More half square triangles were sewn this week.  I cut the 512 triangles I needed for part four of Unity on Tuesday.  I used the Accuquilt for half of them, the neutrals, and cut the rest with my trusty Easy Angle.  Most of the scraps from the Estrella quilt are 2 ½ inch wide strips, so it was done pretty quickly, I just had to make sure I was getting variety.  I didn’t get to sew much yesterday, as it was errand  day.  I left my house (gasp!) at about 10:30 and finally got back at 3:30.  I did go riding, but most of the time was spent shopping.  By the end of the day, it was all I could do but sit and cut off the dog ears from the HSTs sewn that morning.

I do have a finish!  YAY! Monday I finished the quilting on the Heart in a fog quilt, Tuesday I squared it up and bound it.  It turned out nicely, very cheerful due to the rainbow of colors.  I really like this backing fabric, its from Wilmington, “Bubble Up”, a 108″ wide.

My frame is empty, I am going to get another quilt on it, hopefully today.  It’s only 4:30am, so I can say that and it may happen.  I’ll end with a picture of Chewie, fixated on a squirrel.     

 

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #48 today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week was all about chain stitching units.  I started a new quilt kit that I bought at the beginning of the year, it is called Pas de deux Hillside.  At  75″ x 99″, it is thirty five blocks with a solid border.  I used my new 2 inch finished HST accuquilt die to cut many triangles, it is set up to cut 12 pieces out of a 9″ x 8″ rectangle.  I layer 3 sets, six pieces of fabric, and run it through to cut 36 perfect, ready to sew sets.  I spent a couple of hours cutting and a few more mindless hours piecing the flying geese and HSTs.  It should be a top by the end of this week.  I have been listening to Sirius radio lately while sewing, trying to make my books last a little longer.  There is a station/channel that plays the top 1000 pop songs from the 1960’s through the 1970’s.  I am really surprised at how many I recognize, and know the words to.  So many songs that have memories attached to them, maybe that’s why they stick with me.  I have trouble remembering what I ate for breakfast yesterday.

Last Monday, my April installment of Botanica Park was delivered, a Tulip block.  After making all those tiny blocks for the Unity quilt, these went together quickly.  I really like the tones and colors of this batik line.  

I worked a bit on the Heart quilt that is on the frame (still).  There are two more rows left, the end is in sight.  I am deciding what/which quilt to put up next.  Maybe do some ruler work, or free hand.  I just bought a few new rulers that I want to try out.  Watching the computer quilt is only interesting for so long.  I want to be an active participant.

Round four of the unity quilt is up on Bonnies web site today.  This part looks a bit easier than last weeks, lots of 2 ½” HSTS.  I may be able to cut them with the Accuquilt die, but I am dealing with scraps, so it may be more work than its worth.

I’m trying to get a little bit of gardening done this week.  I have to plant my dahlia tubers.  Late last fall I dug them all up and separated them, carefully packing them in pine shavings and news paper.  I am going to open the container up today, hoping they are okay.  I have visions of mush, or them starting to sprout, all white and anemic.  I also started few seedlings, peppers and tomatillos, as I had good luck with them last year.  I managed to get two tomato plants from the local nursery that was delivering potting soil to me.  All of my veggies and dahlias live in planter boxes on my deck.  Otherwise they would be eaten in a matter of days.  It’s bad enough that the squirrels eat all the apples, and the gophers and voles eat anything green.

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

I made a dress.  Real clothes, it’s been a while.  I don’t think I’ve made any real clothing since I got my serger a few years ago.  I was all gung-ho about making pajamas and tee shirts, bought a bunch of knits and patterns.  Then promptly lost interest. The dress is from Made-By-Rae, The Washi dress pattern.  It was pretty simple to make, minimal parts and simple sewing.  I used a nice weight quilting cotton from Cotton and Steele, actually pre-washed it (gasp!).  The back piece has shirring, which is done with elastic thread in the bobbin.  I was pretty happy with the results of this experiment, probably should have adjusted the top tension a bit, my machine came through in the end.  The only thing I would add/change is to top stitch the side pockets.  I reinforced the stitching before and after them along the side seams.  This made it difficult to top stitch with out taking those seams out, so I’ll leave it as is.  I made a note on the pattern though, in case I ever make another.

I worked on round three of the Unity Quilt.  Lots of little flying geese, and many (1476) pieces in this round of thirty six star blocks.  I really like the French general scraps in this quilt, it’s turning out to be subtle, unlike Frolic, which is not.

I made some progress on the Heart quilt.  I think I am 75% done.  I seem to be having a bit of trouble with drift as the rows stitch out from left to right.  By the time the rows get about 12 inches from the right edge, the design is slightly overlapping the previous row.  Its not terrible, just annoying, as I try to compensate by starting the left side 1/4 inch more to the left.  I really should remember to alternate start sides, as it is too late to fix it now.  Good thing I have a note book that I keep these kinds of ‘thoughts’ in.

Today, I might start a new project.  Or clean out/reorganize a shelving unit in my sewing room.  I have been following Cheryl Sleboda – http://blog.muppin.com as she hosts her annual Spring Clean Your Studio blog hop.  I have not really been inspired so far, in fact I feel slightly ahead of the curve as I look at some of the featured studios.  One tip I gleaned was to analyze the space and what you use it for and organize it to that function.  This hop is also inspiring me towards moving my studio into my sons bedroom.  It is about 30% bigger and he’s not going to be using it regularly for another year or two, as he is in school in another state.  Then I start thinking that I should paint it first.  Ugh Painting.  Then I think about what I am going to do with all the furniture and stuff (sports trophies???) that is in there.  Will it fit in the smaller room, and how, and the rug in there, do I want a rug, everything starts to pile up in my head.  I’d rather sew.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese for Put Your Foot Down #47 today.

I finished the top I was working last week.  I like it, and decided to call it Garden City.  The name of the fabric collection in Flour Garden, but that’s not why I named it G.C.  My daughter saw the top and commented on how it contained “Beach House” colors.  My extended family used to own a beach house in the town I grew up in. My great grandparents built it in the late 1940’s (I think).  It’s a huge rambly place, lots of bedrooms, a wonderful screened in porch and huge sand yard with a paddleball court.  The extended family used to take turns using it, everyone one would have their week or two to hang out and go to the beach.  My family lived a few blocks away, so we would often walk over and visit.  Such good memories.  Once Labor Day rolled around, the house was closed up, and it would wait for summer to come again.  The house was always painted white on the outside, but inside it had a palette of aquas and blues with a touch of yellow.  The name of the street the house is on is Garden City Avenue.

I used the Accuquilt die ‘Hatties Choice’ to cut the main blocks for the center.  It is such an easy way to cut and  have exact shapes.  Easy to sew together, no dog ears to cut and once I got the “rhythm” of the piecing, I could assemble a block in about twenty minutes. The outer blocks I made from the scraps, piecing them into Kite in a Square blocks.  These I squared up with a Bloc-Loc ruler.  It was all going along swimmingly (beach theme?) until the outer border.  I carefully mapped the quilt out in EQ8, how wide to make the spacer borders so that I could use the 3″ blocks around the 8″center blocks and make it come out square and not have to cut any blocks in half.  The first two solid borders went on easy enough.  The block border was going along okay until it was an inch and a half too long.  What?!? everything measured out perfectly, I went back and checked the math and the EQ8 measurements, it should work.  Oh wait! bias edges on the kite blocks.  PINS! I must pin these borders, tame them, and coax them and sew slowly.

Lesson learned.

I made some really good sourdough bread this past week too.  Also made pita bread for Easter dinner, we had Gyros – sort of lamb.  The pitas were easy and so much better than the dry crumbly ones I get from the store.  

Yesterday I decided to sew a dress, change it up a bit.  I had bought a Washi dress pattern a few summers ago, thinking that it would be a great dress to wear when it was hot and summery out.  I had the fabric, a Cotton and Steel print, and the notions all ready to go.  I spent a few hours making it, and I’ll finish it up today.  Pictures to follow.

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

 

I got a bunch of sewing done this week.  I finished the second clue for the “Unity” quilt, I even found and used my square in a square ruler.  I have two, a big and a small one, I haven’t inventoried that drawer yet though.

My main project this week has been this quilt (nameless as of yet).  I am using the BOB (block on board) Accuquilt die, called Hatties Choice.  The fabric is a Moda Line, called – uhh – something to do with flour.  The quilt top will get a spacer strip of green and a final border of aqua and print triangle in a square blocks.

There is a story behind this fabric.  I ordered a bunch of fabric from Connecting Threads early in March.  They were having a green fabric sale, and at the time I was getting ready to go to the Empty Spools retreat to work on an ‘Emerald City’ quilt.  The fabric arrived the day after the event was canceled.  I was kinda bummed about the whole thing, but still, new fabric is exciting.  I opened the box and saw that there was a fat eighth pack in there.  Nope, not what I ordered, not on the receipt either, although I was missing one yard of green fabric.  Also there was a pretty blue fabric that wasn’t on my order.  I figure whomever was filling the order went by the SKU numbers and didn’t double check the description, and that’s how I ended up with the mix up.  I probably should have sent it back, but when I went to the website, the fat eighth pack wasn’t there, the fabric line wasn’t to be found either.  At that time C.T. had stopped taking orders and shipping, I took it as a sign to use the fabric to make a charity quilt.

I spent most of my day yesterday making sour dough bread.  It started out simply enough, I made a starter “mother” with a pack of starter I found in my cupboard.  Then I pulled out a book “Sourdough School”.  This book is written by a very well intentioned baker, who has a very intense knowledge of making sour dough bread.  Her way of teaching it through a book is, well, daunting.  There are so many references back to other pages, step by step instructions, references to other techniques, and ideas and reasons and ideas and theories.  I was dizzy.  I just wanted to make bread, flour, water and yeast. Eventually that’s what I did, I put the book away and used my remedial knowledge of bread making and the functions on my oven.  There was a proofing function, and then a specific baking function for San Francisco Sourdough Bread.  And you know what, the bread turned out okay.

I had much better luck with the soft pretzels I made earlier this week.  I didn’t have any yeast, and there was none to be had at the store.  What I do have is cider and beer yeast, as my DH makes those yeasty things.  I used the cider yeast, and you know what, they were delicious.  

One last picture from the garden today, the first Iris of the season, this one is a re-bloomer, it flowers in the fall and the spring.  I think the name is “Rock Star”, anyway its a star in my garden.

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I get a Whoop Whoop  today.  Looking forward to the weekend, I think I’ll stay home and sew.