Row 10 january edition

This year I will be participating in a Flickr Group called Row 10. It is comprised of 10 extremely talented quilters who agreed to make a quilt row for each other, each month. This month is Sarah's turn and she requested we use a Christmas theme and red, green and pink for the color scheme. (read her Blog)

I started my blocks on Monday, bright and early.

Mr Gnome Claus is paper pieced from a quick design I drafted. I later gave him a small smile. I realized after I finished him that he was 11" tall instead of the 10" and got an OK from Sarah since some folks rows will be shorter. The requested dimensions are between 6.5 and 10" tall and 60" wide. Once the rows are all sewn together they will make a wonderfully bright and happy Christmas quilt top.

Mrs Gnome Claus was my second block and she is so cute I could just barf! Yes, it's a little known fact that too much sweetness can make you physically ill, and while this may be great for a weight reducing program, it does nothing but harm to your tooth enamel. Trust me, view the rest of this post with extreme caution, and should you find yourself becoming nauseous from too much cuteness, please exit and don't blame me- you were warned!

It can't be a Christmas quilt without an elf making magic so I drew up a pattern for him and paper pieced it. He's a little self conscious about the size of his ears, so please don't stare! But cute, right?

The Love Shack block isn't my favorite and I think it lacks contrast and one of the roof bits should have been a different fabric and I think I am going to redo it. Of course, it's cute, and even with the red heart smoke clouds I'm going to applique coming out of the chimney it still isn't quite right. I think I am editing it out- I already sewed the blocks together of course, so I will have to take them apart. Just an average day in the calamity sewing room for me. Where's the seam ripper?

How cute is this deer? Feeling sick yet? A little rumble in your guts? Maybe I should advise shots of pepto bismol before viewing my blog?
use only as directed... sorry the photo went in like that- anyway-

This paper pattern was a bit more complex and I used a tea dyed fabric for the deer. The features on all of these blocks was added with one strand of small perle cotton embroidery. The nose was appliqued with black kona cotton.

Here is the tree block. It's very simple and yet really nice looking in real life (that sounds like a description of a blind date, right?) Oh, you'll like this tree- it's well educated with a great sense of humor!

Here's the whole row so far. It measures 56" wide. It's supposed to be 60". So I can either add two inch strips to both ends, applique the red hearts on the house block and call it done or I can cut them apart and make a new house block with better contrast and less pink and do the snowman block I planned.

I need to get this done this week because next week I will be at a Spinning Retreat and time is running out! Next month is my month and I am so excited about having a quilt top made by some of the best quilter's I know. I think it's fun to see what people come up with when given the same parameters. It's sort of like a science project except with quilting. My favorite! So, I will be updating this as I go along all year and if you want to check out the Group you can see the gallery of photos here. 

It's nice to be back in the sewing room, and I apologize if you call and I don't answer the phone, it means I'm working and I will call ya back! I have spent so much time knitting lately that I just haven't been sewing as much as I used to. It feels good to be doing something that I enjoy and have a measure of confidence in. Knitting and spinning has been such a large lesson in patience and learning a new skill is never really comfortable- but it certainly has been rewarding. I just don't have enough hours in my days!

I did make a few lambs recently after buying the pattern from Bit of Whimsy Prims

More cuteness, right? They still need noses and mouths and possibly some scarves. I have loads of chenille bedspreads and I want to start using them up- that's one of my goals for this year is to use up all the chenille and then have the closet space back! In the Intertwined book it has info on how to spin with chenille so I may try that soon as well. In the mean time I will be at Picasso Moon for some knitting and bitching today! (I heard she got in some Noro yarn!!!) Yahoo, finally feeling good enough to go out amongst the living!

Have a great day,

xo,

calamity kim