the last 10 days

Happy Hannukah!



Oh! Wait that ended yesterday...
So I'm a little behind. What else is new? :) We lit the candles and ate the latkes. No dreidel spinning here but we sang the South Park Version of the song...we are soooooo not PC in this house, I tell ya!

Other than the eight days of chanukah...there has been the 10 days of QUILTERS. This is the latest musical for our Musical Conservatory program. I admit, I haven't watched a single rehearsal this weel. Poor Yvette has had to watch it every night this week...Max is such a great excuse. That and I have been sick too - i have caught the plague :)

So what does a musical about Quilters involve? Quilts! Lots of friggin' quilts! I have never quilted. I mean that I have NEVER done the type of quilts that require tiny triangles and squares and circles and all sorts of piecing.
Kristin sent me a link to this amazing webpage! Crazy helpful it was. That and the Singer sewing book on quilts and some other book the set designer brought in were the best thing in the world!

Our quilt blocks are (approx.) 22" square. Some patterns were enlarged and some were shrunk. The final product is 16 seperate squares mounted onto an 8'x8' canvas backdrop:

In order of left to right, top to bottom, we have -
1. Butterfly (a crazy quilt with applique) 2. Logcabin 3. Spools or Secret Drawer 4. "rebel patch" (a crazy quilt used for a fictitious block for the show)

5. School Houses 6. Rocky Road to Kansas (have also seen it called Rock Star) 7. Country Crossroads 8. Baby Blocks (aka Tumbling Blocks)

9. Lonestar 10. Four Doves in a Window 11. tree of Life 12. Kansas Dugout

13. Double Wedding Rings 14. Double Windmill 15. Crosses and Losses 16. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul


By the way, we cheated. Alot!!! - there was heat-n-bond and non piecing....but could you tell? Okay maybe you professional quilters could...irk!

Here are a few close-ups:


We ended up appliqueing this one with heat-n-bond after we had made it WAY to big. There wasn't enough time to piece it properly.



Made by one of our apprentices.


Katherine throwing down the scraps in order to make the Crazy quilt block. She ironed them all down and then zig-zaged by machine.


Our final block - The background blocks were pieced and then the rest was laid on top, then appliqued.

Each block gets snapped on as the play goes on and the song is sung to explain the story behind each pioneer woman's quilt. So we need to readjust the snaps a bit and maybe adjust a block or two....then it is all done!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once that is done, we can get on with the more important things at hand. The making of the holiday gifts and secret santa-ing in the work place. I am sure my person knows who I am...but that is okay...she is loving it!