperature stitch. Essentially, each day's high and low temperature are recorded in different colored stitches to provide a really interesting visual of our climate and seasons. This whole idea has my head spinning around ways to physically represent climate change in artsy-crafty form by going through the last hundred years and stitching a huge collecti...