Monday, January 11, 2016

Penny Pig and Woolly Sheep Quilt

I've been eyeing the Penny Pig block from Farm Girl Vintage for a while on  instagram.  I have a thing about pink and I kind of like pigs and I think the block is soooooo cute!

My sister got me the Farm Girl Vintage book for my birthday but I was devastated to discover Penny Pig isn't in it!  You can get the pattern online for $5 but I wasn't really interested in doing that because I had a whole book of patterns to play with!

And then I decided maybe Penny Pig and Woolly Sheep could play together in a quilt, so off I went in search of the Penny Pig Pattern.  The Woolly Sheep is already in the book.

How cute is this????  I almost want to make a quilt of just pigs for myself, but I have absolutely no use for it or any decor that it would fit in with. 

This little curlycue tail that you embroider at the end might be my most favorite part!  I was worried that the quilting might disturb the embroidery but it seemed to go right over it and lock it down nicely.


It wasn't until I put the blocks together that I realized that the sheep is slightly bigger than the pig and it really bothers me, visually.  I also think I could use the pig feet on the sheep rather than embroidering.  Or, I could eliminate the feet on the sheep so it looks like it's sitting on the ground and then they would both be the same height.

K-ster warned me not to have too much pink since this was going to a boy, so I ended up using subtle pinks for the pigs.  When I thought about the sheep, I almost went with a couple of beige sheep with black faces but the only black fabric I had was a little busier than I would want.  Plus, it was a little too powerful for the colors that I ended up with.

I really like the green that I chose for the grass.  It was a remnant fabric I got ages ago and it had little lines on it but I've never found a use for it.  For this, it was just enough to add some color.   I was worried about how bland it was before the green grass went on.   And the blue frames make me happy because they add another color.

I kept thinking I wanted to add yellow but I didn't want this to keep growing, so I used it on the border.  It was a softer yellow, like the pinks, so it didn't scream LOOK AT ME.

I used my stash for this entire quilt, so instead of using one piece on the back, I put together some squares and rectangles of what I had used in the quilt top.  Because I usually wing it, I didn't think about how the back would be trimmed down, so my squares at the top of this picture ended up as rectangles.  I almost went with a totally rectangle pattern on the back and now I see that would have worked out fine.  I also have no idea how those 3 brown squares ended up near each other like that.  I meant for it to be more random.


I knew I was going to do my famous wavy quilt stitch and that meant I had to clear some space.  My table has been growing with a stack of things, so the first order of business was clearing off this mess.

What seemed like days later, I had a lovely workspace but I realized that I don't usually use this table to quilt because it's too narrow for my machine and my little table that I put with with it.


I did my usual fingers crossed rolling of the quilt and got to work.  I see people pin basting all over the place, but I have never found this to work for me.  I still end up with bunching.  So, I just roll and go.  Every few rows, I unroll it and smooth out what is left and then reroll and hope for no bunching.

This time, all went well except when I ran out of bobbin about 12 inches from the end of one row.  I decided to remove that whole row and do it again, except when I was ripping it out, I accidentally starting ripping out the row before it, so I had to do TWO again!

If you pay any attention to what I do while I'm sewing, you'd think I must do some serious bong hits before I sit down.  If I'm not following an exact pattern, I just have no patience and hate to measure and give much forethought to what I'm doing.  I could save myself so much time, but I prefer the sewing and swearing method!


Daisy hasn't quite figured out how to help me in the sewing room.  Gwennevere would always just lay somewhere nearby, content to just be in the room with me.  Daisy needs to either be on the project I'm working on or sticking her paws into the machine from behind as I sew.  Then she gets irritated that I'm "so boring" and leaves.


For Christmas, I got more binding clips so now I have enough to make it around the whole quilt.  What a difference from pins!  No more scratching myself or sticking myself with pins.  And the best part is that when I'm sewing the binding, I'm not sticking the pins all over the couch as I take them out!

I like the pattern and the directions so much, I will definitely make more blocks from the Farm Girl Vintage book.  Her directions and math are so spot on, it was a pleasure to follow the directions!

Linking here:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2016/01/clever-chicks-blog-hop-173-featuring.html
http://www.sewcando.com
http://www.skiptomylou.org/made-by-you-monday-271/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2016/01/show-and-tell-link-party-44/
http://www.julieslifestyle.blogspot.com/2016/01/cooking-and-crafting-with-j-j-33-and.html
http://olives-n-okra.com/merry-monday-86/ 

2 comments:

  1. Oh gosh...so cute! I just love this!

    Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow you made the cutest quilt! I love the colors you chose too!
    Thanks for sharing this at Cooking and Crafting with J&J! :)

    ReplyDelete

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