Friday, April 11, 2008

Look Marsha, I'm Squiggling!

A few weeks ago, I visited Marsha at her blog "Threadbender" and saw her fabulous quilt, "Squiggles at Night." It was love at first sight. Her quilt is so whimsical and colorful and full of life--I just had to make one like it. I emailed her and asked her if I could use her design to make a squiggle quilt of my own, and she kindly gave her permission. Thanks, Marsha! I am SO enjoying making your wonderful design. I'm squiggling with joy!! These are my first squiggles. Not bad, eh? Let me tell you, squiggling is addictive! All these beautiful colors on black are fun right now. I haven't made a bright quilt in quite some time. Once I started squiggling, I just couldn't stop!
I was squiggling only four squiggles per block, but I decided that more was merrier. Here are the squiggle blocks I've made so far on my design wall:

The alternating blocks are Marsha's design, too. They're sort of wonky and free-pieced using Marsha's formula.

I think I'll name my Squiggles quilt, "Box Jellys" because to me, the squiggles look just like iridescent jellyfish tendrils streaming down from glowing box jellyfish. The "box" part is a little joke because the blocks are square like a box, see? Hee hee. I crack myself up.

I spent the day totally blissed out in my sewing room, wading through my stacks of batiks. I started out with nice color-coordinated stacks, but a few hours in, total chaos ensued: Gosh, they're even beautiful in a big tangle. I haven't worked with batiks in a while; I think I was sick of them for a time. So dragging them out again for a project--and setting them against black--whoo hoo! I'm appreciating how beautiful they are all over again.

And what does one wear if one is planning on spending an entire blissful day immersed in one's sewing room, playing with gorgeous fabric?
Bedsheets, of course! This sheet skirt is the most comfortable thing EVER. As soon as I can get to Wal Mart to buy some more 1/2" non-roll elastic, I'm going to have a whole week's worth of these puppies. I may even make some lounge pants, too.
Mr. Bigglesworth watched me all day from his curtain vantage point. He's probably wondering why I'm wearing my bed.

25 comments:

qusic said...

I am so tempted to join in the sqiggle fun, looks great! but I have a deadline to meet.........
by the way a great way to use strippy leftovers:)
LLAP Ch.

Anonymous said...

Wow, the quilt looks great. I must say your cat has a good place to see around! I made this morning an orange pincushion. I forgot to tell you that it was nice to see the tropical flowers yesterday!Have a nice weekend!

Dawn said...

Love, love, L.O.V.E--your squiggle quilt blocks. And you are so flirty and gorgeous in your new skirt, inspite of what Mr. Bigglesworth may be thinking.....

Busy Little Quilter said...

I love the squiggles! They sort of remind me of gummy worms!

I love the skirt. I bought that book last year, but I have never made anything. There are a lot of cute skirt patterns. It would be nice to have a skirt that fits.

dutchcomfort said...

What an amazingly beautiful whimsical sguiggling box quilt! Love the colours!
I wonder how Mr. Bigglesworth has climbed into the curtains?

Anonymous said...

Your skirt looks so totally cool! That was EXACTLY the kind of white blouse I was picturing it with too! How'd you do that? You could so get away with wearing it out in public. I think it looks wonderfully cool in a "It's too hot" sort of way, you know, like seersucker fabric, just looks like it'd be cooler to wear. Now lounge pants? I don't know, I'll have to see them first. But that quilt, is so fascinating to look at. Your eye for color is really amazing.

OK, done gushing now. I'm off to a sheep farm where the lady only has a fleece guy come in to shear them, she cleans, cards, spins, and dyes, all without blending the sheep together. So, the yarn I'm buying today is coming from Blossom. I'm so excited.

Mom IsAmagpie said...

Those squiggles are amazing! I love the bright colors!

Under the Lychee Tree said...

Simply stunning! You did a fabulous job combining the colors.

Tine said...

I still like that skirt!
And the squiggles aer really cool! Bright and happy :-)

Cathi said...

I love the squiggles! Very very tempting.

Mr. Bigglesworth certainly has a good vantage point! How on earth does he get up there?

Anonymous said...

LISA!! Gorgeous, gorgeous. I love your blocks!! You, of course, did a great job. You are right, they do look like Box Jellies. I hope everyone that tries these will let me know when they post theirs, I would love to see them all.

Mr. Bigglesworth is where I would want to be, at the highest vantage point. Always a safe place.

Don't the squiggles go fast. I was always surprised how fast I could squiggle and how quickly they took on a life of their own.

Squiggle on!

susan said...

i love your squiggles and you are getting so much more adventurous in colors...remember that laura lee fritz class and you about had a heart attack cause you used such bright colors...you hated that quilt. i think you called it pizza something...maybe i will have to go check out her site and do some squiggles of my own...we got over a foot of heavy wet snow...i feel trying to fill one of the bird feeders, kinds twisted my knee, the fake titanium one...yikes...it was funny...i feel in the snow and i couldnt get up and mark just stood there looking at me. i kind of had to dig my way into a spot that would support my weight as i tried to get up stiff legged with toes dug in...not a pretty sight for my neighbor paulie..... :-)

jacquie said...

Squiggles are pretty cool.

Anonymous said...

Totally you! I love it...so cute. Can't wait to see your border...you always choose the most fantastic border!!!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Bigglesworth looks like he is pretending he is a mountain lion watching for prey. So majestic.

I like the fact that your Squiggle blocks have 7 Squiggles per block. 7 is my lucky number!

Suzy said...

How cool! The black background really makes the beautiful, bright batiks sing! The squiggles look sort of like gummy worms to me . . . or maybe I'm just hungry. LOL!

Cathie said...

Lisa, you are so funny!! Of course you are wearing your bedsheets... what else could a person do when concentration is called for? lol! I think that skirt is adorable.

I love the squiggled box jellies! They DO look like great fun!

Cath

jovaliquilts said...

So fun! And there's nothing like black with brights. Thanks for posting the link to Marsha's blog, it's great!

Kellie said...

I KNEW that sheety skirt would be adorable w/a white button up shirt!

Squiggly quilting looks like so much fun!

Sally said...

I must try that squiggly quilting myself,and very soon! Love the travelogue - thanks for sharing. I've listed you on my random blog today.

Elaine Adair said...

Quirky squiggles, not-TOO-quirky skirt, but your valance decoration is too much! LOL

Brooke said...

I'm telling you I love that skirt! I don't know if Mr. B likes it so much by the look on his face!

Anonymous said...

Lisa,

I want to purchase plans for one of your husbands clocks. Later I want to build the calender and orrey. I want to pay with a cashiers check. I do not use credit cards.

Bill Ables
b-ables@raytheon.com

Remember the Alamode said...

I'm glad I found you. Love your blog! I have been trying to find a pattern for a zippered pouch that I remembered seeing in a book by Nancy Ziemans (of the sewing with Nancy show). It's a rectangular pouch that has an interesting way of bringing seams together. One end of the pouch has the seam horizontal, the other end of the pouch has the seam going vertically. Does this ring a bell with you or any of your friends out there in the blogosphere? If I can't find that pattern, I will make the one you have displayed in this blog, which is cute as a bug's ear.

Monique Martin said...

Marsha,
I found this quilt on the web by chance, and immediatly I make one but mine is rather brown. When finished I"ll send you a picture if
you give me your mail address.
Thank you for this beautiful quilt. Sincerely
Monique Martin - France