I've Been Dognapped!

 Last weekend I had two of my grandsons and two of my granddogs for the weekend. I knew I wouldn't get any sewing done, and I was perfectly OK with that. As it turns out, I have the dogs much longer than I anticipated. DD#2 had forgotten to mention to me that their backyard was being overhauled this week, and would I keep the dogs longer? I don't mind keeping her dogs, even though I am developing a dog allergy. I love dogs so it's worth taking some allergy meds to have dogs around. 

Her corgi has stayed with me enough times, that she doesn't care if I sew or am pottering around in my sewing room downstairs. The puppy, however, is not used to me sewing in the basement. The puppy is much better behaved now, but when she's lonely she barks and barks, which doesn't work with DH working remotely. I still don't trust the puppy in my sewing room, nor do I want fur all over my sewing room with my new dog allergy, so I've been stuck on the main floor of the house. I have a sewing machine set up in the living room, so I can do some sewing, but I only want to work on small stuff to limit the amount of dog fur getting on my project.

I'm making two Attic Window quilts for Christmas, and I don't mind making the blocks in the living room. There are a lot of ways to make the Attic Window block, but my favorite method had become this one. Once you decide on you block size and sashing size, figuring out the rest is easy. I cut my novelty squares 6.5". I wanted the window part to be made from 2.5" strips. First you sew the 2.5 x 6.5" medium color onto the left side of the block. Then you cut a 2.5 x 8.5" light rectangle, and make one sew and flip corner using a medium 2.5" square. You want your sew and flip corner to be on the upper left side of the light rectangle, so it lines up with the medium strip already sewn on. I cut sashing strips and cornerstones from a dark fabric at 1.5" wide. Once the blocks are all sewn together with sashing between the blocks, the 3D effect will kick in. Made this way, Attic Windows is really a beginner friendly block, so if the traditional Y seam method scares you try this way with only one extra seam. Once the quilt is sewn together, you won't notice the extra seam in the medium fabric.

I just finished all the blocks for the blue colorway, and I'll be starting the green colorway after I blog.

Another project I've been working on while limited to the main floor is prep work for a couple hundred scooter luggage tags. I haven't seen any new scooter fabrics lately, so I'm opting to do the applique scooters instead. It's a lot more work, but a LOT cheaper since I can use any fabrics to make them.

One of the fun things about cutting scooters out of random fabrics, is that sometimes I can place the template in a way that gives the scooter some definition with the pattern on the fabric. Sometimes it's just completely random, but sometimes I can define a wheel, or a headlight, or the seat. I wish I had a die to cut these scooter shapes, but I don't, so after I press a square of fusible web onto the fabric, I'm tracing my homemade template, then cutting every scooter out by hand. I'm figuring I need at least 200 luggage tags for next summer's Scooter Zine events, so any prep work I get done this year is a win! 

I'll have four different grandkids starting on Sunday, so next week is a wash as far as sewing goes too. I should be able to continue working on the applique scooters though, even with grandkids here. Working on anything Christmas won't happen next week. 

I'm pretty good at finding stuff I can do in little snippets of time, so I'll be working on something, just not my first choice. I am really glad to have the four grandkids next week though, they are the ones that are moving away, so this is my last chance to spend time with them for a while.