I finally finished the quilting on “Sew She Did” yesterday morning.  I had a quilting marathon this past weekend I think I clocked 10 or more hours.  Yesterday I did a final check of the quilt before unpinning it from the frame, and found a few places I had missed.  I brought it in to the sewing room and squared it up and got ready to bind it. Then, for some reason, I felt that I needed to check the registration form, and there I saw that it was due the 27th, not the 28th.  Oh NO! But Oh Good! at the same time.  I came up with a plan.  I sewed the binding on to the front and was going to glue baste it to the back. This way I could take the two photos I needed and then finish the binding and hanging sleeve at leisure.  The glue thing was a fiasco, first, this quilt has two layers of batting, cotton with wool on top.  Second, I cut my binding to fit tightly, and the glue couldn’t hold it to the backing well enough.  So I pinned it, with many pins.  I set up my quilt rack and got the pictures and filled out the form and sent it in (digitally).  By 4:30pm I was done.  I really though I would have finished this quilt last week and had an early-ish entry, but the stars weren’t aligned for me this year.  Between a vacation, a house guest and even a day without electricity, time was not on my side.  I started this quilt on June 24th, and semi finished August 26th, nine weeks.  I wish I could get paid by the hour😏

Just have to wait until 9/9 to hear back if I’m in for PIQF 2019.

I have a new deadline to meet October 19th.  I agreed to donate a quilt for a Lions Club auction to benefit veterans.  I am going to make Judy Martins “Free Spirit Melody” from her Star Power quilts collection on EQ8.  It’s red white and blue, doesn’t look too tedious, and thankfully I can do a panto on it, no more custom quilting for a bit.  I need to recover  from “Sew She Did”.  Fabric is ordered and I’m ready to get started, after a quick vacation – insert eye roll -.

(Previously written) I got this top together, after the photo I noticed an error in the top right corner, I think that should be a half hex not two triangles. I made a bunch of pinwheels from the scraps from cutting the triangles. The seashell paired with the turquoise should make a good border. I found some pink that matches too. I’m thinking solid pink inner border, then pinwheels, then aqua binding.

This is as far as I got this past week , and I’m not too sure like it.  It also has some issues with square-ness.  The right side is 1 ½ inches shorter than the left side.  Umhmmm.  It’s weird because the right side has less bias edges.   

I was going to fix it yesterday, but we had no electricity for about eight hours.  Very disappointing.  This also meant that I couldn’t get any quilting done on my “Sew She Did” quilt.  I did about 4 hours on Tuesday, and I am nearing the finish.  Still have the binding to do too.  The 28th is looming on the horizon, just keep sewing, just keep sewing.

On the knitting front, I finished my Rock Pooling shawl and started a new cardigan, called Classic Oak Cardigan.

Plus the pattern for the fourth Shawl Society shawl is downloaded.  It’s quite pretty with lace and size, it’s called ‘In the Dunes’.

I think I want to buy more yarn (gasp!) to make it in a sandy-beachy color.  I should look in the yarn stash,  but the pattern calls for 1100 yards of light weight fingering or lace.  Hmm, there may be some alpaca or gradient dyed lace weight.  After a quick visit to yarn-landia, I realized that I do not need to buy anything yarn-like in the near future.  I found these two, the gradient one might work, but the Misti alpaca is so soft and there is enough yardage.  

Linking up with Denise today at For the Love of Geese for “Put Your Foot Down #14”.

I plan on doing that today!

The other day I saw a quilt that I wanted to make.  The pattern used equilateral triangles and half hexagons.  I liked how it was random enough, but still had some design flow and it would look good in scrappy mode.  I decided on using this shell fabric I have had for a few years, and two solid color charm packs that matched the print.  Then I got out the AccuQuilt and started cutting the print into triangles.  That was quick and easy.  Then I sorted out the charms and cut them in half and made them into hexagons using the Hex and More ruler/template.  It was going smoothly and so quick, I was actually thinking that I would have this top finished within the day.  As with all my quick and easy quilt plans, it was not to be.  As I started putting the blocks together, I noticed the half hexagons were too big, or rather the triangles were too small.  The AccuQuilt triangle die cut is 1/4 inch smaller than the triangles/hexagons cut with the hex and more.  ARGH!  It was time to leave the room and go quilt with the long arm.

The next day, I figured I had two options, sub out the shell fabric for something else and cut new triangles, or adjust all the half hexies and smaller triangles to fit.  I chose the latter, I was able to use the Hex and More ruler to cut the large pieces down to fit the triangles.  I got the blocks together, they are diamond shaped.  Then I had the problem of not having enough of them to make a decent sized quilt.  I was hoping for lap size, but it seems like it will be baby sized.  I am trying to make up a different pattern with the left over parts and pieces.  I am trying to sub in a few rows of large pieces triangles and seeing how I can get the sides straight and not sawtoothed, by inserting pieces.  I walked away from it again yesterday and spent a good amount of time long arming and not thinking of “it”.

I wish I could figure out how to use EQ8 to (re)design it, but its beyond my remedial skills.

The good thing is that my show quilt is getting quilted.  I’m about 40% done, if I continue at this pace I will be done before the due date, 8/28.  We have company arriving on Wednesday, so my sewing time will be limited.  Which reminds me I need to clean up the guest room.

Linking up today to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

This past week was a busy one for me.  It started out last Thursday when I brought my machine in for servicing.  It had requested it with a very large pop-up screen on Wednesday.  I figured with it being gone for a week I could get started on my PIQF quilt.  It was on the frame and the battings were “resting”, or getting their wrinkles out.  I am trying to quilt on it for two hours a day, as it is due for entry on the 28th of this month.  After 5 days, I think I’m going to have to up the time to three hours.  The borders are pretty intensive, and it takes me about two hours to quilt each block.  I’m liking what I have so far, coming up with different designs for each one.  Lots of ruler work, and thread changes get tedious, but I think it’ll be a show worthy quilt when it is done.  My machine was done on Saturday and I picked it up Sunday, it purrs again.

I got to work on my Mrs. Miller’s Apprentice blocks for this month, pretty baskets with lots of HST.

I put a border onto my Minute quilt too, still trying to use up that fabric pile. I have  about a half yard of each left.  I feel like it needs another border to frame it up, maybe red or blue or white.

This week I also went on a bit of a shopping spree.  I saw a set of quilt frame clamps on the Bernina Q24 facebook page that I needed.  They were available at Nancy’s Notions, and a fat quarter bundle of Sequoia (Laundry Basket Quilts) jumped into my cart too.  Then I got an email from Nancy’s that their Accuquilt stock was on sale – 20% off.  Oh so tempting, I have been wanting to get the Angles Companion Qube set.  It will make cutting out the Alaska quilt so much easier, all those triangles.  After I had it in the cart, I noticed that in order to really get the most use out of it, they recommend that you have the Mix and Match set.  They are both on their way to my studio now.   Also, while cutting the pieces for the Minute border, I realized that my cutter was getting dull.  I went to the drawer of notions to get a new blade.  This is what I found:

I found some new ones on Amazon, rather than going to the store, for further temptation.  I guess I can confess to yarn purchases (Christmas sweater, sock yarn) and a pattern and fabric kit for the Judy Niemeyer Feathered Star quilt, while I’m at it. It was all on sale – really.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for “Can I get a Whoop-Whoop?” today.

 

 

This past weekend I bound until I could bind no more.  Six quilts that needed to be bound and moved on to the finished pile.  I spent most of Saturday sewing and listening to a book, it was going to be a hot day and I decided to stay in.  I did go out in the early morning to water my plants on the deck, but otherwise I stayed in the AC filtered air.

Sunday was still hot, so I went to work sashing and putting together the Christmas Figs BOM.  It took about four hours, I was surprised by how long because it’s just simple straight line sewing.  The blocks are large, 16 inches finished, so I guess when you add up all the sashing strips, 49, and the setting blocks it is a lot of sewing.  It’s a big quilt 😊 and I can’t wait to start quilting it.

 

On the Quilting list, ‘Sew She did’ is still waiting for the wool batting I ordered to come in,  I don’t have the quilt backing loaded yet, because I wanted to get Playdate on to the frame and quilted first.  Unicorns abound!  I found the sparkle minky at The Fat Quarter Shop a few weeks ago, hoping this quilts finds a little girl to love it.

Linking up with Judy for Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.