WIP Wednesday: Chevrons a la Kitty

In 2 weeks I’ll be attending a baby shower for an old friend. Tests conclusively demonstrated that the little bundle of joy will be of the girl kind, so I got to bust out some pink. Not that I think that all girls need pink stuff, but, mom-to-be also happens to be a fan of Hello, Kitty. So in this case, pink it had to be! I found some cute HK fabric at JoAnns (thank goodness for the 40% off coupons they offer nearly weekly…) And then I had to decide what to do with said fabric. I played around with a few combos and came up with this.

Some Kaffe, some Michael Miller, and some random stash, along with the Hello Kitty… I had a recent issue of Quilty that contained a super simple chevron pattern, sized perfectly for a baby project, and I decided that was a perfect fit. The pattern didn’t have you make the HSTs in the fabulous cheater way, and in retrospect, I wish I had just done them my own way. even for a quilt this small, there was a lot of cutting.

I had to go back out for some white solid- I know there’s some in my sewing room, but where??? (Another one of those 40% off JoAnns coupons came in handy.)

I spent part of Sunday afternoon piecing away…

I LOVE the way that particular fabric looks in the chevrons!

And then I had to stop, because we had a family night out at the movies. (The theater nearest us does $5 for all showings on Sundays, and since the kids had no school monday, we felt like we could let them stay up late.) I put down the pink and headed out with everyone to see the new Star Trek…

Monday we had friends over (first BBQ of the summer, with hopefully many more to come), so no sewing, but I got all the blocks done Tuesday night!

I’m hoping they flatten out a little bit- again, my piecing leaves something to be desired. Hoping to get it into one piece and basted this weekend. And then, my mother-in-law is coming to town for my husband’s birthday next week, which means no sewing time. Realistically, the odds of me getting this done before the shower are next to nil. But I’m going to try, dammit. Wish me luck!

What are YOU up to this week? And have you ever taken an unfinished quilt to a shower, then taken it back home with you to finish?

Wordless but musical Wednesday

The Denver Satellite Reef

What have I been up to lately, you ask?

Why, churning out pieces of crocheted coral, of course… Isn’t that what everyone’s doing these days? Actually, in Denver, we kind of are…

Want the backstory? The Denver Art Museum was recently awarded a massive grant to expand their permanent textile exhibit, and at the same time they embarked upon the creation of a temporary textile exhibit, called Spun.

The entire Denver area textile community is going bonkers over this exhibit- as well we should. Not only is the eye candy ah-may-zing, multiple parts of the exhibit allow for community participation.

Like the Denver Satellite Reef, being created by area crochet artists in conjunction with the exhibit. A few months back, the DAM put out a call for crocheters. They invited us to a private workshop with Christine Wertheim of the Institute for Figuring, the creators of the original Crochet Coral Reef project back in 2005. There we learned about hyperbolic crochet, and the history of the Crochet Coral Reef, including the many “people’s reefs” around the world. And the DAM invited us to help create their Satellite Reef, to be displayed in the museum itself!

Um, awesome.

So I finished up some stuff I was already working on, and then busted out my leftover bits of wool and acrylic, as well as the random novelty yarns I bought way back when I started knitting, and got to work. Thus far I’ve only finished the 4 pieces you see above (said pieces are currently in the freezer at the DAM, completing their 2 week quarantine to ensure they don’t bring any pests in with them), but I have big plans to keep on going. This stuff is very addictive. The DAM will continue adding pieces to the reef all summer long. If you’re local, you can drop in and crochet in the reef itself every saturday and sunday- and if you want more info, leave me a comment below.

Here is what the reef looked like as of Thursday.

The entire exhibit won’t be open to the public until Sunday, but this Wednesday, there was a grand opening- that I, as an official contributor(!) got to attend with my family!

We got a sneak preview, got to enjoy the fabulous food and drink, and the yarn-y decor contributed by, of course, Fancy Tiger.

And, in what seems like the most brilliant visual joke ever, because I am punny and have a silly sense of humor, they greeted everyone at the entrance with: cotton candy! For a textile exhibit! Whee!

And then I went right back to the museum on Thursday, to attend the Insider Moment with Margaret and Christine Wertheim. I took my current piece of coral along with me, and worked on it during the talk. At one point, Christine used it as an example for the entire group. So.much.fun! She even graciously posed for a photo with me and my pseudosphere.

But the best part of the entire thing? After going to see the exhibit on Wednesday night, Annie was so into the reef that she wants to learn how to crochet her own pieces. Time for some mother-daugther yarning!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and DONE

My May Sugar Block Club blocks are already done- that’s pretty darn speedy for me! This one was lovely, and fast. As always, you can see just how much work my piecing needs if you choose to examine my points closely. So, maybe, don’t do that…please?

The May block is called Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and I apologize in advance for the earworm you’ll now have to deal with all day. It’s a fun block with some HSTs and flying geese.

I made my mom’s block first.

She popped over unexpectedly while I was working, but I managed to pull the blocks off the design wall in the nick of time.

This was the first month where I have repeated any of the fabrics from a previous month (the batik).

 

Can you see where I used it before?

 

I’d like to incorporate more green and purple into the next few months..

Speaking of purple, there’s no shortage in my OTHER set of sugar blocks!

I am very happy with how the fabrics worked in this block! The flowers on the “envelope” portion make me smile. And a giant center of polka dots- well, what could be happier? Again, this block contains my first repeat fabric- the turquoise.

See?

 

I’m looking forward to next month…

(I’ll be linking up to Lee’s WIP Wednesday later this week…)