Locked myself in ..

Today I squirreled myself away in my sewing room and worked on the wc more until i was happier with it - got it to the point where it was pretty good, then started to change things .. made it more central single flower, and other smaller flowers scattered in the background - that's the part i'm working on and also getting the central flower more 'there' .. it's close, but not there yet. I need to take out the 'string' of background flowers that was originally there and develop smaller darker clusters of flowers .. I have maybe 3 of them just so .. I'm not sure about the inner border just at the edges now .. will have to think about that one some more ..

Well the sister's block's are finall done - all I have left is the 8 Ohio Star blocks, then I start to put the sections together and quilt (!) .. WOW! I have flannel on the way for the batting, have decided to just do a narrow strip (2½") for the one border and that will be it. Of course there's still the back stitching by hand when I have these sections together - but it will be a LOT better than trying to manhandle this beast in my 15-91 - I love this machine, but this quilt's a LOT bigger than we are ;)

I'm hoping tomorrow to get the Ohio Star blocks cut out and start to stitch, but I've a few things to do and might not get the chance .. I'm really hoping .. would hate to resort to locking myself in my sewing room again ;) Altho I rather do like it in here!

Lots of little stuff done ..

Another day with stuff accomplished, but not a red letter day like yesterday ... but still a nice productive day.

While watching the Tigers play tonite, I decided to put that time to good use and finally frogged the Underground Railroad blocks .. so those are all done and ready for me.

All of the pieces for these blue Sister blocks was cut out, and I pieced 4 of them. I opted not to do the draw the line then sew, then cut. What i did do, was make sure that these squares measured 3" and then put them right sides together and then cut them in half for the HSTs. After they were stitched and pressed, I squared them up. Yes this took a bit longer, but I knew that my pieces were good to go and that sewing them together wouldn't be aggravating. I didn't have to spend as much time hiding wonky seams like I did yesterday - so it did go faster in that regard. Four more of these left - the the Ohio Star blocks :)

I changed my mind about the backing for the Ohio Stars - It was a yellow cream with red berries and blue flowers on it - quilt pro doesn't take these to size and it makes it tricky to figure exactly what the scale will be - and that is just way to much math for me to bother with .. so I did it the old fashioned way .. i pulled out my choices and then put the blue sisters block on top of it .. I showed it to reg and he goes .. well definitely not THAT one .. guess what "THAT" one was .. yup - the orginal fabric I had picked LOL .. so I pulled some paisleys that I have and one was all various shades of pink and just didn't look right ... I decided on this one because of the blue and cream in the pattern .. I have more than enough of it and it's a good compliment to the rest of the quilt . the Ohio Star blocks will be near the red Double X blocks and the Sisters Blocks .. so I needed something that would go well with those colours.

Last night I cut all the squares for the summer mystery quilt for August 9^th. I made a few changes in my fabrics and these are the final ones .. no going back now .. they are cut - my first mystery :D :D :D

I joined a new list a few days ago - this list is called abstract challenge .. there is a monthly challenge based on a concept, and you need to create an 8" quiltlet that shows this concept .. you can use any embellishment to help you do this .. paints, buttons, lace, ribbons, rickrack - whathaveyou .. I'm really looking forward to this and can't wait .. This is really going to stretch my creative muscles in a way I would like to grow them ..

So didn't get HUGE amounts of stuff done, but did get a lot done - little things that needed to be done - But I do have a few really neat things to look forward to - the challenge, the mystery, getting my blocks done for my quilt, then attaching the border - Not much longer till I have all the blocks done .. wow .. I need to think about my next project - heheheheheheh - Like that's ever been a problem

I'm my own worst enemy somedays :S heh

You know, I just couldn't figure out for the life of me why my rectangles in these sisters blocks were giving me so much grief .. my test block went off without a hitch .. so - I decided to get very extra steps .. with each star point that I did, I square up the pieces .. the squared pieces would be 4¾" square, so i squared them up and then realized immediately, that my rectangles were cut for 2⁵/8 x 4⁵/8 - Oh Bloody HELL!! NO freeping wonder - AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH - **deep breath** Okay .. no big deal, sew my seam an ¹/8" shorter - well that worked .. my block laid flat - whew!

I discovered another issue while doing this .. with my 'testing' my sewing and doing the speed piecing method, I did those HSTs at a spot-on ¼" seam, well my math / directions etc called for a smidge less .. so my HSTs aren't exactly 2⁵/8" when finished .. talk about being your own worst enemy. I'm going to end up with squished points on these stars, but some will be okay.

So these next 4 blocks with this blue, will be done VERY carefully .. but they will be a nice flat 11" unfinished block :D

Thank God I only have 8 more of these blocks to go after these 4 - the strips are cut out already so I can correct the rectangle for the next 8, and will do my smidge seam for the HSTs .. those blocks might actually be 'perfect' .. heh .. I certainly don't have to worry about this quilt being perfect .. it's well past that LOL

Good things do come :)

My son has been trying to get back into my good graces by doing some yuck work in the basement .. well in his workings yesterday he found a box that I've been crazy looking for - you know ... the one that is listed in my projects to find?? The one with my dyes, green pigma pen, pooh bear stamps, handing quilting thread and all those betweens?? I asked him this morning to please keep his eyes open for a box that had this stuff in it .. wouldn't you know, the little darling said, "Oh, I found that yesterday!" I dared not hope too hard - but he brings it up and voila! There's my missing stuff .. the box wasn't labelled so no wonder I couldn't find the blasted thing!! But I have my fabric dyes again - oh and novelty buttons that I forgot I had .. altho, I thought I had more of them - He's going to keeps his eyes open for other sewing related stuff .. this is just GREAT news!!!!

Blue Sisters in progress; piecing methods

Tonite I tried a technique that I'd not done in a long time. My HSTs were a wee bit wonky, so I decided to try speed piecing to see if it was my cutting or stitching. I really am not fond of this method for several reasons;
1) It seems to take forever to get the lines drawn;
2) I am crouched over my cutting table longer than I wanted to be and
3) my smaller rulers are MIA at this point and time, I know that one is broken, I found it when I was packing up the basement before we moved (GRRR - KIDS).

I really do prefer chain piecing - for me that is the quickest and most accurate way to piece. You rather get into a groove with doing the pieces.

I just happened to be looking around when I spotted my corner marker ruler that I don't use anymore and saw my 11" cutting mat - light bulb went off ... I can sit at the machine and do my lines, stitching and cuts. Well that's what I did and I have discovered that it's not my cutting or sewing, it's my pressing .. I'm dragging the iron over these pieces and it puts them out of whack! Well there's that problem solved :D So in the meantime, I've my HSTs done for 8 of the blue Sister's blocks and only 3 sewn up .. it does take longer - or so it seems ... I'm not sure at this point, because even though I started later, I fully expected to have the 8 blocks put together tonite .. ah well .. there's the 5 to do tomorrow (later today actually :S) and then cut out the other 8 blue sisters blocks. I'm still moving forward - slowly but surely .. I'm sure the the rest of these will make up in no time at all

Moving along ...

Today was productive :D Not HUGE productive, but definitely moving forward.

I finished the inner sisters blocks so those are all done now, and have cut the strips for the 16 outer blocks. I had 2, ½ yd pieces of blue that I really liked and wanted to use and happend to get lucky as these strips needed 16 ⁷/8" and I had 18" of each ;) **kittyhappydance**.

Please pray for no cutting mistakes .. because there is no room for error .. BUT if I do mess up, I have 2 other blues that will fit in nicely here .. matter of fact, if I didn't have enough of the two blues, then I would have used this other 2 FQs as fillers - so it works out.

My adjustments worked for these blocks .. I did ¼" seams instead of my smidge less, and my blocks were just about spot-on! Heh .. only 16 more to go (!)

Since I just have these blocks and the 8 Ohio Stars to make, I've been starting to think about my borders .. I played with a few tonite and I really like a few of the 9 patch and 4 patch variations - but this border is only 2 ½" wide .. so I think that either an alternating block border or just a strip would be better .. the quilt has it's own personality and a pieced border isn't going to be necessary ..

Now the other thing that I was thinking that since I am doing quilt as you go, then maybe i should just add my strip on when I put the pieces together .. this will just add the 2" or so at the one side. And they should (hopefully) be square-ish when they are put together. Oh this quilt measures 100½ x 100½", so a wide border will not be needed to finish it off - matter of fact, I think that it will pull away from the flow and design of the quilt top

Why write notes if you don't review them ...

I thought I would try and save some time by reposting the previous pic of my inner Sister's block .. well i looked at it and it was the one that was all wonky .. Heh .. to bad I didn't look at it before I started to sew this one up. **Future Note to Self: Go back over your previous notes you twit!! (@@) Might have saved some frogging. Nothing to major though.

Lately my cutting seems to be off a bit, not sure why - the ruler's not moving - I might not have the fold lined up properly. So I've 'adjusted', I've gotten in the habit of making my seam a smidge - no not scant - smidge less than ¼" just to leave myself some wiggle room - well I'm also doing that when I cut .. just a few threads past the lines .. well combine the smidge with a few threads on a block that has a lot of pieces, and you are looking at ¼ - ½" of extra fabric sticking out the edges when you make a block that has this many pieces. With less pieces, it's not that much.

If I had looked at the block before i started to sew, I would have went - ahhhhh .. and not made the same mistake twice .. see what happens when you don't come back to something for a bit?? Creates all sorts of mischief with yourself LOL

At any rate, I fixed it as I went along, and while I'm going to lose the points on this block, I'll know what NOT to do for the other 3 inner Sisters and the 16 outer Sisters.

Well, it's after 4am (again) I'm off .. let's hope I can sleep .. was up til round 9am yesterday, then slept to 2pm I think .. I dragged all day with sleeping like that :\

You know .. I'm wondering why all the pics I take of my blocks look 'off' .. I KNOW they they are squared, but you sure wouldn't think so looking at this picture ...

Crippled Internet

I've been totally beside myself without my internet .. amazing how much that becomes part of your day-to-day life .. been restless and prowling around bouncing off the walls ... unable to settle long enough to work on anything for any length of time - I've driven myself to total distraction.

While my internet was gone, I took a vaca from my 1800 quilt - I was rather disgusted with myself for flipping that row around and also for the way the other block finished up.

I'm not sure what I thought I was doing / thinking (??), but my cuts on that one block were ¹/₈ - ½" larger than they needed to be :S .. bah .. so what this meant was, I needed to check and square up those HSTs :S - well it could be worse .. this could have been 12 blocks instead of the 5 blocks for the inner section. Actually they weren't all that bad .. just the little bit that i normally leave extra to allow me 'flubbing' during sewing. My machine pulls a wee bit and I've found that cutting a smidge more gives me some leeway .. boty did I have lee way

I did manage to get them squared and my block ended up - are you ready for this 11 x 11½" - bah .. so squaring that one up made things interesting .. I'm not going to have sharp points on part of that block, but I'm not sure I want to cut more pieces out .. I'm just going to be super careful doing the rest of the blocks :D

I've two whole cloth quilts and I'm half entertaining the idea of basting them to do and have some hand work to do .. There's a LOT of work to do there and I'm sure it'll keep my busy for a LONG time. I have 2 kits by American Heritage Quilt Collection - a wallhanging; 40 x 40" (left image - Victorian Garden), and a throw; 54 x 69" (right image - Grape Wreath) .. what's nice about these is that the top, backing and pre-cut bias are included and the quilting design is stamped, washes out in cold water .. so all i have to do is supply the batting, thread and the quilting :) When I got these, my plan was to use coloured thread, and i'm still going to use coloured .. just what colour and exactly how much thread to one of these use?? would hate to run out of thread while i'm doing and not being able to get close to the colour - we all know about dye lots :S

This looks much better in person - I'm still thinking i got wayyy to much brown .. but ah well - I'm sure I won't be using brown for a while - a LONG WHILE ..

I would have preferred to do the star points in darker greens .. I just didn't have any that were large enough without having to use 3 or 4 different colours - this quilt is going to be 'colourful' enough as it is :)

I've managed to get the 5 sisters blocks done and my center section. :) I'm thinking the Double X blocks next .. :)

No Internet To-do

1. Center Section


2. Fix upsdown section in Underground RR


3. Double X's Section


4. start quilting kitty quilt


5. baste wall hanging - maybe

WOOT WOOT .. i'm back ... but bloody well crippled .. blasted dial-up GRRRRRRRRRRR

Sister; meet froggy .. Then things in gutters

I wish I knew what I did wrong here .. the only thing that would make sense is that my HSTs weren't the right size .. I've not done a block like this since I was a rookie quilter

So needless to say, this one gets frogged, and the blocks trimmed down to the right size ..

Esh .. what a mess .. I did this last nite and was just to bloody tired to try and figure it out .. or even mess with it .. and totally disgusted with myself too ..

Got up today with a headache and went promptly back to sleep ... then up again to clean out my gutters - well the weight and crap that had been up there bent the gutters down so that when it rained, i still have a waterfall coming down .. but at least the 3" x 2" hole that I covered with metal tape worked .. so up i go again tomorrow to try and bend the gutters back with pliers, a board and a hammer ..

Would you believe that I pulled out from the gutter

a shoe

3 balls

patio torch

hose nozzle

monkey wrench

all in the one gutter .. esh!!!