Birthday Block Swap

I've been in a creative rut - the holidays always do that to me. Combine the time of year with the fact that I have a two year old who clings to me like velcro when he's awake, and I just don't sew. *whimpers*

I want to sew. Really.

I have a quilt top that will fit our queen-sized bed, perfectly. I need to come up with a plan for backing, and get it done. It's beautiful, and I want to do it. I desperately need some time to myself to do this though. I also want to make pillow shams to match this top, because I think it would be just awesome to have a coordinated set on my wrought iron frame.

Time is my enemy.

Anyhow... In order to help me crawl out of this rut, and to possibly challenge myself, I've joined the livejournal Birthday Block Swap. I'm looking forward to it, to try new blocks and new color combinations.


I picked Blockade for my block. I'm picturing it in a very similar color palette (purples and aquas) to this image here, just scrappy. So scrappy. I love scrappy.

I don't know why I like this block. I was looking through patterns, and tripped across Blockade. I think i just like the potential. There's a lot of play room in this block.

It was requested I provide a pattern... So obviously, I couldn't find one that wasn't paper-pieced. I ended up drawing one up in Adobe Illustrator. Should be fairly simple though, because the starting square for the HSTs should be sized at 3-7/8" X 3-7/8".

In other news, I've been string piecing. Out of scraps even. And I'm geniunely using as much as I possibly can from each scrap. I'm only throwing out the littlest bits, because I'm not going to ruin my eyes further by trying to make mini-blocks. I'm just not that crazy.

In further news, a friend of mine was cleaning out her parents' basement. Both of her parents are gone now, and she and her siblings are dealing with the estate. In going through everything, she found a bag of vintage clothing that was going to be recycled into rag rugs, along with stuff that had already been cut into strips. It's nearly all shirting, or cotton dress scraps.

My friend thought of me, and brought me this garbage bag full of stuffs!! I washed the largest pieces, which were nearly whole dresses and shirts. Now, I'm in the process of sorting the wheat from the chaff. I think this will all go into a series of string quilts. I'd really love to make one for my friend - it's all part of her heritage, and I think she'd really appreciate something made from these scraps.

I think, though, that I'll have to put these scraps on a muslin foundation - just for stability. I wouldn't want the thing to just fall apart, though the fabrics have lasted this long anyway. That's the wonderful thing about cottons. I just worry about quilting the thing, though. It seems like it might be super thick and super heavy. My friend will love that - she's always cold, and her significant other is always hot.

*sighs* So many projects, so little time. Actually, if I'm truly honest - there is time. I just have to take that gap between the Zeb-head going to bed and my own bedtime, and use it. On that note, I end this post. To go and use the time I have.