Sister's Choice Quilts

Conflicted

This weekend I worked on a little of this and a little of that.  I couldn't seem to figure out just what I wanted to do.  I am excited to make more pineapple blocks, so I started six more.  My alternate blocks for the Blogger Girls BOM are on my mind, so I worked on those.  Actually I spent quite a lot of time unsewing those, as I constructed the first round with the stripes going in opposite directions.

Stripes.Must.Go.In.Same.Direction.

How annoying. I constructed 19 blocks that had to be taken apart and redone.  That'll teach me to pay attention.  Consequently, I do not have a lot to show for myself today!

Hope you all  had a terrific weekend.  We had a little Cinco de Mayo celebration, which is always fun.  Eva entertained us all with her antics.  She is starting to put words together in the most entertaining way.  "Where Ah-ee?"  (Where's Ozzie?)  "Av aa?"  (Can I have that?)  Consonants seem to be eluding her for now,  but I can usually get the jist of what she is saying.  She is becoming her own little person, which is fascinating to observe.  

Baskets All Over the Place

It seems as if these baskets are multiplying.  There are certainly too many to be on the design wall all together.  I have to sew rows in sections, then drape them over the furniture in the studio until I can sew the sections together.  That is the middle section you see there on the table above.

The upper left section is on the design wall, and the lower right section is patiently waiting its turn to be sewn together.  My gosh this quilt is labor intensive.  It is taking forever to sew the rows together with the lattice strips.

It's ok though.  I know I will love it when it's done!

Oh.  Guess what I found under the wicker wastebasket next to the ironing board?  Remember that lizard that sneaked into the studio last fall?  Yeah.  Him.  Dead as a doornail, poor devil.  Unless it was another lizard.....Best not go there.

Mission Accomplished

Well, no, it isn't finished, but I am making great progress on attaching the lattice on my Hill Country Baskets blocks.  A reader commented on my last post that she could not see that fussy cutting the striped fabric for the lattice was worth all the trouble, but I could not disagree more.  What would be the point of a striped lattice that was all wibble wobbly?  It would completely detract from the integrity of the quilt in my opinion.  I love the look of the fussy cut stripes and think it is worth every extra minute of effort to get it right.  What do you think?  Pointless exercise or worth it?

On Saturday I had the entire day to sew, and got so much done!  My student came over to work on her new project and we stitched away companionably.  I have decided that since she is a captive audience while she is sewing with me down in the studio, I should introduce her to the joys of audio books, in an effort to show her there is entertainment to be had beyond video games (her obsession).  My first choice of book may not be high literature, but I thought it was a pretty sure bet to interest her.  Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer.  Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jackie" Faber, Ship's Boy. "Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas.  There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl".

I knew we were in for an educational experience when I told my student that the book was set in the time of Napoleon.  "Oh, cool, during World War One", was her response.

Okaaaaaay.  The good news is, she loves the story and didn't want to leave to go home.  She stayed for six hours and finished all her blocks.  "When can I come again next?"  she kept asking me.  I think my plan is working.

 

900 Baskets Later....

900 baskets later, I have 85 that I am going to keep in the quilt.  Here they are, not quite finished being arranged, but nearly.  Next step is to cut out and attach the striped lattice.  Thelma told me that the amount of fabric in the kit is just barely or even maybe not quite enough.  I am holding my breath that I have sufficient fabric.  No way will I be able to find more of it if I run short.

This pattern is Hill Country Baskets by Bonnie Blue Quilts.  The fabrics are a few from the kit, a few from my stash, and the rest from a layer cake of Metropolitan Fair by Barbara Brackman.  The fabrics in the kit were all very nice, but an extremely dark color palette of navys, burgundys and dark forest greens.  Just not what I felt like working with.  I went with a much lighter shade of green, true blues and cherry reds.  And a few pinks thrown in for interest and to balance out those lighter greens.

Wish me luck cutting out the lattice fabric.  It is going to take forever to cut out those stripes individually.  Stripes are a super cool look in a quilt, but goodness, they are labor intensive to get just right.

Red Pineapple Update

Finally all the strips for my Red Pineapple quilt are cut out.  Just the red ones are shown above. I made an executive decision to make this quilt 49 blocks (7 x 7) rather than 56 blocks (7 x 8).  I used up every scrap of red French General fabric I own, and believe me, that was quite a lot.  Let me just say, this block takes a LOT of fabric.  It would be the best scrap buster ever, if you were to truly make it scrappy and use up every bit of whatever you have on hand. Your scrap bin would be empty.

I thought I would never finish cutting these strips.  But I did.  What you see above are 196 pieces EACH of the following sizes:  3 1/2, 5, 6, 6 1/2, and 7 1/2 inch pieces.  The lights are done and are bagged up separately.  Similar numbers, but not quite so many strip sizes.

That is going to be a fine looking quilt.

 

Slogging Along the Long Road Home

I have to laugh, it barely fits on my design wall!  I am working away at connecting my rows of Long Road Home, little by little, day by day.  I have some new responsibilities that have fallen my way of late, so I am finding sewing time a bit more challenging.  Don't worry, I am trying to figure it all out. 

Daylight savings time starts this weekend, that will make sewing in the evening a bit easier.

Thanks for all the sweet words about my Little Black Dress table runner.  I wanted to answer each comment individually, but my day got away from me.  I really appreciate the time each of you took to say such kind things.

Take care, and I hope to have more to share tomorrow!

Design Wall Cleared for Action

 
I got the rows of Message in a Bottle all connected and got it off the design wall.  I will show you a picture of that once I get the borders on.

When you take a project down from your design wall, does it drive you crazy that there are a gazillion little threads stuck to it?  Makes me twitchy.  Sometimes I take the lint roller to it, and go through three or four sticky rounds before the wall looks halfway clean.

Added later:  Jane told me about this interesting technique to clean a design wall using freezer paper and an iron!  Check out this link to see how:  http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php/blog_id/5433

What you see there on it is Long Road Home, in the process of being arranged.  I had so many fabrics in this kit, I haven't run into having the same two fabric touch yet!

I am enjoying the dark red setting triangles.  When I sew my diagonal quilt rows together I tend to sew four or so rows together at a time, and connect the sections later.  I really like how fast this quilt comes together.  A quick sew once you get it cut out.

Be sure to check in tomorrow for the third block of the Blogger Girls Block of the Month.  Super cute blocks, and such fun to see what everyone else is doing.

 

Long Road Home Blocks All Done

A free day equals lots of sewing time, and I made the most of it.  What you see in the photo above are 90 Long Road Home blocks.  Nine stacks of ten blocks each.  This quilt is a diagonal set, and I plan to get it on the design wall some time today.  I need to cut out the setting triangles, but that won't take long.

I always have a few minor complaints about Bonnie Blue quilt patterns (much as I adore their designs).  They never tell you how many units or even how many blocks you will end up with.  I find that annoying.  Yes, I can do the math, or count the blocks on my fingers, but how much trouble or room would it take to just say "Make 90 blocks" or "You should have 180 strip set units".  I know, I am being petty, but I like things to be comprehensive.

One surprising thing, that I really did like, was the lack of waste in this quilt.  Want to see what I had leftover after making the 90 blocks?

That's it. Now that's economical.

Some of the French General fat quarters I ordered arrived yesterday, so I plan to cut more strips today.  These fabrics are mostly from the La Belle Fleur and French General Favorites collections.

I hadn't purchased either one of those groups, so I am happy to have at least gotten some of the reds for my stash.  Isn't that little fleur de lis print adorable?  Should have gotten a half yard of that!

In other news, have you heard about the Moda Friendship Quilt Along?  It is a program sponsored by Moda where 27 designers share a free downloadable 9 inch friendship quilt block.  I have been visiting daily and printing out the block patterns for myself.  It would be a fun sampler quilt to make, or even a one block quilt (if you could chose a favorite block!).  At any rate the block patterns may come in handy some day, and it has been fun visiting the blogs of the various designers I was not so familiar with.  Let me just say Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts) is incredible.  If you aren't familiar with her, check out her blog.  Her quilts are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Added later:  Hmmm.  Remember when I was cutting out the strips for the Long Road Home project?  I was complaining that after cutting out the required number of strips I had a ton of fabric left over?  I had forgotten about that.  So, what the pattern said to cut out was dead on, but what they said to buy was an over estimate.   Unless the kit makers included more fabric....Not sure since I didn't measure the cuts in the kit.

Sewing, Interrupted

I tried.  I really tried.  Sewing with a toddler under foot just isn't easy.  I brought out the Janome, and trotted my Long Road Home project box up from the studio.   My plan was to sew in the kitchen while I watched Eva play.  She just wanted to climb up on my lap whenever I sat down at the machine. 

Up to yesterday, I had made 30 nine patch surrounded blocks.  And I couldn't even finish 10 more. 

I'll try again today.  No baby today, so with luck I may make a bit more progress.

In addition, for some reason I was just so exhausted from the weekend.  I worked on Saturday and on Sunday I hosted a little family Oscar party.  Fun, but for some reason it all just wiped me out. 

Weren't those Oscars something?  I love seeing all the glamour and glitz.  Could you believe Charlize Theron?  How many women could make that hair style work?  I think it helps that she is six feel tall.  And Jennifer Lawrence?  I have had my eye on her since I first saw her.  Incredible talent.  Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for awesome performances.

 

Drowning in Strips

I feel as if I am drowning in strips for my pineapple blocks!  I did get the lights all cut out and organized into labeled baggies over the weekend.  After cutting for hours, I still do not have enough French General reds.  I ordered 13 more fat quarters and that is just going to have to be enough.  If not, I will dig around and pull non French General reds and add them into the mix.  So, for now, I am on hold until the fabric reinforcements arrive.

It was a great feeling to be able to really dig into my stash of lights and use up many many bits and pieces that were leftover from other projects.  I am so glad I hung onto all these smallish pieces as they did come into play very handily.  My lights come from all sorts of fabric collections, not just French General, so maybe I should lighten up on the self imposed rule that all my reds be FG.

Today I will be working on my Long Road Home blocks, which you can see in the upper left of the photo, next to my sewing lamp base.  It is a big old mess in the sewing studio right now, with three different projects being worked on at once, plus my student's two projects.  Must. Create. Some. Order.