Distracted Quilter

Home Again Home Again... Jiggedy-Jig

2011-12-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

The testing for the new job went very well. I knew I had nailed it as soon as it was over. When I got home last night (to an enthusiastic greeting by my lonely fat cat) there was a voice-mail message inviting me back for a panel interview next week. Hooray! Not that I have previously found submitting to a panel interview is necessarily something to look forward to with anything but trepidation, but at this point I'd be excited at running an obstacle course set up by the military if it meant I could get a good job.

That gives me a week to do a little catch up on my Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday Sampler blocks, finish my pieced border on the Great HST Caper, sew the binding on a queen size quilt that has been languishing since it got back from the long-arm quilter, and generally surf all my favourite quilt blogs to see what everyone else is up to. I'm glad now that I did not jump in on Orca Bay as it would have to be put aside while my life is in transitional turmoil.

Off to fondle my fabrics and make nice to my neglected sewing machine...

New Blog Home for Modern Monday & Traditional Tuesday

2011-12-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Jenifer Dick has launched a new updated fancy-schmancy blog. It's bright. It's cheerful. It's got quick links to all the blocks for the two samplers currently underway - Modern Monday and Tradtional Tuesday

42 Quilts: Welcome to the new 42 Quilts!

If you follow her old blog, you'll want to sign up on the new one, cuz a little birdie whispered in my ear that when she's done transfering her files, pics, patterns and tutorials - the old blog is going to slowly fade away...

Meanwhile.... back in the mess that is the distracted quilter's home (and fat cat too), I am anxiously getting my ~~crap~~ act together to skedaddle out of town for a job interview (blogger really should have a sound effect - something dramatic or angelic would be appropriate here). I'd love to be sewing, sorting, quilting.... but I need to land a job or I, my cat, and my fabric will all be homeless soon. I have no illusions as to Lucas's fidelity. He may be affectionate, but his priorities are food, some place warm to snooze, and catnip. So I've been studying, drinking gallons of coffee, biting my fingernails and alternately laughing with excited joy and crying with anxious terror.

I'll be back next Tuesday, and will have time to do a little catch up then, while waiting for the results of the first round of testing.

MIA - Laid up with a bad back

2011-11-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

My neighbour knocked on my door today. Haven't seen your light on in the front window where you sew, she said. Haven't heard the hum of your sewing machine through the paper-thin walls of our kitchens.... thought you might be dead. Ha Ha. Presumably the only thing that could keep me from sewing is passing on to the Happy Hunting Ground.

There's a simpler explanation. I'm laid up with a bad back. I'm not exactly sure how it happened. I think it was from moving the boxes in my spare room (to give access to the heating system by my landlord and his heating specialist). One moment I was fine and the next, I was twisted like a pretzel. I walked around bent over for a couple of days. It's very annoying, not to mention painful, not the worst of which was that at that angle I could see all the dust that has accumulated on top of the base boards. I'm somewhat taller and straighter now. And I'm keeping busy reading novels from the stack of dusty to-be-read pile of books. I hope to be back sewing in the next couple of days.

Lessons we can learn from geese

2011-11-21T15:08:00.002-07:00

My post today is not quilt-related, though I do believe a room full of quilters can sometimes sound like a flock of geese... Maybe 20 years ago, I attended a team-building exercise with a group of co-workers. The following article was in our course materials without attribution to the author. I spent some time on the web today trying to track down the original author, and came up with three different names and a whole lot of confusion. So, you'll forgive me, I hope, for not having the full attribution information.

I always loved the article. I grew up on a ranch in the middle of Alberta, where the geese fly in by the thousands in the fall, and (to the general annoyance of farmers) stop to snack on the ripe grain before flying south. It is an awesome sight to behold the sky filled with them. I always kept this article in my inspiration file. In cleaning out some paper work today I came across it again and thought I'd share. The noble Canada Goose, our national bird, can live 30 years in the wild, is monogamous, loyal, brave, and flies thousands of miles to and from it's summer breeding grounds in the north to its southern winter grounds every year.

Lessons We Can Learn From Geese
Humans, like geese, were created to work together and to support one another. When we encourage each other and support our leaders we can accomplish amazing things much more than trying to work alone.

Fact 1: As each goose flaps its wings it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Fact 2: When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Fact 3: When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position.

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

Fact 4: The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

Fact 5: When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

So, the next time you see geese flying above, take a moment to remind yourself just how smart they are, and what we can learn from them. The geese teach us to work as a team, work together in unity, share the hard jobs when it comes to leading, and honk from behind to encourage others.

What does your honk say about you?

Zig Zag Components done

2011-11-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

It may not look like much, but it took 4 hours today to get the sewing, pressing, and cutting to finish all the zigs and zags for my Great HST Caper border to this point.

I still have about 250 bonus HSTs to press open, but I'm done for the day. My energy level just drooped, so it's a good point at which to stop and spend a little time catching up on what everyone else is doing. Going blog surfing now. It's another of my all-time favourite things to do.

Zigs and Zags

2011-11-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

I made a few zigs and a few zags, then laid them out with the light floral next to the Great HST Caper quilt top. I love it.

At this point I can't imagine liking flying geese better, so I'm just going to proceed making my little scrappy zig zag border treatment. I had enough squares cut with lines drawn on the back to sew the pieced border bricks for one long side. I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting squares and drawing my sewing lines for the next three strips.

And the bonus half square triangles I nearly had a melt-down over yesterday...

They are going to trim out at 1.5" square and finish at 1". I decided to just make them and figure out what to use them for some other day.

As for Orca Bay, now that I have the black tonal fabric to use in the first step, there's no reason why I can't get started on making the 2.5" hourglass blocks this week, along with ironing and folding my new stash fabrics.

Here, have a cookie!

2011-11-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

I never indulged in tantrums as a child. My mother had a way of just looking at us that told us that was not a wise choice, not if we expected to live to see another day. As a result of that upbringing, and because I never had children of my own, I tend to look on people dealing with screaming children in stores with a jaundiced eye. Here, have a cookie I've heard some desperate parent say in a cajoling tone. One should never under estimate the effectiveness of a sweet treat to calm a fractious angry child, and turn tears into smiles. The same thing goes for quilters.

I bundled up to go out this morning. It's gotten even colder. First there was the garbage that had to go out. With no respite in the weather until Monday or Tuesday (we're supposed to get back up above freezing), I was not willing to live with it in the house. Lucas has a strong attraction for plastic bags, especially those containing smelly garbage - a remnant of his life as a stray, no doubt. More urgent, I was out of coffee. I pulled on my winter boots for the first time since last winter, shrugged into my winter coat (sheesh they're heavy), and while digging in the pockets for my mittens, found $20 in the pocket! That bit of good fortune would have been sufficient to make my day. But wait - it gets better.

I stopped by the mailbox on the way out the door, flipped through the advertisements and the bills - then came across three parcel pick-up notices. Three. I stared at them, blinking in confusion. Three? What the heck had I ordered? and more to the point, why hadn't the Postie buzzed my apartment to deliver them when he dropped off the notices?! Somewhat confused, but with a light heart now leaping with joy, I made my way to the Postal counter at the convenience store two blocks from my apartment, not noticing the cold, or the wind, and not even feeling annoyed with the Postie who had obviously had my parcel all along, but didn't bother to ring my buzzer (probably under the mistaken notion that I was at work and not at home). The first parcel had the black tonal I ordered, plus a few other fabrics I had forgotten about completely. The black with grey and the grey are both Kaufman fabrics, the black tonal is from Kansas Troubles by Moda.

And, then the rest of the package contains fabrics I added to the order to fill up the USPS envelope (it's the same shipping price whether the envelope is half full or jam packed, so definitely cost effective to add a few other items - the rationalization of a fabric addict) - the Timeless Treasures celery green tonal because I don't have any of that happy colour in my stash, the Sandy Gervais Burnt Orange (plus a fat quarter to make up for the fact that the yardage was short) because I can't resist a gorgeous orange, and a cream neutral (another Kaufman) because one can never have too many neutrals.

I made a pot of fresh coffee and turned my attention to the next two parcels. I now knew what was in them - Kaufman fusions - from a sale I found in a wonderful new-to-me online shop Craft Town Fabrics in Indiana. They have Kaufman fusions on sale for $7.48 / yard, whereas those same fabrics (if you can find them) are over $20 / metre here.

I did exercise some restraint (though it may not be immediately apparent) by restricting my purchases in the most part to colours I have little of, buying 1/2 yards instead of yards for at least half of them, and 1 yard instead of 2 for the rest, well... except for one of the oranges and the neutral. This is my early Christmas present to myself, a luxurious indulgence, and I should add that I did go a full 18 months without buying a new fabric.

Now I have a stack of fabric to iron and fold. I am persnickety about folding my fabrics so that they all fit nicely in my stash. I don't pre-wash. For years I belonged to a swap group that insisted on unwashed fabrics, so my stash is 95% unwashed, and at $4 to wash and dry a load of fabric, it's going to stay that way. When I participate in a swap that requires washed fabrics, or work on a project that is using the last of my pre-washed stash, I will toss the fabrics I need into the laundry. But I've learned from experience, that I can mix strips of pre-washed and unwashed fabrics without trouble. I wouldn't do that if the fabric pieces were large, but when dealing with small pieces it doesn't seem to have any adverse effect.

In walking back to my apartment, I noticed my Filipino neighbours have kept their drapes drawn to minimize cold drafts from the windows and feel great sympathy for their struggle with the cold. It all comes down to preference. I would rather deal with a colder apartment if I can have bright daylight, than be warm in the dark without daylight for days. Besides, I find ironing is a good way to get warm. I leave you with a couple of pics of my windows and the winter sparkle art between the double glass panes by Jack Frost.

My dining room view.

And my bedroom.

Beware of Disgruntled Quilter

2011-11-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

You've no doubt seen Beware of Dog signs and Beware of Falling Rocks signs. You may have even seen humourous Beware of Dieter signs in a friend's kitchen. I just thought I should warn y'all, I'm feeling very grouchy and disgruntled. Maybe you should go to bed, my Mom would say, ever practical. And maybe I will... I am feeling that grouchy.

Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery begins today. It requires the black fabric that I bought online, that hasn't arrived yet. Now it seems to me with post offices on both sides of the border complaining about volume of mail going down dramatically with everyone using email and smart phones, that they could get my 2 measly yards of Kansas Troubles black tonal fabric through in half the time. I even held my breath in excitement as not one but two postal trucks pulled up and double parked in front of my apartment building at various times this morning. But no, neither postie had my fabric. Contributing to my misery is the first frigid day of winter (-27 with the wind chill), stepping on a stray straight pin my vacuum cleaner didn't pick up, and jabbing my right index finger on the discarded sewing machine needle when pushing down on the garbage so I wouldn't have to brave the cold to dispose of it. Life as we know it has certainly taken a turn for the worst.

So, I returned to working on my Great HST Caper, proceeded with considerably disgruntled mien to unenthusiastically count out 160 scrappy 2.5" wide bricks from my scrap box and trimmed them all to a uniform 4.5" long. Even the thought of using up more of the old fabric stash didn't raise my spirits or fill me with a heart-warming glee.

Then I cut some 2.5" light squares and started drawing lines down the backs, muttering something rather harsh about my not being able to point and sew with any reasonable accuracy.

And drawing the second line 3/8" from the first for oversewing to create a bonus half-square triangle.

And then I questioned what I was doing. Didn't I want to start by making just a few zigs and zags, to audition the look? If that was the case, why had I just cut so many bricks and squares? And the bonus HST sewing line? Really? It's going to end up being 1.75" or smaller after trimming. I lined up my diagonal line of the bonus pencil line to check... probably 1.5". Do I really want to bother with something that small? made with these fabrics? The fabrics I've been trying to use up to get rid of?

And the 1.5" x 2.5" bits I trimmed off the bricks? Crumb bin? garbage? back in the scrap box for yet another project? At what point do I get to throw out the left-overs?

Even my face hurts from grimacing all day. Poor Lucas has been in hiding since I yelled at him this morning. Maybe a nap is a really good idea right about now.

To Piece or Not to Piece, that is the question....

2011-11-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is what 1,080 half square triangles (size 2.5") look like all joined into a quilt top.

It's 60" x 72" and I'm so pleased with the block layout. Standing directly in front of it, the diamonds and zig-zags are predominant and the four-petal flower or four-leaf clover design are rather pretty, I think. If you tilt your head on an angle you really see the crosses, or Xs and Os, like hastily penned hugs and kisses at the bottom of letters - the old fashioned kind written by hand.

I'd like to try adding a pieced border, a scrappy zig-zag, to see if I like the effect. It may turn out that I prefer a simple border treatment in the end, but I'm going to fold this away for a while and make a few scrappy zigs and zags to audition next to it. I only need about 130 of them and I still have lots of scraps of the same fabrics I used to make all the HSTs. The box is half full of 2.5" x 4.5" bricks, so I have lots of bits already cut to size that I can immediately start piecing with to experiment.

What I learned from making this all-HST quilt top:
1. Pre-washed fabric made this top possible. (I prefer to piece with unwashed, but these are really old stash, from the days when I pre-washed everything, and I think that using unwashed would have made the seams bulky and stiff beyond my patience to deal with them). That said, I've made blocks using bonus HSTs from unwashed fabrics and persevered.
2. Be prepared to re-press HST seams in the opposite direction to make it less bulky (or press all your seams open from the start.) If you know what pattern you are making, try putting a block together to see how many HST need to be pressed towards the light fabric and how many to the dark and keep them separate as you make them.
3. Break the block design down into four patches (if you can) and twirl the seams. This ensures all joining will work like a dream, even if you turn all your patches around and go with an alternate design at the last minute. This, of course, assumes that you always twirl in the same direction.
4. You can live dangerously and join your HSTs into 4-patch components before trimming (assuming they are close to the end size) if you line up your sewing at the diagonal HST seams, and then at the two patch seams, not from the fabric corners. That will reduce your trimming time to 1/4 the effort and time.
5. Use a hot iron with steam (or spritzing from a water spray bottle) when pressing seams, especially when they are bulky. Be sure to let your HSTs, 4 patches, or block components cool down and dry completely before doing any trimming. I often let them sit overnight.
6. Do not store different size HSTs in the same box if you want to save yourself heart-ache when you run out of the size you need and the remainder are smaller. At least if they were bigger, I could have trimmed them down instead of having to make more.
7. When you keep hearing a soft pucka-pucka-pucka-thunk-thunk-pucka change your needle, it's grown dull. Can't believe how beautifully a new needle sews threw multiple fabric layers in the block corners! When did you last change your needle?

Great HST Caper - Blocks done

2011-11-16T17:37:00.000-07:00

Filled up my design wall with finished Great HST Caper blocks. My last row doesn't fit on the wall or in the picture. I've got every light on in the apartment to counteract the grey day outside and it seems to be making photos a little washed out or yellow. Or maybe my camera battery just needs recharging.

I didn't notice until I was laying out my blocks that I had pressed the last two seams joining my block rows in the wrong direction. I proceeded by turning every other block one quarter turn anticipating that it would all work, then noticed the error. I will have to repress them all towards the block centre so that they'll interlock as I join my blocks. Take a look at the back of this block - what a hodge podge of seams.

Now I'm thinking about borders and experiencing my usual border anxiety (serious border disorder, remember?) - not exactly breaking out into a nervous sweat, but definitely chewing on my bottom lip. Didn't we just go through this not that long ago?

This light coloured floral actually works quite well, assuming I want this quilt to read as light. Most of my quilts are quite dark country colours; it might be nice to have one that looks summer-y. The blocks use equal amounts of dark and light scrappy fabrics, so if I add a dark border, I think it would read as dark.

If I don't use this floral for borders, it's definitely going to be used as the backing. Now I'm thinking if I use it for borders, I will want a dark zinger for a narrow frame around my blocks. Pretty much any colour will work for that.

Call me crazy, but I'm also thinking of making a couple hundred dark flying geese from scrappy 2.5" x 4.5" bricks for a pieced border... or a piano key border?, or a couple of columns of staggered upright bricks? or maybe parallel sew-n-flip corners to make that zig-zag looking border strip (reminiscent of my sashing strips for the Shady Lanes quilt in my post - here ) I would love to work in more of these fabric scraps into this top.

Traditional Tuesday - Week 9

2011-11-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Jenifer has posted the traditional version of this week's string block - Traditional Tuesday Block 9. The strings were 1" wide (a size I recently swore off because I thought they were just too small) and, of course, they had to be that narrow since the blocks we're all making are 6.5". Bigger strings just wouldn't have the same graphic appeal in a small block. Check out the pattern links in my TT blog page if you want to jump in on this sampler (we're at block 9 of a 64 block sampler).

I used two more squares from my stash of thin cotton foundations, starched for today's sewing and trimmed to about 7.5" square. Then I laid my ruler's diagonal line down the centre two fabrics to have the corners end precisely on the seam between the light and dark before trimming to 6.5". It worked perfectly. Maybe I'm going to rethink that too small for strings standard. There are some really great quilt layouts for this small string block on Jenifer's blog post today. In fact, this size string block would make a fantastic project on it's own, or as a border treatment. I'm thinking of a table topper size or wall hanging, where small piecing can be really effective.

Meanwhile, back on the daily scrap trimming front.... Looky here what I hit in my scrap trimming pile today. Just yesterday I told another quilter that I don't have any soft pastels in my stash... none at all. Then today, I lifted a big dark rust-coloured christmassy scrap off the top of the pile and came across this stack of 4", 5", and 6" full width and half width of fabric strips of whisper soft pastels. I didn't notice them when ironing the scraps in this pile, that must have been at a critical moment in the murder mystery I was watching on the PVR. It's quite a substantial pile - Two yards worth. (Yes, Janet, my roguish friend, I weighed them to figure that out. lol) These are going into stash as a bundle for a future something sweet project, I'm thinking for a baby. Do I know anyone having a baby?

I keep waffling back and forth on whether I want to start working on Bonnie's new mystery project Orca Bay starting this Friday, or keep my nose to the grindstone on unfinished projects. I bought some black tonal yardage online for the mystery, but could just as easily tuck that into stash for future use. I've just got so much on the go right now. I've been sewing with single minded obsession, trying to finish some projects so I can fit it in. I tell myself I'm working this hard to get to more UFOs and finally get them done... but secretly I know I'm trying to free up some daily time for the mystery. I think I put in almost 8 hours yesterday when all the trimming, sewing, pressing and blogging is added up. That's an unusually big sewing day for me. I did get all my Great HST Caper units sewn into 3 block rows and all 180 seams pressed. Just two more seams per block and I'll have my 30 12.5" quilt blocks ready to join into a new quilt top.

Today's mail brought me the long-awaited copy of Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts. This means I can get back to my Crumb-Along project, which I set aside because I was struggling with piecing letters on my own. Yeah, I like that excuse, it sounds reasonable.

This morning, I was so distracted thinking about all the quilty things I want to get done today, I stepped into the shower with my glasses on. But at least I had taken off my pyjamas this time.

Modern Monday - Week 9

2011-11-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Jenifer's Modern Monday Block 9 has been posted. Hooray for string blocks! They are so quick and easy to piece.

Some quilters use the pages ripped from the Yellow-Pages phone book to sew strings on. It stabilizes the thin fabric strips as you sew and press. I personally don't like having to remove the paper when I'm done. Others use dryer sheets after they've gone through the laundry cycle. Those have the benefit (so I'm told) of being alright to leave attached and becoming part of the quilt. But, as a single, I don't have a lot of spent dryer sheets saved up. Presumably I could haunt the local laundro-mat and dig through the garbage cans, but that just feels wrong to me in so many ways, not the least of which is people would see me doing it.

What I do have, is a stack of thin cotton squares (all cut from a cheap bed sheet). This was one of my less than clever purchases. They were advertised as Egyptian Cotton, but so cheap I should have known there was something very wrong with them. These are so thin you can literally read through them. The fitted sheet just shredded down the centre (while in use) after being washed a couple of times. Ah well, you get what you pay for and hopefully learn your lesson. I sliced the top sheet into a stack of 8.5" squares for string blocks. I starched a couple and cut them down to 6.5" square. My modern monday string blocks were done in no time at all.

This is the view from my living room this afternoon. First, to the West.

And then to the East. I feel like I'm living in a snow globe.

And the temperature has really dipped (which is noticeable if you live in a building as old as mine) - Lucas is hiding under the quilt on my bed. Change of plans. It's too miserable to go out for groceries (I am without car, so generally walk) so I think I'll just stay in, make a sandwich out of whatever I can find in the human food cupboard, and start chain piecing my Great HST Caper blocks. I have them all laid out in piles of 30 next to my sewing machine.

When I stacked these up last night, not once did I have to move a component because it was next to another of the same fabric. Now that's scrappy.

Great HST Caper - ready to assemble

2011-11-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm going to write my post backwards. Instead of starting from the beginning of my day, I'm going to start with the end result. And here it is. A box full of 4-patch components, all ready to be joined into the final blocks. Is it not a thing of beauty?!

It's hard to believe this all started out as a box of untrimmed unsquared ten year old half-square triangles made with fabrics I didn't like. When I opened the box 2.5 months ago, I thought there were 1,000 or more, but it turned out there was a little less than 900. While still a jaw dropping number of HSTs, it left me short of my goal, by 250-something which I pieced together in a marathon session yesterday.

And this is what I'm going to make with those components. I have enough to make 30 12.5" blocks (5 x 6) resulting in a quilt top 60" x 72" (before borders).

I had to trim all the flying geese units I made today. But I was right about trimming 70 four-patches being preferable to trimming the 280 HSTs I made yesterday. The four patches I made today were almost 1/4" bigger all around than all the ones I made with trimmed HSTs. I think there's a lesson in that for me. My habit of working with trimmed perfect components is not just a manifestation of OCD.

I trimmed off quite a bit to make them square.

And this was the pile before trimming, just after ironing and twirling the back seams.

And this was the string of flying geese after I finished sewing them this afternoon.

I think I've earned an evening off. No ironing. No cutting. No trimming. No sewing. I might take my new box of tidy 4-patch components and start laying them out as blocks for chain piecing.

Back in HSTs

2011-11-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the morning cutting, sewing and ironing all those extra half-square triangles I need to finish my Great HST Caper blocks. (See, I thought those plastic containers would come in handy once the chocolate bars were finished... no, I didn't eat them all myself. I bagged up the bars from these two containers and dropped them off at my salon when I went in for a trim. Honest!) I've got the HSTs separated into two piles - seams ironed to the dark and seams ironed to the light.

I have about 280 HSTs made, more than enough to finish off my flying geese components with a few extras for colour choice as I make them. I rank high on my list of most annoying occurrences in quilting - the getting to the end of a long line of scrappy chain piecing only to discover that the last half dozen units being sewn together are all the same fabric. Unless interrupted by something more exciting, I will be sewing flying geese this evening. I had intended to get these done in a more gradual approach (like, say, over a few days), rather than with the single-minded obsessive maniacal intensity I had today, but once I got started I couldn't seem to stop. (That may have something to do with the housework chores I had assigned myself today.)

The one good thing about sewing triangles cut on the bias for these HSTs, is that they are almost perfectly sized from using my Easy Angle ruler. So I am going to try sewing these together without the added labour of trimming off a thread or two from each one to make them absolutely perfect. I figure I can always square them up as four-patches if I have to. Squaring and trimming 62 is a whole lot more preferable to squaring and trimming 280.

I feel like such a rebel... a rebel who has a very grubby apartment but 280 new HSTs to play with.

Great HST Caper - out of HSTs

2011-11-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

I found an alternate layout I like better for the blocks of my Great HST Caper. This happened entirely by accident when I was putting some four patch units up on the design wall this morning and got some components turned around. I continued with the alternate layout until I had four blocks on the wall to look at.

Then I put four blocks up of the pattern I was originally going to make, for comparison.

After looking at them both for a while, I find I prefer the new layout. And since I took the rather wise path of twirling my seams, the layout will not be a problem because of seam butting. I'm eager to get the blocks put together. My excitement, however, was tempered by a problem. I've hit a minor road block in my piecing...

I chose the name Distracted Quilter for my blog but could easily have used Oblivious Quilter or Forgetful Quilter and have it describe me very well. In preparing to sew the last 60-something flying geese units for my Great HST Caper quilt, I discovered something horrifying... the bottom of the HST box is filled with 2" HSTs - not the 2.5" HSTs I've been using. A little voice in my mind said "See, I told you so! You should have stored these two sizes in separate boxes." I hate that voice. It always seems to deliver common sense logic with a rather patronizing or amused twist. And, of course, now I remember that there were, indeed, two sizes in that box. As I recall, I did it to reduce the number of boxes so it would fit on my closet shelf.... this was back when my entire stash fit in a few boxes that could be tucked away on a closet shelf.

So I have enough centres and corner units to make 30 blocks, but only enough flying geese units to make 15. I almost cried. But it's Remembrance Day and I've been listening to radio interviews with some of our brave veterans - in particular one young soldier who lost both legs in an IED blast in Afghanistan. As I listened to him quietly describe his love of freedom and country, of doing what needs to be done.... well... somehow my miscalculating the number of half-square triangles for a quilt project no longer ranks up there with major disasters. And I found myself wiping away tears for a more important reason. My sense of the true importance of things re-established, I was better prepared to deal with the minor glitch that has my HST Caper off track.

So..... (deep steadying breath) I need another 62 flying geese units, which translates into 248 HSTs. I can't believe I'm going to have to make more of them. And I need them to be ultra scrappy to fit in with the rest of the components. I pulled out a box that contains the scrap fabrics most of my HSTs were made with and started pulling 2.5" x 6" bricks and 2.5" x 4.5" bricks. You really should stop buying fabric, my inner voice said. "You could make another two quilt tops with just this box alone." "Shut-up!" sez I, startling Lucas from a sound sleep.

I pulled out over 80 dark bricks, and as many light ones as I could find in the box, relieved to recognize most of them as fabrics used in the other 800-plus HSTs of my block components.

I can use my Easy Angle ruler to cut them. With this ruler, I can get a 2.5" HSTs from a 2.5" fabric strip.

I can get three 2.5" HSTs from two 2.5" x 6" bricks and two HSTs from the 2.5" x 4.5" bricks. The cutting on the first 60 HSTs is done.

I just need to cut this many another three times, then sew, press, square.... And, of course, the left over small triangles are going to be thrown into the crumb box. I briefly considered piecing them into 1.5" HSTs then dismissed that as an act of insanity. This project already has me talking to myself.

Great HST Caper - update

2011-11-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am making speedy progress on my HST project since yesterday. Today I chain pieced all the 30 block centres and the 120 four patches for the corners. I have half the 120 flying geese units pieced. They are piled up on my ironing board for pressing.

I'm almost finished trimming the first pile of ironed scraps. Last night I ironed up another big pile for my daily scrap trimming, and bagged all the remaining poly-cottons for flinging. They filled a plastic grocery bag - about 10 yards worth. The good news is that I won't have to trim them, although it hurts my heart to get rid of some of the fabrics. There are some really pretty ones in the mix, but it seems that the prettier they are, the more they stink under a hot iron. That must be a quilter's law or something.

My scrap bin is looking remarkably empty. There are still six solidly filled plastic bags full of scraps at the bottom of the bin, but they are so compressed and flattened, the bin almost looks empty.

A lot of wasted time happens in the kitchen just standing and waiting - for coffee to brew, water to boil, baking to finish, etc. After I moved a cutting mat to the kitchen counter, finding 15 minutes for daily trimming was no longer a problem. Where do you waste the most time waiting?

Great HST Caper - block assembly

2011-11-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help myself... I started assembling blocks for my Great HST Caper instead of using them as a leader n' ender. I'm just so eager to get these done now that I've chosen a pattern and finished trimming them all. It's kind of exciting to get this close to using up all these half square triangles.

I finished 240 two-sies, all the left leaning lazy diamonds to make the 120 corners I will need for 30 quilt blocks. Next, I'll sew these two-sies into the 4 patch corner units.

And I made 30 flying geese - half of the block centres. Here I ran into a minor glitch. I had pressed all the HST seams towards the dark fabric and that meant 6 layers of fabric were competing at the centre point of the flying geese blocks, forming a substantial lump, and making it almost impossible to get a crisp point. I would have settled for a good point, but it just wasn't working out. So I stopped, ripped out the sewing on the half dozen I had made, and proceeded by finger pressing one of the blocks so that one of the seams was flipped. I found it annoying to have to hold the seam in place against my excellent pressing job while trying to feed it though my sewing machine. (I am a thorough presser. Never thought I'd have reason to regret being thorough.)

After making 30, and wasting a lot of time by fiddling with the fabric seams, and almost running my fingers through along with the fabric, I stopped. I'm exactly at the half-way point of assembling my 2 patch units and will spend a little time with an iron tonight, going over half of the remaining HSTs, pressing towards the light fabric. Then I can get back to making flying geese, without the fiddling. I should have all the two-sies done and a good start on making 4 patch units tomorrow.

While I'm ironing those HST seams in the opposite direction, this is a good time to drag out my big scrap bin and start ironing up my next big pile of scraps for daily scrap trimming. It's either that or get busy on at least an hour or more of housework... I'll take the fabric ironing over that any day.

Weekly Samplers - Week 8

2011-11-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Traditional Tuesday - Week 8 block and the Modern Monday - Week 8 block have been posted on Jenifer's blog.

I didn't even try to press my seams open this time, but I did twirl my seams on the back, and that really worked so slick. I don't know why I've been so reluctant to try twirling seams before. It sounded like courting disaster by cutting through a few stitches, or maybe like it would be more work. Hah! It took a couple of seconds with a sharp seam ripper and that time was quickly made up when the pressing went so much better than trying to press 6 layers of fabric flat. I've been thoroughly won over.

I've been making two sampler blocks a week rather than just one, so after 8 weeks, I have enough to lay them out on the design wall and get a feel for how these quilts are going to look. Here are my blocks to date on the Traditional Tuesday sampler. I'm already thinking of what I'd like to use for sashing and will look for a pale greyish blue fabric to match the blue that appears in the flowers in my neutral fabric and see if I like it.

And my blocks to date for the Modern Monday sampler.

Bet you're sorry now you didn't join in on these quilt-along samplers. Well, the good news is that the block patterns are all still available, and at one super quick-to-piece 6.5" block per week, you can easily catch up. Just jump in now and make one of the past blocks every week until you're caught up.

I've got all the links posted on my Traditional Tuesday Page and my Modern Monday Page.

I had to peel all those little 2.5" HSTs off my design wall to play with my sampler blocks today. The box has been moved to my sewing table so I can start sewing the components together for my Great HST Caper or modified depression block project.

I made serious headway on the scrap trimming this morning and will soon need to iron a new pile of scraps for my daily trimming. I've got a couple of movies taped on the PVR that I'd like to watch, and will haul the ironing board and iron into the living room sometime this week. Oh, and I've been meaning to trim a quilt and make bias binding too... not sure why that didn't get done... maybe tomorrow.

Other things I want to do this week: deciding on a backing for Shady Lanes (do I want to piece one or use 108" wide muslin?); adding borders to the one-a-day 9 patch; maybe a little crumb-piecing and the dreaded of all....housework. Yuck! It's getting very hairy and dusty around here.

Big Scrap Bin...trimming update

2011-11-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Since posting about my big scrap bin on wheels on Oct.17, I have been dutifully trimming my scraps with a daily discipline that can only be described as rather unusual for someone as distracted as me. It's not that hard really. I do it first thing in the morning while waiting with a half-functioning brain for coffee. It takes 15 minutes for my coffee machine to dribble out a pot of fresh coffee (I never figured out how to set the timer on the darn thing), and my cutting mat is set up on my kitchen counter (it's the perfect height).

The first pile of ironed scraps looked like this three weeks ago....

It's been reduced by at least half....

The cutting on small bits is a little slow and tedious as I often have to turn the scrap and line up my ruler four times to get a useful brick or square from it. And the finished piles were really slow to build in the first week. But in the last couple of days, I've hit the motherlode of this pile - I've gotten to some rather large chunks. I wouldn't describe them as scraps, even though they did come from another quilter's discards. My own definition of scrap doesn't include 6" strips the entire width of 45" wide fabrics. Or squares the size of a fat eighth. These get the rough edges trimmed off and folded into corresponding colours in my yardage stash. So the trimming is going really quickly these days.

And the amassed strips, squares and bricks has really piled up, enough that I've begun to worry that if Lucas jumps up on them to investigate, I'll be restacking for hours. So, these are getting tucked away in the strip bins today.

I'll cut strips as narrow as 1.5" (because I will use them), but if I can't get at least a 2" square or 2" x 3.5" brick from a small scrap, it gets chucked into the crumb bin.

I'm not quite sure what to do with quilt blocks or partial blocks... (presumably these were left-overs of numerous quilter's projects) I've been tossing these into the orphan block box for future consideration. If nothing else, they would make an eclectic pieced backing fabric strip.

Scraps tend to be under-estimated. A plastic grocery bag full of wrinkled jumbled scraps seems insubstantial - but it could weigh 2 - 3 lbs and that translates into 8 - 12 yards worth of fabric. I just won't use them if I have to dig through a rumpled mass of irregular sized wrinkled bits of fabric. I used to say I don't have much purple in my stash, but I have trimmed enough purples now to make an entire quilt.

I estimate that I have been gifted with 200 yards worth of scraps and discards over the last five years by quilters who couldn't face dealing with their scrap baskets. It didn't seem like that much at the time, a small baggie here, another baggie there. But in reviewing the strip bins (since my reorganization in August), I could probably make 4 queen size quilts (front and back) from the 2.5" strip bin alone!

15 minutes a day is going to eventually go through that big scrap bin, one coffee pot at a time.

The Great HST Caper

2011-11-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I posted about The Great HST Caper. Wow, time flies! I made the final choice on which block I want to use (4 blocks laid out on the design wall in the pic below) and today I figured out how to proceed with the block components. I still haven't discovered what this block is called and have been referring to it as a modified depression block.

I'm going to make 4 patch components (and twirl the seams clockwise), then assemble the final blocks as 9 patches.

The plan... (My! that sounds efficient and organized, let me say that again)... the plan is to end up with a 60" x 72" flimsy (12.5" blocks laid out 5 x 6). The calculator tells me that 30 blocks will use 1,080 HSTs from the box containing about 1200. This seems like the most efficient way to proceed. I can either chain piece in a marathon session, or I can proceed with it as a leader n' ender, or do it in a combination of both approaches.

Each block has 4 of these corners = 120 light left leaning lazy diamonds
and 120 dark left leaning lazy diamonds (30 blocks x 4 corners)

And 1 of this 4 patch for each of the block centres = 60 dark flying geese

And each block requires 4 of these units = 120 dark flying geese and 120 light flying geese

I've written down the components I need on a post-it note that will sit on my sewing table. I foresee a lot of counting in my immediate future. I shall be very pleased to finally get these HSTs used up in a quilt top and off my unfinished list. They have been on the back burner for almost ten years.

And to think, ten years ago I actually thought this was a good way to use up fabrics I didn't like in a quick scrappy project! If you're laughing, you've got one of your own tales of woe to tell.

Now I think I'll enjoy a little mindless scrappy sewing in what's left of my Sunday. I've got some foundation squares starched for string blocks, the 1.5" strip box open on the sewing table, a pile of teeny crumb strips to use as a leader n' ender, and a fresh pot of coffee brewed.

The Fruits of my shameless begging

2011-11-05T23:33:00.000-06:00

I got a squishy envelope in the mail today. Well, it must have been yesterday, but I didn't check the mailbox until today. Want to see? What a silly question. Of course you do!

Doesn't it look like I went out and scooped up a cup of sunshine? They certainly made my eyes shine brighter. These fantastic scraps are a gift from the talented Barbara of Cat Patches Blog. Click over to see the quilt these fabrics made, a beauty she has titled Sunshine on my shoulders, using a pattern by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times - Judy's original pattern is titled Peaches & Dreams and you can find it under Patterns for Free at her website.

I told Barbara that if I knew where she lived, I'd be knocking on her door begging for scraps.... (absolutely shameless, I know, but I couldn't help myself) and she sent me some! I'm hugging myself with delight at her generosity (and that my audacity should yield such fruit). The weigh scale was still out from weighing my Shady Lanes quilt top, and out of curiosity I plopped them in the bowl and discovered they weighed .25 lb - a whole yard's worth of luscious diverse sunny scraps. Thank you, Barbara!

There's some great graphic design in most of the fabrics - such fun!

I'm going to use them in my Modern Monday block-of-the-week Sampler which desperately needed more oranges. The little 6.5" quilt blocks being designed by Jenifer Dick at Forty-Two Quilts Blog use small wonky pieces to work up and these scraps will be absolutely perfect with my Hallowe'en coloured fabrics. And what doesn't get used in the sampler, will eventually be used in some scrappy blocks, and the teeniest bits in crumb blocks. I told Barbara that I would use even the smallest bits, down to 1" and I mean to do it.

Shady Lanes Quilt Top

2011-11-05T20:43:00.000-06:00

Ta dah!

It's done. It's done. It's done. (this sounds less repetitive if you sing it in a joyous tone of voice) Taking a picture proved a little difficult. It measures 91" x 103" and weighs 2.75 pounds. At 4 yards per pound, that's 11 yards of fabric busted from the stash! And I haven't made the backing yet. It's too big and heavy for my design wall. I would need two tall adults to hold it up for a pic, or two short ones holding it off the balcony (but it's dark outside), or one very tall man with the arm span of an orangutan. Here's a few pics anyway.

It was a very long day. Tedious. What a struggle! I always under-estimate the time it takes to add multiple borders to a quilt top and this one had 5 borders (2 of them pieced). If I hadn't already sewed half of them on, I don't think I would have been able to finish. Measure the quilt top, angle piece the border strips, measure the borders for two sides, pin the borders, sew the borders, unpin the borders, iron the borders.... then start over again with the next two sides or the next round of borders....measure the quilt top again.... all of this so much more complicated because of the size.

I started at 11:00 am this morning, taking frequent breaks, stopped for lunch at the restaurant down the street. And of course played a well-loved game of cold-cat-warm-cat. Ever play that game? It requires a cold winter day and an old cat with arthritis. Every time I vacated the chair (where I did my pinning), he would snuggle in where I had warmed the cushion...

Then he followed me to lay on the freshly ironed edge of the quilt, sucking what warmth he could get out of that, and playing with the tail end of my measuring tape.

And this suspicious lump under the quilt top? You guessed it. I spread it out on my bed and went to get the camera to take a pic. It couldn't have been more than a minute.

I don't know if I could have done it without ya Lucas, come and have a cat treat on me.

Patience in the Shade

2011-11-04T18:50:00.000-06:00

I finished adding all the sawtooth borders and that required making and trimming another 16 blue/neutral HSTs. (piece of cake) Two border strips needed to be held really taut while being attached. The next two slipped into place like perfect little puzzle pieces, so maybe I wasn't totally off on the math. (Great big sigh of satisfaction!) All the points intact, everything square, no pulling or tugging. No crying.

It's now approximately 86" square. Once the neutral strips are added, it will have the queen size width but I still need to add 8" to 10" to the length to get to the standard 90" x 100". I will confess that I'm getting really really weary of this project. (Are you getting tired of reading about it?) This is the dangerous time for me and I know it just needs a little more determined patience, so I'm digging deep. When I'm tired of one project and so eager to get started on many other things that have captured my fancy, it's so very hard to stay the course. I'm so close to finishing this flimsy that if I put it aside now, it could languish for years. Half of my unfinished projects are ones that would take less than a day to pull together... a few borders here, some sashings there, just join the blocks on a few others, and they would be done. I'm not sure what it is about not getting to those projects that are so close to finishing. Maybe it's because they are so close... and I think, when I have an extra day I can easily finish that one up. Of course, that extra day never comes.

Back to adding for the length. I considered a number of things, making stars using more scrappy 16 patch centres and the left over half-square triangles for the points, or laying in a solid section of joined scrappy 4 patches. These options just didn't appeal. After much frustrated deliberation, I thought I'd just use up those 144 brown HSTs and be done with it all. I'll need to make another 20 of those to do that, but I think it's the answer to my dilemma. Two rows of brown HST at the top and two rows at the bottom plus the neutral framing, will add an extra 12" to the quilt length.

I laid them out in sawtooth fashion.

And then in a pinwheel pattern. I like the pinwheels the best. As with the sawtooth border strip, it turns out that simple is the solution. I just like to complicate the heck out of everything I do before I settle on the simple is best solution.

I'm just wondering if I need to add in a narrow strip of neutral between the blue HSTs and the brown HSTs. Despite my eagerness to get this thing done as quickly as possible and in the least complicated manner, I'm thinking yes, it needs an extra narrow strip of neutral in between. On the positive side of the argument is the fact that I won't have to butt seams together when I add the pinwheels and it would bring the length up to 100", so adding in another strip of neutral may actually turn out to be a time-saver.

I think I'll start piecing together the pinwheels this evening and try to get the flimsy completely done tomorrow, though I generally like to make Saturdays all about working with scraps and get to my crumb-along and string blocks. I just can't face still having this one on my sewing table come Monday.

On the scrap trimming front, I trimmed for another 15 minutes today. The piles are really growing and I've noticed a big drop in the first pile of ironed scraps. I try not to think of what's left in the big scrap bin and just take my satisfaction from what is done so far.

All you quilters who emailed me saying that you'd be doing the daily 15 minutes of trimming to get through some of your scraps... are you still doing it?

When the math doesn't work...

2011-11-03T23:21:00.000-06:00

When the math doesn't work, just eat another Hallowe'en candy to calm down, then pin the borders together and pull a little (or a lot) on your borders as you sew. Ta dah!

I managed to get the neutral borders on, and all the red, but the whole math thing didn't quite work for me. My pieced border was too long by one whole HST. The worst part isn't that the border was too long, but that I have absolutely no idea where I went wrong. I used to be good at math. In the end (after much chewing) I just unsewed one HST and held it all taut as I ran the first sawtooth border through my machine because (after removing that one HST) it was then about 3/4" too short. I still have to add another three sides... I hope I have enough Hallowe'en kisses to get me through it all.

Oh, and the distracted part? There's always a distracted part, it's just that sometimes I haven't discovered it yet. That would be when I realized that by choosing to use only the blue HSTs in the border, I was going to have to make more of them. Yup, that's right. Double sewing the sashing sew-n-flip corners provided me with 144 blue HSTs and 144 brown HSTs. I need 162 (or is it 164?) blue HSTs to do the entire border. But as it is only 18 (or 20), it's not worth groaning over.

And looky here at what I got in the mail today. An autographed copy of Quilt Retro by Jenifer Dick. Hooray! I've been leafing through it and marveling at Jenifer's use of colour and shapes. There's even pages and pages and pages of step-by-step applique tutorials. Isn't that excellent timing?!

And this is the first pattern I'm going to make from it. Isn't it sweet?

I was thinking to make it as a food bowl mat for Lucas's corner of the kitchen floor. Then I thought it looked to cute to put on the floor under the cat food bowl, so I think I'll make it as a placemat for myself. If all goes well with the applique, it may be a whole set of placemats. Then there's the fried egg shape potholders... they are just too fun.

Shady Lanes - Bordering Math

2011-11-02T18:43:00.000-06:00

I almost made a critical mistake. I almost cut my red fabric for the borders. Then I remembered that the sawtooth border will be added after the red, so I can't just proceed as I would normally. I have to finish making the sawtooth strips, then get the final measurements before I cut the red... so I know how wide to cut the red strips to make up the difference between Border # 1 and Border # 3. Otherwise I may end up having to chop off part of a sawtooth to make it all fit.

I knew I read somewhere how to do this and had to rack my brains to remember where. Coffee helped. Chocolate helped even more. Quiltville, of course. I clicked over to Bonnie's site and read through her article Border Hints. Lots of great advice on adding borders but not the process I vaguely remember reading for measuring and adding a pieced border. And I was so sure it was something I read on Bonnie's site... willing to bet some of my Hallowe'en chocolate on it. Actually, I've eaten so much of it today, I'm feeling a little sick. Then it came to me, it was part of the instructions on bordering the Orange Crush Mystery. I am frequently amazed at the accuracy of my memory when it comes to quilting, when I can't remember if I paid the utility bills this month.

I have made pieced borders before but not one in which the pieced component couldn't be fudged, and by that I mean trimming off a little here or there to make it all fit. I would so hate having to slice half-square triangles in half and losing the points. I'll be joining 2.5" half square triangles into sawtooth strips this evening to finish making my border # 3 strips, so that I know how wide to slice the strips for border # 2.

I'm glad I remembered before I sliced up the red fabric. Some days are better than others.

Traditional Tuesday - Block 7

2011-11-01T17:56:00.000-06:00

Jenifer has posted a Hallowe'en themed spooky block for this week's Traditional Tuesday sampler block. I've elected to go with an alternate, not because it's applique, but because I am making my sampler in browns and pinks and want it to read as a sweet repro style quilt. Although I don't want anything spooky in it, I thought a couple of calm kitties would be just fine, almost Hallowe'en in theme, right?

After I admitted to my...shall we call it what it is?... terror ... of applique in yesterday's post, Elzaan of Huisvlyt Blog sent me a couple of email links to introductory applique tutorials. Thanks Elzaan! I read through two tutorials on the Applique Today Blog, one on needleturn applique prep, and another on needleturn applique stitching. Both seemed fairly straight forward (and, admittedly, not too scary) so I will give the appliqued spooky skull block for Modern Monday Block 7 a try. I think it's a must-have block for my Hallowe'en fabric sampler Will post a pic of my attempt whether success or dismal failure. I'm sure everyone needs a good laugh...

The fabric requirements for Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery Quilt-Along were posted today and this caused me some considerable consternation. I don't have any black stash. The few black fabrics I do have are in my Modern Monday sampler project box and they are precious few. Depending on what size strips she uses for the red fabrics, I may be hooped there too. I used up most of my red 1.5" strips making the Carolina Crossroads pattern. I guess I'll just have to wait until November 18th to see what strip sizes she'll be using of the various colours and make my final colour decision at that time.

I have a confession to make. I am weak. Yes, weak... very weak. After making my declaration of no more magazine purchases nine days ago, I already caved.

How could I resist? It says right there in the upper right hand corner that this year's issue contains 23 Stash Busting quilts! There I was, shopping for a few necessities and innocently passing by the magazine shelves when my eyes beheld it. (In actual fact, I had to shimy sideways past a cardboard display into the magazine section and wouldn't have seen it otherwise.) And the necessities I went there to purchase? Well it's November 1st today and that means the Hallowe'en candies were on sale (they have to make room for the Christmas goodies). And I went there to pick up a bag of molasses Hallowe'en kisses. I know I'm in the minority here, but I absolutely love those things. I have a wonderful childhood memory of making la tire (pronounced teer, french word meaning taffy) around the time of the feast of St. Catherine, in my grandmother's kitchen, so maybe I love them for nostalgic reasons. Anyway, they were in the $1 bin and I had to dig to the bottom to find them.

I also found these great little clear plastic containers. Good for scraps I thought.

The fact that they were full of snack-size chocolate bars, also for $1, didn't influence me in the least.

I did mention that I am weak, right?

Scary Scary Day

2011-10-31T17:59:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it, I am one big scaredy cat. Not about the spooky things Hallowe'en... but about applique. Anything applique just scares the scraps right out of me. I've been meaning to sign up for an introductory beginner's applique class at my local quilt shop... for quite some time... years, if truth be told. And you know what they say about good intentions, don't you?

Today's MM block is a really fun spooky one, and it's so perfect since I'm making my Modern Monday sampler in Hallowe'en colours, but it's applique (sez I, in a rather timid and whiny tone) and I am seriously applique challenged. You have no idea how pathetic my applique skills truly are. I printed out the applique pattern and stared at it for quite a long time. Sigh. Now I will definitely have to learn how to applique, if only to make that block. I'm going to try going it on my own. Yeah...well... we shall see how that works out for me. In the mean time, inspired by Jenifer's block and the eeriness of the day, I've made two blocks of a Hallowe'en theme using up some of the fast growing pile of itty bitty scraps in my project box.

A crumb pieced pumpkin

A Hallowe'en Kiss

I feel like such a wimp...

I have some borders to cut out and attach on my Shady Lanes quilt. That seems like a good way to avoid the applique attempt for a while.

Scrappy Sunday

2011-10-30T19:36:00.000-06:00

I managed to get to the sewing machine before Lucas settled in for his afternoon snooze today and quickly sewed up another 6 string blocks. I think I'll move on to making sashing strips and 9 patches in my next crumb/string session.

Even just making a few blocks a week and these stacked up quite quickly. I have 30 string blocks (8.5" square) and 48 crumb blocks (6" square) since starting this process two months ago.

Pieced another 4 crumb blocks today. Tonya's book is in the mail so I will get back to trying out more letters and words when it arrives.

My crumb bin is filling up fast from all the scrap trimming I've been doing. Some of the quilters on the Liberated Quilters Yahoo Group mentioned that they sort and bag their small fabric bits by colour and keep them with the larger pieces and yardage in their stash. That would certainly make it easier to make a more co-ordinated looking crumb quilt. Mine is looking more like a dog's breakfast really and not a good representative of what can be done with crumb blocks. There are some real beauties in the pics at the Crumb-Along Flickr Pool. I have to say, though, that the very idea of sorting out the crumbs by colour isn't very appealing to me. It might make a good take-along chore at Christmas time when I'll be away from my sewing machine and slowly going mad from the withdrawal.

And the final choice on the Shady Lanes borders? I didn't like the black floral afterall. I figured that out after walking past the display just a few times. I thought it looked too dark and with none of the scrap fabrics in it, it made me wrinkle my nose every time. I've decided to go really simple. Some of the neutral, the dark red stripe, the half-square triangles and some more neutral to stabilize the sawtooth piecing. The last time I had piecing that went to the edge of the quilt, I lost my points when the quilt was squared and trimmed.

Tomorrow I'll start adding borders. Tonight, I'm going to spend some time exploring in my 2" strip bin, to see if I can come up with 100 different co-ordinated fabrics for the 100-patch block. I don't get to start sewing anything new until I finish a couple of projects, but it's a good sitting in front of the television activity. At least it keeps me from snacking.

Scrappy Saturday - more border fabric auditions

2011-10-29T16:14:00.000-06:00

I was going to sew this afternoon, but I ran into a roadblock - a furry one. So decided to do an early blog posting instead.

Guess who is fast asleep (and snoring) in the sunny puddle under my sewing chair? He's been sickly for the last week, favouring his arthritic legs, and uncharacteristically morose. And, feeling sorry for him, I decided to do something else until he wakes up and moves on his own. That should be fairly soon. If he doesn't wake on his own, I'll start cooking something and that will get him to move fairly quickly into the kitchen.

Remember the big pile of ironed scraps from my huge scrap bin on wheels?

This is what it looks like now.

I found some more scraps today that will work in my Modern Monday sampler. Hooray.

I also found a wide strip of the little floral I'm using in my Traditional Tuesday Sampler. I don't know whose scrap bin it came from originally, but they have great taste.

Here's a pic of the scraps I've piled up with just 15 minutes a day of scrap trimming so far. When I come across a chunk the size of a fat quarter I just fold that into the yardage stash. A couple of days ago, I came across a stack of strips 4" wide of all the same Thimbleberries golden neutral (at least a yard's worth) - those went into the stash bin with brown and tan yardage without being cut further. So far, the biggest pile is 1.5" strips, followed by 2.5" x 4.5" bricks and 2.5" squares. All in all, it's a very respectable showing for the trimming to date. There's some bigger chunks of fabric at the top of my pile now, so I may be able to get some larger squares in the next few days.

I starched my foundation fabric for six more string blocks (if I can get to my machine). This is all I have left in the smaller than 1.5" strings.

The bag of strings smaller than 1" that I separated out for my experiment with fabric knitting or crocheting... I tucked this bag away in the UFO bin for that future day when I'm bored with everything I have going and just feel like experimenting. I have some serious doubts about the attempt. Let me put it this way, I'm not saving this size string in my scrap trimming under the mistaken delusion that I'm going to take up crocheting fabric rag rugs.

Pulled out the 1.5" strip box for today's string piecing session... Lucas is still asleep. If it wasn't for the snoring, I'd have to check to see if he's breathing.

I discovered that the dark blue I used in my sashing and laid out as the final border of my Shady Lanes quilt is down to the last half yard - not enough to border a queen size quilt. I used to have so much yardage of that fabric (I loved it so). So I pulled out some other fabrics to audition. Absolutely hated all the browns I tried. Looked for more blues to audition. This bright blue floral with the red and yellow wasn't bad in person but I don't like it in the pic below. There's quite a bit of red and yellow in the scrap patches. Yeah - I'm trying to hard to make it work.

Rejected the blue/green/silver paisley, yet again. I've got enough yardage to back two quilts with this fabric. It's really pretty but doesn't seem to play nicely with anything else.

This large floral on black wasn't bad. The red still worked with it. There is some black in the blue half square triangles. Definitely worth considering...

But this vintage floral on cream was just waaaaay too light.

I'm thinking the floral on black and the dark red zinger may be the winner.

Lucas is still sleeping... think I'll make myself something to eat.

Or maybe I'll indulge in a nap myself.

Shady Lanes - now for the borders

2011-10-28T19:29:00.001-06:00

All the blocks and rows are joined making a 72" x 72" top and the bulky seams pressed into submission with a heavy hot iron and a little elbow grease. Now I'm auditioning fabrics for some simple borders. It's too big for my design wall, so I laid it out on the kitchen table.

I tried a plain dark border next to the blocks and didn't like it. Then I remembered the 288 bonus half square triangles and threw in a few for a sawtooth effect. Liked that a little better but thought it needed lightening up a little so added in a strip of the neutral between the quilt blocks and the sawteeth. Ahhh. I liked that much better. But it all felt a little blah and dark.

Then I remembered that Grace of City Mouse Quilter Blog suggested a red zinger. So I pulled out some different red hues to see if I like the effect.

The brighter red I tried first didn't do a thing for me.

Neither did this one.

I auditioned a red/pink remnant. I have just enough for a narrow frame around the entire quilt and wouldn't mind using this up because it's been in my stash forever and has been used a lot of projects. There's a lot of pink and purples in the scrap squares so this one surprised me by playing really nicely - much more so than a pic of just this much quilt can properly display.

I also liked this darker red very much.

I've narrowed it down to the last two and will leave it all laid out on the kitchen table and walk past it a few dozen times while I mull it over. Adding this many borders is going to make this one queen size in width, so I'll need to add in a row of something to increase the length - maybe a row of sawtooth stars that use up more 4 patches and bonus HSTs. Sometimes the quilt top dictates how it wants to be finished and this one seems to want to be queen size. Amazing how those little four patches I randomly pieced from 2" strips grew up to be something so big.

Quilter's Tool for Bulky Seams

2011-10-27T21:37:00.001-06:00

They're cheap and you can find them in numerous stores. Every quilter needs one and it works like a charm on the bulkiest seams... I recommend placing a piece of garbage fabric over top of what you are going to whack because it can actually leave black metal staining...

Okay, I didn't actually use my hammer today though, believe me, I was sorely tempted. And I have been known to pull it out when making pillow cases. (I'm not kidding about using a piece of garbage fabric over what you are hitting.)

I started joining my Shady Lane blocks today. I put a lot of thought into how to place my four patches to avoid bulky seams, and all that brain effort worked out beautifully. But it didn't occur to me to think about the seams in the sashing strips. I should have ironed towards the neutral on half the sashing strips. There's six layers of fabric at the corners where the two brown angles meet. I'm hoping that ironing the joins flat will help. Now I know I have to make this pattern again, if only to put everything I've learned about this one into effect.

I finished joining the blocks to make six rows. I even took the extra time to pin all the seam joinings before sewing. Normally I just sew and tug as I go, but the extra time in pinning was definitely worth it. It ensured that everything butted up nicely. I decided to put off joining the rows until tomorrow. I can feel my energy sagging right now and that suggests the potential for making mistakes is growing. I want to make sure I don't sew two same fabrics together as I join the rows. And I want to take the time to pin all the seams as I go.

I've enjoyed the everything goes scrappy approach to making the 4-patches and 16-patches for this project. There is something very liberating about not caring what colours or fabrics line up with each other. The 2" strip bin is still full to overflowing though. Deanna of Wedding Dress Blue Blog (a sister Stashbuster) has a tutorial for a 100-patch quilt block that I'm considering as a future everything goes scrappy project.

Speaking of scraps... I put in about 20 minutes of scrap trimming today. The pile of ironed scraps doesn't look any smaller yet.

Catching Up

2011-10-26T23:35:00.000-06:00

A very satisfying day. I finished two of the weekly blocks for the Traditional Tuesday Sampler.

The only trouble I had was trying to follow Jenifer's suggestion about ironing the seams flat to reduce bulk. After burning the ends of my fingers repeatedly, I gave up and ironed the seams to the side the way I usually do. Then I pressed the heck out of the blocks (with steam) to flatten the bulky areas as flat as I could. I can only assume that Jenifer has lovely slender fingers, not the pudgy square ended ones I have.

Proceeded to block # 2 for the Bloggers' Block of the Month . Pulled out the 2.5" strip bin and got to work selecting fabrics. I'm using my blue and neutral scraps for the 8.5" blocks. I see from surfing blogs that many participants are making two of each block. And I thought, Well duh! Why didn't I do that?! I don't know why that didn't occur to me, since that's exactly what I'm doing for the blocks of the week samplers Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday. I may pull out the bin sometime between now and next month's block and make an extra for each of the first two published blocks.

I used my Easy Angle ruler to cut the components for the Half-square triangles. It lets me cut the components from the 2.5" scraps and still end up with a 2.5" HST. I just love this ruler.

My Bloggers' Block of the Month # 2.

I pulled out enough bright scrappy strips to make another dozen 9-patches for my Sister's Choice project, cutting two 10.5" lengths of contrasting colours and one 2.5" square of one of the fabrics for each block, and then cutting up the remainder of each half strip into 2.5" x 4.5" bricks or 2.5" squares. I've built up quite a nice little stack of bricks and squares this way. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with them... When I first started quilting it was a major puzzle to me how the more experienced quilters were so prolific. Now I know. You do this long enough and you end up with far more components than you can use and it becomes necessary to find projects to use them up. A dozen scrappy patches is about my limit time wise.

The resulting 9 patches are really bright and cheery. The 9 patch count is now up to 31. I will want 48 to make a big lap size, 56 to make a double-bed size quilt, or 80 to make a queen size. Still haven't decided which size I want to make and I need to check what size bed the intended recipient has. This is another one that is going to require strips with sew-n-flip corners.

It feels good to be up to date on the blocks of the week/month. I hate falling behind on those.

Running out of roosts for my chickens

2011-10-25T19:35:00.000-06:00

It was bound to happen... all my chickens coming home to roost at the same time and that day being one in which I have about 1.5 hours of sewing time. (I'm actually supposed to be eating, changing my clothes and getting out the door again, but I can do a lot with a cheese sandwich in one hand, and they've all seen me without make-up on before anyway.)

I'm making twice the number of 6.5" sampler blocks for both of Jenifer Dick's samplers, Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday . I've gotten into the habit of sewing two blocks for both these sampler blocks on Tuesdays. I rather enjoy comparing the two techniques to make the same block. All I had time for today was the Modern Monday blocks.

Tuesday is also the day Jo posts her latest Crumb-Along instructions, which I started out sewing on Tuesdays and eventually moved to later in the week because I like to include sewing string blocks for my String Quilt project and found I couldn't do it all on the same day as the weekly sampler blocks.

Today is the 25th of the month, so the Bloggers' BOM block has been posted. And I was planning on getting it done right away and making more bright scrappy nine patches for a Sister's Choice project I'm making with strips from the same bin. Yeah...well...so much for planning.

And today is also the start of 12 Days of Christmas Sampler Quilt-Along . The first block has been posted. It's really cute, but it's paper pieced and fussy-cut... which has me doing the ol' take one step back and melt into the crowd shimy. I've decided, with regret, that I really do have too much on my plate so will probably not be doing this one afterall.

Got to run now.

Fat Cat in the Stash

2011-10-24T18:29:00.000-06:00

There's a new fat cat in the stash... and every time I see him I have to laugh.

I have never worked with pieces so small. The piece with fussy cut eyes was less than 3/4" square. I had no choice on the size as there were other eyes all around them that needed to be kept out of the finished block. I kind of messed up the head. You'll notice it's a little square rather than heart shaped. But those eyes are fantastic. I have been struggling with getting back to my Crumb-Along piecing, and this little block got me all motivated again.

It wasn't lack of enthusiasm for crumb blocks.... I'm supposed to be making words, but I'm not very good at it, and I don't have the book. (I'm guessing that having some instruction might make the process more enjoyable.) Making letters is really a long process for me, fraught with a lot of grunting, teeth clenching, head scratching and seam ripping (and quite a few bad words being spoken aloud). As a result, I seem to have come up with every excuse in the world for not making them (including housework so that should tell you how hard it is for me). I've decided to skip them, finish making enough crumb blocks to make this quilt project the right size and not worry about word blocks for now. I do want to make letters and words - even have an all-word project in mind. And I will learn how to do it (sez I, with determination). I just need to get a copy of Tonya's book if I want to maintain what little bit of sanity I have.

And crumb blocks are going to be part of my regular routine from now on. There are so many fantastic liberated piecing designs I've recently discovered and want to try out in the next crumb quilt. There's a fantastic long list of tutorials linked here on Michele Bilyeu's blog With Heart and Hands. I left the crumbs out for some more piecing tonight (with the baseball game on in the background, of course).

In addition to the new cat block, I finished making the next six blocks for the Shady Lanes project today.

And substituted half-square triangle trimming for my usual daily scrap trimming. Another day of trimming these bonus HSTs from the Shady Lane sashing strips and I will be getting back to the pile or ironed scraps from the big scrap bin.

In recognition of the inspiration he provided, Lucas received 3 cat treat goodies, and nearly took off the end of my finger in his enthusiasm. He's still out of sorts about the diet I've got him on, but has stopped making pitiful yowling noises around the empty food dish between meals.

My Love Affair with Quilt Magazines

2011-10-23T22:23:00.000-06:00

I love quilt magazines. Half the time, I don't even want to make the quilts in them... I just want to look at the pictures and admire the work, the colours used, the new fabric lines (again and again). About the time I decided to go no-buy on fabric, I made myself stop buying magazines. I think that was even harder than staying away from fabric. There's this super fantastic store within walking distance of my apartment and it carries a huge selection of quilting magazines from all over the world. I can pick up all my favourite Australian quilting magazines there, along with all the fantastic issues published in the United States. (If there is a Canadian magazine devoted to quilting, I've never seen it, otherwise I would have bought that too.)

I think sometimes you just have to take a huge giant step backwards (like in the kid's game Mother-may-I). Big giant step back and pause, take the time to re-evaluate the stash and what you buy (maybe even why you buy it) and make some choices because you can't keep acquiring. For me, that pause and self-analysis took almost a whole year. Part of reorganizing the stash back in August involved purging print-outs and photo-copies, and even magazines. I hauled about three bankers' boxes out to the dumpster (my heart aching with every staggering step beneath the load) and assigned myself the task of slowly reviewing what remained of my magazines one at a time to see if I wanted to save something from it. But I haven't actually kept up with that little assignment. No big surprise. I'm great at starting things, but not so disciplined about follow-through. Yet. I should have added yet to the end of that sentence.

My goal is to reduce my saved magazines to one half of one book shelf. I need to make room because I recently subscribed to two quilt magazines. I know. I know. But my sweet-faced little nephew (and godson) was selling subscriptions as a school fundraiser... and I caved. (Thank goodness he wasn't selling chocolate too.) Besides, I really really wanted quilt magazines back in my life again and I saved about 40% off the retail price by subscribing. At that price, it's almost as if they were paying me to read them.

So tonight I grabbed a stack of about 15 magazines and will be flipping through them, ripping out any patterns I'm convinced I will actually make... some day. (I can always go through the ripped out patterns again at a later date, right?) So far, I'm averaging less than one pattern per magazine.

Scrappy Saturday

2011-10-22T20:50:00.000-06:00

Six more string blocks today, bringing my block count up to 24. Another six blocks and I will move on to making sashings and nine patches. The pickings in my string box are getting really blah - down to mostly neutrals and greens. I had to supplement with fabrics from my 1.5" strip box, further solidifying in my mind that 1.5" should be my minimum string size. These blocks were far more pleasurable to piece than the ones in which I used all those really skinny strings.

I sliced up enough sashing strips and squares for another six Shady Lanes blocks. Also did my daily 15 minutes of scrap taming. So far, the results are less than dramatic. But I've learned from past experience, that when trimming for 15 minutes on a daily basis, it's a good idea not to analyze how much is getting done versus how much is left to do - especially not in the first few days.

There's some really fun fabrics in the scrap pile. Here's a pic of a sweet little lady bug fabric. Let's see, how many bugs do we consider cute enough to like them on fabric? Lady bugs, butterflies, dragonflies... yup, that's about it. So far, I've found all three of those on fabrics in the scrap bin. Haven't come across any creepy spiders on Hallowe'en fabrics yet and knowing the ladies who gave me these scraps, I don't think I'm likely to find any.

The best find today was this strip of googly eyes on black. Isn't it a hoot? Wish I had known I had this when I was making my fat cat in the stash crumb block (pic below).

I am definitely going to have to make another cat block and use some of those eyes in it. Just thinking about it is making me giggle.

I pulled out a red and cream quilt that needs to be trimmed, labeled, and bound - the last of the quilts that far along in my unfinished pile. I want to make a striped bias binding for it - I think that will be really effective on my two colour quilt. To trim the quilt and make bias binding requires some room to work and that necessitated a clean-up of the cutting area, which is set up on my kitchen counter. I just can't seem to maintain the habit of tidying up at the end of each sewing session. My sewing table and my kitchen table are piled high again.

Carolina Crossroads - finished

2011-10-21T23:11:00.000-06:00

Finally put the binding on this oldie. I used Thimbleberries reds, greens and neutrals to make it, and while I used Christmas colours, I don't think it really reads as a specifically Christmas quilt.

I pieced it as it was published Nov/07 - Jan/08 in a quilt-along mystery in installments by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. Popular rumor has it that she is preparing another quilt-along mystery due to start this November. I have no way of knowing if this is true or if it's just wishful thinking on the part of her many devoted fans (including me).

The Carolina Crossroads pattern is no longer offered free on her website, but it is available in Bonnie's second book - Scraps and Shirttails (which can be purchased at her website and in many quilt shops). There are three of Bonnie's five mystery projects still available in step-by-step installments online: Orange Crush, Old Tobacco Road, and Double Delight.

I always thought I'd like to make this quilt pattern again sometime - different colourway of course. It used up most of my 1.5" strips the last time and that strip box is seriously over-filled right now.

So much for making a plan

2011-10-20T19:57:00.000-06:00

Yeah....well.... sometimes we follows the plan....and sometimes we don't.

Didn't get to the Shady Lanes sashing fabric that I wanted to cut out. Didn't make crumb blocks. Didn't make string blocks. I got distracted... I started out to make crumb-along blocks, but about the time I pulled the 30th skinny strip out of the jumble that is the crumb pile, I lost patience with the whole mess and sat down to sort the entire bin.

I pulled out all the skinny little strips, and put them in a separate container. These are the ones I'm joining and subcutting for my next crumb project as leaders n' enders. I've already built up quite a pile of 1.5" wide subcuts.

I threw out a few handfuls of bits that are really too small to be bothered even trying to sew. And this is what is left in the crumb bin. I can actually see the sides of the bin, and the bottom. Not to worry, as I trim those scraps from the big scrap bin, this thing is sure to fill up in no time.

And as I sorted, I found quite a pile of partially formed crumb blocks that I lost track of in earlier crumb piecing sessions. They ended up at the bottom of the jumble - probably from fluffing the mass in search of colours and specific sizes.

And by the time I was done with all that, it occurred to me that if I wanted to watch the World Series game 2 tonight, that maybe I should attach the binding on my next UFO quilt so I could have some hand stitching to do. I have two quilts still waiting for binding. One is huge and I want to make bias striped binding for it, so I chose a smaller Christmas colours lap quilt. It's been sitting in the waiting for binding pile for a couple of years. I wasn't sure about this binding until I had it attached. There's no black in my quilt top. But now, I'm really liking how the gold lines curl around the quilt edge. Just as well, since I have no intention of unsewing it now that it's attached.

No plan for tomorrow. I think I'll just wing it - wait to see what I feel like doing. No plan and nothing gets done... too many gotta-do lists in a row and it starts feeling like household chores. There's got to be a happy medium in there somewhere.

Cranky Cat and midnight musings on symmetry

2011-10-20T14:02:00.000-06:00

Thinking about border options for my Shady Lanes quilt is keeping me awake...

My sleep isn't being helped by another little fact. I put Lucas on a diet. I always said I wouldn't try doing that again, but I don't think an adult male (neutered) cat should look like he's pregnant with puppies. On a more practical side, the extra weight is aggravating his arthritis. From personal experience I know that diet food is the least satisfying meal imaginable, so have elected to reduce the volume of what he normally gets rather than change formulas. It's for his own good, not that you can have a rational conversation with a cat. Give them enough food, a clean litter box, and a sunny puddle to snooze in, and they pretty much ignore any words of wisdom you would choose to share with them.

He's the size of a well-fed beaver, minus the flat tail of course. And when he walks on me, I notice just how much he weighs.

He woke me repeatedly last night with what can best be described as aggressive grooming. I think this had less to do with helpfully taming my curls and more to do with sucking off my fruity hair gel for sustenance. He's also out-of-sorts about the new bed quilt and yowled repeatedly from the centre of my bed yesterday afternoon, until I put the old wool-filled comforter back on the bed for him to slink under for his afternoon nap. I tried holding up the corner of the new quilt for him to walk under. All I got for my trouble was a glassy unblinking cat stare which I interpreted as "you can't fool me - that's not my blanky".

All those repeated wakings did serve one purpose. As I lay in the dark, half-asleep, wondering if Lucas was working up to taking an experimental bite out of one of my ears, I analyzed what's been bothering me about my Shady Lanes quilt blocks and all the bordering options that just won't work.

It was pointed out to me by more than one of my Stashbuster pals and a few interested commenters, but it's something I knew already. It needs another column of blocks - both for width and for symmetry. I wouldn't say I'm a slave to symmetry. I don't have the two night tables with matching lamps on either side of my bed, for example and am more likely to use three candles when decorating rather than two (after wiping a sleeved arm over the table to dust it). But, I'm not immune to the graphic appeal of a balanced quilt and I think this one needs to be balanced. So, I will be cutting sashing strips and sew n' flip squares to make sashings for another six blocks. I'm also pulling out the strings and crumbs to work on a few Crumb-Along blocks today...

... after I google product information on my hair gel to find out how many calories it contains.

Weekly Sampler Blocks

2011-10-19T18:32:00.000-06:00

Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday blocks have been posted at Jenifer Dick's blog and this week we're making sawtooth stars, one of my favourite block patterns.

I am really having a lot of fun with the modern sampler blocks - the block designs and piecing methods are so revolutionary for me. I feel like a rebel. More interesting, modern methods and colours are really growing on me as I visit blogs of modern quilters and admire their work. The other day I actually caught myself browsing through solid grey fabrics at some of my favourite online stores. Oh no! Say it ain't so! I know I've gone on the record before as actually saying yuck with regards to grey, but I'm coming around - I can't believe how many different shades of grey are available. I don't think I will ever be the same lil ol' traditionalist again.

As for the traditional sampler, I started with yardage of three fabrics - brown, pink and background, but decided in Week 2 (that was when we made log cabin blocks) to include a wider range of browns and pinks, so began fishing through my strip bins for brown and pink strips to add to the mix. I have a lot (and I mean dozens of each) to choose from in those two colours, so that should keep the blocks interesting for me and use up some strip stash.

I have a much more limited selection of oranges and blacks, not enough to make all the sampler blocks without finding (or buying more),or including more colours. I've already added green to the mix, and a bit of red. Considering how much fabric I already have, I'd like to try keeping this an all stash project and so was pleased to come across a few scraps in my untamed scrap bin that seem perfectly suited. These were from a bag of gift scraps from one of my quilting friends.

Having made the decision to tackle the big scrap bin in 15 minute cutting sessions, I dragged the ironing board into the living room last night and started ironing scraps so I'd have something to trim while I wait for the morning coffee to brew. That daily 15 minutes of trimming polished off 1200 HSTs in less than 40 days, so I know it can move a mountain of scraps seemingly without effort. My intention was to iron a small pile, but I got carried away, as evidenced by this pic. There's enough in this pile to keep my daily trimming assignments fueled for a month (at least). I hope I find more orange, red and black as I go along.

Some of the gift scraps were dumped out of friends' scrap bins and I discovered many old poly-cottons in the mix as I ironed. I didn't even need to put them under the hot iron to figure it out by smell. Just the feel of them under my left thumb as I pulled from the scrap bin was unmistakable. I'm not sure when I developed this new sense (and in my left thumb of all places), but I found the discovery that I now had this new super-power rather diverting. I'm putting those directly into my fling-it bag.

Shady Lanes - 30 blocks finished

2011-10-18T18:19:00.000-06:00

I think I'm in love. I wish this pic was as bright and happy as these blocks are in person.

Now that the 30 blocks are done and most of them are up on the design wall, that feeling of these are getting tedious and boring I was beginning to feel every time I looked at those scrappy four patches has flown. I can see myself making another one like this with the left-over four-patches, only the next time ignoring that little voice in my brain that says this colour is too loud and using bright sashing corners - yellow, orange or lime green perhaps... a neon pink, a vivid purple... Maybe a scrappy one using many fabrics of the same colour... as I'm about to start taming the scraps in the scrap bin, I could cut 3.5" squares from whatever colours I choose to use the next time. (Mental note - just remember to stop cutting them when I get to 280 squares.)

After I finished block assembly and pressed them all, I flipped the blocks over to check my seams, I discovered I only had two half flipped seams, and one totally flipped seam. That's miraculous for me, considering how many seams were being sewn over to make 30 blocks. I usually have to spend some time ripping the few stitches that hold the flipped seam and running those bits through the sewing machine again. I've had projects where every single block had to be re-touched.

Fixed those three minor seam issues, then trimmed a few protruding bits off the blocks (I confess I'm not the straightest sewer). Another miraculous happenstance! This is all I had to trim from 30 blocks.

If I hadn't already named it Shady Lanes, I could have named it Happy Frogs. I'm certainly one happy camper (or quilter) at this point. Take a look at this close-up.

And here's another one, only this one looks like he's winking at us.

This is going to end up being 60" x 72" once the 30 blocks are joined. Don't know yet what I want to do for a border. I have severe border disorder issues and difficulties making decisions. Anybody care to share their all-time favourite scrappy border ideas with me?

The Big Scrap Bin on Wheels

2011-10-17T23:02:00.000-06:00

I started assembling my Shady Lane blocks today. I just have the final strips to add to each block, then I can press and trim them up tomorrow. I'm looking forward to being able to put the blocks up on the design wall and see them all together. That never ceases to feel magical to me.

I've been thinking a lot about my big scrap bin lately. It's a foot high, a foot wide, and almost two feet long and it currently holds about 25 pounds of scraps.

Not just my scraps but generous donations from quilty friends and some of their friends. Some of the scraps are in bags. But most of the fabrics are just laid in the bin in beautiful colourful sedimentary layers of lush fabrics. Fabrics that aren't in my stash. When I poke around in here, I see beautiful greens the colour of celery or newly sprouted spring ferns, and bright blues, and cheery fruit colours....

When I finished reorganizing my stash and projects in early September, this is the one thing I just couldn't face. 25 pounds of fabric is roughly 100 yards of fabric. The idea of ironing and trimming 100 yards of fabrics felt like too much work - something that would leave me with a sore shoulder and aching feet.

Recently I finished trimming a box of 1200 half-square triangles and blogged about that here. It seemed like a huge nasty task, but I did it by trimming up 30 every morning while waiting for the coffee machine to finish dripping my morning brew. The funny thing is, I got into the habit of reaching for the rotary cutter after hitting the brew button. Every morning now, I shuffle half asleep through my morning routine - feed the cat, make the coffe, automatically reach for the rotary cutter, then stare at it blankly for a few seconds while my sleep-fogged brain clears and I finally remember that the HSTs are all trimmed.

So, I thought I'd attack the scrap bin the same way. I'll start tomorrow, iron a little stack and put it next to my cutting mat. We'll see how that goes. One day at a time. Here's a little children's video with a catchy tune that explains it better than I just did.

Anyone else avoiding some work that can be painlessly done in bits of time here and there?

Finished at last - five year old swap blocks

2011-10-17T01:54:00.000-06:00

Another finish to report.

This is a group of blocks I swapped with online quilters five years ago... I'm over blushing about how old my UFOs are and just celebrate the finishes when they happen. I put the last stitches into the binding around 1:00 am this morning and will be sleeping under this quilt when I finally get around to going to bed. Hooray! The colours on this quilt make me happy and lift my spirits - though the quilt seems better suited for spring or summer rather than fall/winter decor. It brightened up my bedroom like a sunny day and that was good enough for me. The pattern we chose for our swap was taken from the book Nine Patch Reunion by Terry Atkinson. It seemed a good choice for the different skill levels of the participating swappers.

I flipped the quilt up to show you a pic of the backing. My green plaid wasn't quite long enough so I sliced through the fabric and added in a row of 8.5" orphan star blocks.

I started making 8.5" sawtooth stars some years ago and like my box full of scrappy four patches, didn't notice how many I had made until I got into the triple digits. I don't know why, but I can hyper-focus on the details of a task to the point that I don't notice the bigger picture. In the case of the star blocks, it started innocently enough as an exercise in perfecting my seam allowance and getting perfect crisp star points. I resolved to make stars until I felt proficient and got in the habit of making them. That habit landed me with a stack of star blocks for which I had no specific plan. I finished a quilt for my mother using up some of the stars, blogged about in early September. Here's the pic again. I named this one My Mom's Garden Sparkles.

I still have a stack of red and blue stars in my orphan block box. I think I've mentioned before that I seem to go about things the long-way around. While others pick a pattern and sew components for it, I seem to be quite happy sewing components and then finding a way to use them up at a later date.

Shady Lanes - the assembling

2011-10-16T19:51:00.000-06:00

Finished enough sashing strips to make 30 blocks, and laid them out so that the blue corners will make star points when the blocks are all assembled.

Now comes the thinking part... when I started quilting and followed printed patterns, there was always someone else thinking about how to press the seams so that everything would butt together nicely in the assembly. All I had to do was follow the pattern and pressing instructions. I'm on my own now. Pressing towards the sashing strips as I go was easy enough to figure out. The four patches took a little more thinking and visually postioning a handful of four-patches (and a strong cup of coffee).

I never got into the habit of clipping my four-patch seams, which means I had to figure out how to lay them so that the four-patch seams in the block corners lie in such a way that when I sew two blocks together side to side, the four patch seams butt up, and when I sew the block rows together, everything butts up again top and bottom.

Once I had a visual plan in my mind of how to lay the seams and how to press the components after I join them, I sorted through 120 four patches and laid them out with seams going in the directions I need them to, then placed them with the rest of the block components. Assuming there was enough caffein to get all the brain cells firing, it's all ready for a frustration-free chain-piecing session tomorrow.

Now, the bad news... Here's a pic of the four-patch box after I took all the sixteen-patches and four-patches I needed out of it. Clearly, I've got the concept of sewing Leaders n' Enders well enough. I just don't have the concept of when to stop sewing them figured out. This is what happens when you're distracted and sew without a plan.

What am I going to do with them all? Another Sunny Lanes quilt? A scrappy Irish chain? A double four patch? I wonder how many of these little blocks I could use up in a pieced border on the Shady Lanes.

Scrappy Saturday

2011-10-15T16:43:00.000-06:00

In the absence of home-made soup, I found a package of dehydrated chicken noodle soup in my cupboard - a poor replacement but it seems to have done the trick in fighting off whatever it was that laid me flat yesterday, though I did get half the binding done on a bed-sized quilt. Soup, along with the aspirin and a good night's sleep, and I'm feeling completely refreshed today. I finished ten log-cabin blocks for my Crumb-Along project.

This brings my block count up to 57. The funny thing is that my crumb bin still looks as full as if I had never started. Granted, I've been adding a few bits and pieces to it from other project trimmings, but it seems rather fantastic to me how full the bin is. When I consider that the stack of finished blocks I've made using crumbs wouldn't fit in the crumb bin, and that it should still be full without the fabric pieces I've pulled out to make them. I was thinking I'd stop at 64 blocks (8 x 8) but at 6" each, that would only make the finished top 44" x 44", which doesn't seem a good size at which to stop. I guess I'll just keep on crumbing.

I had to stop and put some order to the mess I've been building for the last three days. I've got in-process projects on every surface, in bags, boxes, plastic containers and just stacked one on top of the other.

There's the bonus half-square triangles from my Shady Lanes project... I'm keeping them separate from the box of 1200 scrappy half-square triangles for now, in case I want to use them in the Shady Lanes border.

And the skinny 1" strips from the crumb bin that I've pulled out to use as Leaders n' Enders for my next crumb project. When you see how many I've pulled out, and add the 57 crumb blocks, it just boggles the mind that the crumb bin is still so full that it has to be ruthlessly compacted before it will close properly.

I have three UFOs sitting (rather optimistically) on the sewing table as visual reminders....

And the box of components for the Shady Lane quilt top. Hmmm. Yes. I think I'll make up the sashings for the next row of blocks today. Drawing sewing lines on the backs of dark fabric squares goes better in daylight, as does sewing them.

And I still have a box full of two-patches which I've been using as Leaders n' Enders forever. I will admit that I'm rather tired of making four patches. And the Shady Lane project box is full of more four patches and sixteen-patches than I can use in one quilt top. I think I'll put the two-patch box aside for awhile.

I can't help thinking about the Law of the Tomatoes. My Dad is a good gardener and enjoys tomato sandwiches, but there always comes a point in the summer where the tomato production outpaces his capacity to eat them. He feels obligated to eat tomatoes just past their prime, rather than those of perfect ripeness. (He grew up during the depression and can't bear to throw out edible food.) This results in him eating over-ripe tomatoes in an endless futile attempt to catch up. He'd never get to eat another good tomato if my mother didn't step in and claim all the past-prime tomatoes for a soup or sauce she makes only to get him out of his predicament.

Sometimes I feel like I'm working with fabrics I don't like anymore just to use them up. At this rate, I'll never get to use the good stuff.

String Block Recovery n' Crumbing

2011-10-14T21:05:00.000-06:00

I figured out how to save the string block that I accidentally trimmed a 1/2" too short. Here's the block measuring 8" x 8.5".

I sliced it in half through the middle stripe.

And sewed in a new fabric strip, lining up the pieces at the centre point so the two halves weren't too off kilter from each other (which would have made squaring it a bit of a problem).

Ta-dah! Newly trimmed 8.5" square string block. I had less than 1/8" to trim off to make it the right size. No quilting gremlins throwing their weight around today it would seem.

I spent the next three hours making crooked log cabin blocks for my crumb project - Jo's post on the latest block tutorial is here => Crumb-Along Week 6. I still have about an inch of fabric needed on each one of my blocks before it's the right size. I just ran out of steam before I could finish them. I think I picked up a cold or something visiting relatives last week... there were some suspicious sniffles under all the exuberant hugs.... anyway, giving in to the overall feeling of malaise (I just really feel yucky), I spent the rest of the day under an unfinished quilt attaching binding by hand and watching taped television on the PVR.

I could really use some home-made chicken soup right now.

String Blocks and Crumbly Creativity

2011-10-13T21:10:00.000-06:00

It's a day for strings and crumbs... and creative messiness. It's times like this that I think I would love a bigger table, or an L-shaped one. But a bigger table might just result in a bigger mess. Of course, it might help if I took everything off the table before I start with crumbs and strings.

I made six 8.5" string blocks, which should have brought my total blocks so far to eighteen.

But I discovered that I had trimmed one block a whole 1/2 inch too short. I have a new ruler with the half inch guide on two sides and it got turned around more than once as I trimmed. Usually I notice when I've switched the 1/2 inch to the flip side of a block but I didn't catch that in time to save one block. I think I can save this one by slicing it through the centre stripe and adding in another fabric through the middle.

I've also discovered the really skinny strings are more trouble than they're worth when making string blocks - it takes a lot of them to get across the foundation block, which bulks the whole thing up with seams. I pulled the strings that are less than an inch wide out of the box and put them aside, reducing my string stash by half. Keeping strings that small seems like one of my dumber ideas. Maybe I'll try fabric knitting or crocheting with them. I see a rag rug in my future. And if that doesn't work out, I'll use them as stuffing in a pillow. The last time I sat down to make crumb blocks, I dug some skinny strips from the crumb bin and started joining them into strips sets about 6.5" long. These strips are about the size of an adhesive bandage. They measure 1" wide and range in length from 3" to 6".

When I've joined enough to measure at least 6.5", I iron the heck out of them, then subcut them into 1.5" wide strips. I've made a small stack of these and find them to be a good mindless leader n' ender task.

As the strings from my string blocks get trimmed off, I put the short bits in with the subcuts. It's going to be months before I have enough to work with, but I've got my next crumb quilt in planning all lined up and a new leader n' ender to keep me chain piecing. It's inspired in part by Tonya's Lego Blocks project, Riel's Random Rail Fence project and my recent crumb-along piecing, and it's going to give me a good reason to dig into my 1.5" strip stash, which by-the-way, is going to be my new minimum string size.

Tomorrow is going to be devoted entirely to making Crumb-Along blocks. Maybe my next word block too. I'm thinking dance or laugh are good candidates for words to live your life by.

Scrappy Quilt Book Give-Away

2011-10-12T22:48:00.000-06:00

Janet of Rogue Quilter Blog is hosting a give-away of two fantastic scrappy books by Lynn Roddy Brown. If these two books are sitting on your must-have or to-buy list, click on over to her blog and leave a comment.

Week 4 - Blocks for the two samplers done

2011-10-12T18:27:00.000-06:00

I was going to treat myself to a marathon sewing session today, to catch up on some sewing and because I was in withdrawal. But then, I decided there were a few things I should get done, like unpacking, laundry, sheet changing, processing the garden vegetables I brought home... maybe vaccuuming (a home with a cat always seems so much hairier than a non-feline home). I did get my blocks of the week sewn up before I made myself address the non-sewing items on my to-do list.

Modern Monday - Week 4

Traditional Tuesday - Week 4

I even put a pot roast in the oven, and have three vegetables to serve with it... and a fresh tomato salad. This domestic goddess thing is a left-over of having visited with my mother and sisters over the weekend... their influence won't last. I'll be back to sandwiches in no time.

Toddler's Cuddle Quilt Finished

2011-10-12T12:06:00.000-06:00

The only sewing I managed to get done on my five day Thanksgiving weekend, was to sew down the binding on this toddler's cuddle quilt. This was fortuitous, as I was able to give it to the toddler for whom I made it. He is still small enough to enjoy the use of this smaller size as a cuddle quilt while watching television or traveling in the car.

The fabrics were taken from my small stash of fun bright Me and My Sister fabrics and used all the non-floral fabrics I had in that stash. I pieced the backing too.

I got back home last night seriously weighted down with produce from my Dad's garden, and eager to get back to my sewing machine. I'm behind on my weekly blocks and will be immediately getting to my Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday sampler blocks, then the Crumb-Along Log Cabin blocks posted in Jo's tutorial this week, and a few more string blocks for my Donna's String Quilt w/ 9 Patches.

Modern Monday - Week 4

2011-10-10T10:31:00.000-06:00

It's Monday... and I'm still visiting family for Thanksgiving, so not even in the same area code as my sewing machine. I'm in serious withdrawal. It could be worse, but I'm being indecently stuffed with pie and cake, so the sugar high is masking some of the sewing withdrawal symptoms. I will be doing some serious catch-up when I get home tomorrow. This week's Modern Monday block is posted on Jenifer Dick's blog and it looks like a lot of fun. All the pertinent links are up-to-date and posted on my Modern Monday Blog page.

The Great HST Caper

2011-10-05T20:51:00.000-06:00

Twelve hundred (give or take a handful) 2.5" half-square triangles trimmed. I'm finally done. DONE. DONE. Can anyone say jubilant? I started trimming on Aug.28/11 after blogging about them in this post. My daily minimum trimming quota was 30, although I frequently did twice that number. And, in anticipation of my trip out of town tomorrow, I put the last of them through in a final spurt of determined desperation today. I took a pic of the last two to commemorate the end of that monumental task. Maybe I should frame them...

And here's the pic of the box full.

I still haven't quite decided on what to do with them all. I know that sounds kind of silly. Some quilters pick a pattern and start cutting and sewing components for it. Generally, this also gives a person an idea when to stop cutting or sewing same said components. I always seem to do these things the long way around. Here I am with a box of 1200 HSTs and no specific pattern in mind. These are really scrappy, maybe a little heavy on the green, containing a couple hundred different fabrics. These were made the longest most tedious way possible.... pairing up 3" scrappy blocks, and drawing lines on the back of one of the pair. (Never again!) My mother always accused me of doing things the longest and most complicated way possible when I was a kid. Guess I haven't changed.

I've been keeping an eye out for patterns I like that use a lot of scrappy HSTs. There are some real beauties out there, but most of the ones I liked required cutting more fabrics and using my HSTs as a frame or border around the block. Always a possibility, but that would have used barely a third of what's in my box. I've narrowed my selection down to three block patterns.

Option 1 - Depression Block (free pattern here at Quilt Blocks Galore). Using 2.5" HSTs, my blocks will be 8.5" unfinished.

Option 2 - Don't know if this one has a name of it's own (it must). I added in a few extra HSTs to my Depression Block to make it 12.5" unfinished.

Option 3 - a Scrappy Sawtooth Star. I do love stars. This pattern will make 8.5" unfinished blocks.

I did consider this star pattern, which I have been making with bonus 1.5" HSTs. (originally blogged about in this post) It could be done, there are many duplicates of the fabrics in the 1200 HSTs. But I have to admit, the thought of sitting down and digging through the box to match up fabrics in a stack of 1200 is making me nervous. Did I say nervous? I meant nauseous.

So I'm leaning heavily towards option # 2, with the sawtooth star (option #3) making it hard to finalize my decision.

But there's no real hurry to decide. I'm headed out of town tomorrow. And when I get back, I still have ten current projects to work on. The final choice can wait a while. Maybe I'll see something else that uses up masses of half-square triangles that I can't resist.

Crumb-Along Tuesday - Week 5

2011-10-04T23:43:00.001-06:00

Only got two blocks made for Crumb-Along today. I'd like to tell you that I purposefully chose all my ugliest fabric crumbs to make these.... (peeyew!) but the truth is, that's what I grabbed when I dipped my hand into the crumb bin today. I'm hoping they kind of get swallowed up in the rest of the crumb blocks I've made so far. You can see those in this blog post.

And to make those, I cheated on making the half square triangles. I took them from a box where I keep trimmed bonus HSTs sized 1.5", 1.75", and 2".

I might have made more, but as I was digging in the crumb box for the bigger chunks, I got distracted by thinking about what kind of project could use these skinny little bits.... Now I think I've mentioned before that my crumbs are on the tiny side. Here's a pic of what I mean. Not quite an inch wide and two inches long. Now, why on earth did I keep that?

Thoughts of Tonya's lego blocks (link on the right under tutorials) running through my head, and images of Katell's gorgeous crumb blocks... Have you seen them? I love the butterflies she posted on her blog and to the Flickr Group Pool? A link to her blog is here. Some of the components in her Ohio Stars are cut from stripped fabrics. That's when I started combining skinny strips to make big enough pieces of fabric from which to cut bigger block components. And that took up most of the rest of the night.

Traditional Tuesday - Week 3

2011-10-04T17:34:00.000-06:00

It's Traditional Tuesday and I've made my blocks.

Instructions to make the block are posted here. And join us on the Flickr Group Pool and post your block pics.

My past track record on keeping up with Blocks-of-the-Month, or Blocks-of-the-Week is about 50-50. If a block is complicated and requires hours of cutting and piecing, the more I'm likely to fall behind because I'll put off doing that block until I have the right amount of time to do it all in one session. This is further compounded when the next complicated block comes out before I'm caught up. Or worse, I get around to finally piecing my blocks, make a cutting mistake and the fabric store no longer has any of the fabric in the blocks.

These little 6" sampler blocks are wonderful - graphicly pleasing and quick to piece. There's no reason to put them off. If you're thinking about jumping in and making these blocks as they're posted, don't worry about being a couple of weeks behind - the blocks really do work up super quick.

I've got a page of quick reference links to Jenifer's past blog posts and block instructions here.

Quilt Retro Book Launch and Blog Hop

2011-10-04T13:34:00.000-06:00

I like scavenger hunts, scrap quilting and the thrill of door prize draws. How about you?

Quilt Retro Book Launch and Blog Hop - Day 2

I'm determined to get my name into every draw for this book. It's on top of my to-buy list, but I'm unemployed right now and trying to keep a 25 pound cat in his favourite food and cat treats, so every penny counts.

Shady Lanes (formerly Sunny Lanes) Update

2011-10-03T23:57:00.000-06:00

I'm crediting Janet of Rogue Quilter Blog with the idea of renaming my Sunny Lanes to Shady Lanes. Since I'm not using yellow it doesn't look very sunny and I had started referring to this one as a dark sunny lanes. I like Shady Lanes better. Thanks for your input Janet.

Making these sashings takes a little thought. I need two left leaning neutrals and two right leaning neutrals for each block (not sure yet if the quilt will be 5 x 6 or 6 x 7 blocks). And the corners have to be sewn on just so or you end up with a flying goose, something a distracted person like me can do very easily.

I've developed a rhythm of sewing one square to the right and the next square to the left as I chain piece. This reduces the chances of miscounting my squares and sewing too many of the wrong leaning sash strip. I chain piece enough to sash six blocks, then over sew my corners to create the bonus HSTs, stop to press, cut off the HSTs and press them open. Then I head back to the sewing machine to do the other colour squares. Finally, I square up all the new bonus HSTs from the latest batch of sashings. I stack the finished strips in alternating pairs as well.

This would make an effective quilt border for some project. I have seen and admired this zig-zag effect on other people's quilts - though it was achieved by using two flying geese blocks instead.

So far, I've completed the sashing strips for 18 blocks. When I get to 30, I'll start putting blocks together and then decide if I want to make it bigger.

I dutifully trimmed up my daily quota of scrappy HSTs (from that box of over 1,000). I have to say I am really surprised I stayed the course on that tedious bit of work. After trimming 30 HSTs a day since August, I am so pleased that I'll finally be done with that little chore this week. Hooray!

I made my blocks for Modern Monday then sewed labels and binding on the next two UFOs, all the while playing tug-of-war over the binding strips with Lucas. This time I didn't make the mistake of wrapping the binding around my neck twice in a haphazard noose fashion like I did the last time.

I'm trying to get a lot of little things done or caught up in preparation for this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, as I'll be traveling and away from my sewing for five whole days. I'm not into sewing the hexies that are currently all the rage, and not skilled at applique so I don't have any handwork to carry with me. The last time I went to visit family, I took two quilts that needed hand binding. I may do that again, or I may bring cotton yarn and knitting needles and make dish cloths.

Modern Monday - Week 3

2011-10-03T19:18:00.001-06:00

These blocks went together so slick. I'm discovering I like working with wedges. I almost put together the blocks as pinwheels instead of stair cases. They look good either way. I'm going to continue making two blocks a week - that way I can either make one very big bed-sized quilt or two co-ordinating lap quilts with different blocks.

Instructions for this block are posted on Jenifer Dick's blog here. And the Flickr group pool of photos is here. The Quilt Retro Book Launch and Blog Hop started today. Did you follow the links and post a comment to win a copy of Quilt Retro?

Sunday Scrapping - Still Crumbing....

2011-10-02T19:00:00.001-06:00

Today's crumb blocks......ta-dah! The first one I've nicknamed fat cat in the stash (inspired by Lucas' repeated naughty forays onto the sewing table last night to poke around the crumbs and strings - looking for food no doubt.

And here's a pic of all the blocks so far. <long silence, distant sound of sirens coming through the window> I'm not sure what I'm feeling looking at this pic. (click on the pic a couple of times to supersize it and you'll no doubt feel what I'm feeling.) I don't know if I want to say Ewwwww or Wow! It's reading as...hmmm... very colourful and rather happy (I think, rather cautiously). Does anyone know how big we're making these things?!!!!

Some rather startling things I've learned about crumb piecing wonky blocks:

1. No matter how large the box you place on the floor beside your chair to trim over, at least 25% of the threads and snippets will waft like falling leaves to land beside it. If you open the patio door, it's 40%.

2. The people who make ironing board covers are obviously in league with the people who make lint brushes.

3. Crumbs (strings too), once fluffed a couple of times in a desperate effort to locate a particular fabric or colour, will no longer fit in their assigned bin.

I'm done with crumbs for the day. I can only handle so much and then I feel like I'm in sensory overload. I've cleaned up my sewing area and might get back to sewing this evening - maybe sewing bindings or making my sunny lanes sashing. I have enough squares with lines drawn on the backs to make half of my sew n' flip corners.

Tomorrow is Modern Monday and it's also the start of a Quilt Party at Jenifer Dick's blog Forty-Two Quilts. I'm not sure what this party is all about, but anything that involves designers like Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville, or Jacquie of Tall Grass Prairie Studio, plus a few other recognizable names sounds interesting to me.

Saturday Scrapping - Crumb Along Blocks

2011-10-01T21:16:00.000-06:00

First thing this morning, with coffee in hand and laptop warmed up, I clicked my way over to Suzanne's blog Colorado Lady to look at her crumb block progress. She had made letters! I left her a complimentary comment, answered a few emails, then got to work on my Saturday list.

My daily 30 HSTs got squared up, I trimmed two quilts, and made binding for them. Then I sat down and drew lines on the back of squares for my sew n' flip corners for the Sunny Lanes sashing. That got tedious really quick and after I made myself do enough to make eight blocks, I logged back in and found Suzanne's response to my comment. She said the letter blocks were fairly easy and she didn't even have the book. I don't have the book yet either, it's on my to-buy list for my next trip to the fabric store. But with Suzanne's assurance and suggestions, I thought I'd try my skill at making letters. Anything to not have to draw lines on the backs of squares.

My first word is the size of two crumb bocks. I'm thinking it will go in the border somewhere, not sure how.....

The L, O and E were fairly easy. The V was a bit more challenging, but with the use of my Dear Jane pyramid ruler, I got the angles that worked for me. After admiring the word for a little while (and feeling a little smug), I thought I'd try another - going with the idea of "words of wisdom to live your life by". So I decided to make the word SING.

The S and I were done in no time. For the N, I again used my Dear Jane ruler. The G was a bit of a nightmare. If I hadn't already finished S-I-N, it clearly would have been a "forget this" situation. But as the first three letters were done, and looked darn good, and I couldn't leave it at the word SIN (not exactly a word to live your life by, though many do), so I struggled through, ripped out a few times, muttered under my breath, and finally ended up with a G that looked like a G. Some other words I'm considering: dance, laugh, pray...

My crumb bin is full of thin strips and that made sewing letters kind of a natural project. Made a few more random crumb blocks while I was at it. Kind of the small crumb version of Lego Blocks on Lazy Gal Quilting Blog.

I should have sewed bindings on those two quilts before I started crumbing - my sewing table is in a state of complete creative chaos and I'm not ready to put everything away just yet. This crumb project is becoming an obsession.

Two Sweet-as-Pie Lap Quilt Finishes

2011-09-30T02:39:00.000-06:00

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

My longarm quilter used yellow thread on the top and red on the bottom to quilt an allover design that is suggestive of heat waves and flames.

And, Saskatoon Berry Pie

(a berry similar to a blueberry but sweeter and less juicy)

I love the quilting detail my longarm quilter stitched into this top, extending the yellow thread into the blue border.

And the blue stitching on the back.

You can really see the swirls she quilted into the border from the pic of the back of the quilt.

I lived in Saskatoon for a couple of years in the 1990s. There was a small bakery I would pass on my walk home from the office and every Friday, I would stop and buy a small pie (a tartlet really), big enough for two servings of pie, my weekend indulgence. More than a dozen years have passed and I still miss that pie. The blue in my quilt isn't quite right. A saskatoon berry is blue with a blush of pinkish purple. But I was feeling nostalgic when I named these quilts.

2-4-16 Patches - Pattern Chosen

2011-09-29T19:04:00.001-06:00

I went back to my original pattern choice to use up some of the 2, 4 and 16 patches I've been making as leaders n' enders - Sunny Lanes. I have a couple of patterns by that name ripped out of magazines, so I must like the look. There is a free pattern at Quilt Blocks Galore. I've linked directly to the pattern page here. The patches I'm using are completely and randomly scrappy, built from 2" strips / scraps given to me by numerous quilters. I pulled out some of my brights (yellows and oranges) but thought it was a little too bright and I didn't have enough yardage of the yellow I would have chosen. So I decided to go with some brown and blue for the sashing corners. Each block will be 12.5" unfinished, laid out like this pic (which will form blue stars and brown squares).

Or like this one (which will form brown stars and blue squares).

Now I just have to decide if I want the stars to be brown or blue. I made enough sashing to complete four blocks and laid it out on the design wall so that the blues formed a square and the browns formed stars.

Then I switched it all around to see if I liked it better with blue stars and brown squares.

I had pretty much decided on brown stars until I looked at the pics. Now I'm thinking blue stars. This pattern is going to produce over three hundred new 2.5" Half Square Triangles because I'm a fan of double-sewing my sew n' flip corners to create bonus HSTs. I've learned my lesson about tossing them into a bag or box for future trimming though, after finding the box with over 1,000 HSTs during my stash reorganization. I originally blogged about those here. (I'm still trimming those little suckers up in batches of 30 a day and may finally be done in another couple of weeks.) As I make the sashing for my Sunny Lanes blocks, I will be trimming the bonus HSTs as I go.

I cut all the strips and squares today and will start drawing sewing lines on the remainder of the brown and blue squares while watching television. A double bed sized quilt will only use half of the 4 and 16 patches in my stash, and I have a few more patterns I've found that I'm looking forward to making with the remainder. After all the low-key brown and blue, I may go wild and bright in the next one.

Catching my breath... and slowing down

2011-09-28T23:44:00.000-06:00

I made two new blocks for my Traditional Tuesday Sampler. I am so glad I did that, and not just because of my perfectionist tendencies. Using five browns and five pinks adds a textural quality to the log cabin blocks that was missing in my first attempts. And I made sure to square the blocks after each go-round. Click on the pics to enlarge them for a better view of the fabrics. I used a couple of faves in them. The brown with the criss-cross pattern? That's a fabric from a Basic Grey collection, I bought in a layer cake pre-cut. I loved that fabric so much, I went back and bought yardage. The other is the outside row of pink - it reminds me of fresh berries for some reason - it's a Thimbleberries tonal.

All my blocks to date. Don't they look great?

On the radio today they mentioned the s-word. Snow. Not that they are forcasting snow - they're forcasting rain, but it is going to be so cold that the rain might just come down in flake form. I know it's inevitable and it's even overdue (and it won't stay on the ground this time), but it felt like the proverbial second shoe dropping to the floor. The almost manic and mysterious sense of speed that has been driving me for weeks now came to a screeching halt.

I think the rush to do a million things is a left-over from growing up on a farm. September brought that sense of hurry to get everything done or lose it all. Harvesting grain and picking up all the vegetables for canning from the family garden before the first hard frost - we none of us had time to rest much at this time of year. It is so ingrained that I don't notice I'm doing it until it snows and then I stop and take a big breath. So now I'm slowing down a little, forcing myself to slow down just a tiny bit, and breathe.

Now I know why I've been making so many strange mistakes these days. What's the old saying - haste makes waste. I discovered that the two fabrics I pulled from the fling-it bag because I thought they were cotton... were in fact not cotton... which is likely why they were in the fling-it bag to begin with. All it took was a hot iron to figure that out again - the unmistakable scent of polyester is still in my nose an hour later - yuck. Back into the fling-it bag.

I dug out my box of four patches and sixteen patches, then sat down to leisurely think about what quilt patterns I would like to use them in.

And I'm going to put some time in hand stitching binding, again in a leisurely manner.

Crumb-Along Week 4 - Nine Patches n' Four Patches

2011-09-27T23:10:00.000-06:00

I've had a busy sewing day. Made my weekly block for Jenifer Dick's Traditional Tuesday Sampler, made six more string blocks for Donna's String Quilt w/ 9 Patches, and then escaped all my troubles through some Crumb-Along sewing. I joined a lot of teeny pieces to make bigger pieces, and tossed about ten partially formed crumb blocks back into the crumb bin at the end of today's sewing. Maybe my next session will go that much faster.

I started by making some really teeny tiny wonky nine patches. What a struggle!

I've had a revelation though. It's not that the crumbs are too small. It's that my fingers are just too darn big!

I cut some 3.5" random squares in angle cuts and made some wonky four patches.

I made ten crumb blocks today. Here's the first six.

Every time I do this, I have a favourite block. This is today's favourite.

And I made three more stars. I've decided to use these half-framed stars as my border, so I'll need to make quite a few more. Maybe if I start making them as my leader n' ender and not just on Tuesdays.

Traditional Tuesday and String Blocks too

2011-09-27T22:51:00.000-06:00

I made the next block for the Traditional Tuesday Sampler and I blew it by not trimming my 1.5" strips down to 1" strips for the block. Aaarrrrgggghhh! I was so delighted by the selection of browns and pinks in my strip box, I completely forgot about the cutting instructions. Given my perfectionist tendencies, it won't surprise anyone that I plan to make these again tomorrow. This time, let's see if I can get it right. (Sigh) At this rate, I'll have a entire pieced backing made up of rejected blocks.

I made the next row of string blocks for Donna's string quilt w/ 9 patches - at six blocks a week, I'll be done making the string blocks in another six weeks. Then I can move on to the strip sashing and the teeny 9 patches.

The strings don't seem to be reduced at all.

Monday's block is done - Bring on the Crumbs

2011-09-26T18:49:00.000-06:00

It's Monday, and that means it's time for the next instalment of Modern Monday. I find it's just as easy (almost easier) to make two blocks instead of just one. Are you making these wonderful blocks? I started a Flickr Group Pool - please join and upload your pics.

I pulled out the crumbs and strings for tomorrow and may work a little on Crumb-Along blocks tonight. Jo's progress on hers has been amazing, and I feel so far behind. I cut some 2" squares to make more wonky stars. That's how I want to border my crumb quilt. I only made two star blocks last week and never got back to it. Now that I've got some 2" neutral squares ready to work with, I can make stars on a whim. It's fairly easy to find the colourful bits for star points and centres in my crumbs and they work up really quickly.

Or, I might work on the String Quilt w/ 9 patches instead. I pulled out three strips to use as the centre stripe in making my next six string blocks. (Six seems to work out just right from a time perspective for me and it's the number of string blocks I need for each row.) These fabrics are wonderful, at least two of them are from Sandy Gervais collections (I'm not sure which one(s) anymore). I starched my foundation fabric blocks.

It finally cooled down enough to be able to iron the flannel without dying of heat prostration. I cleaned up my cutting area, trimmed my daily quota of HSTs and put the final stitches into the binding of one quilt (and started stitching down the binding on another UFO).

A bit of Sunday Sewing

2011-09-25T20:52:00.000-06:00

Today is the first day of the Canton Village Bloggers' Block of the Month - I'm going to make mine in scrappy blues and neutrals. There seems to be quite a good supply of those fabrics in all of my strip bins, as well as yardage in my stash. All the block # 1 components could be made from 2.5" strips and squares. I'm keeping all the pertinent links for this project on a Blog Page here.

After finding a handful of colourful 9 patches in my 2.5" strip bin, I decided to keep making them so I could use them as the centres of Sister's Choice blocks - it will be a very colourful and scrappy project. I'll be making these along with my Bloggers' BOM blocks every month. The Sister's Choice blocks will finish at 10" square so I will probably want to make the quilt 6 by 8 (48 blocks). I already have 19 nine-patches so only need another 29 before I move on to the next phase of these blocks.

I like the fast piecing method I read about on Quiltville - where to make a scrappy 9 patch you pull two strips plus a square from your strip bin. As these are being made from 2.5" strips, I needed to cut two 10" strips in contrasting colours plus a 2.5" square of one of the colours.

After sewing the two strips together, and ironing, the strips are then subcut into 2.5" segments.

Then laid out for chain piecing.

I made another two blocks for my Traditional Tuesday Sampler (blog page on that project is here). I did determine that my seam allowance was a couple of threads off, but increased the components by 1/8" anyway. There wasn't much to trim off to make the blocks 6.5" square.

Here's the pile of scrappy 4 patches that were run through as leaders n' enders during today's sewing. I've found a couple of patterns I like that will use up some 4patches. One requires 3.5" HSTs and the other 3.5" strips with sew n' flip corners. Both ideas require some cutting to proceed, which I hope to have done before I run out of leader n' ender two-patches.

I'm making seriously good progress on the 2.5" HSTs I've been trimming. Here's a pic of the trimmed box. Amazing how fast it goes, even if only trimming 20 or 30 a day.

And this is all that is left in the "untrimmed" box. I am on track to be done with this trimming business before the end of October. I've found a couple of patterns that use a lot of HSTs. They too require cutting components.

I can see I will have quite a bit of fabric cutting to do to use up some of these components. Tonight? I'm planning on handstitching binding and watching television.

9 patch done - sampler blocks done

2011-09-25T00:43:00.000-06:00

I finished joining the 9 patches (hooray, wild applause, woohoo!). It's 60" by 78" and I am considering adding borders to make it a bed-sized quilt....

Getting all those 9 patches joined, means I can go looking for fabrics for the Modern Monday sampler. This is the view of the bins. The two on the right hold my UFOs and kits. The three on the left hold most of my strips. They are so full, I can't fit the 1.5" strips or charm squares into them.

The 2" strips.

The 2.5" strips.

The 3.5" strips.

Good Grief! I found more 9 patches - a different size this time. These were in the 2.5" strip bin and will finish at 6".

I did find some oranges and greens that will work with the fabrics I've already pulled together.

Block 1 of Modern Monday. I made two blocks. Then I took a pic and admired them for a long while. Then I did a little delighted wiggle of joy in my chair. It's going to look great and it's going to be a lot of fun.

And I found my fabrics and first two blocks a home so they don't get swallowed up in stash and get used for something else.

Then I made a couple of blocks for the Traditional Tuesday sampler.

The blocks came out beautifully, but a little small. I checked my seam allowance. It's bang on. The trimmings were scant threads. And the blocks came out at 6 1/8" unfinished instead of 6 1/2".

I think I'll try making another couple of blocks with slightly larger components tomorrow. Maybe my seam allowance is just a couple of threads off. And of course, I found the second sampler a home of it's own too.

Auditioning Fabric for the Samplers

2011-09-23T22:43:00.000-06:00

I've decided to join in on making the samplers hosted by Jenifer Dick on her blog Forty-Two Quilts
The first blocks for Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday have already been posted, so I need to get moving on this before I fall behind.

I spent a bit of time digging through stash yardage and auditioning fabric. I don't have any solid orange or solid grey. Grey?!!! No insult intended to anyone who likes the look, but yuck. Who got to decide that the go-to colours for modern should be orange and grey? I've got some yellowish orange, some peachy-orange, some cheddar orange, some floral orange.... no, not these.

There's the oranges, yellow and turquoise I just bought... I could add to these from my stash of brights... I'm just not ready to use these new ones just yet.

Then I found these...

And some 10" squares of blacks and oranges. Aha! I'm going to make my modern in Hallowe'en colours. Tomorrow, I'll dig around in the strip bins and see what else I can pull that will go with all of these.

I also found another large Christmassy floral - don't know what it was doing in with the orange and black. Maybe I should double check my fabric stash for other misplaced yardage.... This is definitely a good candidate for the pillowcase sew-in I'm going to be hosting in October. I just have to put it somewhere I won't forget it again.

For the Traditional sampler, I'm leaning towards browns and pinks. I definitely have enough yardage and scraps and strips to make that work for me.

Tomorrow, I think I'll make some blocks. Oh yeah...and the 9 patch - I definitely am going to finish that 9 patch.

Washing Flannel & Lost Pillowcases

2011-09-23T22:00:00.000-06:00

Sooooo, what's happening over at the Distracted Quilter's place? Wonder what she's doin' today to avoid finishing that 9patch quilt? Heh..heh...heh... you already know me so well.

I looked at the 9patch when I got up. I did, so! And I remembered that I needed more washed muslin to finish it. I might not have bothered washing muslin for the itty-bitty-strips I need ... only I have witnessed for myself just how much muslin shrinks - holy dinah! And since the $20 flannel I'm going to experiment with will be the batting for same said 9 patch, and it needed to be washed and dried...twice, that kind of set the tone for the day. I took my laundry down to the basement and stayed the entire three hours it took to get everything done. The time normally spent in laundry enjoyment enhanced by washing and drying the flannel load twice. It's a remarkably hot day here today, 10 degrees hotter than average for late September (that's 20 degrees hotter, you fahrenheit people). Once again, my timing really sucks. Why do I do this to myself?

I took along the quilt I was binding and made quite a bit of headway, until I could no longer stand the heat of the day, combined with the heat of the hot water and hot dryer, and a quilt on my lap. Did I cook anything for supper? No way! One more moment near a heat source of any kind and I will melt into a puddle.

Here's my pile of flannel and muslin. (I can't believe I'm posting a pic of my laundry - blogging certainly does strange things to a person's behaviour!) I did take the time to iron the muslin, but I am not going back near the iron til the air cools off by another fifteen degrees in here.

When I reorganized my stash, I found some sets of pillowcases I made and intended to give as Christmas gifts... was it two years ago? Hmmm. I gave them a swish through the laundry as well. Now I'm already ahead of the game, gift wise, for this upcoming Christmas. It wouldn't do to give someone a gift that smells musty.

Aren't these little guys adorable! I have about a yard of this left in my stash.

I have a great deal more yardage left of this bright red and canteloupe-orange floral. I always intended to make a scrappy quilt and use this for the borders. I've made the pillowcases but have yet to start on the quilt.

And here they are, all nicely folded in sets of two. I will be hosting a pillowcase sew-in day for my sewing friends sometime in October. I'm just waiting for everyone to confirm what weekend works best for them.

I love making pillowcases (there's a pillowcase link in the tutorials section of my blog). First, they are fast to make. Second, you can use up 1.5 yards of fabric if you make a pair. Third, they really stand out as one of a kind. Who else has a set of raccoon pillowcases with an oriental green cuff? Now, if you've over-indulged in the fabric department...don't despair... make it a habit to produce a set of pillow cases with every quilt you make. It's a good stash reducer. Put the gift quilt and second pillowcase inside the first pillowcase and now you don't even need wrapping - so making them will save you oodles on gift boxes and wrapping paper.

6" Sampler Anyone?

2011-09-23T01:50:00.000-06:00

For those who like samplers, and are looking for new project(s) to keep them busy this winter...
Jenifer Dick, author of Quilt Retro, Grapefruit Juice and Sugar, and The Circuit Rider's Quilt is beginning a free quilt-along on her blog. It is for two samplers (6" blocks) - each week a new block will be featured for the two samplers and a pic-tutorial to make the block modern or traditional.

The first blocks for Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday have been posted.

Quirky about my fabric

2011-09-22T23:04:00.000-06:00

Are you quirky about your fabric? Gotta fold it just so?

I'm quirky about mine, and I admit it. I have very particular ways I like to fold my fat quarters, and my yardage. (Did I say like? I should have said have to.) I bought some fabrics last weekend and it has been sitting in a pile on my kitchen table waiting to be put away, which can't be done until it's refolded the right way.

First I iron it to remove the creases (they are always in the wrong place), then I hold the fabric up to the windows (this step requires bright daylight) to see if I can spot any manufacturer flaws or strange staining (it's rare but it happens). Then assuming all is fine, I square it, fold it, iron in the new crease, square it again and fold it a second time, and iron in the second crease. That's when I know if I've been the victim of a badly folded bit of cloth. This is a pic of my worst off-cut in this batch of new fabric after squaring.

Less than 1 inch on both ends of yardage is acceptable, since they usually cut a metre plus an inch or two. The worst one I ever had was an American fat quarter that needed two inches trimmed off both sides! A fat quarter minus 4 inches is no longer a fat quarter. What's the difference between an American FQ and a Canadian FQ? We sell our fabric by the metre - approx 39 inches, so our FQs are a bit bigger. Anyway 4 inches off a FQ of any nationality is shameful. I bought it from an online store based in the USA and sent them a complaining email. They sent me an apology and a complimentary fat quarter to make amends. I still buy from them five years later. I love good customer service.
But I digress... Then I take my 6" wide ruler and flip the fabric around it, then slide out the ruler. Nice and tidy. All my folded fabric the exact same size.

If there's a bit left over as I'm flipping the fabric around the ruler, I cut a strip from it.

I used to cut a few strips: 2.5", 2" and 1.5" because I like strip piecing and have a few dozen scrappy patterns I want to make that use strips. But....ahem....those strip bins are a little on the full side right now. Alright, they're overflowing! So, now I just cut out a 3.5" strip and only if the folded fabric has a bit to fold over. I figure a 3.5" strip or strip remnant can be further subcut into 2" + 1.5", or a 2.5" + a string. I really need to stop blogging about organizing and get productive and start making quilts (plural) to use up my strips because I've also got a large bin on wheels full of scraps and trimmings that need to be tamed into whatever size can be cut from them.

If the yardage is more than 3 metres/yards, I fold it on my 8.5" ruler. I can tell at a glance based on the width of the folded fabric if the yardage is enough for a backing or not.

When I bought my Ikea wardrobe and basket organizers, I found that each basket could hold three stacks of of the 6" folded fabric (two side by side and one cross ways), or it will hold one stack of 8.5" + one stack of 6" with room for fat quarters. Serendipity! It was as if I had been prepping my fabrics and folding it this way for years for just this storage unit. Things don't usually work out this neatly for me. I didn't think to measure when I bought the storage unit either.
Here are those yummy new fabrics again - the 3.5" strips I cut from them.

I have this gorgeous orchid and it has been in bloom for 30 days now. 30 days! You want to know the secret? I haven't watered it the whole time it's been in bloom. I've been ignoring it as I got the stash reorganized. The last time it bloomed, I fussed over it, watered it, fertilized it... and the blooms rotted and fell off in less than a week!

Now I think there is a lesson in this for me. Don't obsess or fuss if you want to enjoy the flowers.

Bindings 'n Backings

2011-09-21T21:29:00.000-06:00

How do you spell binding? In my home it's spelled C-A-T-N-I-P.

Normally, Lucas leaves me alone when I'm sewing. Actually, the fat galoot is usually snoozing somewhere - if it's warm he's in a puddle of sunshine by the window - and if it's cold he's under the quilt on my bed (the big baby!). But he loves days when I do bindings - either sewing them on or making them - in particular the ironing portion of the entertainment. He won't be shoo-ed away either.

Moments after I took this pic he almost pulled me off my chair by launching his 25 lb mass onto the tail of the binding - I had made the mistake of wrapping it around my neck a few times in an effort to keep it out of his reach.

I decided today was the day to sew the bindings on two lap quilts. I was under the impression that I had made the bindings for both quilts. I had too - only I was obviously seriously math-challenged on the day I made them. (A cautionary tale of why drinking wine and sewing don't go together.)

I don't pin my bindings on (pinning is for sissies, says I, with great bravado), I just sit down and sew. Well about the time I was rounding the second quilt corner on the first quilt I began to notice that the binding was running out faster than the quilt. This necessitated a search through stash for binding material. I found a large scrap of the same material (actually I think it was cut off the backing for this same quilt) but no width of fabric. I was obliged to cut many short strips, and piece them together. Now I do pin strips when angle joining, and I viciously jabbed my lip with a pin so that I now look like I've been stung by a bee. Pinning is not for the distracted, sez I, bravado forgotten. I attached the new length to the binding partially sewn to my quilt - right side to wrong side.

That took a minute to unsew and resew the right way before I could finish attaching the binding. Then I measured the second quilt against it's binding and discovered I was short by the same amount. Stink! I found more of that fabric (full width this time), cut two strips of fabric, joined it and sewed it on the quilt. Here's what's left over of the bindings.

I obviously overshot the mark with the first binding, but I came within three inches of needing to cut more binding on the second one. You know, I don't remember quilting being this fraught with frustrations.

Then I cut and pieced the fabrics for the backing for my black-sashed crumb quilt (the one I have to shimmy past as it has been hanging in the doorway of my bedroom as a reminder for days now). Two widths of fabric wasn't quite enough for the length I needed so I shimmed it by adding in a row of the left-over crumb blocks in the middle. The striped fabric is prettier than the solid colonial blue, so I sliced it in half lengthwise so I could have it at the top and bottom of the backing.

I wrestled this new backing over the ironing board twice to get all the wrinkles out and the seams pressed. Then carefully folded it so I could hang it on a hanger with the quilt top. It's now waiting to go to the long arm quilter.

And then I made the binding, much to Lucas' delight. This time I double checked my math and added two additional strips for good measure. Here it is all pieced and ironed. I roll it around whatever I can find (a mason jar works well), then slide it off, pin the end and put it in my stash.

Make the binding when you make the quilt top or the backing, a more experienced quilter once told me. Fantastic little tidbit of advice. Otherwise I might use the fabric in something else.

Numerous small boo-boos aside, this was a productive bit of sewing. I have some murder mysteries recorded on the PVR, so will start hand stitching the binding on a quilt tonight while watching the television.

Crumb-Along - Week 2 (Stars n' Hearts)

2011-09-20T20:16:00.000-06:00

This week, we're making stars and hearts. Jo's pictorial and instructions are posted here.

So far my only complaint is that they weren't posted at 3:00 am - when I had a bout of insomnia. Just kidding! Jo is doing an amazing job of leading, encouraging and contributing to the delinquency of quilters and all while she's celebrating two new additions to her family: Betty (a sassy little featherweight) and Mildred (a sturdy reliable Singer). I hope they are sleeping through the night. Congratulations Jo!

The Crumblers have begun uploading pics of their blocks to the Crumb Along Group Pool on Flickr and visiting each others' blogs (especially those linked at the bottom of Jo's instruction posts) and leaving encouraging comments. (Don't forget to check your comment settings Crumblers.)

My approach to crumb quilting is to grab a handful of crumbs and not worry about the colours. There's a real hodge-podge here: country, civil war repros, brights, novelties. I figure it will all work out in the end. When I have enough blocks made, I'll put them on the design wall and see if I need more of a particular colour at that time. I had fun with the heart blocks. I started out cautiously and made two red ones.

Then I made a pink one.

I think this is my favourite one.

And I made two stars. They went together so slick! I'm really pleased with how wonky they are. I stayed away from my cutting mat, my ruler and my rotary cutter this time and it worked perfectly! I even stayed away from the iron, proceeded by finger pressing, so the trips to the ironing board were few and far between.

I can see myself making a lot more of the star blocks. They were a lot of fun, and the seams butted into place without pressing. I only stopped at this point because I had promised myself I could get started on the string quilt blocks. I went fishing in my 2" strip bin and pulled out a red, a yellow, and an orange strip to get started. And when I couldn't decide on one, I just shrugged and used them all.

And I got 6 string blocks made in hardly any time at all. Donna had suggested starching my foundation fabrics and that worked like a dream! A pic of the quilt I'm going to make and Donna's advice for proceeding on the string blocks w/ 9patches is here.

The clean up phase. Honestly, if I didn't have so many UFOs that need finishing, labeling, binding, etc, I think I'd just leave the crumbs and strings out and keep having fun. But I have a list of must-do work and a pile on my kitchen table waiting for it`s turn at the sewing machine. The rather optimistic deadline I`ve set for this work is this weekend. So I reluctantly put a stop to the new blocks. Would you believe my string box is big enough to accomodate both bags of finished blocks!

And here, it's all back on the shelf and waiting for my next crumbing session.

I think my cat ate a few fabric snippets off the floor, he's been walking around clearing his throat for the last half hour.

The 9patch from .... (a hot place where they don't play hockey)

2011-09-19T21:47:00.000-06:00

It's supposed to be simple! Take a nine patch, sash it with muslin, attach it to another sashed nine patch and... you get the picture. I've made far more intricate and complicated quilt blocks and tops with no trouble at all. My sunflower quilt for example, each block had more than 100 pieces of fabric. It went together without a single hitch. What's the problem?

There! That's the problem. I finished sewing on the next row of blocks and in ironing and flipping the row, discovered that two blocks containing the same fabrics are side by side. Arrrggghhhhh! Now I know that random does not necessarily mean of equal distance from each other, but my only rule has been not to have two 9 patches containing the same fabric next to each other. I spent quite a bit of time making sure of that with my strips. But when I unsewed the strips, I must have switched some blocks around somewhere. You have no idea how traumatic this discovery was. It's as if the quilt top doesn't want to be made. Then I noticed these two.

Now granted, they aren't exactly the same block. After much muttering and considering of options, I decided not to worry about it. That's right! I'm going to leave it just the way it is. This is a huge step for a perfectionist like me. But in considering all the options I decided I could live with it just the way it is. If I was intending to give this to someone, or enter it in a festival, I'd be busy ripping out that entire strip of blocks and saying some very rude words while I did so. But, it's for me and it's scrappy and (let's face it) I've just about had it with this project. It's certainly not an award winner and it has some strange fabric in it, like the axe-murderer block. Take a look at the headless chickens and the blood red blocks. Now if I'm not going to worry about this block, surely having two same fabric blocks next to each other should be no worry at all.

Another problem? I've run out of leader and ender project. The box by the sewing machine is now empty.

I finished sewing strip sets of the 1.5" x 6" strips that were in the box with the 9 patches. Eeewww! There are some really hideous fabrics in here. I'll be glad to see the last of these.

I ended up with 24 strips (5" x 18") and a about 12 (3" x 12"). I'm still thinking of using them in the String-X or Diamond Strings patterns at Quiltville but I might want them for borders on the 9 patch or the Ohio Star (both made with many of these fabrics). And I certainly don't want to stop wrestling with the 9patch quilt top to start making blocks with the strip sets. That would be the chicken's way out... or the headless chicken's way out.

I have to have a leader and ender project. If I don't, the threads get all tangled and create ugly stump work on the back of what I'm sewing.

So I opened that box full of two-sies and started feeding them through my machine to make four-patches. I originally blogged about them here.

Which means that overflowing box of four patches and sixteen patches is going to hit critical mass and explode soon.

Am I the only one who has these problems? Thank goodness tomorrow is Crumb-Along Tuesday and I can work on something other than the possessed 9 patch.

Sore Feet and Empty Wallet

2011-09-18T21:03:00.000-06:00

Did you a hear a thud out there in blog land? Feel the ground shake a little? Hear the rattle of cups and saucers in your cupboards? That was me, falling off the no-buy-fabric wagon.

And Wowee did it feel great!

I haven't bought a smidge of fabric in over a year, so I felt dizzy and giddy in the fabric stores (yes, plural). I had noticed I had little yellow and orange in my stash, during my recent reorganization. I've grown very fond of the sunshine colours in the past couple of years - it takes so little of it to brighten up a quilt. And I found the turquoise fabric in the sale bin, so bought the last of it - almost 5 metres. I came home with 12.5 metres and none of it floral! If you poked around in my fabrics for a while, you'd understand how remarkable that is.

So, I haven't trimmed any HSTs today and I haven't touched the 9 patches. I had to shimmy past the crumb quilt hanging in the doorway of my bedroom to get down the hall with my purchases. I hung the quilt top there as an reminder and insentive to finish putting together the backing and binding.

I pieced the last of the crumb blocks into a strip with some blue fabric to add to the backing and found two fabrics in stash to piece together in strips for the backing. I've had both of these forever and being able to get rid of them in a backing is exciting. I'll still have enough of the solid colonial blue to back another quilt, unfortunately.

We went to Walmart today. I haven't been to Walmart since they stopped selling fabric and batting and am not likely to return any time soon. I picked up a ball of cotton knitting yarn to make some new dish cloths and two larger crochet hooks - the big one because I've been tempted to try crocheting fabric strips to make a rag rug. It's just a thought....

I found a 10 metre bundle of irregular white flannel on sale for $2 per metre.

A quilter on the Stashbuster Yahoo Group recently posted that she had used flannel as a quilt batting for a light-weight summer quilt. At $2 per metre, I thought it definitely worth a try. It's a freaking mystery to me how quilt batting can have nearly doubled in price, at the same time as our dollar has climbed to par with the US dollar..... can anyone say gouge?

Queen size batts are now $70. Ouch! Luckily I still have some batting from my purchase of an entire bolt (at a half price sale). I'm eager to try the flannel. Even if I find it too thin and have to use two layers, it's a bargain at the price. I've been advised to wash it in hot water and dry it at high heat a couple of times before using it in a quilt.

My feet are aching and I'm still full from brunch (ten hours after eating). I may just go through some quilt magazines from the relative comfort of my chair and get back to sewing tomorrow.

Necessary Work and Quilt Gremlins

2011-09-17T23:32:00.001-06:00

Housework is a necessary evil - and something I could easily put off, if I didn't share my apartment with a cat and his litter box. In simple terms, what it really comes down to is a choice over vaccuuming the abode or brushing cat hair off my fabric. I don't know how I can suck up enough hair to make another cat (every week) and yet my feline room mate still manages to maintain a full body suit of glossy black hair. It's a mystery! The accumulation became noticeable when I was adding the solid black borders to my crumb quilt. Eeeewwww! That's when the quilt gremlins hit - when I was distracted by the cat hair - I sewed a border on the wrong side.

Lucky for me I was sewing on solid black borders and the wrong and right sides are interchangeable, so I just undid the join and sewed it on the reverse. There! Done! Take that Quilt Gremlins! I would have hated to have to unsew the entire border. I eventually did vaccuum. In fact I spent an hour on necessary housework, even dusting and washing floors. Once I give in to the task, I am thorough.

I trimmed double my daily quota of those half square triangles. The trimmed box is filling up quite nicely, even if the box of untrimmed ones doesn't seem noticeably reduced. By my reckoning, I may be 25% done.

And then I went digging in the "fling-it" bag in the hall coat closet (non-quilting fabrics and old bed sheets I was going to throw out, give to a friend for drop cloths, or donate). I wanted a very thin cotton flat sheet I knew was in there for cutting up - for string block foundations. I cut them out at 8.5" square and after slicing up the entire queen-size sheet, I have a stack of squares almost two inches high.

Now I must confess that, normally, a distracted procrastinator like me would have cut out one strip of blocks and started the new string project (just folded up the remainder of the sheet for future cutting). But it occurred to me when I was organizing my stash and identifying my UFOs that it was just this sort of procrastination that results in so many stalled and unfinished projects. That's why I'm so pleased with this stack of foundation squares. Now I get to play in the fabric stash for a unifying central stripe - orange or red? yellow maybe? I'll be ready to start making my first string blocks on Crumb Along Tuesday (if I can wait that long). There are surely enough foundation squares here for a couple of string quilts.

While I was digging around in the "fling-it" bag, I pulled out these three items for reconsideration. The pink and white solids are 100% cotton and it seems wasteful to get rid of them. Sure solids are boring, but seen in the right light (say as the calming neutral in a scrappy quilt) they might work. Right? Yuck, that pink is really really pink! The tea-dye coloured fabric is another flat sheet (a 50-50 poly cotton) and the frugal unemployed part of me can't help asking why can't I use it for a backing?

Today was obviously a day for necessary work. I put a much needed new ironing board cover on my board, put in the screws that hold firm the basket glides in my stash cupboard, and afixed the hinges to the cupboard door. (No wonder handy men have such well developed muscles!)

I finished unsewing those nine patches...

...then started putting them back together the way I knew I should have in the first place, which is going to ensure the 9patches line up beautifully for quilting. Notice the black shape under the ironing board? Now you know why I was picking up cat hair on my quilt borders. Lucas has a tendency to follow me around and get involved in anything and everything I am doing (except when I turn on the vaccuum cleaner).

And I picked up a couple of those plastic table cloths with the cotton backs to use as design walls. I acutally stood there in the store agonizing over the colours I wanted to buy, before I remembered that the plastic coloured side would be against the wall and not seen anyway.

And, there's my nightly stack of magazines to go through. Tomorrow, I'm going to spend the day in guilt-less sewing.