Expenses: Needles

Went to a Beverly's that lost it's lease so is closing - they are clearing everything out.  The day I went it was 30% off.

I picked up so needles that I hope will be useful to have!

$16.00

Starry Bright Sky QAL - Textured four-patches - Cross Tucking month 5

I completed Alida's Starry Bright Sky QAL fifth textured four patch challenge!

Instead of marking the grid as it was described in the original posting, I modified so it is (I believe) as Alida did her block for the quilt.  That is I was consistent in the folding so it was every two inches.

High Road Reader: Book Review of Zen Chic Inspired: A Guide to Modern Quilt Design by Bridgitte Heitland

High Road Reader has a review of a book full of creative and beautiful quilt projects:

https://highroadreader.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-review-of-zen-chic-inspired-guide.html

Thanks Shasta!

WIP: Beginning Quilting of Picasso Tic Tac Toe

WIP: Piecing and Planning started October 2016.

I basted my Picasso Tic Tac Toe quilt at my last Monday quilting group, and today started the initial  quilting work.

Took 48 minutes to do the initial stitch in the ditching of the X blocks.  This was done using a walking foot and with only one thread break!  It's good to plan ahead.

Here is the back:

Another 45 minutes later and I had marked and added two doughnut circles, and marked a third more-like-an doughnut oval shape too!

       

I haven't decided if the ovals will be quilted so they are on top or under the X's so I put off the stitching of this for now.

So far have just been using a walking foot.  The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton, natural. (Won April 2016 as part of Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop.) The thread so far is Leah's 40 wt. Isacord Polyester Embroidery Thread Silver.  I'm using an Ultimate Marking Pencil (White - iron off) and really liking how easy it is be press draft versions of the design away!

So I yet another Work in Progress.  I'm pleased that things are in progress at least!  : )

Leah Day: How to I Quilt This?

Leah has a really good video with tips for planning how to quilt a project:

https://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-do-i-quilt-this.html

Leah Day's Explore Walking Foot: Pinstripe Curves

This video was little irritating as Leah mentioned several times that she wasn't sure the method (of using the walking foot itself to guide one while sewing curves) would be successful. I mean: First, she put the design in her printed book, why would she even consider putting something that might not work in the book? Second, it seemed very clear that it would work as she already had guided us in making other designs where she mentioned using the foot itself to help with the placement of the design. It seemed disingenuous and was distracting to me. But I worked thru that quickly.

It is a nice design to sew and as always her directions are clear.

To change it up, I put my original line on the diagonal, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  It isn't perfect I can see that, but hopefully will turn out well in the final quilt.

I quilted this on Hobbs Tuscany 90/10 Silk Polyester.

I also went back and redid the center of my Super Wobble example. I like this version more so I'm glad I took the time to do that. I could tell doing this that I have actually learned and feel more comfortable working with the walking foot.  Once again I'm glad I got Leah Day's Explore Walking Foot book and have been following along with most of the videos.

At my once a month Saturday group I trimmed up most of my completed sample squares so they are all at 15.5 inches now.  Leah had suggested we mark the square and then sew a victory lap around the piece, but since I didn't have the larger ruler at home, I did it in the reverse order... I used the automatic sew button on my Brother for the edge stitch, seems to go faster and was easier than pressing on the foot pedal. It was a good place to use the bobbins that were not full, as it was easy enough to see when the bobbin was empty and replace it with another one.  Some of the bobbins stopped feeding even when there were a few feet left, but it was good to use what I could.

I didn't time how long it took to do the trimming as there was a lot of chatting and eating done during that time as I was with the group.  I forgot to time how long it took to do the edge stitch on the pink, but it took 45 minutes to do the edge stitch on the green - and that includes a lot of bobbin switching.

Now that I'm perhaps winding down on this Marvelous Mosaic Quilt project I am again faced with the choices I made on the fly when I was preparing the practice sandwiches.  I picked green first as it was handy, and my husband told me he didn't like green so I have been using it to use it up - mainly in charity quilts.  I really think at this rate he would just be pleased if I finished anything that stayed in the house.  I pulled the pinks as they were handy and I had several shades.  Now I'm reminded that I had won some fabric at a party and I think that was in the back of my mind too... Since I was using colors that I didn't care about it seemed somehow I could use that fabric for binding or sashing - but honestly I forgot about it until today when I was taking photos. The blocks look impressive to me.

There are still ten more designs to do with Leah's videos - she has thirty in her book.  She suggested we pick the twenty we like the most to put together for a quilt.  All along I thought I would use all my blocks and just have a larger quilt.

So here is my progress so far.  I already made two extra blocks so would end up with 32 blocks unless I add more.  (It would be easy to make an additional 4 blocks and end up with a quilt that was 6 x 6 blocks if I wanted!)  Two of the greens are not quilted yet, they are there once to show what will be two blocks with each of those colors.  (Each color so far has been used two times.) I have more greens and pinks in my stash, but was too tired to put down more today to see how it looks.  And I put the fabric I won at the bottom - you can see the green and pinks.  I particularly don't like the one with the faces, but thought perhaps as binding they wouldn't be highlighted? Maybe that fabric should just be saved for something else.

Here are just the pink blocks completed so far:

The blocks look lovely together in the afternoon with the stitching highlighted.

Here are just the ten completed green blocks plus two extra green fabrics:

I thought, from something on her blog, Leah was going to walk us thru a new way of putting the blocks together even though it wouldn't be in the Explore Walking Foot book, but the video she shared is the way she has shown us before.  I did that for a charity quilt.  Finished up okay.  I have to think about how to put these blocks together, I think I'd prefer wider sashing.  But if I end up using all the blocks then it would become too large.  So maybe I'll do one with the greens and one with the pinks and one will be larger than the other.  I don't know.  I can't keep thinking about it or I won't get anything done! Any suggestions are welcome.

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Not Quilting

My husband and I made dinner together last night.  New to me recipes, they sounded good to me when I found them on the web.

The man down the street had dropped off some lemons so I wanted to use them in the meal.

I had forgotten some ingredients at the store so had to pick them up when I picked my husband up from campus, the recipes took over 45 minutes to put together and that's with both of us working pretty much all the time. 

The results were good but not delicious.  And it turns out our son doesn't like dill, so that made it sort of a flop.

My husband and I do not cook together very often, it's too bad these were the recipes I picked...

I had a wonderful morning with a newish quilting friend - she showed me her home and then we went to the mall to an appliance store and looked at the displays and dish washers.  She and I both want to redo our kitchens, her dish washer has broken so that is top priority for her.

My husband and son went to Ohio last weekend for their second Hamvention together. While they were gone I sewed, rearranged some things in the garage and went thru boxes.  Scanned and shredded away.  It was a good way to spend the time I guess.  They were tired when they returned, but said they had a good time.  They were again not able to go to Columbus so they again missed the German Village there. I went to meet Shasta at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant two years ago.  I look forward to more visits sometime!

Well, I'd better think of something delicious to make for dinner!  If you have read this far, thank you!

Leah Day's Explore Walking Foot Quilting: My "Rainbow Log Cabin" Part 19

Final corner done!

This time I took a chance and started on the right side.  I still did the right half (marked below) and then the left half.  I don't think it makes a difference if I do it this way or in the order way Leah taught.  It took a little less than two hours - including the marking and hiding of the threads.

So I started putting the tape down from the center and went to the edge, then started sewing on the edge, removed the tape and quilted the next tape, etc.

Here is the last corner:

When I flipped it over I was disappointed to see the tiny folds.  Some of the other corners have little folds too, but this one had more...  Hopefully once it's washed these folds won't stand out.

So here is the quilt now:

I mentioned at the beginning that I had pieced this way back - like 25+ years ago.  I looked at different Irish chain designs and decided I wanted more colors so I made it so there were five colors. I was surprised at how it looked once I started sewing things together.

I knew I was supposed to have more backing fabric, but it seemed I would be wasting fabric to do that.  Now I know I should have had the backing at least four inches all around (and I can use the pieces in some other project so it's not wasted anyway) one inch is not enough.  You can see how tight everything is for me now.

I had a friend help me with the basting, but I cut it too tight and it wasn't centered properly so the batting is shorter than it should be too. The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton, natural. (Won April 2016 as part of Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop.)

Anyway, now I have another quilted top, ready for binding. The quilting is following the directions by Leah for the Rainbow Log Cabin from her Explore Walking Foot Quilting book, and I am really pleased with the detail.  I used Leah's 40 wt. Isacord Polyester Embroidery Thread Silver.  

I have 25+ year old fabric to make bias strips for rust binding.  I remember when I finished it I was thinking a different color would have been better, but oh well.  I know I'm going to be cutting off the nice points at the center of each side as I didn't make this all correctly.

In addition to the backing and batting issue, I should have been more consistent on where the corner stitching ended.  I'm just writing this here to hopefully remind myself for the next project I work on!

This and that

A few photos to share...

Buffy spent a few hours in her little bed - the sun was not shining on her usual spots.

Walked to an estate sale in the neighborhood. 

Earlier there were even more hand stitched quilts to see...  Two color quilts are so nice.

Scalloped edges!

Class

The quilting class teacher didn't have a sample of how she is going to suggest we join sections of the quilt project, but she did say to sew the sections together and to sew around the outside of the section. Then to trim so there is extra batting and backing..

Cooking

Finally used my spiralizer to make squash noodles for a chicken curry with lots of toppings. It was fun to each squash this way!

Cozy Strips Club Demo

Nice way to start the day!  Fun to be with other quilters.

Open House down the street

We went to open house for a house that had been renovated and sold in 2013, still looks wonderful.

Fun snowflake pillow cover.

Folded pillow cover.

Easy to clean toilets - off the floor!

Nice random tile in kid's bathroom.