Scrappy tripalong pillow

I realised when I came to parcel my swap items up that I tend to craft large, and if I ever do another swap I need to work on my small items! Kristel was much more savvy and sent a wonderful array of little things in a padded envelope, I sent a gigantic box. What actually took up the space and required a box were the two tin can lanterns we sent, but also this pillow case - no I didn't send the inner but it's quite bulky sewn up. I had some blocks left over from putting together my scrappy tripalong quilt top and coincidentally four of them were exactly the right size to make a pillowcase that fits what we call a Euro pillow (not sure what Europeans call that size...)

I came across the technique of quilting the scrappy tripalong blocks with a line either side of every second seam on Red Pepper Quilts, and it works really well. I also went diagonally to try and emphasise the diamond pattern which wasn't particularly obvious on just a cushion, partly because of the prints and also because one of the blocks was put together slightly wrong but it was a pillow by the time I figured it out. Can you spot where I stuffed up? It was backed with plain linen quilted with wavy lines. Hazel was very dismissive of that technique, felt it wasn't attractive and was appalled I was going to be sending it to poor Kristel who could not fail to be displeased. Children, they are so free with their opinions! I haven't had any complaints back btw ;) She liked the front though, and so do I. I'm not sure if I have enough blocks to do one for myself, not that they take a long time to make up or anything!

Talking about the Euro pillow makes me think of a topic I often wonder about - here in NZ, and in Canada from memory, furniture and other items are often advertised as "European design" or "Italian design" or "made in Germany" and all these terms are used to tell us that it's really stylish or that it's well-made, or both. So what I always wonder is how those items are advertised in those countries - do Europeans assume that things made there are stylish like we do here? Or that if it's made in Germany it won't fall apart in 2 weeks? Well actually that's usually true of the stuff that gets here, but I bet they make crap stuff too. Do Italians like to be told shoes are made with Italian leather? Drat, now I've got Ricardo Montalban saying "rich Corinthian leather" in my head, over and over again...

Scrappy Tripalong top finished

Oh my god being a puppy-mummy is hard work! Getting easier but still, not a lot of time for sewing because if Ollie doesn't need attention then Hazel does! It's going to be much easier when she goes back to school on Tuesday, but also a bit lonely. She's really looking forward to it though, starting Year 3, up to the Middle school, new room, new teacher, and a couple of good friends to keep her company.

I finished up the Scrappy Tripalong quilt top last night. It had stalled a bit when I discovered that at least two of the blocks were too small in one dimension to be used so I decided it would be better to just make a few more and use them than try and sort out the old blocks and made 8 more. As it turned out (of course), it was just the two blocks I'd initially identified that were a problem, so I have 8 more blocks to do something with! Hazel has asked to have this so there's no point in adding more to the quilt for a single bed. It's not perfect, there are some seams with a big of a jag between blocks, but it's so busy you can't really tell. I think the problem was one particular fabric that must have been on more of the bias than I realised, and has stretched a bit. I'm really picky about cutting on the bias but with vintage sheets it can be quite hard at times as they are cheaply made, and sometimes super-wonky - the weave doesn't run perpendicular to the selvedge, or even straight across in many cases, so sometimes I just had to say "f**k it" and cut however.

I enjoyed making it, now I just have to make myself keep going and get it quilted. Not sure how well my machine will cope with it, it's the biggest thing I've made so far. I know I can do a smaller single but this might just be a bit too big for the throat of the machine. Very simple quilting ahoy! Of course I had some help with taking the photos...

It's hard to get the colours to show up properly, it always seems to look darker than it really is. It's quite light and bright actually, more the top of the big photo than towards the bottom (which is probably a bit in the shade).

More interruptions

 Christmas and the sprained ankle derailed things a bit, but I made a comeback of sorts and got sucked into the Scrappy Tripalong over on Instagram. I got up to 16 blocks



And then just over a week ago this little guy happened and crafting came to a . *



Meet Ollie, who arrived a couple weeks earlier than we expected. He was a total surprise for Hazel, although not for Mat and me, as we've had been looking for a puppy and a good breeder for quite awhile. Luckily Hazel and Ollie get along very well, although she does have a tendency to treat him like a stuffed toy. The phrase "paws on the ground please Hazel" is heard several times a day, as she awkwardly totes him around from place to place, ignoring the fact he has legs and a will of his own. She'll learn though!



What I wasn't expecting was what hard work a puppy is, especially for a cat person like me, how tired I'd be, how much pee I'd have to mop up, and how house-bound I'd be. He's super-cute, tiny and really quite lovely, but damn. I simply have to trust all the dog owners who assure me that "it will get better, I promise!"

Luckily he settled into a routine fairly quickly (pugs are such laid back little creatures, or at least he is) and I've been able to get a bit of sewing on the Scrappy Tripalong done the last few nights. In fact I'm off right now to try and get the last 6 blocks sewed up into tubes and maybe cut into strips. At least I think they're the last, I'm assuming the quilt will be single bed-sized at 30 blocks because I think I'm kind of over cutting 16x2.5" strips. Unfortunately 6 of the blocks I made are slightly rectangular and I'd have to unpick them to get them right, so I have to hope I can use them down one side where it won't matter. I must have had the needle set just slightly wrong for one session.


*I can't remember which book that little joke came from, but I've loved it for years. For those people who call a '.' a period, if you call it a full stop, the sentence above makes sense.

Feeling creative again

I don't know what it is about the Christmas period but I totally lose any desire to be creative. This year it was compounded by the most disgusting hot, humid, rainy weather ever, bar none. And a sprained ankle. I actually thought sitting on the couch for hours on end with it up on pillows would be a crafting godsend, but all I did really was read and play on my phone. But the ankle is much better, so is the weather, and I got caught by this Scrappy Tripalong that started up on Instagram. I'd seen this tag pop up a few times in the last few days but didn't really twig to it until I read a couple blog posts. I thought "ahhhh...so that's what it is" and then I thought "nah, not really my thing" and then after I had a look at the hashtag album I thought "hmmm...I quite like some of these..." and then I thought "but I don't have any scraps large enough" and then about half an hour later I thought "but actually I have all those old sheets" and then an hour or so after that I thought "and they'd look pretty good, maybe I'll just have a look at them" and the next thing I knew I was cutting out vast numbers of strips and telling my husband I was making "a thing for the thing - you know". I think my brain must have been having a break at that point, but he found it amusing so now the project is "The Thing" in our house.

The Tripalong is based around the tutorial over at Quiltville, and it's super super simple. I'm not the most accurate piecer in the world but damn if my seams aren't matching and everything sits nice and flat! I'm also trying out pressing my seams to one side as per the tutorial. I usually press open but thought perhaps this would eliminate some of the bulk at the seam intersections. I guess I'd have to do one pressed open to compare but it does seem to help. I still don't like the way the seams sit though, you just can't get them as flat as you can when they're pressed open.

So here are my six blocks put together. I have strips for another 10 blocks sorted out, and probably enough strips for another 10 cut, although I may have to cut more of some colours. The trick is to have light and dark strips, and for my fabrics, also contrasting colours. I think having one bright colour per block will be essential, and also making sure there is one strip of blue. Blue really seems to stand out the most for some reason.