Round Up Week 17: Went by Quickly

I wrote my name on all the blocks - will drive them by next weekend.  Found out there is one other person who did not turn her blocks in last month.  These blocks are really lovely and now that I have figured out how to make them, think I will make another quilt with this pattern this year!

In the non-sewing department, I decided to cut back on my exercise sessions until I really get all the boxes gone thru and sorted.  So maybe all summer will just meet for one weekly online session. My trainer/coach said she had other jobs she could do and she would save my time spots for me.  I will continue with the morning walks as Buffy will need a walk and meds anyway so I will be up then for her.

The week just went by though very quickly.  Amazingly quick.

Sunday was Mother's Day and I was treated to a grand meal and special time with family.  Felt really nice that my son had planned such a nice day.

The group wedding gift saga continues.  Some decided everyone should contribute the same amount - regardless of job status, life status, etc. and/or they wanted the amounts noted of each contribution somehow.  So those people have peeled off from the group gift and are I believe sending things or more likely money independently.  My family is still going with the group idea and just with those contributions the gift will be over the original anticipated amount.  We decided since it was a wedding and for a new house that more funds would be reasonable to send.  There is a fee for sending money and having converted to Euros - better to get it in one transaction so more goes to the young couple.  I told the cousin who was looking to sending the funds that we only needed to know if we should send in more, he said we already were putting more in the pot than they were - so all okay with me.  I think it's great to be part of a group gift - and since the wedding is in another country it's better to send cash instead of mailing an item, although that would be nice too...

Round Up Week 16: Pineapple Swap Blocks Done - Except for the Signature!

Time is going either very fast, or very slow.  It can't make up its mind.  Or I can't make up my mind!

I finished sewing and trimming the 20 Christmas Swap blocks.  As the title says, I just need to sign them - and then deliver them.  I hope the group will like the blocks I made for the exchange.

Here they are in my storage box.  Never so full of blocks before!

The corner triangles make a large green square on point when put together.

The block is easy to press so the seams are all flat.

I only need 20 for the swap, but when I cut the center pieces I got 24 of them so decided to make them all into blocks.  The four blocks together actually would be a perfect size for our little dog!

I started putting together my Log Cabin and Power Bar quilt.  It is as I suspected going to be larger than I had wanted it to be.  The class ended this week - we discussed how to do an envelope finish for the quilt, and the next series of classes that will start later in May.  It will be about applique - mostly by hand I think.

Here was the first draft of the layout for my Log Cabin and Power Bar quilt. 

And a more final layout.  I still need to add some strips to make the blocks fit together...

Buffy only needs a quarter of this quilt, and it will be too small to cover us people...  Hmm...

I attended another really nice EBHQ lecture last Monday. Fern Royce's lecture was entitled Making It Up As I Go Along. I wish I had attended her workshops too. Curved Flying Geese, and Working Small.  From the lecture and comments from students who did attend the classes, they sounded right up my alley.

That's it for sewing.

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Not sewing.  Did exercise, walked and chatted.  

Looking forward to zoom wedding in Ireland of cousin's daughter.  Originally we were going to go there to attend the wedding and have fun - but now it's all virtual.  One of my husband's cousin's is organizing a group gift.  She had thought perhaps everyday silverware, I thought perhaps we could go in and pay for a door or front step for the new house they are having built.  But it turns out according to Google a front step would end up being around $6K!  I should have looked that up before making the suggestion.  Tomorrow will call to get things straightened back to the original idea - it was a good one.  Should have kept my fingers quiet and not typed any ideas...  The American cousin organizer is going to have shoulder surgery in the next two weeks (May 17), so I shouldn't have said anything to cost her more time.  I'm planning on making a quilt as a gift just from me - but might be a few years before I get that done...  Also, I'm remembering, need to make an over the shoulder bag in denim for the grandmother.

Added Mon May 3:  Our cousin spoke with the mother of the bride who thought the gift of cash toward something they wanted for the house would be terrific and more preferred than an actual gift.  So we are set to send just about $1000!

Last week, made the meals.  Nothing stands out from last week in that department.  

Cleaned a bit.  Started a new box for Goodwill.

Finished reading Orphan of Asia. Sad ending.  Very sad story actually.  Lots to think about...  I bought the book from a store in the bottom floor of Taipai 101 when we were there for a Mother's Day luncheon with my good friend and her husband.  A day or so before the May 12th earthquake!  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYSgd1XSZXc Even though the damper protects the building, I am sure glad I wasn't there on the day of the earthquake!  Article about Taipai 101.

Listening to The Wedding Quilt - one of the last Elm Street Quilt books.  I thought there would be even more than there are.  Never scrolled down when I went to the page with the list of books in order.  Oh well.  Will find another either long book, or series to listen too next.  It's great now that I'm set up to actually be able to hear books while I work on the house or sew.

Chatting with friend who I went to Italy with in 2009 - a memory photo came up on my phone so I sent to her as way of saying hi.  She wrote back that she had fallen last week and now needed surgery on her wrist.  Happening next Tuesday.

Discovered Masterpieces new series, Atlantic Crossing.  We are starting at episode 6...  Then also found these two series to watch too!  World on Fire and Line of Separation.  All about different time periods and points of view on WWII.  I think I clicked to save future episodes...

Taking next week off from exercise sessions so I can hopefully finish the paperwork and get more things cleared out.

Still feeling tired almost all the time.  

Round Up 15: More progress on pineapple blocks

Writing this on Monday - last week seems a year ago.

Sewing - I've made more progress on the pineapples for the block swap - but not done with them all yet.  For the last block I tried a different way to make the center and I like it alot better.  Instead surrounding the center block with strips and then trying to figure the stitching lines for the next addition, I cut two squares slightly larger than the center square, and cut them in half from point to point - then I pressed in so I could see the center of the triangle and the center of the square - then placed them on top of each other and sewed.  I trimmed the first two sewn down before putting the last two down.  It was they very easy to sew and trim and mark the next sewing line.

For the class I made some half log cabins - and for this week I'm supposed to have the top done.  I doubt that will happen though as I'm still working on the pineapples.

I haven't started on my new Lone Robin.  Want to do that.  So far clues have been points, strips, and curves!

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Not sewing stuff

I made a good chicken pot pie, curried chick pea dish and bought prepared food from Costco.

Very tired - so busy too - but have not finished the bookkeeping for the taxes yet so still have that hanging over me.

Am listening to the Elm Street quilters series.  Now on the Union Quilt - she mentions how the ladies had to do lists.  Could that really be?  Hard to imagine people making lists back then.  I need to check with cousins to see what regiment his relative was in the civil war.

I've made my way thru Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and no Enterprise.  I thought I had seen most of these before, but watching in order I understand things more - and enjoy them more too.

Exercised three times, walked and chatted three times - rest of the time was sewing or thinking about sewing and cooking.

Round Up Week 13: Another Log Cabin Variation (Pineapple Blocks) and Log Cabin Sampler Quilt from Elizabeth DeCroos at Epida Studios

 Time is passing so quickly.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote the last update!

Sewing:

I made a second courthouse step block:

This time I really tried to be aware of the value instead of looking at the color - but the light blue in the center, compared to the other light strips in that direction is very dark. Ah well, back to the drawing board...

So at the beginning of last week I had these blocks in my log cabin exploration stack - from the free online eventbrite class "More Quilts - Log Cabins and Power Strips". 

This week we were on to pineapple blocks. I made a few variations of this block for the Block Lotto in 2011 - Sophie always had a great way of describing the colors to use to make the blocks look so lovely together.  I wish she were continuing with her block ideas.  

By making the logs so they are one inch after three rounds the block for my online class was supposed to be 10.5 inches. (Center block is 2.5 inches.) My block was 10 inches.

I added another round, and not trimming the outer addition, now it is 12 inches square.  According to the tutorial I found (Bella SKILLBuilder) I should add one more one inch log to finish at 10.5.

Again, I started with a light blue that is much darker than the rest of the fabrics in that location...  I have one more block to make.  Hopefully the block will look okay in the group of blocks I have already made. 

I found an online tutorial for making a 10.5 inch pineapple block with the same 2.5 inch center and 1 inch logs at:  https://youtu.be/jhDurpvOn9o

The printed directions are at: 

https://blog.fatquartershop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BSB-Block3-Pineapple-Pattern-2.pdf

The entire quilt along info here:  https://blog.fatquartershop.com/bella-skill-builder/

This method makes use of the speciality ruler for making pineapple blocks.  Pretty neat, but I don't think I'll be making many pineapples...  The directions are very nice as they include what the measurements should be after a round is added.  Also, the cutting instructions make it easy to figure out what to do! 

Here sort of is the cutting information:

Center 2.5 inch

First round make with 4-2 x 4.5 and trim to 3.25

Second round make with 4-2 x 4.5 and trim to 4.5

Third round make with 2-2 x 4.5 and 2-2 x 6.5 and trim to 5.25

Fourth round make with 4-2 x 6.5 and trim to 6.5

Fifth round make with 4-2 x 6.5 and trim to 7.5

Sixth round make with 4- 2 x 4.5 and trim to 8.5

Seventh round make with 4-2 x 6.5 and trim to 9.25

Eighth round make with 4- 2 x 4.5 and trim to 10.5

Oops I forgot for each round also have to add the corners or maybe the information I typed includes the corners.  I'm not sure. 

So also at the end add 4-2 x 4.5 to the corners and trim to 10.5

Need to watch the video again to count things up correctly.

This site does a good job of explaining the dark and light corners using paper piecing patterns - https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/pineapple-quilt-patterns.html

This pineapple has the same color for the center and the outer corners and stresses the need for contrasting values:

https://www.instructables.com/Pineapple-Quilt-Pattern/ 

She also shows a different way for the first round than I have seen before. 

Added 4-13-2021: I'm thinking perhaps of making a pineapple instead of the wreath block for the block exchange I mistakenly signed up for.  I need to make 20 blocks that measure at least 9 1/2 inches - unfinished.  They must include some of the focus fabric.  (I have a half yard of the focus fabric.)  I thought the math for the Bella SKILLBuilder would save me, but it ends with a round at 9.25.  Perhaps if I started with a larger center block I would be okay?  Doing this block I could just use the fabric I have for different greens and whites and just have the red for the center and corner...  Perhaps I will know for the next Round Up post here....  : )

New-to-me Blog to Follow:

I did find a beautiful Log Cabin Sampler Quilt (doesn't look like a sampler!) from Elizabeth DeCroos at Epida Studio:

https://www.epidastudio.com/log-s-sampler-quilt-directory/

https://www.epidastudio.com/blue-and-white-log-cabin-sampler/

This sampler quilt has these Log Cabin block variations (click to go to her site):

1. Getting Ready for the Log Cabin Sampler.  The blocks are 9″ square,  49 blocks total square.  Quilt will be 63" square.
2. Corner Block  Make 11 blocks (five with a light square and six with a dark square)
3. Bento Block Make 3 blocks
4. Court House Steps Make 3 blocks
5. Traditional Log Cabin Make 9 blocks
6. Greek Keys Make 3 blocks
7. Off Set Cabin Make 7 blocks
8. Star Cabin Make 6 blocks
9. Cornerstone Log Cabin Make 7 blocks
10. Finishing it up
11. Sampler Quilting Options

The directions for each block and information for the quilt are all generously available for free on the Epida Studios website.  

Elizabeth DeCroos's directions are very clear - so nicely arranged, I really like the way this quilt shows off the different styles of log cabin in a non-symmetrical way.  She also made the quilt with red and white and red, white and green.

 

So that's it for the sewing part of this entry.

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As I mentioned at the start, this week went by very quickly.  I did my three times a week phone chat walk with my friend, and I did five hours of exercise with my personal trainer.  Beyond that I think it was spent taking care of our little dog, planning and preparing meals.  Some reading.  I found a book I had purchased years ago - a novel about life in Taiwan "An Orphan of Asia".  

Hopefully, next week I will have more to write about.

And have the energy required to write!

My son and I made cookies and brownies this week!

Ah, I'm reminded of an article, I think in the Washington Post, about behaviors that we should continue with even after everyone is vaccinated and the threat from Covid is over.  I can't find the article again now...  But one of the behaviors was Cooking WITH YOUR FAMILY.  That sounded wonderful.  I guess my family does cook with me, but not on a consistent basis...

Too tired to write more now.

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4-13-21  I add the links to the sites with information on how to make the log cabin sampler quilt, another photo of the log cabin sampler, and more information about the Bella SKILLBuilder pineapple quilt.  And a note added about the Christmas block exchange....