I got my acceptance letter for “Sew She Did” from PIQF Monday.  I’m excited!  I’m proud of it, and happy to be able to share it with the quilting community.  I really don’t expect to win anything, but getting into a juried show is a prize in itself.

A few people I follow on instagram have been showing quilts from the recent AQS show at Grand Rapids.  Wow. There are/were some beautiful and masterful quilts on display.  Jenny K Lyon was a teacher there and posted a bunch of photos on her blog Quilt Skipper.  A few of those pictured, are works of such creativity that one may forget they are made of fabric.

I have been continuing the piecing of the Free spirit Melody quilt.  I received my needed yardage and got all the pieces cut for the Flying Dutchman block.  Along with printing the foundation papers.  Wouldn’t you know that both printers were out of ink?  A trip to the office supply store was needed too.  I discovered I had an AccuQuilt cutting die that was the right size for the triangles of this block.  That made cutting the 208 white triangles a bit easier.  I got one block done that day, only 12 more to go.  The picture on the right shows how the FD block combines with the sawtooth and big goose to form the secondary design.

I should be able to make some headway into this construction this weekend.  Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #17 today.

 

 

Got back from vacation last Thursday and started back in on the donation quilt.  Its called “Free Spirt Medley” and the pattern is part of a Judy Martin pattern add on for EQ8.  I have always liked Judy Martins patterns and her way of writing/laying them out.  They are very logical with piece counts and yardages, units needed etc.  The EQ8 version isn’t all that, I have a few issues with it, and thankfully, I can deal with them, but I feel that another person with perhaps less experience, wouldn’t cope as well.

This is the quilt.

The first issue was/is with the yardage needed.  EQ8 has a option that will tell you how much fabric you need for a design.  The requirement for the red in this quilt was 2 ½ yards.  I should have checked that before I ordered it.  I have just finished the red pinwheel with stripes border – 36 blocks.  I have less than ½ yard of red left.  I ordered more red and blue, just in case.  Next up, the white and blue saw tooth blocks in the center section.  They are actually a sashing surrounding the Flying Dutchman blocks.  Each one has a large flying goose on the top and bottom of the saw tooth to combine with the FD block to form the blue outline around it.  These blocks are in the pattern as 3″ x 3″ squares.  If you’ve worked with EQ8, there is a a function it does that will morph the block you’re inserting in a quilt to the right size.  It’ll let you put a 3″ x 3″ block in a 6″ x 3″ space and make it “look” right.  The issue is that when looking at the block sizes to make, it shows the 3″x 3″ should be made, not the 6″x3″. Luckily I caught that one before making those.  The next blocks I have to make are the Flying Dutchman.  Not too complicated, except that they are on point, and the flying geese aren’t a common size.  They are 2 1/3 high.  The program does give foundation paper patterns to make these, but doesn’t really tell you which method to use as there are options for templates and rotary cutting too.   I’m planning on finishing the pinwheels today and moving on to the Dutchman blocks.

My design wall is looking pretty sparse.

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

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.