Do you want to see how I ever so slightly modified Marit’s superb spider web directions? Ever so slightly to use a paper “foundation.”

So, you’ll draft your triangle foundation just as Marit shows you but make it out of paper instead of fabric. You may need only one foundation or maybe two. If you’re making a big quilt, maybe make a few more. I would make them all at once so they’re all guaranteed to be the same. Of course, the lazy among us will make one and hope for the best. Yes, that’s me.

After making your paper foundation, fold up the outer triangle “flaps” just so you have a nice crease and can easily fold the flaps out of the way as you sew.

Next, cut a rectangle of center/background/kite fabric. I cut all of mine at 5″ x 6 1/2″ — this covers the height plus seam allowance and width plus seam allowance of my center kite shape.

Center the paper foundation on the background fabric which is wrong side up. Pin in place — a flat flower head pin works well (any small headless pin works; I tried fine glass head pins and was not happy with what happened when I pressed over them).

Now, fold up one of the flaps:

Lay a rotary ruler over this so that a 1/4″ seam allowance will be left on the fabric (i.e., 1/4″ beyond the paper fold):

Trim background fabric 1/4″ from paper fold:

Now you’re ready to sew on your first strip. I pre-cut oodles of Rouenneries strips of various sizes (between 1″ and 2″). So, cut a strip long enough to fit:

Lay the strip underneath the background fabric so that the fabrics are right sides together. Take this to your sewing machine and sew a seam just next to the paper fold:

Press the strip out and fold the flap back down so you can see how long the next strip should be. Cut the second strip.

Fold the paper flap back and lay the second strip on top of the first, right sides together:

Sew this seam using 1/4″ seam allowance:

Press the added strip out. Fold the paper flap back in place and cut the third strip. Lay that on top of the second strip, right sides together and stitch the seam:

And so on and so on using the paper foundation only to measure the length of each successive strip. Fold the paper foundation out of the way before sewing each seam.

Eventually, you’ll have this:

And you will be ready to trim up your block just as Marit shows you in her tutorial.

In this case, after trimming, remove the paper foundation and use it for the next block. After trimming, I also spritzed my pieced triangles with some Best Press to help stabilize the bias edges a little bit.

Carry on.

Oh, wait. The Wretched Excess Division wants to check in.

Well, they might run out. It has happened before.

On the other hand, this was flown in earlier this week so you would think there would be no chocolate panic.

Ah, but there will always be an impending chocolate panic!

I can’t seem to put down the Rouenneries fabric. Which, I believe, just goes to show that my fabric tastes are indeed all over the place. I don’t even think there is a single print that is my favorite single print. I love them all. And I love them all together. Their ability to scrap it up all together. Their warmth all together. I have three Rouenneries projects in the works. Overkill? Will I be well and done with it when the projects are done? We shall see.

Inspired by Katy with technical direction by Marit (although we are doing a difference size and are using a faux paper piecing technique so as not to waste precious Rouenneries backgrounds). Still deciding how many blocks of this I’m going to do. My, my, they do take a while to make. The optimist’s goal is 12 blocks. In this century.

A second small quilt is underway with a third only in the planning stages:

Dolly dresses in Rouenneries, of course — the beginnings of the Dollies Online logo quilt. I have a feeling these will be some well dressed dollies because I can’t see leaving them just ONE dress each, can you? That would be cruel.

Back to spider webs before the school bus comes roaring to a stop.

May you not get any rocks in your treat bag!

Um, that’s a button carved into our pumpkin a la Coraline… kinda looks like nothing without some context. We’re keeping with a theme here, people!

I’m showing you my four-patch stacked posie quilt complete with its wrinkles because it is a completely fun project. It’s perfect for those of us who love a good WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? quilt. Once you get the concept down, you can play around with your setting. This was a blast.

I used Philip Jacobs’ lush Floral Burst print. Hmm, might have to get some of it in grey… I kept going with some mooshy lushness in some of the setting squares and triangles. I used the concept from Mary Lou Hallenbeck’s pattern for the blocks and just played around with settings.

Love. Fun. Despite the wrinkles. Can’t wait to see what happens when it’s quilted!

I’m pretty excited that this thing is DONE! Do you have a quilt from time to time that you just want to move on with its life? The fabrics were gorgeous to work with, the blocks went together well. And then we got to the border. Decided to do a different approach with the border. Similar to Bari J’s but with a different execution. There were times I thought about execution. Mainly it was during the quilting process. And my pin shortage when I was basting. Which caused the quilt to shift. Some layers of fusible web didn’t help. There may have been some swearing. And then I did unspeakable things. The quilt police gave me a citation. I think I’ll be going to the slammer if I do it again, they said.

I am happier with it than I thought I would be. You know, no hard feelings.

The fabrics are Bari J’s Full Bloom collection (for the most part, excluding stripes and borders). You can find her free Garden Tea Party pattern at her blog or at the Windham web site.

Back in the day (and by that I mean when I was growing up…) when there were only three TV stations (!), I ended up watching a lot of old movies (and now dear daughter complains that it is hard to watch anything in black and white — well, if you’re going to get your recommended dose of the Marx Brothers, you’ll just have to get used to it!). Ladies in these movies invariably came down with the vapors when something overwhelmed them. Yes, I can get hysterical over fabric. Don’t you?!

For example:

Aboriginal prints from M&S Textiles and Reece Scannell shot cottons to go with them.

Ack! ::sigh:: Swoon!

Did you know that Kathy has these over at Material Obsession?  She was telling us about the Reece Scannell shot cottons a while back. She is a woman of her word and they are divine and look like silk.  I’ve been eyeing the M&S prints for a while — got a large chunk of a light print a while back that will go beautifully with the Kaffe-y prints.

I’m going to have to plan a project to keep these lovelies together in a tidy quilted package. It doesn’t hurt that they remind me of the richness of the beautiful fall colors. Our carving pumpkin is just that orange. I collected some rose hips from the yard that are just that red. The leaves are turning just those shades of brown and yellow.

::sigh:

I feel the vapors coming on again…

I’ve been sewing up a bunch of bias-y edges. I was a little nervous. But we did just fine together:

I cut the blocks with Bella Nonna’s Boondoggle ruler. Using the ruler made it fun and fast. The thing I liked best about the ruler was that center lines and their seam lines were marked on the ruler — which made it very easy to cut the setting and corner triangles. I mean, I would have figured it out, but it’s nice that the ruler did it for me. Sweet!

The fabrics are mostly from the latest colorway of Pillow & Maxfield’s Whimsy fabric. Of the three colorways, this one is my favorite. Not that there’s a bad colorway in the bunch. They are all big, bold and beautiful. The important Three Bs of fabric…

Now, I just need to finish sewing down the binding on the Full Bloom (taking forever…) quilt. AND, I also need to get some starts stuck to a blue sweater:

I’m voting for using Fabric Tac but my conscience for some reason is pushing for hand sewing them on. We are on a tight time frame here, people (there’s more than one voice in my head?), and someone is going to a Halloween party on Saturday night as Coraline. Sorting out the blue hair turned out to be tricky. One bottle of demi-permanent hair color and two wigs later, I think we’ve got it. But, gosh, there are A LOT of blue sweaters to consider at the thrift store.

Hope your week is going well!

Now that you’ve all heard of Sweetest Day, did you have a nice Sweetest Day? I hope you did!

I can tell that everyone is enthusiastic about Amy Butler’s new fabric. I only wish I had enough Love (fabric) to share with all of you!  Alas, only one of you is lucky though. Who is it????

Why, it’s Janice! Hi Janice! Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone for commenting, blog posting and generally sharing the love of Love!!

One set of Heather Ross Munki Munki pajamas waiting for me at Marshalls. Hmm, I might like to wear these once or twice before cutting them up.