Shady Lanes (formerly Sunny Lanes) Update

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.

Crumb Along Started Without Me!

I came home a day late with bags, parcels (and meat) and the disaster I created by unpacking further delayed my race to the sewing machine for Jo's Country Junction Crumb Along so I'm two days late getting started on my crumbs.

Our first crumb block is wonky flying geese.  I've got a 6" square ruler so will be trimming my blocks to that size.  Here's a couple of pics of my first attempts... I may revisit making this block next week.

Hmmmm.... not so, um, well, wonky.  I try.  Honest, they start out really wonky but somehow by the time I'm done with them, they're starting to look unwonky.  Sigh.  And the effort certainly created a mess on my sewing table, cutting mat, ironing board and even on the floor (notably the path I tread between all three locations).  But I'm satisfied.  I made four somewhat wonky geese blocks and I opened all the crumb and string containers and had a great time with all the fabrics I have in them.

It may take me a few attempts to make really free form crumb blocks.  Somehow I've just got to let go of the internal perfectionist.  Up til now my preferred method of using up crumbs has been log-cabin style.

My last crumb quilt is a double-bed sized one with black sashing.

My crumbs and trimmings lend themselves to making these log-cabin style blocks by the dozens.  Maybe that's the problem.... my crumbs just are not wonky.  I do have a box full of weird triangles trimmed off charm squares after I've cut out my two shapes for long-term charm quilt projects.  And I ran off a pile of blocks mixing them with the other straighter bits.

Okay... that's better.  These look free form and I have to admit that I like this style of piecing better than the paper piecing I was doing with them.

In fact, I had so much fun making the combo triangle and string blocks that I didn't stop until I had made 15 of them.  I can tell I'm going to enjoy this project.  The only problem I can see with it is that it isn't going to result in a serious reduction of the crumb and string collection.  I'm thinking of starting a string project to work in tandem with the crumbing assignments.  There is this gorgeous string quilt I saw recently....

When you know better but do it anyway.....(sob!)

It's that ol' getting into that boy's car at the teen dance cuz he was cute thing all over again!  You know when you start out to do something not quite right that it's only going to end badly... and you think to yourself why? or why didn't I listen to that inner voice?!

I mean, well - sure it's a cute quilt, and sashing between blocks isn't so bad - but long sashing strips between rows (or columns).... Really!?

You see?  The problem is not with the quilt design or instructions.  Oh no!  The problem is with me.  I made these blocks over time and on different sewing machines (i.e. different seam allowances).  They aren't exactly the same size.  Some are a sixteenth or almost an eighth of an inch smaller (or bigger as the case may be).  Not necessarily a big problem really, just a smidge here and there that you can easily stretch to fit as you sew a block together.  But if the Quilting Gremlins have their way, and they did, you might just put all the smaller ones in the same row....  You know where I'm headed with all this hand wringing and whining don't you?

Ahuh! Some of the columns are a tad shorter, and by a tad I mean more than a half inch. I'm going to have to have to pin the sashing strip to each end and stretch it out as I sew, which also means my blocks aren't going to be perfectly straight as they go across the quilt... not that I expect anyone to lay a ruler across the quilt to check.  Sigh!  But I still like the quilt.  I think it's very sweet.  And after I finish wrestling with the strips and muttering under my breath, I'll like it even more.

You know what I should have done?  What that little quilting voice in my head told me I should do?   Sash two sides of each block, then join them into rows.  Then I would have only have one short edge and one long edge to add a muslin border to... and I wouldn't be in this predicament.

But it's not all bad.  I need sashing strips three inches longer than two yards, and decided to cut them from the length of muslin I had left... rather than across the width and joining strips.  Would you believe it?  The muslin piece I have left is three inches longer than I need!  Had it been too short, I would have joined cross cut strips.  At least this part worked out.  More luck than good management, I assure you.

I wonder what ever happened to that boy at the teen dance... whether he ever got around to fixing the passenger door handle... he's probably balding by now.

Progress Report: Sewing, Organizing, etc.

I miss my design wall.  I like those cheap plastic table cloths with the flannel backs and used the last one (plastic side up) for a grubby household project then threw it out.  I keep forgetting to buy a new one.  I've been reduced to pinning my work on the living room curtains.  Here's a pic of the 130 scrappy 9-patches, ten rows of thirteen blocks sashed and waiting for the row sashing to connect them all into a quilt top. 

As I sashed and connected, I ran some of those 1.5" x 6" strips through my machine as a leader n' ender, trimmed each one at 5" x 18" and made up thirteen strip lengths as I sashed the 9-patches.  This seemed like a reasonable length to start with, one which I can increase by combining later.  I can see why string piecers use paper or muslin as a backing or foundation.  These little pieces stretch and get wonky easily.

I'm still re-organizing, sorting through the last of the bags and boxes, and sitting down with a stack of magazines, books and patterns at the end of every day.  I'm being ruthless and brutal in eliminating the paper print-outs and some magazines.  I find that I bought some magazines, not because of the patterns shown, but because I liked the colour choices of the quilts in the pictures.

I'm also dutifully trimming HSTs from that box of over a thousand. I can get twenty trimmed in the time it takes my coffee machine to drip a fresh pot of coffee. Even if all I trim is twenty a day, it will take no more than two months to go through the whole box. From where I'm standing, that's a much more attractive option than spending hours at the cutting mat, ending up with sore feet and an aching shoulder.

Peeking - Box # 8

Box # 8 is another of my long-term Works-in-progress projects, that I pull out and work on in spurts, then put away until the mood strikes again.  Charm Quilts.  I've amassed quite a collection of charm packs, and have been cutting them into two shapes for two different charm quilts (a quilt made up of all different fabrics with no two fabric patches the same).  One is Half square triangles (3.5") and the other is pyramid-shaped.  I found a pattern I fell in love with in Scrap Quilt Sensation by Katherine Guerrier.

So far, I've put together 15 blocks for the HST Charm Quilt, a few of which I've posted.

As for the Pyramid Charm Quilt, I haven't decided if I want to piece them into lengths, or hexagons.

The thought of dealing with all the inset seams is terrifying, so I will probably stitch the diamonds together as shown in the first pic, then stitch the strips of diamonds together, thus avoiding the inset seams.

Peeking - Boxes # 5 and # 6

Box # 5 contains trimmed bonus HSTs in three sizes - 2", 1.75", and 1.5"

I'm a devotee of double sewing my sew-n-flip corners to get bonus half square triangles. There's a tutorial at Quiltville on the subject called Bonus Triangles Bonanza that explains it far better than I could. Take special note of her comments on making yourself a triangle buddy - a novel idea that will save you hours of trimming and squaring.  There's a couple of quilt blocks that I've been making with these that I really love.

Every time I see those stars they make me smile - I'm going to sash them to make a wall quilt.

The little frugal blocks are really small, each 16 patch square will finish at 6". I can't see making anything bigger than a table runner with them.

The one draw back to working with HSTs this small is the number of seams and layers of fabrics within such a small block.  It can become rather tedious and there's almost as much fabric in the seams as on the surface of the block.  That can add a lot of weight to a bigger project.

Box # 6 is a long standing project - my Orphan Thimbleberries

This box contains various blocks and partial blocks all made with thimbleberries fabrics.  Every now and then, when I want to explore colour and creativity, I take this project out and work on it, adding fabrics here and there to make a block or series of blocks fit.  Piecing left over components into quilt blocks can be an adventure.  It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle that I get to colour as I go.  I've taken a pic of one corner panel of my orphan quilt.

The Orphan box also contains blocks I made to practice something (like getting perfect and precise star points) or the components of abandonned projects (like 60 little pink and yellow 9 patches).  I've used rows of these stars to lengthen a quilt backing or as the feature in a new quilt project.

Okay.  Two smaller projects queued up and two boxes I've got to keep and find room for.