Finished Size

I have been a quilt piecer for a longish time, but those two words, finished size, still trip me up. I have been working on the Reflected Harmony quilt top this week. All of the block instructions give sizes in unfinished size, simple and consistent. I started to cut out the pieces for the 5th installment and noticed that it was a cats cradle block. I thought “I have a (Creative Grids) ruler for those!” I dug it out and the smallest size on it was 4 ½ inches. I really like this ruler/template because the blocks come out perfectly, and all the measurements for the pieces are on the ruler. I needed 64 CC blocks of one color way and 8 each of two other color ways. I spent a few hours making them and when it came time to combine them into the larger blocks, I saw I had a problem, the Cats Cradle blocks were too large by an inch, they were all 5 ½ inches square. Thankfully, I had had enough fabric to make them too large, but it took me a minute or two to figure out why. Ugh, right there on the ruler were the words ‘finished size’. In this case the finished size was 5 inches, which was my needed unfinished size. I calmly turned off the machine and left the room to work on a different project. The next morning I set to work cutting the blocks down to the right size. The CC blocks made with this CG ruler are quite forgiving, no points were lost and they are all very square and the correct size now. The next installment is Square in a Square blocks and flying geese for one of the borders. I have a CG ruler for the SinS too, and I have triple checked that it is the finished size I need. I even made one before cutting all the pieces, its all good.

I worked a bit on the Newcastle cross stitch last night, I challenged myself to finish the basket. I did, and it looks pretty good. Now to branch out and start another flower, there is one needed to the left of the basket.

Yesterday I got two more rows quilted on the Hampton quilt. I knitted on the Curling mist shawl while the stitch out was churning along. Each row of the quilting takes about 30 minutes, even though it is a relatively simple design. I am not very pleased with it, as there is a bit of drift, and the rows don’t exactly line up sometimes, mostly on the ends. It is not that noticeable, because of the busy-ness of the fabrics and design, certainly won’t win any awards for LA quilting. Speaking of, a friend was asking me about PIQF, and wanted to know if I was entering a quilt. I hadn’t really thought about it. Usually the entrees are due at the end of August, I went to the web site and saw this:

We will be Celebrating Thirty Years at the Pinnacle of the Art of Quilting at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in 2021!

IMPORTANT NOTE: At this time, the 2021 Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF)will be held October 14-17. Under the proposed future restrictions in the state of California, this show should be green-lighted to take place onsite at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

Recognized as official Quilt Week in the city of Santa Clara, PIQF is proud to announce its thirtieth year! Join us as we celebrate the art of quilting. Whether you shop the aisles of the Merchants Mall for the best fabric, learn a new technique in *workshops taught by an outstanding faculty or admire the beauty of the artwork hanging in the quilt competitions and special exhibits, take part in the excitement that is the Pacific International Quilt Festival.

*Some workshops will be held virtually online.

So that’s promising. Further searching on the site didn’t yield any info on the competition though. There was an entry form button, but it wasn’t active. Mr Google gave no help, and the Mancuso site was super slow loading. I gave up for today.

Be Kind.