Wristlet and Blocks

Over the past week I've been going fast and furious in my sewing room. 

I finished hand stitching two pieces of linen, and sewed them into a wristlet. This pattern - The Essential Wristlet by Dog Under My Desk - is still my favorite way to carry essentials, including my iPhone and Canon camera. 

For the stitchery, I used five thread colors. Threads are three different brands. Threads are two different weights. Yes, these pieces were an experimental sampler. 

I modify the wristlet pattern by adding an interior zipper pocket and an exterior clear vinyl pocket for my ID card. (I have to show it to get into rec centers.) 

Some company I placed an order with (?) sent me this patch, so I blanket-stitched it to the linen. 

I've tested two blocks for the quilt I'm making for daughter Jill. She picked this pattern: Moroccan Tiles, and chose fabrics.

We're going with this Vanilla Grunge background.

As I need to make 35 of these, and she chose only five fabrics, I managed to find three more stash prints to add. Still, I'm uncertain these will be enough different prints to make an interesting quilt.

I've been playing and experimenting with a block design I've had in my mind. Since understanding how to piece set-in circles (see previous blog post), I worked out how to put this block together. Though... it didn't happen easily! That V is a set-in seam, and I really don't think I'm up for doing that multiple times!

My next trial will be to: 1) piece the strips with a quarter-circle Drunkard's Path; 2) make another quarter-circle Drunkard's Path, and: 3) make a half-circle to join to the two quarter circles. That might be a little bit easier. 

Here's another picture of my selvedge quilt that I continue to big stitch hand quilt. Along the outside edge of the quilt, I still don't know what I'm going to quilt in the white spaces next to circles. Likely, something machine quilted.

And to share a last bit of fun and good luck, I won another Instagram giveaway! It's a 13-1/2" square Nido wool ironing mat. I couldn't be more pleased about this win. I've heard about the benefits of pressing on a wool mat - more crisply-flat seams.

Using scraps of white solid and print fabrics, I've been cutting and piecing improv slab blocks with bits of green. Here's a picture of a block that was pressed on my ironing table.

This is the block after pressing on the wool mat. I'd say the flatness is apparent. I'm a believer... especially when it was free!

I've actually listened to three books this past week! (I have really been in the sewing room a lot!) Here's the first review. 

 "In the Age of Love and Chocolate" by Gabrielle Zevin captured my attention strictly by the title! I should have better read the synopsis though, as I discovered - after listening through half the book - that it's the third title of a series, the "Birthright" series. Sheesh. Don't you hate it when that happens? If I'd realized it sooner, I would have stopped so as to download book one. However, I was so far into the story, I finished.

It's the story of a teenaged girl, Anya, whose parents are murdered because they were head mobsters. She tries to go straight while dealing with an older brother in prison, his wife, and a younger sister. She opens a New York City cacao nightclub, because consuming chocolate in 2068 is illegal without a prescription. Anya is successful enough to open more clubs in the US, and continues to deal with her mobster family.

I like this sort of teen fiction, and wish I'd read the series in order. 

Linda's score: 3.6/5

Linda