Are You Ready?

Because, this Friday Night is the March Sew-In!!

I know what I will be working on... I have been stuck on the layout of my Pink & Yellow quilt. All the blocks are sewn together but, my design wall in the sewing room is not large enough to lay out the entire quilt.

I finally got a flash of inspiration yesterday when I remembered I'd bought a queen size flannel sheet on sale a couple of years ago. I had thought, at the time, I 'd put it away until I could find a matching fitted sheet the next flannel sheet season. I've never seen another one in this particular olive drab color. What was I thinking??

Anyways, I dug out the sheet and put it through the laundry. Thankfully, it lost a bit of the dye so it is now a dark tan. I am going to hang it on the wall in my guest room to use as a temporary whole quilt design wall!! I will transfer my P & Y blocks to it so I can see the entire quilt and play with the layout. On Friday night, I will be assembling my quilt top!!

What do you have planned?? If you aren't signed up yet, go to Heidi's Blog and register!

Sunday Stash Report & Joseph's Coat Update

Wonder if anyone missed me last week??? I was out of town helping my daughter so I missed out doing my stash report last Sunday. It's OK though, because nothing has really changed in regards to the stash in the past 2 weeks anyway! I didn't even have time to work on any hand sewing while I was away. I was so exhausted when I got home that it has taken almost all week to recover. I guess my body is telling me that I can't do the things I once could.

WEEK 10 & 11 STASH REPORT

Used this week: 0 M
Used Year to Date: 14 M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: 7.9 M
Net used for 2010: 6.1 M

JOSEPH'S COAT UPDATE 

It seems that I was avoiding preparing more blocks for appliqué. I decided that I needed to find a simpler and more accurate way to accomplish the prep work of laying the pieces out and attaching them to the background fabric. I am just using freezer paper for the appliqués on this project so I need to remove the paper. Here is the method I have come up with that works for me.

1. Prepare the melon shapes by ironing the freezer paper shape to the wrong side of the fabric and cutting around the shape adding a quarter-inch seam allowance all around. I don't cut it skinnier towards the points. 

With the freezer paper side up, use a small brush to apply liquid starch to the seam allowance all around the piece. Using an iron (I use my small Clover iron), work around the shape turning the seam allowance under.

 

 I do my points a bit differently as well. This is what works for me. I turn both edges of seam allowance under and that leaves a bit of a 'flag' sticking out by the point.

I fold this bit back, hold it with my fingernail and wet it again with a bit of starch then carefully apply heat with the little iron.

This folds the fabric under the point and gives a nice sharp point on the applique piece that doesn't fray out so easily. If the 'flag' is a bit large, I sometimes need to make a second fold... think of a little 'Z' in the fabric right under the point.

2. Applying the shapes to the background.

First, fold the background square in half and finger press a mark on both edges. I use these marks to center the fabric over my template so that everything will be centered  on the background. Use a water soluble marker and make a dot where each set of melons meets. This is for placement.

 Lay out the melons arranging until they look good. Slide each piece back a bit so that they are still in the correct orientation but away from the center of the block.

I use Roxanne's Glue Baste to attach the pieces to the background. I apply little dots to one whole side and just one at either end of the other side of the center pieces. Line the melons up with the dots made earlier and press in place.

Voilà - no pins required. Doing it this way allows me to stitch down the one side that is held in place, turn the corner and then remove the freezer paper. I then add a few drops of glue to the turned under edge to hold it in place after removing the paper. Let it dry a few minutes and finish stitching the final side. Because I am using all different colors, I change thread to match each melon color.

For the shapes on the outer edge of the circle, only put glue on the inner edge of the melon. I am leaving the freezer paper in the edge pieces until the blocks are joined to keep them stable.

I can lay out the blocks much faster and get more accurate placement using the glue over pins. Also, there are no pins to poke me or to loose in my chair... The added bonus is that the pieces can't shift while you are stitching so my point intersections are much better!

I have completed 8 blocks so far and have another 3 ready to stitch. I'm hoping that I will now be able to prepare and finish enough blocks for at least the first two rows of the quilt within the next week. Sounds like it should be doable...

Sunday Stash Report

It has been a hard week for the stash. There has been a small amount going out but more coming in this week.

I have been working on getting petals prepared so I can continue to work on my Joseph's Coat project. I think I have finally mastered getting the points sharp with the freezer paper and starch. Now I just need to lay them all out and pin them to the background so I can continue to applique by hand.

I got a good deal on 3 charm packs. I figure that is about 2 meters of fabric. Please correct me if I'm way off.

I needed a border fabric to go on the Pink & Yellow quilt and wandered into the quilt store. I saw a fabric on the sale rack I felt would work well AND, it was 40% off!! I didn't have the quilt top with me because its still not all sewn together. I do have all of the blocks done though.. So, I took a chance that it would work and bought it.

After getting it home and looking at it with the blocks on the design wall, I am not so sure anymore. I probably should have waited until I had the top sewn together so I could take it along to audition borders with it. Oh well... I do really love the fabric.  If its not used for this particular quilt, it will get used at some point in time. I may even have to plan a quilt especially to use this print. Do you ever buy fabric because you think it will work for a project you are doing??

WEEK 9 STASH REPORT


Used this week: 2.4 M
Used Year to Date: 14 M
Added this week: 4.5 M
Added Year to Date: 7.9 M
Net used for 2010: 6.1 M

I'm loosing ground on my "net used" for the year so I need to get busy doing something! Don't forget to check out all the other reports on Judy's Blog

Sunday Stash & Week in Review

Not too much sewing happened through the week other than during the Friday Night Sew-In. Check this post to see what I did.

WEEK 8 STASH REPORT 

Used this week: 0 M
Used Year to Date: 11.6 M
Added this week: 1.5 M
Added Year to Date: 3.4 M
Net used for 2010: 8.2 M

It sure is easy to pick up those innocent looking Fat Quarters but they can add a fair bit of yardage to the stash especially when there is no real plan for their use.





I have found a project that will use up about 26 to 28 of those FQ's. It is a Postage Stamp Quilt and there is a group of people signed up for this online project. Check it out at Handmade by Heidi. Now, I hope I can find enough 'background' in my stash to make this. It would be a bit counter productive if I had to go out now to buy 6.5 meters of plain to use for it. I will be hunting through the boxes and totes to see what I can come up with.

Results of Friday Night Sew-In

Last night was the February Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Handmade by Heidi.

I worked for a little while on my P&Y Disaster quilt although, I am starting to like the way it is coming out now as compared to how it looked the first time around. Check this post to see how it looked before I took all 72 of the blocks I had completed apart again to re-sew. I know I will be much happier with it now. I may even need to change the name of it...

When it started getting a little later in the evening, I switched to working on a hand paper piecing project that has been going on since at least the beginning of my blog. I talked about it way back here but haven't mentioned it since. That was two years ago and this little project has helped me through some difficult times. It seems to be becoming my therapy quilt.

Hope everyone else enjoyed their time on Friday night!!

It's Tracy's Fault!

She joined in and now I am too!! Hope everyone has a great time during the February Friday Night Sew-In!!

I will be working on the final re-sewing of the blocks for my P&Y quilt and maybe finish the feathered star up as well (depending how late I stay up).

Feathers, Brown Bags & Stash

This week, I started sewing along with Erin at One Piece at a Time.  She is posting instructions for making a wonderful feathered star block and I simply could not resist! I dug in my stash (gotta love having a stash), came up with some fabrics and started sewing. The dark fabric in the picture is actually an eggplant purple color but it seems to look black when I photograph it.

A number of years back, my quilt guild were doing a "Brown Bag Exchange". the concept was for each participant to pick a block or fabric or just a guide for each of the other participants to follow as they created a block to add to your brown bag. Some added a bit of focus fabric for everyone to use, some chose a background to include in their bag. We all included a little notebook with our guidelines so everyone could write about the block they made for the bag owner. The bags were passed to the next participant every month and the "owner" of the bag did not get to see their own until the final month of the year. We had a big "unveiling" party and everyone got to see their blocks for the first time. Since I love feathered stars, that was what I picked not realizing how challenging they can be to make. Here is a photo of the blocks I received back in my "Brown Bag". I am ashamed to say that I have yet to put these together into a quilt. I shall have to add it to my long list of PhD's (Projects half Done).

WEEK 7 STASH REPORT			8 Feb to 14 Feb
Date	Added	Used	Project
Tue, Feb 9, 10		1.00	Fabrics for feathered star @ One Piece at a Time
Thu, Feb 11, 10	1.00		4 FQ's plain Amish colors
Total	1.00	1.00
YTD	1.9	11.6	-9.7

Used this week: 1 M
Used Year to Date: 11.6 M
Added this week: 1 M
Added Year to Date: 1.9 M
Net used for 2010: 9.7 M

Be sure to check all the stash reports for this week at Patchwork Times!

Catching up with Hazel

Yesterday seemed like as good a day as any to catch up with the steps for Hazel's Diary Quiltalong. I am now right up to Feb 8th! Considering that I had not even started cutting until yesterday and I also had to spend time ironing all my fabrics, it didn't take long to get up to speed. Here's my first block and setting block.

 

I am working on the smaller option and some of these pieces are a bit tiny so you need to be careful with seam allowances. If you haven't joined in yet, there is still time to grab some fabric and start. It should only take you about 3 hours to get caught up.

Sunday Stash Report

Yet another week of not much sewing happening. I have been prepping more pieces for my Joseph's Coat project so I have a little to report as used anyways!

Week 6 Stash Report

Used this week: .5 M
Used Year to Date: 10.6 M
Added this week: 0 M
Added Year to Date: .9 M
Net used for 2010: 9.7 M

Update

Thought a post on the continuing saga of the Yellow & Pink Double Four Patch might be in order. There is not a lot to show but I have managed to sew a few of the blocks together again! Here is a shot of them on my design wall. I think I am going to like this "less scrappy" look better as the chains in the blocks will be more defined.

I have totally neglected my Joseph's Coat blocks. I have just 4 done so I have a loooong way to go yet. I need to take some time to prepare the applique pieces so I can easily pick up a block to work on in the evening while watching TV. I find the task of turning all those little seam allowances on the little melons quite arduous especially the points on the ends! Those points give me no end of trouble.

I'm still bogged down most of the time with year-end books. Its turning out to be a larger task than I had thought it would be.  I will be REALLY glad when this task is behind me so I can get back to doing some FUN things!