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

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

     Just a short post today to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day and to share our shenanigans
and maybe hear about yours! 

The brisket is in the slow cooker...

(I have never soaked beef in water for ten hours, so fingers crossed--
on the other hand, it can't possibly be as bad as previous years' attempts)

    

 The Irish Soda bread is out of the oven...

...and the weather outside is miserable.
If there were a parade within 100 miles of here, we wouldn't want to be at it today, anyway!
It's been freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-- I think this is our third mud season this year.

    But it's the kind of weather the maple trees love-- the sap is flowing! Who ever decided to try collecting water from trees and boiling it forever to see what happens? It is comical to watch the little bubbles zigzag through the trees, and then amazing how they fill a 40 gallon bucket in no time!

    In the coop, Betsy the blue-egger is laying again-- she was the only one who decided she'd take the winter off. Oh, Lordy, I do love that hen. We saw her, eyeing up the nesting boxes last week. 

    

 So you might thing I'm sewing shamrocks today, but it is more than appropriate that maple leaves are falling on the sewing room floor. I managed to get twelve of these done last week-- they are taking longer than I thought (no surprise there.) I'm picking colors and then sewing each individually-- then hand sewing on the stems. 

     I like a thin stem, so applique seemed the way to go. I cut 3/4" strips, fold the sides back 1/4" each, and machine baste them down.

I thought I had enough junior jelly roll to make 25 leaves, but after I get to 16, I think I am done! I want to add some smaller leaves-- the big leaves are 10" finished, so if I make these smaller leaf units to 10" as well,  I can mix them up for a final layout. I don't want leaves like soldiers in a row-- I want them scattered on the ground. Luv my graph paper.

This reminds me of a beautiful moment I had years ago-- do you have certain moments that stay with you through life? About 40 years ago, I was on my way to work and had just stepped out of my Brooklyn apartment in the early morning, into our dowdy stairwell with the peeling brown paint, smell of roach spray, and cracked marble tiles. There was a window in the stairwell that was open-- it was floor to ceiling, so you could look out onto a flat roof below. All kinds of fall leaves were stuck there, of every color, and the rain was pattering down on them-- you know, that always makes the colors even brighter. I paused for as long as I could, and dreamed of making a painting-- I hadn't discovered fabric yet. Then off I went, over to the subway and the busyness of the day. Here I am-- whether I had a good day or a bad one it is all lost to memory, but a piece of me stayed with those leaves, and here I am finally making that piece of art! I feel very grateful.

Wishing you a beautiful moment or two, today!

xox

Carol

I made five quilt blocks this week...

      A number of years ago, I found this blog where the goal was to see how many quilt blocks you could make each week. It wasn't a competition, and you didn't have to commit to a certain number. So I thought, "Wow! That would be a great motivation to get stuff done!" I signed up and in my head I had targeted (4) blocks to make. I got about 3-1/2 done and went back on the scheduled day to report my progress. 

     The first person I saw on the leaderboard had sewn 25 blocks. Then next person, 125 blocks. The top person, 600 blocks.

     Overthink it all you want-- I quickly decided it was not the group for me, never to return. But because I am the awesome, sewing diva, I would like to report this week-- I got FIVE blocks done! Just think of it-- that's about half a quilt-- with just a little more effort, I could have a quilt done every two weeks. Of course, the math doesn't count the 2.5 years it would take me to sew the blocks together, or the 5.8 years it would take to add the borders, and then let's not even count quilting. I hate those parts.

    But anyway-- here are my blocks!

    I pressed on with Pressed Flowers and completed Block 11 way ahead of time.

     Last post, I was determined add the sashing blocks and get this to the point where all I will have to do is pop in the last block-- that didn't happen.

     I really was very unhappy with the way my blocks were coming out-- as usual, I was doing something different, and I had just the exact amount of fabric to do it. So I don't know if it's me or if it's the fabric, but I pre-washed AND starched-- then when I pressed my final block, in some areas, there was barely a 1/8" seam left. Look at the curve on  the lower edge of that block above! I went online to see if Bunny Hill, the designer, had another cream background I could use-- you know, these designers use like colors so you can mix and match collections. There was nothing-- but behold! Fat Quarter Shop had more of the sold out print I needed. How is this even possible? Because there is a God, and He cares about our sewing. So two yards are on the way-- I'm going to wash, starch, AND oversize my blocks this time. I still might be able to have it ready for Block 12 by the end of March. Some one on the Sew Sampler group is almost done, and it is a lovely quilt.

     Next up-- A Star is Born!

     With nothing less than sheer determination, complete focus, and total commandeering of the kitchen table all week, I made it happen! 

     I just love this star-- the Kona colors are beautiful-- you'd be amazed how many there are in just this range of colors. I started with a completely random placement of just darks and lights, following this diagram--

    I set up on the kitchen table-- then all week, as I walked by, I re-arranged to bring out certain things like the yellows and pinks, and made a highlight corner with the whites, and then a softer blend-y corner. It was like working on a jigsaw puzzle all week!

Tuesday...

Wednesday...

Thursday...

    It was extremely helpful to take snapshots as I went along-- something about seeing the block smaller really showed me which pieces needed to be moved, and which parts I liked. There are more pictures of this on my phone to show you than I'm sure I will have of my eventual grandchildren-- lol.

    Here's the back-- yup, all the points were tough-- so I started with open seams for the HSTs to keep bulk down, and then used nesting seams for the larger assembly. I do not know how anyone gets points to line up with open seams, just sayin'.

      Fun and done! I am hoping to get the February, March, and April blocks done by the end of April-- surprise, surprise, I'm behind. I'm not make this huge block every month-- I think some of them will just be a couple of 4x4 or 6x6 layouts. I also have some extra pieces to add in to some final glorious layout at then end. I'm calling it "Cosmos"-- it would be a shame if the Cosmos never progressed, wouldn't it? But to keep myself humble-- this is as far as I got with my Barn Star Sampler last year. One block.

     After all the spilling of creative juice, the Moonbeams stitch-a-long was the perfect counterpart-- two "kitted" blocks done! Nice big pieces, too-- these are 15" blocks!

         I finished the matching cross stitch last week-- that is Release One-- all caught up until April 1st. For those of you who are wondering, this is Fat Quarter Shop's Make-a-Wish quilt-- it is not free, it is suggested to donate $50 for the quilt patterns and $20 for the cross stitch. Wow, they are really having trouble reaching their $100,000 dollar goal each year in this economy-- so please consider it if you are able.

     Here's my fifth quilt block-- Kim Diehl leaves... 

     This is made from a jelly roll in the February Sew Sampler box. I did like the included pattern, but I'm starting to have enough of these throw sized quilts. I don't have a leaf quilt-- the colors just smacked of autumn to me. So let's chase the squirrel. I purchased the Butter Churn jelly roll with the coupon they give you each month-- this is the first time I have ever voluntarily bought a jelly roll. 

   I think I have enough to make about 24 leaves, so I'm really going to throw myself into that this week and see where I get. I'm not really sure where I'm going with it, since as I said, I have a ton of throws, but I would have a nice 4x6 block layout. Maple leaves are so appropriate for Sugar Meadow-- the sap is flowing on Sugar Meadow, my grandmother's house was on Maple Street, and Mr. SFOs and my first home was on a different Maple Street.

    Here's a quick trip down memory lane-- I made this back in the 90s with a random bag of glass chips for over my kitchen sink in the Maple Street house. I was quilting at the time, so you can see the influence. I do love a craft of any type!

     Now Mr. SFO has a habit of securing things, well let's say very securely, to the wall. So when the time came to move out of that house-- we were headed to San Francisco-- there was no time to un-secure it and take it with us.

    I visit my old home regularly on Zillow-- and was shocked to see that someone renovated my kitchen and my mosaic is gone. This piece no longer exists?

    Who would do that?

     I have a undeniable pattern of negative thinking at times-- maybe it is ugly and they hated it. Can we expect everyone to love what we love? A little less negative and more likely- it makes sense that when they tried to take it down to put the new cabinets in, it was secured too well and got destroyed-- there were screws through it everywhere.  But why be negative at all? Maybe they had the time and love to unsecure it and take it with them? (There have been multiple subsequent owners of this house.) I have also stalked mosaic stores on line to see if this same random bag of mosaic chips are still available, to recreate my masterpiece. Until I find them, I confess my Kim Diehl leaves are heavy with nostalgia for pretty mosaic!

   So that's my five blocks-- and I do ask myself, why don't I have 600 a week? It's because I have a day job! 

    For San Francisco Stitch Co., I worked on the March village all week-- it's still March, so let's not say it's late. You can't just sit down and make a village. Like Rome, they aren't built in a day-- it takes time to let the design simmer, and move things around, and add the details, and work on every space. Here' a sequence for those of you who are curious about the process. I alternate between sketching and digitizing.

     And here's the final!

     Oh, if only I could just release it at this point-- there are still color charts, different sizes, instructions, photography, zipping, writing, uploading-- I am shooting for Tuesday.

    Every so often, I get a note from an older person-- their eyes are bad!-- they can't cross stitch anymore! I always get so much pleasure out of telling them-- with machine embroidery-- YOU GOT THIS! And then I always get the question, well, how to you get the holes to line up? And the answer is-- I DO NOTHING-- no one is going to look that closely and if you are hung up on this, just use higher 28 count fabrics.

     This is machine embroidered cross stitch, up close and personal, on a 28ct Lugana.
100% truth. I did nothing to align the holes.

While that simmered all week, I made another set of Quilt labels--
we're all going to have many finishes this spring, aren't we?!!

Sew that's it for my sewing week! Thanks for reading, especially after we all just lost an hour! I can't say enough how much all my bloggy friends mean to me, in this quiet corner of Maine. 

Have a sweet week!
Carol