Slow Stitching on a Sunny Day

I was planning to write a post about how I hand stitched the binding on my Baby Star quilt today and even took pictures to illustrate it.









The my side-tracked self kick into high gear and I did about a hundred other things and didn’t go back to the binding. So I have only done half. First I had to take a picture of the other quilt I did of this pattern. Only this time I did it the way they intended it to be.

Right down to the directional print in the border.  So this one I can genuinely call by it’s given name “Zoo Parade”.
Then I got to thinking about the string blocks I was doing Saturday while we had a power outage ( in the middle of the afternoon on a bright and sunny day, no idea why, 30,000 without power).  While I was sewing , using the strings from the Accuquilt scraps, I was doing the 6.5” blocks for the Geese on a String. But there were a lot of neutrals and I have a 7.5” string block I am slowly working on for Pefferneuse from String Fling.  So I rounded up the papers for them and started some more treadling. Because that was what I had been sewing on during the power outage, my treadle.

  I’ve been using the paper pieced string blocks to practice the treadle. I didn’t seem to be getting better today even after several blocks and wondered why I was having so much trouble, then I noticed that the bobbin winder was engaged. Duh. Once I had that fixed, my speed improved and my take-off became much smoother.

Moved on to the hand crank later in the evening while watching some really ridiculous TV but no pictures.


So, I was slow stitching, all people powered, just not all by hand.
Linking up with Quilter Kathy  to see what you all think…Kathy's Quilts

Flippin’ Corners

Yes, I have been flipping my corners, not my lid.  That is  what all those 2” squares are for. And while 470 sounds like a lot of squares, doing a Bonnie Hunter pattern can use up a whole lot of them. And since I am doing several at once, I am in sore need of squares.

  For reasons that seemed perfectly logical at the time, I have started a “Jared Takes a Wife” quilt, as well as the Lozenge Leader/Ender Challenge of 2014.  Both need corners, a lot of corners. At the moment I have 110 lozenges cut, each needs 4 corners flipped – 440 squares needed, half black, half neutral. Jared needs 240 chevron units, those take a 2” at each end; 480 squares needed, half yellows, half neutrals. Just looking at those numbers makes me want to cut more.


I don’t have pictures of the Lozenges yet, too early to see anything but piles of fabrics, some with one corner sewn. But here is Jared taking shape.
 I’m glad I put a few together early on as it pointed out some spots where I needed to take more care in the light and dark separation.  It can be hard to tell, they look dark in my hand but aren’t really dark enough. And two of the yellows are fading into the plaid, I need more pop there.

In addition to flipping 2” corners, I have also been flipping some 2.5” as well. Looking at pictures on the Quiltville Open Studio page ( a very dangerous place to hang out - too many good ideas)  I got this idea to try a Smokey Mountains quilt with some of my 4.5” I Spy blocks.  The 4.5” squares I cut the other day were the spacers for that.

Not sure it is working out as well as it did in my head, and the lighter star corners really disappear into the background, but I’ll keep going with it. Maybe I can change some of the lighter fabrics.


Oh, yes, the HST that I cut. They are for the Leader and Ender challenge from last year, that I am still working on. So far only have 45 blocks done and need a whole lot more.



With all these Leader and Ender projects going, I’m not sure what my main project is any more.  Ah, that would be  the Baby Star quilt and I am putting the binding on it, right now, as soon as I get off the computer, really I can turn it off. Maybe I should post this first.

Resumption of Quilting Activity

Our visit by out of town family is over. Four days of dinners, drives, long talks and general catching up, ending with a drive to the airport yesterday.  And now I can return to my quilting but first a little cutting.  Why cutting? Because one of the long drives over the weekend was to JoAnne’s; where they had a 40% sale.  And I caved, succumbed, bent to the pressure of hurting wrists and fingers, and bought the Accuquilt Go!.   In addition to the basic machine I also got two dies, the 2.5” strip and the 2” squares. 
So today now that I have time to play with it, I set up in the dining room and went to work.

With two tables to spread out on, and an ironing station to tame any unruly pieces, I cut all afternoon.
Final total:
2.5” strips: 105
2.5” squares: 86
2.5” HST: 105
2” sq. : 470
4.5” sq: 58

And a very happy quilter.

Spring Cleaning

Dear Hubby pointed out last night that I hadn’t posted in a while, and I retorted that no one wanted to hear about my spring cleaning marathon,  which is what it feels like I have been doing .  But that is not fair, there have been other things going on.  Like another machine. Like quilting on the Baby Star.
The machine was pure happenstance. Dear Son and I popped out Monday eve to drop off some stuff to the thrift store, and of course do a walk through. I headed right to the fabrics and notions where I spotted a baggie of threads, spools and spools of thread. That usually is a good indication that some one has dropped off their mom’s sewing stuff. And a great piece of neutral fabric. So headed down back to the furniture to see if there was a machine. Just an empty sewing cabinet.  Maybe they kept the machine. Did a walk through anyway and on another desk spied a white plastic case looking almost like a suitcase except on the handle it said Kenmore.

Isn’t that so cute, roses all over it and inside, a Kenmore 158.1045

Just the sweetest little 3/4 size, solid metal, zig-zag.  With no foot pedal or power cord. I didn’t grab it and run, in fact checked out ( with the fabric and two more shirts to cut up) and came home and told my DH. Who immediately said “why didn’t you get it”.  I posted it on the facebook Vintage Machines group and they all said “grab it”.  So the next day, while I was working, hubby went and bought it. We drove to Niagara Falls to a sewing machine  store and he had a power cord/foot pedal combo that worked.  Happy ending

Best part - machine $23, foot $20 = grand total $43 !


The house cleaning has a happy ending also. Back in September when
my DD2 moved back home I posted a picture of my living room. Looking like this.

Before

Well, now after considerable effort, it looks like this:

Still a little pile of stuff down to the left that needs to go ( especially that old TV) but I feel much better about it.  

And the Baby Star Quilt: 

Just need to quilt the border and put on the binding and it's ready to ship. But my quilting table are repurposed for the weekend to accommodate a family dinner so all is on hold.