Tic Tac Quack!

It's Tic Tac Quack's turn today.  This one has the easiest focus block of the three Tic Tac Who? quilts.

Tic Tac Quack

You might remember my first rubber duck block attempt yielded a rather chubby duck. I'm glad I went back to the drawing board.  This one fits the space just as I hoped.

 

I tried to quilt random wavy lines for the waves.  I've seen lovely quilting like that, but whatever I was doing didn't do the trick.  It looked like one big mess.  I ended up ripping out the quilting (I quit after finishing about a quarter of the quilt, so it didn't take to long to rip out) and starting over after marking lines.  I used a flexible curve, the kind used in drafting I think, to copy the curve.  This, like most of my quilts, was quilted with a walking foot.

I don't know if you can make out the detail in the binding.  I used the same bubble print as in the square right below the duck. It reminds me of bubble bath.  When my kids were little, rubber ducks and bubble bath were a great bath time team.

Have a great weekend!  I hope you'll drop in to see Tic Tac Hoot! in more detail tomorrow.

Tic Tac Who?

Last winter several customers at the shop where I work were looking for baby quilt patterns with something cute but not applique.  Quick and easy but not just squares.  Oh, and small enough to be able to use a single length of regular width (42"-ish) fabric for the back.  The wheels in my head started turning.  With other projects in the works, it took a while for these ideas to become finished quilts, but here they are at last, each 38" x 47".  I love how they turned out

Tic Tac Quack, Tic Tac Hoot and Tic Tac Woof

The pieced focus block is the only slightly challenging part of each quilt.  The duck is the easiest, followed by the puppy, then by the owl.  I quilted them with my walking foot on my domestic machine, and kept the quilting simple to continue the "simple" theme.

I think I'll give each quilt its own post over the next few days to share lots of pictures.

All three block designs will be included in one pattern Tic Tac Who? The pattern is about 3/4 finished, then I'll be looking for volunteers to test the blocks and/or quilt.  Let me know if you're interested!

Linking up with

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Tweaking designs

 I thought I had this block all figured out on paper.

Not bad, but hubby thought he looked a little, well, bloated.  Part of me just wanted to get this quilt done and said it was fine.  The other part of me wanted to get this done right and agreed Ducky was a little round.  After tweaking the design and cutting into more scraps, I think Ducky looks more comfortable, and certainly more like the rubber duckies gathering dust atop my bathroom cabinet since the kids outgrew them.

You can see I have done a bit more work beyond just the block, but I'm not quite ready for the reveal yet.  Soon!

I tweaked my puppy block too.  At least I figured that one out before sewing.  Here's how he started out.

 

He didn't quite fill the block the way I needed him to.  Plus, when I came back to him after a good night's sleep I no longer thought he was cute.  He seemed rather stern, like a guard dog on duty.  I started over almost from scratch to transform him into a cuddlier-looking pooch.

Now I'm working on Mr. Owl.  I went through several iterations in EQ. The first few looked more like bats.  I also polled my coworkers for opinions and fine-tuned him a little.

He needs a few little tweaks, including to my medium brown fabric choice.  I think the print is too busy and he'd look better in a solid or an almost-solid.  I think the design is almost set, though I'm not quite sure about those ear tufts, and that beak is not quite right.  I'll sleep on it and see.  I know exactly where he's going to live once I get him just right!

Linking up with

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts