"On the plains of Oklahoma, with a windshield sunset in your eyes like a watercolor painted sky, you'd think heavens doors have opened."
Fly Over States



Saturday, September 5, 2009

Contrary Husband


So far, it has been a pretty mellow Labor Day weekend. Check out the girls:



Evelyn completely cracks me up when she is sleeping. She really gets into it.





I spent some time reading the instructions for the Sylvia Bridal Sampler blocks (I am a pretty exciting person) and noticed that quite a few of them called for half square triangles of 2 3/8ths. That is darn close to my 2.5 inch jelly rolls that I have in brights so I made up a bunch and can trim them to fit as I do blocks. I'd make them slightly larger and trim them down, anyway.


Darn tedious, let me tell ya.

I decided to make the block, Contrary Husband.


Contrary Husband is a super simple block (does that say something about husbands?). In the interest of full disclosure for the nonquilters among us, there is also a famous traditional block named Contrary Wife that I will be doing, soon.

Both blocks were named in a more gentle time. These days, I hate to think what someone would name blocks reflecting the nature of a cranky spouse. I knew someone who used to insist that his wife always called him a**hole. I thought that was pretty rude. Around here, "Control Freak" is about as bad as it gets but I guess that isn't very nice, either. I wonder what a block called "Control Freak" would look like? I certainly don't want to see a block named "a**hole." Nor would I want to be married to one.

And to think, I went off on that tangent without even having the benefit of alcohol!

I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it. Not sure why since it is ORANGE and PINK. There is something wrong with me.


Here are some of the pieces I used:


See how nice those half square triangles turned out?

Here is Contrary Husband unassembled:



Here it is, assembled - amazingly, when I went to square it up, there was no need:


Pressing the pieces and the blocks under my heavy slab of wood really helps.

Here are my blocks, to date:


I only made one block, today. Making those triangles took up most of my stitching time.

For a treat, check out Britquilter's blog - it has pictures of her Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and it is spectacular.

And here is one by GardenPat that I just love.

Off to eat cheetoes. Yes, I know it is 9:40 at night.

You shut up.

Control Freak.

7 comments:

BilboWaggins said...

After the shenanigans of yesterday (are those play fights or does Pearl mean it sometimes?) who would believe those two sleeping beauties are the same dear girls?

Haven't yet worked out how Evelyn gets herself into that position. Perhaps you can video her sometime (like you don't already have plenty to do, ha ha ha ha)

Paula said...

I used to have a Himilayan cat that slept like Evelyn does. Because of her coloring, she always looked like a dead otter! It would scare the mess out of visitors. And Penny, if there's really something wrong with you, I'd prescribe getting out of the DC area and back to Oklahoma ASAP!

Paula

Lady Beekeeper said...

Bilbo, they are just playing. No blood drawn, never even a scratch. However, Pearl sometimes goes around looking like a billygoat with a beard of blown samoyed coat hanging out of her mouth.

Paula - husband always says Evelyn needs to have a bunch of lilies on her chest as she looks laid out for a viewing.

InfinityQuilter/Knitter said...

Good luck with the sampler. I tried to make a Dear Jane my 2nd year of quilting. There were no real directions and they were 4" blocks. What was I thinking?!?!

Stephanie D said...

I can no longer tell the difference between Pearl and Evelyn anymore.

Evelyn reminds me of Smudge, Cathi's cat, who poses a lot like Evelyn. Check out this photo of him:
http://quiltobsession.blogspot.com/2009/09/snow-crystal-block-12.html

Okay, it's 10:30 in the morning here. Please pass the cheetos.

Cathi said...

I can see the similarities between Smudge & Evelyn!!

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