Sister's Choice Quilts

Busy Week, Out and About

It's a busy week around here, so I doubt I will get any sewing in until Thursday, if I am lucky.  I hope to post again on Friday.  This past weekend I was able to get all my units made for the Buzz Saw blocks.  I am all set to start sewing those blocks together and this quilt top will be done.  It is such simple piecing, and not much of a challenge, but the overall effect is going to be very nice.  The colors are so soothing.

It was fun to read how you all prefer to sew your angle seams last week.  A lot of you said you draw lines, others still use their Angler 2, and some raved about the Clearly Perfect Angles.  My CPA arrived Sunday, but I had already finished my units using the Folded Corner Clipper ruler.  It actually worked just fine.  I will let you know how I like the Clearly Perfect Angle thing as soon as I get it set up.

In other news, this Sunday we took Eva to the Cirque du Soleil show in San Jose.  It was positively, jaw dropping amazing.  And....we had front row seats!  Now that was an experience, I tell you.  We could look those performers right in the eye and kept our fingers crossed nobody would land in our lap.

This was our view!  I didn't catch this photo at the right moment, darn it.  The guys are looking up because their team mate has just launched himself off that swing thing in the background and is about 20 feet or more up in the air, about to land on that mat they are holding.  We were allowed to take pictures, but I was shy about doing it, since we were sitting in such a prominent place.

It was an incredible experience, and I am so glad we got to share it with Eva.  She sat with her mouth agape and her eyes as big as saucers for the entire performance.  

And we got home in time to watch the Oscars.  Dear me, what a debacle that was.  Poor Warren Beatty, you know he thought something was amiss, while he was reading the card to himself,  and that grabby Faye Dunaway snatched the envelope away from him and blurted out the wrong thing.  If she had left him alone for another few seconds, I know he would have figured out he had the wrong envelope and the whole thing could have been resolved without being a complete fiasco.

People will be talking about that for a long time.  As Eva says, "Everyone makes mistakes".

Something New

I started a new project yesterday.  I got out those pretty Garden Notes fabrics by Kathy Schmidt and got busy cutting out strips for "Buzz Saw".  I think the blocks will go pretty fast, particularly if I concentrate on making the units of one size all at one time.  I can chain piece and crank those little things right out.

I could not bear the idea of drawing lines on all the units, so I got out the Folded Corner Clipper ruler again.  For now it is working fine.  I thought about getting out Lori Holt's Seams Sew Easy seam guide, but I hate the way it positions on my sewing surface.  You use these sticky dots that leave an icky residue that collects lint and is a real pain.  The sticky dots eventually stop holding the guide in place and you are left with gooey, linty sticky circles on your sewing surface.  I just ordered another seam guide called Clearly Perfect Angles that is supposed to "cling" to the sewing surface, so maybe I will like that better.

I used to use a seam guide called The Angler 2, but that doesn't seem to be available any more.  And with that one, I had to use blue painter's tape to attach it to my sewing surface!  I like the idea of one that "clings".  The new one I ordered is supposed to come this weekend, so I will report back on how it is working.

What is your experience with these seam guides that help you sew corner to corner without having to mark your fabric?  Do you have a favorite brand?  They are a real timesaver.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

 

Two Green Table Toppers for March

I made another little green table topper with my leftover green scraps.  I just couldn't let them go to waste.  The one pictured above is called "Mite", a Miss Rosie "Little Bites" pattern.  It measures just around 24 inches, a good size for the center of my dining table.  The one I made for Sara is called Roundabout, and is a Schnibbles pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

I must have really liked this Roundabout pattern.  In greens.  It was the second time I had made it!  lol  Oh well, Sara wanted to be in my Table Topper of the Month Club, so she gets the 2017 version of Roundabout.

Hope you are all having a good week.  I am simply amazed at how much rain keeps coming down.  Lots of creeks overflowing and roads flooded, but no mudslides or trees down in my neighborhood.

Penny Pincher is a Finish!

I am thrilled to say that Penny Pincher, a Primitive Gatherings pattern by Lisa Bongean is a finish.  This quilt was a joy to piece, and the result makes my heart sing.  The quilt top seems almost to glow from within.  I made the quilt somewhat smaller than the pattern called for, and pretty much stopped when I realized it would fit my bed.

It rained much of the entire weekend here, and I am expecting we will float away at any time.  There must a limit as to how much the sodden soil can absorb.

The little gully behind our lot turned into a raging torrent.  It has been dry as a bone as long as we have been here, but it is surely transformed now from all the rain we have gotten.  There are currently lots of flood warnings in our area, as local creeks overflow.   At least we are not experiencing mudslides as many other communities are.  It is just a matter of time until various trees lose their grip in the soft soil and topple over though.  I am so tired of the rain, as most of my neighbors are as well.  We needed the rain, and the reservoir in the next county can be seen from my kitchen window, a sight we have not seen since moving here.  Hopefully this means the drought is over.

Whatever the weather where you are, I hope you had a great weekend!

St. Patrick's Day is Coming...

Well, this week sure did get away from me!  I did have most of the day on Thursday to sew, and decided to make a March table topper for Sara.  I have made this Roundabout Schnibble by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. previously and have enjoyed it in my home.  I thought Sara would like one as well.  My gosh, my machine quilting sure has improved since I bought the Craftsy video by Jacquie Gehring.  I got this little topper done in just a few hours and once I bind it, it will go to a new home at my daughter's house.

The sewing on this topper went so darn fast, mostly due to a little tool I tried out with it.  

The Folded Corner Clipper.  It is great when you have to sew squares onto rectangles.

Position it on your rectangle and clip away.  Stack the fabric and trim six at a time.

Trim your squares the same way.

The trimmed units fit together like they were meant to.

Chain piece together and before you know it, your units are all pieced and ready to make into blocks.

This block does have "partial seams", but the explanation as to how to construct them is so simple, you will wonder why you were afraid to make this type of block.  It was a fun and easy project and the world has been enriched with one more table topper.  lol

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's my sweet girl, making a heart with her hands and wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day.  We spent the day together yesterday, as her school is the only district in America which still has Lincoln AND Washington's birthdays off.  We had fun, going to Target, Ulta and Red Robin for lunch.  Who knows, maybe we will do it again next Monday for Washington's birthday...

She was really into that milkshake, I tell you!

In other news, Handy Man Bill has been back for a repeat awesome performance.

He made the opening in my sewing table larger to accommodate my new Bernina 740.  I am so happy to have this machine in place, and that we are continuing to get acquainted (the machine and I, not Bill and I).  The only thing about this machine is that is it VERY sensitive.  It has a little computer screen, as you can see, and this past weekend it lit up like Fourth of July with an alarming warning picture of gears clashing and a big red X over them.  Oh shoot, I thought I had wrecked the new machine already.  I got out the 150 page manual and found that I needed to remove the bobbin casing to see what the trouble was.  Removing the bobbin casing is a piece of cake, putting it back properly, not so much.  The problem?  A two inch piece of thread.  Okay.  I got it out, and spent 15 minutes trying to put the bobbin case back in correctly.  

I have four rows of Penny Pincher put together and hope to wrap that top up on Thursday when I have the day off.  

Hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day with your Sweetie, or on your own.  If you are by yourself, do something lovely for YOU!

It's Enormous

This Penny Pincher quilt is enormous!  I have more or less got it up on the design wall, 11 blocks across and 11 rows down.  The blocks on the right end are held up by blue painters tape because I am out of design wall to stick them on, and the bottom two rows are on the floor as you can see.  At least I have managed to get the eleven rows almost sewn together and this weekend will get these rows attached to each other.  

Can you imagine how monstrous this baby would be if made as big as the pattern calls for?  I am thinking it is supposed to be twelve by fourteen.  Good grief.  This will do just fine for me.

So, that is my plan for the weekend sewing, and if I am lucky, I will get a few more courthouse steps blocks done.  I just discovered two  fat quarter packs of Jo Morton's Catherine collection that I had ordered from Fatquartershop awhile back, and they will be perfect for this project.  I had them tucked away in a drawer for some future project and am so excited that I re-discovered that I had indeed purchased them when I had the chance.  I love shopping at home!

Won't that be a perfect addition to the mix I have started?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Quick Update on Triangle Gatherings

I have made some changes in the blocks I am making for Lisa Bongean's Primitive Gatherings Triangle Sew Along.  Here is how I started out, using white, cream, and tan background fabrics:

I was just not loving the mixed up look of those different shades of backgrounds.  I decided to switch it up and use only the white background fabrics.  

I am much happier with the more uniform (although still scrappy) appearance of the blocks.  It has that January/Snowman vibe that is so nice in the winter months.

Also, in reading the small print on Lisa's blog, I read that she plans on coming out with over 80 different blocks over the course of the year.  What?  I had been making two of each block design and decided to stop doing that immediately.

I re-made the earlier blocks where I had used tan backgrounds and now have a total of nine blocks, and three extras (duplicates) that have the white background.  I feel like I am now on-track with a fabric assortment that I like better.  I am using the original Snowman Gatherings collection Lisa designed for Moda.  I also ordered some extra yardage of various prints in the Snowman II collection, which will give me a bit more variety in those white backgrounds, plus a few more blues and navies.  In addition, this summer Moda will release Snowman Gatherings III, which will give me even more white backgrounds should I need them.

I have a plan and I'm sticking with it!

Hope your week is going well.

Log Cabin Madness

These Courthouse Steps blocks are so addicting, I am not sure I can stop!  I have made a dozen and could happily keep going indefinitely.  I have been raiding my stash of browns, blacks, rusts, golds and now some greens.  Some of these fabrics have made appearances in other favorite quilts I have made, and I am enjoying handling them again and remembering past projects.  And also wishing I had purchased more yardage of some of them!  This project is perfect for someone like me, whose greatest joy is putting fabrics together!

I have decided upon a process for making the blocks that is giving me good results.  You can absolutely make these Courthouse Steps blocks with any ruler, but I decided to use the six inch Log Cabin Trim Tool by Creative Grids. Here's why: It has amazingly clear markings, both in white and in black, and all sorts of lines to help you line up your block to trim perfectly accurately.  Only one problem:  the block only has three rounds around the center square and I want four.

So here is what I am doing.  I am cutting my center square 2 inches square, and my strips are 1 1/2 inches.  You do not have to precut the strips into various lengths (a major pain), you just trim up after each round.  When I get to that missing fourth round, I sew the strips just as I have with the other rounds, and then trim to a perfect 8 inch square with my Creative Grids 8 1/2 inch ruler.

After sewing the first two strips of the last round, I use the ruler to even things up a bit so the sides are straight.  Sew the last two strips on.

Use the 8 1/2 inch ruler to trim the top and right hand sides of the block. Flip the block and trim the other two sides.

And you have a perfect 8 inch unfinished block (7 1/2") finished.  I have my five fabrics and the narrow strips I wanted.  Those 1 1/2" strips I was sewing on each got trimmed down so they are 3/4" finished.

Now, there is an 8 inch Creative Grids Log Cabin Trim ruler, which I have used previously in other projects, but you only get the three rounds of fabrics and the strips are wider, resulting in a "clunkier" look to me.  I wanted to show off more fabrics and use thinner strips.   Using the combination of the 6 inch Log Cabin Trim ruler plus my 8 1/2 inch regular ruler is giving me exactly the results I wanted.  

 

Penny Pincher Comes Alive

Well hello Penny Pincher.

These blocks just about took my breath away when I put them up on the design wall.  Don't the yellow blocks look like they have some kind of internal light source?

I  had just over 100 blocks and decided it was time to slap them up on the design wall.  I didn't follow any particular system, just tried to get different colors next to one another.  I will undoubtedly juggle things around, but I do not think I can go too far wrong with these blocks.  I love them.

I don't really know if I will make all 168 blocks.  The quilt is very large as it is.  I have it laid out 10 blocks across and 10 blocks down at this time. That is as big as my design wall permits.  In the end,  I may go for a 11 x 11 or 12 x 12 layout.  The pattern calls for 12 x 14 which is as big as a circus tent, so I don't think I need to go that large for my queen size bed.

Wish I could get a better picture for you, but now that I moved my table out from the wall to accommodate the new Bernina, the table blocks the view of the design wall.  The sun was kind of in and out all day, so I had every available light focused on my work area.  There are four lights around my work area, including the one in the machine!

Hope you all had a good weekend.  That was some football game, wasn't it?  I was starting to doze off and then things got pretty exciting.  My husband was doing a lot of shouting, which perked me right up.