November Progress Check

In some ways I have made a lot of progress, in other ways, I have not. I have declared myself done with canning for the season, after putting up a bushel and a half of apples made into applesauce. I highly recommend apples from Ottanola Orchards in Hendersonville, NC, if you can get them. I found a new apple this year called the "Arkansas Black." (New to me at least, it is an older variety.) I swear it made a pink tinge to my applesauce. I also bought a "vintage" [read well-loved second-hand] Victorio Strainer from a co-worker, which made applesauce-making so much easier than last year! But I digress....

After two summers of "putting up," I am pretty sure now that I understand why our pioneer ancestresses quilted in the winter- they were too busy during the summer to sit down! I am ready to get back to quilting, and because I need another quilting project like I need a hole in my head, I have signed up to get the Downton Abbey quilt-along emails. I am not sure that I will actually make it, but I am going to print them off and save them. My local quilt shop is having a roll-out tea in December, so I am curious to see what comes up. I have been making very good progress on my Mill Girls quilt- I am on track to finish a club quilt top in the same year for the first time ever! My progress on the Bible Studies quilt is hit and miss- I set it aside for a long time because I got burnt out. Or, as my friends at Historic Club say, I put it in "Time Out." Now I have picked it back up and catalogued what I have done (the Pentateuch, Wisdom literature, and most of the Major Prophets) or not done (large swaths of Minor Prophets and virtually the entire New Testament). It's a long story, but I had some unexpected time on my hands about a month ago and was able to catch up a bit.

Our local quilt shop had an anniversary party back in September, and I bought some raffle tickets. Lo and behold, I actually won something! I got a goodie bag of fun patterns and an Andover charm pack and a "Boondoggle Ruler." I am looking forward to trying it out. I am also planning ahead towards making a hexagon quilt. I have been drawing Swim Taxi duty lately, and it has evolved that I may be traveling more for business in the coming year. I would like to have some handwork to occupy myself in my hotel rooms and on the bleachers at the pool- stay-tuned.

Quilts in Progress, as of November 10th, 2013

1. Teal Single Irish Chain (hand quilting)
2. Mill Girls by Nancy Rink
3. Bible Studies
4. Champions of the West (blocks finished, but not stitched together- I got creative block when it came to the border)
5. Civil War Sampler "cot" quilt by Karen Witt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
6. Liberty of Londons sampler quilt (I honestly can't remember where this is in the process, but I definitely haven't got the quilt top finished)
7. Golden's Journal quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
8. Peggy Martin-technique sampler quilt (ditto)
9. Crazy quilt (not your usual crazy quilt, but it is crazy! Quilt top finished, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
10. Roses for Shiloh quilt by Painted Pony 'n Quilts (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
11. Amish with a Twist (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
12. Not quilting, but alter my dirndl to fit my new, smaller, self, and finish the heart-ruching trim for it.

Quilts in the "Some Day" Stage, as of June 2nd, 2013
1. Olivia the piglet quilt
2. A Baltimore Album quilt
3. A hexagon quilt
4. A chintz panel quilt
5. A quilt with the Metro Blues fabrics that I got in New Braunfels and Belleville
6. Various Rosemary Youngs Civil War Diary and Civil War Anniversary quilts
7. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler
8. Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice women's suffrage sampler
9. A botanical album quilt that I've had designed in my head for a long time
10. Away from Home by Nancy Rink (postponed indefinitely)
11. Mimi's Bloomers quilt by Erin Russek
12. Just Takes Two quilt by Sentimental Stitches
13. The Hazel Ilene quilts by Prairie Moon Quilts
14. Path to the Civil War: Aurelia's Journey Quilt
15. A Dear Jane quilt
16. A bed-runner designed by one of my kids
17. Miscellaneous quilts that I've downloaded from quilt-alongs and free patterns from textile companies.
18. Downtown Abbey quilt from Lovebug Studios

And the answer is...

53! I apparently made 53 four-patches. That's not too terribly off-target. It gives me a little room to play with arrangements, I suppose.

It's finally windows-open weather! This summer has been strange. I am loving listening to the crickets in the trees; it reminds me of growing up in the days before air conditioning. I have been spending the afternoon and evening sitting at my sewing machine. I am midway through my Mill Girls quilt, making the inner border around the center medallion. I had to cut out 208 two-inch squares, and then sew them together into two-sies and then four-sies. I just finished the four-pack blocks, and darn if there isn't one two-patch left over! When I sewed the two-patch blocks I initially had three extra dark squares, and not enough light squares. Soon will be the moment of truth in counting out how many four-patches I have. The magic number is 52, that I ought to have.

I went to the Lake Norman Quilt Guild show yesterday, and saw some amazing quilts. I am very inspired to work on my quilts now! My kids have been playing at "starching" the scraps in their fabric stashes with spray bottles of water, that I then iron dry for them.

It's funny that my other hobby, canning, had international Can-It-Forward Day yesterday. It completely slipped my mind and I spent the day quilting. I suppose I spent enough time cheating on quilting to do canning in July that it evens out.

June Progress Check

Okay, I admit. I haven't updated here in a while, and I haven't made finished anything. I'm still caught up on my Mill Girls quilt, but I'm rather behind on my Bible Studies Blessings quilt blocks. On the other hand, I've been stressed out lately so I've been doing a lot more hand quilting in the evenings to relax, with a nice costume drama or something on Netflix.

Quilts in Progress, as of June 2nd, 2013

1. Teal Single Irish Chain (hand quilting)
2. Champions of the West (blocks finished, but not stitched together- I got creative block when it came to the border)
3. Civil War Sampler "cot" quilt by Karen Witt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
4. Liberty of Londons sampler quilt (I honestly can't remember where this is in the process, but I definitely haven't got the quilt top finished)
5. Golden's Journal quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
6. Peggy Martin-technique sampler quilt (ditto)
7. Crazy quilt (not your usual crazy quilt, but it is crazy! Quilt top finished, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
8. Roses for Shiloh quilt by Painted Pony 'n Quilts (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
9. Amish with a Twist (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
10. Space left here in case I've forgotten something, kinda like setting an empty chair at dinner for a possible stranger to show up. It's possible as I excavate down through my stash, that I may find more quilts I didn't know about. We are proud members of Old Salem, and one of the side benefits of membership is getting a new tote bag each year. The past few years they've been marvelous gigantic bags, perfect for filling with accumulated projects. A new year, another Old Salem bag with an unfinished quilt!
11. Not quilting, but alter my dirndl to fit my new, smaller, self, and finish the heart-ruching trim for it.

Quilts in the "Some Day" Stage, as of June 2nd, 2013
1. Olivia the piglet quilt
2. A Baltimore Album quilt
3. A hexagon quilt
4. A chintz panel quilt
5. A quilt with the Metro Blues fabrics that I got in New Braunfels and Belleville
6. Various Rosemary Youngs Civil War Diary and Civil War Anniversary quilts
7. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler
8. Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice women's suffrage sampler
9. A botanical album quilt that I've had designed in my head for a long time

10. Away from Home by Nancy Rink (postponed indefinitely)
11. Mimi's Bloomers quilt by Erin Russek
12. Just Takes Two quilt by Sentimental Stitches
13. The Hazel Ilene quilts by Prairie Moon Quilts
14. Path to the Civil War: Aurelia's Journey Quilt
15. A Dear Jane quilt
16. A bed-runner designed by one of my kids
17. Miscellaneous quilts that I've downloaded from quilt-alongs and free patterns from textile companies.

Meanwhile....

I have been rather productive. I am still keeping up with my quilt-along and my new block of the month!

Here are my latest two blocks for the Bible Studies quilt:

The lower block shows the perils of using homespun plaids in a block. I am still trying to decide whether to remake it. I could do it as a half sort of flying geese instead of half triangles stitched to square blocks. I am going to think about it. I haven't made up my mind yet. I have been using a LOT of spray starch on this quilt, but it seems like it is taking a lot more starch to get the plaid to crisp up than the other fabrics. (I had to make a run to the Hancock's one evening this week to buy a refill because I had run out of Mary Ellen's Best Press.)

We had our first meeting of Historic Club at Quilter's Loft last weekend. We are doing the Away from Home and Mill Girls quilts by Nancy Rink. I was going to do both, until my husband and my mother talked me out of it. Now I am glad they did. I saw the tiny tiny spindles in the tiny tiny hands of the mills girls and thought, "how in the world would I needle-turn that?" I still bought the book in case I change my mind later. I see some cool projects in there that I would like to do. This month, the first block is for a woman named Huldah Currier.

Meanwhile...

I also finished my inner blocks for my Amish with a Twist quilt this week. I had it in pieces strewn about my sewing area, and I was terrified that they would get lost or one of my kids would play 52-card pickup with them. I still need to put the framing on them, which I may start doing today. I have my giant 12.5 inch ruler out, and my iron plugged in, but I haven't gotten much further than that. My goal is to finish the top and piece the back so that I can fold it up and put it back in the closet. Currently I have four active projects out of the closet, and my goal is to get down to three active projects.

I haven't been able to make much progress on the hand quilting on the Irish Chain quilt because of the cold weather. My fingers have a bizarre tendency to crack in cold weather, no matter how much bag balm and hand cream I put on! It's no good to bleed all over the white area of a quilt marked in water soluble pen, ha ha ha. While cleaning up the Amish Twist quilt, I found a second feather wreath 8" template. I have one downstairs next to the tv that I am using on the Irish Chain. At least I am consistent in my artistic vision! Maybe I can get some quilting done today with the ACC game on and the Selection shows. I got some quilting done Friday evening with the game on.

Progress Check for March

The theme for this month is "itchy." As in, I am itching to start new quilts, but I really need to focus on finishing my UFOs. A couple weeks ago my friend Cindy asked me whether I had Quilter's ADD, if I had trouble concentrating on finishing a quilt without starting three other projects along the way. I laughed and said I'd have to get back to her, as I have only ever finished three quilts in my life. Now at least the number is four, but I am very tempted to start other quilts (such as the recent Moda Friendship Quilt-along). Have you ever seen the Coen Brothers movie Raising Arizona? I keep thinking of the scene where Nicholas Cage's character, a reformed robber, gets itchy of living life on the proper side of the law, and says, "I found myself driving past convenience stores that weren't on my way home."

My friend loves the baby quilt! I am so happy. The quilt went right down to the wire to the baby's due date. I was terrified that the parcel service would try to deliver the package, but that they would be at the hospital having the baby. Apparently I checked the tracking information a little too compulsively, because on the second or third time, the website asked me whether I would like an email notification the minute my friend signed for it. Oh dear! [blushes]

By the way, in news of quilt exhibitions, I saw this very interesting Tweet this afternoon:

Civil war quilts at the McLoughlin House in Oregon City. Read the NCRI report to find out more: nps.gov/fova/parknews/…
— Fort Vancouver (@FtVancouverNPS) March 4, 2013

There is going to be an exhibit of Civil War quilts at the McLoughlin House in Oregon City, Oregon, which is part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. The quilts are from the collection of Eileen Jahnke Trestain. (In case her name is familiar, she is the author of "Dating Fabrics, A Color Guide: 1800-1960.")* The full exhibit opens on March 15th, but there is a preview on March 9th. I have been to Fort Vancouver and the McLoughlin House before; I just wish I could make it back for the quilt exhibit!

*I like to call this book along with "Textiles for Regency Clothing" and "Textiles for Early Victorian Clothing" the "Pat the Bunny Books for Quilters and Costumers."

Quilts in Progress, as of March 4, 2013
1.  Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt (Finished!)
2. Teal Single Irish Chain (hand quilting)
3. Champions of the West (blocks finished, but not stitched together- I got creative block when it came to the border)
4. Civil War Sampler "cot" quilt by Karen Witt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
5. Liberty of Londons sampler quilt (I honestly can't remember where this is in the process, but I definitely haven't got the quilt top finished)
6. Golden's Journal quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
7. Peggy Martin-technique sampler quilt (ditto)
8. Crazy quilt (not your usual crazy quilt, but it is crazy! Quilt top finished, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
9. Roses for Shiloh quilt by Painted Pony 'n Quilts (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
10. Amish with a Twist (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
11. Space left here in case I've forgotten something, kinda like setting an empty chair at dinner for a possible stranger to show up. It's possible as I excavate down through my stash, that I may find more quilts I didn't know about. We are proud members of Old Salem, and one of the side benefits of membership is getting a new tote bag each year. The past few years they've been marvelous gigantic bags, perfect for filling with accumulated projects. A new year, another Old Salem bag with an unfinished quilt!
12. Not quilting, but alter my dirndl to fit my new, smaller, self, and finish the heart-ruching trim for it.

Quilts in the "Some Day" Stage, as of March 4, 2013
1. Olivia the piglet quilt
2. A Baltimore Album quilt
3. A hexagon quilt
4. A chintz panel quilt
5. A quilt with the Metro Blues fabrics that I got in New Braunfels and Belleville
6. Various Rosemary Youngs Civil War Diary and Civil War Anniversary quilts
7. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler
8. Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice women's suffrage sampler
9. A botanical album quilt that I've had designed in my head for a long time
10. Mill Girls by Nancy Rink
10b. Away from Home by Nancy Rink (postponed indefinitely)
11. Mimi's Bloomers quilt by Erin Russek
12. Just Takes Two quilt by Sentimental Stitches
13. The Hazel Ilene quilts by Prairie Moon Quilts
14. Path to the Civil War: Aurelia's Journey Quilt
15. A Dear Jane quilt
16. A bed-runner designed by one of my kids
17. Miscellaneous quilts that I've downloaded from quilt-alongs and free patterns from textile companies.

Two down

Hooray!  I finished stitching the binding on the Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt last night. My plan for tomorrow is to hunt up a box the right size, buy a baby card, and send it on its way. When I laid it out on the bed for the photograph, I was worried I might have wavy borders, but luckily I seem to have followed the directions well enough. Blessings on Cindy for suggesting I watch a video, and on Aimee for making the video!

Hopefully my friend doesn't read this blog to ruin the surprise. I don't think she does- mainly I seem to be popular in Australia and Germany right now, according to my stats. (Herzliche Grüße! Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, weil meine Oma Wienerin war. Ich lese Patchwork Blogs, mein Deutsch zu verbessern. Meine Lieblingsbücher sind Harry Potter auf Deutsch und Liebe geht durch alle Zeiten. Davon ist mein Wortschatz ziemlich seltsam.)

I'm making candied orange peel this evening, so we will see how much quilting I can get done on the Irish Chain quilt. I'm not optimistic. Perhaps tomorrow...

Bible Studies quilt progress report

I'm actually managing to keep up with this quilt-along! (Mark your calendars with a star...) I didn't get around to posting my block from last week, but here it is. It represents Joshua:

Here is the one I made for this week, representing Judges:

When I think of the Book of Judges I always remember the rhymes they used to teach us in Sunday School to remember the books of the Bible in order. The only part I can remember is "Joshua Judges Ruth." It rolls off the tongue, I suppose. Once again, the two outer light steps photographed more gray than blue. I've known about "non-photo blue" color since my days ages ago in drafting class, but I wonder if non-photo blue applies to fabrics as well?  I pieced this one as a foundation paper block, after drafting the pattern in Visio. I've posted the foundation paper pattern here.

The blue fabric in the center of the steps is new. I went out during a break in the storm on Saturday to Quilter's Loft to look for some more blues to coordinate with my fabrics. I started out with just enough for the blocks, but not enough for the borders. I found the blue in the center for one of my borders, and they helped me find just the right cream to go as sashing. I am still missing one additional color for the border, but this quilt-along is a year long, so I have a while to keep hunting. I got a bit more than I needed, so that I can work the new blue fabric in occasionally so that it isn't abrupt.

I have a long weekend because of the President's Day holiday, so I've been working on finishing up the baby quilt for my friend. I got it back from the long-arm-quilter a week ago, and I am very happy with how she quilted it! Here is a view of the infamous slice and dice back:

She made an all-over stippling design in white thread. She asked me whether I know about squaring up the borders of a quilt to avoid wavy binding. I told her, "Of course I do!"

Then I stopped to think that maybe there was more to it than I might think, and given how the whole project was going, I could use a (another?) lesson in squaring up the borders. I did a Google search on squaring up a quilt, and picked the first video that came up. It was this one, by Aimee Griffin of OverallQuilter.com

I was so excited when I saw it was Aimee because I knew then I would at least understand what she was telling me. (I'm beginning to lose so much sewing self-confidence on this "quick" baby quilt project that I am wondering if I am even qualified for a "Quilting for Dummies" book. I need "Quilting for the Hopelessly Scatterbrained and Clueless.") Her suggestion of using two different rulers (a square and a long ruler) was very helpful. I also had not thought of lining up the ruler with the interior border, before. I am so glad I found this video, because Aimee is an excellent teacher. I took her foundation strip paper piecing class based on the Peggy Martin technique a year or so ago. Hopefully now I won't have a wavy binding. I think I may have been so clueless before Cindy's suggestion to find a video that wavy binding wasn't even something I had ever noticed.

I even made a cute little label out of muslin and purple rick-rack, based on the tutorial I found at the Etsy How-Tuesday blog. For future projects, I may put the rick-rack on later in the creative process. This time I attached the rick rack to the muslin first, and then whip-stitched it to the back. It was hard to peel back the rick-rack and avoid stitching through it. I also tried their freezer-paper stiffener trick. I recommend this technique, but only if you are using a single thickness of fabric attached to the freezer paper. I had a double thickness, and it kept jumping around and moving as I wrote on the top. Also, be careful peeling the freezer paper off the back, because the edges frayed a tiny bit when I peeled a little too vigorously.

But wait, there's more!

Last night I cut out the bias binding strips. This time I made them 2.25" wide instead of 2" wide. I carefully stitched the strips together and sewed it onto the quilt. I even got the binding ends joined together with a minimum of effort. "I'm really getting the hang of this," I thought. Pride goes before the fall, right? I went to press the seam and pulled the binding around to the back. I couldn't figure out why it went so far around, why the fabric sandwich didn't fill out the binding. Suddenly, I realized that I meant to do double-fold binding, but had, instead, only sewn it as if it were single-fold binding. At that point I gave up and went to bed.

This morning, after a night of reflection followed by a consultation with my mother, I did not pick off the binding. I am carefully folding the edges and then stitching over top of it again. My DH pointed out that this "quick" project is taking me more effort and time than the birth of my friend's child will probably take. I swear this project is cursed. I am wondering if I should take the dratted thing down to church and ask one of the priests to bless it for me. Can quilts be blessed? Do they need exorcisms? But what if it is cursed with an inept sewist, not demons? 

Miscellaneous musings

The other week, I got to travel to a convention and work the booth for my company. A couple booths down from us were the fine folks from Sanborn Mapping. As a serial UFO creator, I am always in the market for tote bags to store UFOs or carry my items to quilt club meetings. My eye fell on their display of promotional goods, and I knew that this would be perfect for club toting. (I've included the Keepsake catalog for size comparison.)

I must admit, I did not follow proper booth etiquette to get it. Proper booth etiquette is that you only get promotional items if you talk to the representatives first about their product and then ask for it. Instead, I simply asked the representative for a bag. Perhaps he was astonished at my freshness, but he let me have one. So, thank you again, Sanborn Mapping!

I had a little baby quilt, the edge was so off-grain

Have you ever heard the folk song, or read the book by Simms Taback, "Joseph had a little overcoat?" In the story, the protagonist starts out with an overcoat. It gets worn around the edges, so he cuts off the bottom and makes a vest. The plot proceeds to carve away at the coat until it is nothing but a cloth button.

I feel like I am at that point with the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I received an email from the long-suffering woman who is long-arm-quilting the top, and apparently I messed up again, and didn't even realize it. I was not aware that when you are giving a top to a long-arm-quilter, the sides have to be perfect 90-degree angles. Not only is the fabric printed off-grain, but apparently the back is 3.5" inches off on one side. Not only did I not check, it wasn't right. I am going to have her square it up into something vaguely resembling a rectangle, and chalk this up to experience and a newbie mistake. Granted, I don't know that I could have fixed it even if I had noticed, the way everything is going. I dassn't touch it again myself. My DH reminded me of the overcoat song and said that if all else fails, I can send my friend a bow-tie or a fabric button.

Progress Check

I made my list on January the 2nd, so I thought I'd post my progress. The whole accountability thing is going slightly better. I'm still sadly lacking in prayer time, and even though I have three accountability partners for my diet, I still blow my calorie limits more days than I make it. On the bright side, I think I am doing better at staying off social media and computer games when I'm at home. I'm still having trouble with compulsively checking social media during the day, though. My time at home has paid off. I have wiped out one UFO, and made progress on two others.

Today I finished pinning the teal Irish Chain quilt. I had pinned it earlier this week, but the back got all lumpy and crooked. I spent last night and this afternoon repinning it to get the wrinkles out. The backing is still somewhat crooked, but I am NOT going to pin it a third time. The second time around I at least used some sense and put it on our miniscule dining room table and didn't have to crawl around on the floor of the room where I do my sewing. I really wish I could use the conference table at work, which is huge..... Perhaps I can start on the quilting tomorrow while the football game is on. I am thinking of making a circular feather design in the white space, and I haven't quite decided what to do about the 9-patch areas.

Quilts in Progress, as of February 2, 2013
1. Women's Voices of American History quilt (Finished!)
2. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt (at the long-arm-quilter's house)
3. Teal Single Irish Chain (sandwiched, need to quilt it)
4. Champions of the West (blocks finished, but not stitched together- I got creative block when it came to the border)
5. Civil War Sampler "cot" quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
6. Liberty of Londons sampler quilt (I honestly can't remember where this is in the process, but I definitely haven't got the quilt top finished)
7. Golden's Journal quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
8. Peggy Martin-technique sampler quilt (ditto)
9. Crazy quilt (not your usual crazy quilt, but it is crazy! Quilt top finished, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
10. Roses for Shiloh quilt by Painted Pony 'n Quilts (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
11. Amish with a Twist (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
12. Space left here in case I've forgotten something, kinda like setting an empty chair at dinner for a possible stranger to show up. It's possible as I excavate down through my stash, that I may find more quilts I didn't know about. We are proud members of Old Salem, and one of the side benefits of membership is getting a new tote bag each year. The past few years they've been marvelous gigantic bags, perfect for filling with accumulated projects. A new year, another Old Salem bag with an unfinished quilt!
13. Not quilting, but alter my dirndl to fit my new, smaller, self, and finish the heart-ruching trim for it.

Quilts in the "Some Day" Stage, as of February 2, 2013
1. Olivia the piglet quilt
2. A Baltimore Album quilt
3. A hexagon quilt
4. A chintz panel quilt
5. A quilt with the Metro Blues fabrics that I got in New Braunfels and Belleville
6. Various Rosemary Youngs Civil War Diary and Civil War Anniversary quilts
7. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler
8. Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice women's suffrage sampler
9. A botanical album quilt that I've had designed in my head for a long time
10. Mill Girls by Nancy Rink
10b. Away from Home by Nancy Rink (postponed indefinitely)
11. Mimi's Bloomers quilt by Erin Russek
12. Just Takes Two quilt by Sentimental Stitches
13. The Hazel Ilene quilts by Prairie Moon Quilts
14. Path to the Civil War: Aurelia's Journey Quilt
15. A Dear Jane quilt
16. A bed-runner designed by one of my kids 

Moving right along

I managed to catch back up again on the Bible Studies block of the week. This evening I did my block that represents "Numbers." Naturally, the fabrics that coordinated with my focus fabrics were in the tub on the bottom of the stack. At least it was in the bottom tub of the first row of tubs, and not in the back of the closet! (I have three rows of tubs, which can be both a blessing and a curse!)

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. The lighter fabrics have more blue in them than the lighting showed. I ended up drafting a pattern for it in Visio, because I wanted to foundation paper piece it to make sure everything came out the right width. I am linking to the pdf file of the foundation paper here, in case anyone has a burning desire to make a Log Cabin block!

Fortune is fleeting

I actually got caught up on the Bible Studies quilt-along for all of three seconds today! This week's block wasn't that difficult, so I managed to get it put together with a minimum of effort and un-sewing.

Just as I lifted the presser foot on the last seam, "ding" went my email. It was the new block for this week, a day early! I was crushed- I had been looking forward to luxuriating for a day in being caught up. Oh well. The new block requires extra fabrics, so I am going to have to do some more stash-shopping or actual retail-shopping to find some more coordinating fabrics. Eeek. I suppose that on the bright side, I can work in a couple more fabrics for sashing and borders, because I definitely do not have enough yardage of my focus fabrics for the borders and sashing. I'm going to sleep on it.

I'm making progress! I took the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt to the long-arm-quilter this afternoon. I should get it back in plenty of time for the impending baby- there are only three other quilts ahead of me in line. I bought fabric for the binding today. I was planning on doing just plain black, but I lucked out! They still had some of the fabrics from that line, and I was able to get some blue fabric that will work well as a binding. Hooray! I showed everyone the crazy slice-and-dice backing, and we all had a good laugh over how life can turn out crazy.

In the mean time, I've been working on my Bible Studies block this evening- "Exodus." These are part of the quilt-along that we are doing at my local quilt shop, Quilter's Loft Company. Here are my blocks so far:

Here are the "Genesis" blocks:

Here is the "Exodus" block. These are 6" blocks, so the geese are only 1" tall finished! I've never done anything so small. They really ought to be called "Flying Goslings," they are so tiny. I am not sure whether I have the fine motor skills to make miniature quilts....

I'd start on the "Leviticus" block except that my printer cartridge seems to be running out of ink, therefore I can't print out the instructions. I've learned through hard experience that I need to keep the instructions next to my cutting board or else everything gets all mixed up in my mind! Tomorrow my goal is to buy a new printer cartridge while I am running errands and then I can get started on the block. Wouldn't it be funny if I could finish the Leviticus block before Monday evening? Then I'd be actually caught up! Awww, who am I kidding? I have waaay too much planned tomorrow to do that (I need to bake bread and make my yogurt for the week.)

It's late, so I've been fiddling around in my sewing area, putting away the cutting mat and other things. The tubs of fabric that I was auditioning and rejected are back in the closet. I even got out the batting and yardage for the next quilt sandwich I need to make. It is sitting on the armchair where I can't miss it. I need to cut the yardage to size and stitch it up. I waffle back and forth on whether to stay caught up on the Bible Studies blocks as long as I can, or to finish the old UFOs. Sigh. When it all comes down to it, I'm the quilting version of a social butterfly- I flit from project to project as the mood takes me. At least I'm staying inspired, right?

Unintentional design

Today has just been one of those days, sewing-wise. (So was yesterday.) I am making a crib-size baby quilt for a friend of mine who is expecting. I am using the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabrics.

I don't know if I washed the fabrics wrong, somehow, or ironed them wrong, or if they came that way from the factory, but the fabric is horribly off-grain. I ended up ripping the fabric half the time, because that at least gave me a straight edge, but this caused more problems downstream. Because of trying to straighten the edges, I ended up like the proverbial table with one leg too long that ends up sitting on the floor as the owner tries to even the legs out. The fabrics weren't long enough any more to meet my design as I had originally drafted it.

Then I also noticed that I had made the top design too wide to meet the requirements of the person who will be doing the long-arm-quilting on it. (She needs the batting and back 4" bigger on all sides.) So I had to redo the design, to make it both shorter and thinner. It didn't get smaller in a proportionally even way, though, unfortunately. Now I am disappointed that there aren't squares on the sides, just rectangles, which are too narrow sometimes to show a whole design element. (I am a bit obsessive about symmetry, sometimes.) Here is what I ended up with:

I finally finished the top, and went to start the back. Well, the kids were playing in my sewing room today. Between climbing over their activities, somehow the numbers got mixed up in my head between the ironing board and the rotary mat. I sewed the backing together, and went to measure it, and realized: now instead of being just the right width and height, it was too wide and still too short.

At this point, I was NOT going to going to take the fabric apart and put in a panel, because I didn't want to have to cut more fabric or find the middle of the length any more. So, I tacked on some strips of 4" wide lengths of scraps at the bottom and top. I figured that would get me through the long-arm-quilting process, and I could just chop them off later when I went to do the binding.

Wrong! The long-arm-quilter (with whom I had been corresponding by email this afternoon to set up a time for me to deliver it to her) gently reminded me that I needed to factor in more than the 4" for takeup as things get quilted. Forehead slap!

No problem, I thought. I pulled up my Big Girl socks and figured out the math of how much I needed to insert into the back to make it tall enough. Then I made a strip of coordinating fabric (thankfully I had plenty left) to insert into the quilt back. I carefully folded the quilt back to fit my cutting board, placed my ruler, and sliced away with my rotary cutter with a brand new blade. I unfolded it and realized: I had cut it into three pieces, not two. At that point I called my mother to commiserate, because I was ready to ball it up and stuff it in the back of the closet. My friend would be none the wiser, right? She doesn't read this blog. I could just send a cute outfit, right? Who was I fooling? Certainly not myself. There was the pesky point of me having just committed to taking the quilt sandwich to be machine quilted, and I am one to honor my commitments. I sewed the first strip in between two of the remnants, and then cut out another strip to bind up the mistaken cut.

On the bright side, despite all my repairs to fix mistakes done while repairing previous mistakes, it has actually turned out for the better. When it first started out, it looked like someone had randomly sewn a random strip of fabric up the middle of the quilt back. Now it truly looks just plain random. I feel like I am in some sort of disappearing nine-patch or mystery quilt-along. 

One down!

Yay! I finished the Dargate quilt last night. I finished stitching the binding on with the football game in the background. I wasn't really paying attention, and I am neither a 49'ers fan or a Packers fan, but it was background noise. Plus I was getting up and going to check on my candied orange peel a lot, so it didn't make sense to watch something that required rapt attention to avoid missing plot points. So here it is:

My next project is one that I didn't even include in my inventory at the beginning of the year. I have decided to make a baby quilt for a girlfriend of mine who is having a baby. It is coming up soon, so I need to get to work. I have the fabric already in my stash, but I need to work out a design.

The binding is going on the Dargate quilt! It is the narrowest binding in the world, though, I think. I made my strips 2" wide, but I think that going forward I am going to make it 2 1/4" wide. I think that I like a slightly wider binding, visually. Also, I can barely pull it around to the other side far enough to hide the stitching lines from sewing it to the front.

Oxymoron, or moron not to do it?

I'm working on making the binding for my Dargate quilt that I am finishing up right now. I trimmed the edges of the quilt and basted the edges last night, and now tonight I am pressing the binding. I haven't been starching the binding, because I had to remove spray starch to inaccessible locations ever since my DS kept trying to starch everything in our house. (I eventually gave him an empty spray bottle filled with water, and he "starched" his fat quarter and scrap collection with that.) My Amish with a Twist quilt recommends starch, and I've been dutifully starching it, but the quilt is turning out very badly. I don't know if it is the use of starch that I'm not used to, the use of a new (better) type of thread that I'm not used to, or a lack of skill on my part.

Anyhow, I digress. I was working on pressing the bias binding for the Dargate quilt, and it occurred to me that the (unstarched) fabric was very soft. I had gotten used to the feel of starched fabrics under my fingers! I then wondered if, since bias binding is supposed to be stretchy, whether one is supposed starch bias bindings. I wondered if it was an oxymoron, but apparently quick research on the internet shows me that is is very common, and in many cases, desirable. (Such as to hold celtic braid-work in place.) I really like the tutorial here on how to make a rounded quilt corner, but I also follow the directions in "Your First Quilt Book," too.

In other news, I didn't have a name for the quilt before, but based on a conversation with two quilting friends today, I've decided to entitle it "Two kids, two careers, an associate's degree, and seven years later...."

Look what I found- more Dargates!

Just when I was giving up because I thought Margo Krager had moved on to other projects (like the Delaines), look what I happened to find on her website this evening: a page for Dargate Rubies! After some detective work, I found swatches at the website for Newcastle Fabrics.... It sounds like it is coming out in March or April.... That should give me some time to save up!

Fresh Start

I don't have visions of becoming a famous quilt blogger, but I did think I might fire this blog back up. This post is a way of having some accountability to finish my UFOs. WeddingDressBlue posted an inventory of all her unfinished quilts to measure her progress through 2012, so I decided to do the same for 2013. My New Year's Resolution is to spend less time having screen time and more time doing things that "improve me," like quilting or exercising or my prayer time or my FlyLady habits, all of which have been sadly neglected lately. My goal is to finish the quilts from oldest to newest, but some I can't remember how long it's been, so the list is approximate.

Quilts in Progress, as of January 2, 2013
1. Women's Voices of American History quilt (a Dargate quilt, need to finish quilting it, and then bind it)
2. Teal Single Irish Chain (finished top, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
3. Champions of the West (blocks finished, but not stitched together- I got creative block when it came to the border)
4. Civil War Sampler "cot" quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
5. Liberty of Londons sampler quilt (I honestly can't remember where this is in the process, but I definitely haven't got the quilt top finished)
6. Golden's Journal quilt (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
7. Peggy Martin-technique sampler quilt (ditto)
8. Crazy quilt (not your usual crazy quilt, but it is crazy! Quilt top finished, but needs sandwiching/quilting/binding)
9. Roses for Shiloh quilt by Painted Pony 'n Quilts (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
10. Amish with a Twist (haven't finished all the blocks yet)
11. Space left here in case I've forgotten something, kinda like setting an empty chair at dinner for a possible stranger to show up. It's possible as I excavate down through my stash, that I may find more quilts I didn't know about. We are proud members of Old Salem, and one of the side benefits of membership is getting a new tote bag each year. The past few years they've been marvelous gigantic bags, perfect for filling with accumulated projects. A new year, another Old Salem bag with an unfinished quilt!

Quilts in the "Some Day" Stage, as of January 2, 2013
1. Olivia the piglet quilt
2. A Baltimore Album quilt
3. A hexagon quilt
4. A chintz panel quilt
5. A quilt with the Metro Blues fabrics that I got in New Braunfels and Belleville
6. Various Rosemary Youngs Civil War Diary and Civil War Anniversary quilts
7. Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler
8. Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice women's suffrage sampler
9. A botanical album quilt that I've had designed in my head for a long time
10. Mill Girls and Away from Home by Nancy Rink
11. Mimi's Bloomers quilt by Erin Russek
12. Just Takes Two quilt by Sentimental Stitches
13. The Hazel Ilene quilts by Prairie Moon Quilts
14. Path to the Civil War: Aurelia's Journey Quilt
15. A Dear Jane quilt
16. A bed-runner designed by one of my kids