Pandemic Porch Quilt Show, Days 36-39: Airplanes, Civil War, Play Castle, Flower Power

Day 36: Airplane Blanket This family favorite was made for my kids, in the late 90s, from a delightful print of animals flying airplanes.

The border features consecutive yellow triangles, called "flying geese," made into giant arrows with the help of a multi-colored stripe serving as each arrow's shaft.  

Day 37: A Very Civil War

Our country survived the Civil War, and I hung this war-era quilt on November 3, just before the election, as a reminder to vote!

I found these blocks in a rural antique shop in upstate NY in the early 90s - there was a big stack, priced at $5 per block. To save money, I only bought 8, which of course, I later regretted - I should have bought the entire stack! I sewed them into this 26" x 50" wall hanging and quilted it.

These are the most traditional of what quilters call "log cabin" blocks, each with a red square in the center, representing hearth and home. In today's pandemic, I feel a little bit too stuck in my hearth and home - but with full knowledge that home is safer than the alternative, and grateful to the essential workers who are putting their lives on the line by leaving home every day.

The prints are fascinating. Even though it's a small quilt, you can look at the different fabrics for a long time.

Day 38: Interactive Castle Quilt I made this one for my kids also in the late 90s.

The animals dressed as royalty were fairly large, so I stuffed them as dolls, and made a pockets for each, with the same figure appliqued to the top of the pocket.

There's a castle on the back, plus one more pocket (red, on bottom) for the jester. The gold-trimmed piece on the very bottom can be buttoned off when the rest of the quilt needs laundering!

Day 39: "Flower Power." My newest large finished quilt. Yes, it's flower shaped!

A little closer: 

A lot closer: 

All of the blocks are equilateral triangles, most containing an upright "v". I learned from quilter Barbara Cline that when "v" triangles are organized by value, they can create the illusion of floating, gift-wrapped cubes. You can see the cubes flashing in and out of view in the center of the quilt, and also in the side hexagons, if you sit back and squint! My methods (but not this pattern) are in my book Modern Paper Pieced Log Cabin Triangle Quilts, in my etsy shop, CathyPStudio.  

The show will continue soon!

Spring Holidays: Stuff Stuff! (My Patterns can Help)

Here in the relentless sunshine of Los Angeles, it's hard to determine the month. January? August? Looking out the window provides no clues. 

The only way to know for certain is to study supermarket shelves. And according to my shelves, it's been Easter and Passover since Valentine's Day, when heart-shaped candy disappeared overnight, replaced with bunny-shaped candy, and (just as sweet and cheap), Maneshewitz wine.

For stitchers, that means it's time to make stuffed things, and I'm not talking about turkeys or hams, because I don't know how to cook those. It's time to sew high-fiber stuffed Easter and/or Passover toys/table props!

First, if you celebrate Passover, may I suggest a tossable, lightweight, extra-dry, inedible matzoh ball. 

Yes, that describes my cooking, but it's also a fabric truncated octahedron,  easier than it sounds - baste fabric to 8 cardstock hexagons, and 6 cardstock squares, then sew them together. 

(For step-by-step directions, see my book "Stitch-a-hedron: English Paper Pieced Polyhedron Gifts and Accessories to Sew," in print at Amazon  or PDF download at Etsy.)

Similar to a polyhedron is a yarmulke, a small hat, with only four sides, also easy to make from matzoh fabric, using the patterns in my book, "The Uncommon Yarmulke" (sold in print or PDF on Etsy).

I don't sell matzoh fabric, but a vendor who does is Lauree Feigenbaum at 1-800-dreidel.com. Her trompe l'oeil matzoh fabric is extra-wide - a yard is more than enough to make multiple balls, hats, earrings, table runners, baby bibs, aprons, and of course, matzoh covers! (So your covered matzoh looks uncovered!?) 

If you or your friends celebrate Easter, speaking of sweet bunnies, you may need to make a zero-calorie gift rabbit from your fabric scraps. My stuffed animal method is fast, intuitive, and addictive. I just finished writing it up in a new 39-page booklet, "Spontaneous Stuffies: Small Improvised Animals from Precuts, Scraps and Jeans." The PDF (on Etsy) includes 20+ patterns, including the following small (about 4") and large bunnies.

Lambs are appropriate for Passover as well as Easter, so here are three. First, a snub-nosed lamb (or ram?):  

Next, a little lamb made from denim jeans.....

...and yet another lamb/ram from an cotton print - the tail is braided scraps. 

All are about 5" across. If you'd rather make something flat, here are some more matzoh covers, to get your wheels turning. (This one is Pokemon-themed.)

Detail:

The next one, made in 2004 (at the dawn of digital photography), is Exodus-themed: 

Want more spring quilty ideas?

- Send a fiber art greeting card. I stitched a bunch of Spring green egg-themed postcards, here. 

-  Find Passover and Easter baby bibs here.  

- Twenty more ideas for matzoh fabric, including quilted items, are on my blog here. 

Switch & Stitch Improvisational Stuffed Fish

Stuffed fish, high in fiber, yum! Here are a couple of whoppers (11" x 5"), made from blue jeans, though you can use any fabric. They serve as pillows and/or toys. This fun and forgiving method makes two at the same time, stacking and switching pieces. It can also be used to create four applique fish, if you're making an underwater quilt! My pair: Fish 1, 

And Fish 2,

With minimal embellishment, they exude serenity. One has a coconut shell button eye. 

Its partner started out with two vintage mother-of-pearl button eyes, and decorative stitching on the seams.

Later, I added buttons and brooches, to turn it into a sensory and memory toy for my elderly aunt. (Details here). 

Ready to make your own? You'll need (at least) two pairs of old jeans. Chose two values - one noticeably darker than the other. Turn the jeans inside out.

Draw a fish on a large piece of paper (packing paper, newspaper, anything). My shape started at 15" long by 7" high. (It wound up a few inches smaller, due to the piecing.) Make the body plump, because cutting is going to narrow it. 

Turn one of your jeans pairs wrong side out. Smooth one leg,  and put a few pins in the center to hold the two layers together. Place your paper pattern on top and trace all the way around it. (I used an air erasable marker). 

Cut about a half inch out from your drawn line, all the way around. 

Cut out, it looks something like this.

(Ignore the first draft of a smaller fish inside, sorry about that).

Use the paper pattern, or one side of the fish, as a pattern to trace and cut two more pieces from the second pair of inside-out jeans.  

Now you've got two pairs, one lighter and one darker, with wrong sides out. 

 Cut each in half the long way.  

Lay all the pieces right side up, so you can see them. Swap pieces so each side has contrasting pieces.

Sew each side together along the horizontal seam. Option: Leave about 3" unstitched in the middle of one seam, if you want to insert a fin in there. Press seam open.  

Mark off the heads about 3" from the tip of the snout. (Do fish have snouts?)

 Cut it off. 

Surprise - we're not going to swap the heads (unless you want to!). We're going to turn them into fins! 

But first, borrow one to serve as a pattern for new, single color heads: Place the head on a different shade of denim (consider using different jeans; the reverse side of a pair of jeans; or the back fabric from inside one of the pockets - it's often much darker than the outer fabric.). Trace and cut out. Repeat. 

 Sew the new heads onto each fish. 

If you won't be adding a fin to the center seam, now is a good time to add decorative stitching. 

Below are the four former heads. We could turn them into two fins if we sew them to each other - but to reduce bulk, I sewed each to an unseamed piece of denim.

Here you see two of the fins, pinned to denim in a different shade than the fish bodies. (I used the same shade as the head).

Sew the curved edge, leaving straight the bottom edge unsewn. Turn right side out. 

 Option: stuff lightly. 

The photo above - that's too much stuffing. I took some out.  A little goes a long way. Option: Quilt the fin, by hand or machine:

If you left a gap in the central seam, insert the end of a fin in there, and sew in position, closing the gap. 

Now place the fins along the top and/or bottom. Pin and/or baste in position.

If you want a top fin as well as a central fin, you're going to have to stack them a bit, like this. 

Place another half of the fish on top, right sides together, and pin all the way around. You will probably need to do a little trimming and redrawing of the overall shape to get the sides to line up (because of the piecing.)

Stitch all the way around, 1/2" in, more or less on your drawn line, sealing in the fins. Leave a 2-3" gap. My gap is along the lower left part of the body, before the tail curve starts. Trim seams down to 1/4", except at the gap - leave it longer there. Clip inward curves almost to the seams, especially the curves between the tail and body, and on back of the tail.

 Turn good side out. 

Ta daa! Stuff 'em, hand sew the gap, and have fun embellishing!