ALYOF May Finish: Bad Piggies Pixel quilt

I completed my May goal – my bad piggies quilt. I made it a weighted quilt. I thought I had taken more pictures throughout the process, but I guess I didn’t. So I will do the best I can to describe how I made it.

The back is just an angry birds print in blue featuring the pigs. I sandwiched and basted as normal.

The quilt was made up of 16 blocks, each block was 8×8 pixels. So I decided to stitch in the ditch every 4 pixels (approx. 8 inches) to create my pockets. That made 64 pockets to fill. So, I started by stitching the vertical lines. Then I stitched down one side, across the bottom, and up the other side, leaving the top open.

I used a new marking pen to mark the lines. They are supposed to iron out. Of course, it didn’t occur to me to question if it would work until after I had marked most of my quilt. I held my breath and hoped it would disappear. It did! What a relief. I have heard the lines can reappear in the cold. We will just hope that doesn’t happen.

I used poly pellets for the weighting. They had them on sale when I got them. They are 2 pound bags. The rule of thumb for weight is 10% of the person’s weight + 1 lb. My son is roughly 30 pounds so that would be 4 pounds. How delighted was I to discover 4 pounds = 64 ounces? (Yes, I really didn’t know that til I did the math.) So, that meant one ounce per pocket. I diligently weighed out my ounces on my scale. However, for some reason I couldn’t get exactly one ounce to register on the scale so I alternated between .9 and 1.1 ounces. It worked out fine.

I poured each ounce of pellets into each of the 8 columns I created in the quilt. I placed them between the batting and the top of the quilt, figuring there should be some cushioning on the back. Then I held it over my balcony and shook shook shook the pellets to the bottom. Some words of warning: they will not all go obediently to the bottom. They get all stuck in the seams. I did my best to push them down to the bottom, but it wasn’t worth the effort. I figured it would all work out. After I was satisfied with the shaking I sewed the horizontal row. Then I repeated for the next column.

There were also many needle casualties as a result. Again, I did my best to clear the seams as I went along, but there were several times I hit a pellet. Sometimes the needle broke, sometimes it just got jammed up inside a pellet. I ended up taking my plate off a couple times to retrieve needles. Wow. Look what I found under the bobbin case.

Ick. So, my machine got a good cleaning too. Let me also tell you, 4 pounds doesn’t sound like a lot (especially when I am hauling a 30 pound baby around throughout the day) but it is HEAVY. This quilt is heavy.  Once I had worked my way to the top row of the quilt, I sealed off the top and bound it with a different angry bird print in black.

For more posts about this quilt, see here.

For my goal post about this quilt, see here.

 

Linking also to the FAL

Here is my goal post: https://drowninginfabric.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/finish-along-q2/

ALYOF: May Goal

I have so many I could choose from this month. But it is my son’s birthday month and we just switched him to a big boy bed last night, so I am going to try to finish his Piggy quilt for his birthday. I am not doing any fancy quilting on this one, so it is really just a matter of tearing myself from other projects and activities to finish it up. I do need to find some binding for it too.

 

February ALYOF: PIGGIES!

Ooh. I’ve been quiet. I started right away on my pixel quilt in February. I wanted to make sure to finish it. If you haven’t done one, I recommend trying it. You wouldn’t think sewing a zillion little squares and rectangles together would be so cerebral (to use my new favorite Bachelor word) but it really is. I loved almost everything about making this top. I followed the class from Craftsy which taught me how to use a spreadsheet to calculate everything – from piece count to yardage. I love spreadsheets and they made the process so easy. Then I did all the cutting. That was not my favorite part, but didn’t take so long either. Then I worked the 16 blocks 2-3 at a time. I plotted them on my design board and puzzled through (literally) how to sew the pieces together in the best way. It was like a giant game of Sudoku. While my husband would read bedtime stories, and often after bedtime I would chain sew and press. If I had laid out the blocks ahead of time, I could usually get most of the two blocks put together during story time. Then I would finish up after bed or during nap and then get the next couplefew plotted.

The absolute #1 thing that helped that I am so glad I did is taking a picture of each layout before I started sewing. Then I was able to chain sew many at a time from multiple blocks and look at the picture to quickly and easily figure out how to place them all back together again for the next round of sewing.

I had the top finished by mid month and have just been waiting for the linky to open up to post about it. My son already loves it and doesn’t care at all that it is not a full blanket yet. He carries it around the house and wraps himself in it. I actually snuck it away and folded it up so it doesn’t get ruined before I can finish it. I have a back picked out and am just dragging my feet getting it ordered.

Then I got flu and not much has happened. I finished making my chevron squares yesterday and am trimming them up so I hope to get that top put together soon. I’m looking around for fabrics for the back of my bento. I have some oranges but I need some green. I had one picked out on sale but it went off sale while I was sick. Hoping it’ll go back on sale soon. Every now and then I cut some more squares for economy blocks, but haven’t started putting them together yet.

Here is my goal post for ALYOF February

Here are all my posts about this project

WIP Wednesday: Pixel quilt

I’ve been diligently working on my pixel quilt. I have 6 blocks done, but as one is just a white square I guess it doesn’t count. I am working my way around the outside first, mostly to use the large white pieces to get them out of my box of cut pieces so I can see and easily get to the smaller ones. I am able to do 2-3 a day as long as I really focus on getting them done. Today… I am having a couch day. LOL. I need to do some cleaning.

It has been fun to work on. I took the Craftsy pixel class and followed that course to make this quilt. I enjoy the process of using the spreadsheet and calculating and plotting and everything. It is fun to me to have to think through how to sew the pieces together in the most appropriate way. And, because they are just squares and rectangles, they go together quickly. If I had more time in the day to sew, I could easily have this done in a day or two.

I see you!

Those are the blocks I have done so far, but they aren’t in proper order or orientation. Just however I threw them on the board to get the picture. My son saw me with the plan printout last night and shouted “Piggy!” and oinking and stuff, so at least the plan is clear enough for him to tell what it is. I hope he will like it. I have no less than four piggies in my line of sight at this very moment. Time to clean.

ALYOF February

Oh my goodness you guys, I am so undecided! I have been going back and forth on my goal pick for February. Do I pick the one I want to do? The one I know will get done? The one I need motivation on? The one that is closest to done? Furthest? Grr.

Even as I write this, I am waffling back and forth. Of course, I hope to get several of these done regardless, but I know I will put the effort into making sure my finish pick gets done.

Ugh. So the winner is….?

pixel quilt

These are the pieces I cut last month for my pixel quilt while my machine wasn’t working. My goal is to get the top pieced this month. I had a lot of fun plotting it out up to this point, but I am guessing I will need an extra kick in the pants to get to putting it together, because I have several other things I am itching to get to more.

I’ve mentioned before my son LOVES bad piggies. I have a whole collection of these little critters now (which believe me, they are not as easy to find as angry birds! So when I find them, I grab them up.) He carries them around the house, has a plush one he loves to cuddle, plays them on the various electronics. Until recently, he didn’t know the birds existed. He is all about the piggies.

So, I haven’t plotted it out yet, but this is what my top will (hopefully!) resemble when I am done:

I am a bit behind because of my trip, but will be back with further goals for the month.