Home Economics: Sewing Project, continued

Eventually, all the blocks were sewn into rows, and each row was sewn together to make a quilt that is 6 blocks across and 8 blocks long. My mother, the magician, somehow quickly made a lot of 2 1/2 inch strips of the yellow material using some curious folding technique that I don't have any pictures of to share...
These two pictures show that the strips were first sewn together to make a continuous edging, which was then ironed down the middle to make two evenly-sized halves.
The next step is to make the fringe, which is done by cutting into the fabric "seams" that are sticking out on one side of the quilt. This takes a long time and tires out your arm and hand, so it should be undertaken occasionally, with good breaks in between. Once all the fringe is cut, and it is sent through the washer and dryer (clean out the lint trap in the dryer OFTEN when this is done!), it will look fuzzy like the picture below. This is a wee pillowcase made out of 10 remaining squares that I couldn't use for the quilt: Once this project is done, I will post a picture of it before sending it up to Gainesville for M's baby shower! -G

Home Economics: Sewing Project

I don't make baby quilts very often. I've made the following:

-Sometime in the 90s- a primary color quilt with animals, given to my sister T when she had her daughter.

-Sometime in the 00s- A couple of box-quilts made from funky fabrics. 2 themes: yellow (for my friend AEM) and blue and green plus frogs (for my friend ABS). Both had boys. I told them that one quilt was a lifetime supply. AEM is pregnant now with her second, a girl. (I sent her a squirrel book for the kids this time.)

-Sometime in the 00s- I got inspired to make a butterfly quilt, then gave it to my friend C who was expecting a girl.

In the last few years, I've made another from grey, black, white, and orange t-shirts. It is really cozy. I've waited to give to someone who is an alumni of my old high school (which had the colors orange and black for its teams) but no opportunity has presented. So, it is in the closet.

Recently, my mom made a flannel quilt for my cousin's new baby boy, which was blue with cowboys on it. I thought it was really cool. So when I found out my friend M was expecting, I wanted to make the same kind of quilt.

I chose monkeys and bananas as a theme because M likes bananas, and because I wanted something that wouldn't look either girlish or boyish. Besides, who doesn't love monkeys?

It's a cool concept in that the quilt has a smooth side and a fuzzy side. This will be explained better as we go along.

The project requires:

-3/4 yard of 4 different fabrics (flannel) (Or, 3 yards of flannels in whatever quantities you prefer)

-1/2 yard of same or coordinating fabric (flannel)

-patience

-time

-a sewing machine

-definitely some scissors or one of those pizza-slicer-style fabric cutters

Step 1: Cut all of the fabric (except for the 1/2 yard) into 6-inch squares.

Step 2: Sew the squares together so that the outside of the fabric faces both ways. In other words, take 2 6-inch pieces with the pretty sides out and sew them together in an X formation. See the picture for additional information.

Step 3: Put all the squares together into different patterns so you can choose how you want your blanket to look. Keep in mind that you can buy different quantities of different fabrics to come up with a certain look.

For this project, I decided that if we did rows like stair-steps, it would look nice.

This is what my layout looked like when the individual rows were sewn together but the entire interior of the quilt was not.

Step 4: Sew the squares together so that all of the seams are on one side. In other words, you have one side of a strip of flannel that is smooth, and the other side has the jagged edges of flannel. Use at least a 3/4 inch seam for these rows. You can see some examples of the jagged sides of the flannel on the second picture here.

This is where we end the home economics class for today. When we go to my mom's house, we will learn how to make the binding and sew it on to the outside of the blanket. I've chosen a lovely bright yellow for the binding.

-GALA

OK, So Here's What Happened Part II

My sister's marriage didn't go as planned. It's not really right to rehash the details but let's just use the phrase "irreconcilable differences" and leave it at that. I live in the house still, with just my sister, as she is the sole owner of it. We're working together to get the garbage cans in and out on the appropriate days and keep the place clean. We've coordinated our grocery shopping and cooking to share what we can, when we can. She handles the heavier yard tasks while I try to keep the weeds at bay (and put down that funky fabric to keep them from coming back). It's a process, and with the weather as hot as it's been, I haven't ventured outside to do yard work this weekend. I mean, why stress myself? So now, it's the Sister's House, and we enjoy ridiculous movies and TV shows when we are together. Today, we're taking turns vacuuming. I'm doing laundry and cooking, and she can help herself to whatever I've made. That's the agreement. Work is nutty. We're having layoffs about every 6 weeks now. I anticipate more in about 2 weeks. I am not sure who there has what plans for me/my position but it's hard to plan that far ahead. I keep myself occupied with meeting up with my writing group and seeing my friends. Being in Tampa is great because I've had friends here for years: from college, from doing theatre, from former jobs. Just about every weekend, there's a food date and accompanying extracurricular activity. Yesterday, I went to Ybor City with Justine and had lunch. We ran around and laughed about all the adventures we've had in all the different places there.

The weekend prior, Mindy came up and we had breakfast and then birthday massages. Then, we went to our respective homes and napped. We can agree that it was top drawer. My friend Cherie recently took me out to dinner for my birthday. Again, the conversation was top-notch and the gluten free hamburger was great too. My b.f. Claudia visited a few weeks ago and we were off to St. Pete to see our friend Lisa, whom we met on our trip to Ireland in 1995! I am very thankful for all of these friends- and the others here too. Plus, both of my sisters are here, one brother-in-law, two grandparents, a niece and a nephew. My parents live about 70 miles inland, too. I find it wise to simply enjoy my time here and enjoy having a steady paycheck while it lasts. After all, I have so much to be grateful for, so why grumble about it? Usually when I lose something I end up with something better. I just have to keep that in mind. -GALA