I left the house!

      It's true, and it's time! We've been up here for a year and a half, and so far, my social life rivals COVID-- for some of us, we were living our best life in isolation, weren't we? But enough is enough. This week, I went to one of my LQSs for some socialization at a sit 'n sew type event. I have quite a few shop choices here within an hour. Are you jealous? Apparently, sewing is a great activity for those of us who live in the middle of nowhere. 

     I really enjoyed myself-- fortunately, social skills turned out to be like riding a bike-- I could still do it and I was able to burp out a few coherent words. There were six of us, not all quilters. One was making some stuffed Easter bunnies, another hot pads, and another, a puzzle quilt. By the end of the five hour session, we were all cackling away like happy hens. And anyone who dropped in the store was coming back to see what was going on! This is a monthly event-- so I may just make it that-- it was amazing how much you can accomplish without the distractions of home around you.

     More than polishing up my social skills attracted me-- I used it as an excuse to start yet another project! They had this sample in the store, and graciously kitted me up for just the cost of the yardage-- about $20.

    It is Robin Pickens's "Posies" tablerunner. You know I'm a fan of her-- the woman is a genius. It's a nice mix of modern sophistication with cute fabrics. Aside from some fussy 3/4" flip 'n stitch corners, which take longer to complain about than to make, the pattern was really well written and broken down into easy units with not a ton of matching needed at all. I had all the units complete after the five-hour session, and a nice tablerunner flimsy after a couple more hours at home!

     When I look at my progress over the last year, I sure have pumped out some nice "finishes," but in the back of my mind, is the realization, it's not a quilt until it's quilted, is it? I know it was on my mind, because I had a dream about setting up the longarm, and I just couldn't get it to work. Machinery and I have a very tenuous relationship-- the two years I had it, I was still never sure I was doing tension right! But it should be back and running this summer. I guess I just need to take a very aggressive attitude about learning it and get some of these things over the finish line.

    At the class, I felt right at home when everyone started pointed out the flaws in their work-- hee, hee. That's a quilting thing! So I think I grouped too many of the peach flowers together in my layout, but I just decided to embrace it.

     Here are the pesky 3/4" corners-- those flower buds are size of a quarter. So one person who was just visiting the store commented to me, "What you are doing is hard." And I replied, "No, it's just crazy."

    Here's a little tip for you-- I love to throw them into the vast quantity of blather here, every 100,000 words or so, to keep you coming back for FOMO.

   I do not press seams open unless absolutely have to-- I am certain the durability of a quilt depends on nested seams. And no stitching in the ditch if you do press open! If you take pains to make sharp, matching points in your work, stitching in the ditch will preserve and accentuate them.
     But sometimes you have seams in the back that just don't end up nesting:

     When sewing the horizontal seam above, you can see by the arrows, both of the vertical seams want to be to the left. That is not going to make for a smooth sew! What I do, is force one of the seams to nest-- you can see my thumb pushing it the other way above. Then I sew it that way, even though it will be twisted.

    Once sewn, make a tiny 45 degree cut in the seam near the end-- of course, you do not want to snip any threads! As long as you don't, you won't get a hole.

   Then the seam can flip back the way it wants to go. Trust me, this is beautifully nested, and FLAT now, even though the seams both go the same way. 

     If none of this makes sense to you, just ignore it and keep pressing your seams open. Neither of us will be around long enough to prove the other wrong!

    If you are really paying attention, you'll see that I'm a hypocrite and my leaves are pressed open... someone in the class had already made this and Robin Pickens said so, and I was feeling peer pressure in class. I freely admit I'm a bit of a "sheeple." Their goes the longevity of my too peachy table runner! The older I've gotten, the more time there has been for things to not go well... part of living successfully for me lately has been embracing the less than perfect in my life! Do it.

     No progress on leaves this week-- I so wanted to finish the last three big ones and at least show you the smaller leaf I'm going to mix in. I'm giving myself till the end of March to get that done, and it's next on the list. I spent quite a bit of time digitizing this beauty, this week! Cross stitch is so easy to digitize-- this, not so much, but it's where my heart lies and I hope to get more of a balance between the two techniques.

    In the meantime, the next Sew Sampler box has arrived... and, drum roll, I like the fabric. I really cannot get myself off this ride.

    It is "Vintage" by Sweetwater-- some sort of celebration as they have reached 50 collections with Moda-- wow. So I really love the colors-- they are cheery, without being too bright. There's always someone complaining about these boxes on Facebook-- well, unsubscribe, why don'tcha! But in my opinion Fat Quarter Shop is really hitting it out of the park the past year, after being in a slump. I pay $36.55 shipped to get this each month, and they are saying this month's value is $78.12. We aren't a bunch of greenhorns here, and obviously they can inflate the price to come up with that number, so after reading a bunch of whining on Facebook, I did my own calculation.

    For 12 fat quarters, that's three yards of fabric and I'd pay $11 a yd. So just that is $33. I like the pattern, but I'm not going to make it, so it's -zip- for that.

   The triangles on a roll, I happen to love! And this is a full roll, folks-- not just enough that you need for the quilt. So that I would give the full $12.48 for that. Then there's a Quilter's zipper pull-- I wouldn't buy that for $4.98, but it's cute and I would pay $2 at a yard sale. Buttercup will have fun pecking that when I bring her out her oatmeal.  The thing on the bottom is a pen that you fill with water to help remove foundation papers-- well, I don't have any trouble removing them, but there is also a pair of tweezers-- again, I'd pay $2 for them at a yard sale.

     Finally, there is the block of the month--$5-- and the finishing instructions--$5. I'd pay for the block, but not the finishing kit-- I'm doing my own thing as usual for that, thanks, lol. So $5 there.

   So that's my own total of $54.48-- what is not included is the fun to get a surprise sewing box each month-- that's just priceless as they say! So I'm continuing on and will keep "complaining" that I like them too much and have to make them.

    If you do get these boxes and you don't like the pattern, just research what patterns the designers have come up with-- I found this great "Chatterbox" pattern Sweetwater designed for this collection-- I am going to make it next month. 

 

   If you do want to do something else and need more fabric, you better get on it quickly, because any of the Sew Sampler featured collections sell out quickly. Where does the $105 I just spent for background and backing figure in all of this? That is getting into advanced quilt Calculus and I'm not going there!

      Finally the weather. Every time we get a spring snowstorm, I'm running out to take pictures since I think this will be the last one! So, I've done that THREE times now...

It is really beautiful. Winter and I are really getting along.

Now today, we are getting 12"-18"!! I wouldn't call that a spring snow, I think we are back to winter.

I took the opportunity for quilt photography! 

    Professionally long-armed, all hand bound, and FULLY finished! I feel entitled to display it, for as long as the weather is appropriate. Or until Bigfoot retreats back to the North Pole for the summer. (I love my goofy family. :-)

Happy Sewing!

xox

Carol