I'm back. I think...
It's been a few weeks, but I haven't had really anything to share (aside from books) and just took a break. I haven't been reading blogs much either, but maybe this afternoon I'll get somewhat caught up?
But there's a pile of stuff to share, so settle in!
As the title states, I went to a quilt retreat last week. It's one my mom runs in a little town a few hours north of here. She's been doing it for over 20 years, but I haven't gone. Long story short, this is her last year and I decided I needed to go. It was fun.
(I didn't take a suitcase full of books, but I did take four - I only read about half of one!)
What did I end up taking?
After flipping through magazines and quilt books, looking for something new, I realized I had a few patterns I had purchased with the desire to make them. So why was I looking for something else?
Silly girl.
First up is Chic Kisses. My pattern is actually the cover of a magazine, but the actual pattern from the designer has more pages and better instructions. How do I know? There's a really nice video on putting the blocks together and I watched it twice for extra help.
But this block is something else and I decided to make a test block before I went. You know, magazines can have errors and, well, I wanted to be sure I could tackle this before planning on it being a major part of my week.
I don't have a photo of my block - maybe I'll go snap one, but for now I'm typing - but it was a little bit of a nightmare.
You know, what I need photos...hang on...
Okay, the block - using fabrics I don't much care for:
There's a template (free!) for making the fan blades, so that went faster. But those curves. Sew Kind of Wonderful, the designer, has curved rulers for these blocks, which also seem like they make things go faster.
But...
The inner curve and the outer curves are NOT the same. And the ruler and pattern assume as much.
In the video you can see that it's not quite right, but I went ahead with the test, as written, to see how bad it was. I mean, the gal said it was great. It was bad.
How bad?
The seam closer to the center (the yellow) is the "correct" seam - matching edges, using a quarter inch seam allowance. The outer seam is where I re-sewed after pressing it and figuring out where the seam should actually be so I don't have a toe-catcher overlapping the fans.
Off to the interwebs...
The magazine has stopped publishing, so no errata are available any more.
The google only tells me where to buy the pattern. I found maybe one person who had made the quilt with no comment about troubles or anything. Just "woohoo I made it!!!".
Useless.
Plan B - how to figure out curves.
I found this nice video (and I hope it links - it's a series of short videos that I can't seem to figure out how to link to just ONE of them, but here's to hoping) where she talks about making curved blocks and how her pattern wasn't quite what she wanted so she made a better one. I kinda had an idea how to draft it, but this helped.
And I refigured the curve the arcs needed to be cut. Traced that onto the arcs and cut with a scissors. It didn't take THAT much longer, but I was hopping mad about the whole "it looks great" garbage.
Anyways. Off to retreat with my revised pattern and a pile of fabrics.
I got two blocks done and guess what? My edit worked!
Pardon the wrinkles - they were packed in a box and hauled home and just found their way out for photos this morning.
I didn't edit the outer curve, as that wasn't as much of a problem. It probably could have used a little tweaking, but there is no toe-catcher in evidence, so I let it go.
(I did find one other pattern error in the magazine, but it was template-related and I wasn't using templates - but if you are making this quilt and have questions, I'll be happy to answer them!)
They each took the better part of a day, but my mom's retreat is BUSY. I swear every time I'd just get sewing, the bell would ring to call our attention and it was time to play a game or go eat or do an activity or see a project someone had finished. (I liked the finished projects and the food was great, but I could probably have done with fewer activities!)
The original pattern calls for 16 of these blocks, but they finish at like 23", so I'm thinking nine blocks will be sufficient for a throw-size quilt. And, well, seven fewer blocks isn't a bad thing.
We'll see where things go. I haven't touched my sewing stuff since I got home (not even to really unpack much of it), but I'm hoping the motivation will remain. I just had a lot to deal with when I got home, in a short time before work shifts started up again!
This was actually the second project I worked on. The first was a baby quilt. I had it saved from a magazine, but today found that the designer has it in her etsy shop as a single pattern. But if we're being honest, the magazine has a single block free on their website and I...well...I used that and did some math... (Probably would have been a LOT faster and easier without the math, though!)
A week or so before retreat the hubby asked me to make a quilt for a coworker who is expecting his first baby (a boy) in a few months. He doesn't often ask, so I know when he does it's someone special. So he helped me select the quilt (he kept picking out stuff that was entirely applique or had 5 billion pieces and I love quilting, but not that much - not for something I'm giving away) and we settled on this one.
This took only about two days and I hadn't cut a single piece beforehand. It went together fast, but, as I said above, would probably have gone even faster if I'd bought the whole pattern.
It's just four blocks, but takes on a whole new look once you get those together. I really like it and it makes me think of city streets. I'm not sure what color to bind with, but I'm leaning towards orange. If I have enough!
Other retreat things:
some swag and door prize winnings - that pink thing is a seam ripper and it's AWESOME!
And a quilt fairy gift.
I also went to two quilt shops in the area and bought a few things:
The book is more reference/inspiration, but I've seen it before and finally caved and bought it. The template I've been looking for and was excited to find. And the yellows will go in the Chic Kisses quilt - my yellow stash was diminished and more golden than I wanted.
It was a fun week. My sister-in-law went too and we were roomies. Every single participant was wonderful and friendly. And my mom...well...she's a little extra sometimes and so I expected it from her, so it was manageable. A small part of me wishes I could plan for next year, but I know even if it wasn't the last year, each year is a little different and it would never be the same.
It WAS good to get home to my own bed, my kitties, and my routine. Washing ALL the spoons upon return was NOT fun...the hubby hates dishes with a passion and we use spoons to scoop wet food out of cans for the cats. Instead of washing spoons every day or so (he was also eating bologna sandwiches off of paper plates - I cannot stress enough that this was HIS decision, not mine), he just used all the spoons and then sent me a text to complain. We have plastic spoons, but NOOOOOOO...
Now I'm back to the regular routine with lots of hours at work - it's spring and that means new lawnmowers, fences that need mending, and all that outside fun. So we're busy and there are plenty of hours to go around. I guess it's good, though I do get kinda used to the late winter slump and having more days off than on!
Shortly before I left for retreat, I FINALLY got someone out to work on my longarm. After my debacle a few years ago (where the company that sells and services them told me my money was no good because I didn't buy it new, from them), the hubby got fed up with my cursing the thing and threatening to put it on the side of the road with a "good luck" sign (not "free" because that might imply it was worth something) and called. He's a manager and forces techs to fit his machines into their schedule all the time at his job, so he figured he could try that here.
And you know what? The asshats scheduled him right away. Like, no questions. Just "does Tuesday work?" Flabbergasted does not quite cover my reaction.
So the repair guy is like "it's the encoders." I'd prepped the hubby. For those of you who don't know, the encoders keep track of where the machine is and how fast it's going. So the stitch regulator knows how fast to move the needle up and down.
My stitch regulator is off. So the encoders being wonky does not make one bit of difference.
It's like telling someone their cruise control in their car is the problem when it won't shift out of first gear and the cruise control isn't on.
I was pretty sure it was the timing. I'd tried everything else. I'd even coughed up almost $300 for a timing tool that, because of my machine being older than almost all others of its brand, does not quite work. (The hubby and I tried to time it - apparently we got close.)
Anyways, this is also what the folks told me when I tried to get a tech out the first time. I argued, but they argued back.
So.
It took three men to confirm that it WAS NOT THE ENCODERS.
It was the timing.
There were a few other things he adjusted (why not do the whole spa treatment once I'm paying for a service call, right?), but the timing was the problem.
And he showed us how to modify the tool to use it. But my hubby took the day off to host the event and participated enough that he feels like he could time it without the tool.
Due to life and work and all whatever, I haven't actually loaded a quilt and used it yet, but I did fool around with a test piece and it is no longer skipping stitches and tying unplanned knots. Here's to hoping the first quilt isn't a disaster.
But I'm kinda keeping the repair under my hat as far as my mom is concerned because I don't like quilting her stuff. I don't do it often and I don't offer. I don't quilt for others very often and usually it's a charity quilt or something. It's just a lot of extra stress I don't want. My quilting is good enough for me, but might not be for others and I'm not going there.
Last but not least are the books...10 of them since I last posted. I'll try to keep their info short...
Quite good. Historical fiction set during the development of penicillin as a drug. The doctors developing it, a newspaper reporter covering it and a mysterious death that may or may not be associated with it. Enjoyable and sciencey without being too technical.
Also pretty good. A man who lost his musical gift in his late teens, striving to practice his talent back while teaching at university takes on a promising young boy as a student. It helps him find his way back, but also gives him perspective about how his talent may not be all he needs. The cat on the cover arrives very late in the book.
Surprisingly good, but LOOONG. Recommended by another quilty blogger quite some time ago, this is the story of four people who moved north during the migration of blacks from the south into the north. It's nonfiction, but the stories are interesting enough that it isn't dry or boring (which is why it was surprising to be as good as it was). The four people head for different cities, end up in different places and have quite different experiences, but it made me think about how easy my life is and appreciate it more.
Also good. Quick and enjoyable. Maisie Dobbs is a young woman striking out on her own as a private investigator, though she relies on her instinct and intuition to guide her, more so than a man might do, or perhaps might be expected. She is hired to find out if a wife is cheating on her husband, but what she finds leads her to encourage the husband to be more present in the relationship. That ties into a secondary story that helps us learn about her past. There are other books in this series (this is the first) and I expect they are all of similar nature and wouldn't turn them down if they came across my path.
Quite good. A Russian teenage girl, living with her mother (the concubine of the title), in a European city within China, meets a Chinese boy and they have an immediate bond. He is fighting the current Chinese leadership, which puts him in danger, and her love for him puts her in danger as well. There are a variety of European nationalities living within this city and many of them come into the story in surprising ways to help the two teens. The mother figures into the story less than you'd expect, considering the title and we never see her quite as a concubine...
Good. Nonfiction (though I didn't realize that until I read the blurb closer). A woman from Michigan travels with a relief aid group to Kabul to help people in war-destroyed Afghanistan. The rest of her group all have medical skills, she is a hairdresser who took an emergency response class a year before and wanted to do something. She is the black sheep of the group, finds herself bored and goes out to meet locals. She gets herself into some scrapes, but really does see the people and city better than anyone else in her group. And ends up, over the course of a number of years and visits, develops and beauty school for women to attend. Her goal is to give them skills to help support their families when everything is very uncertain in the country. Reading a little more about the book after I finished put some of her actions in a less positive light, but I truly believe this woman meant well and worked hard to do what she believed in.
Good but dragged a little in places. Set mostly during the Korean war, in Korea, we see a family trying to survive. They were wealthy and governed a large piece of land - one that was split when the country was divided into North and South Korea. The wealth is lost and the family struggles, but they survive bombings and raids. The book starts and ends with a young woman, an American-born daughter of this family, who travels to find her family and find more meaning in her painting career. Her story was much less interesting than that of her mother and grandparents and uncles. A war that doesn't have nearly as many books about it, too...
Pretty good. Fiction, but based on the real-life Daisy of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She is a rich girl with no sense of the real world, meets a poor-ish boy who she finds annoying (he doesn't know all the proper rules of the wealthy) but then pines over him. Drags him along for a while, then dumps him when she finds something shinier. And when the poor boy becomes a famous writer, he's all new and shiny again, but he knows better now and keeps her at a distance. I think the Daisy character made me mad enough that the whole book felt less good than it was.
Terrible. Recommended for no one. I didn't even finish it. Three parts: Part one is childhood. He's a shit, but maybe it's that kid he's hanging out with. Part two is teenage years: He's still making questionable choices, but maybe it's because he's a teenager and boys will be boys. Part three is post-college: He's clearly mentally disturbed. I think he has three personalities. I think he spent some time in a mental hospital. I give up. I kept hoping it would have a plot. I kept hoping he'd get "better." I kept hoping for something. I read 400 pages and I'm sorry I didn't quit 300 pages earlier.
Very good. Sad. A woman, while mourning the loss of her best friend's daughter, is accused of abusing a boy at school (she's an elementary school nurse) and is wrongly jailed based on something she said that was misinterpreted while having what was probably a mental breakdown. The first and third part of the book are her story. The first is the loss of the daughter, the third is post-jail. The middle is her husband's story of life without her, visiting her and raising their two daughters. Her writing reminds me a lot of favorite author Barbara Kingsolver and I enjoyed the book a lot, even with the heavy story.
I finished this last one last night, so nothing to report about the next one...
The Soloist and A Map of the World came from my actual bookshelves and, again, were books I thought I'd read, but once I got into them, realized I hadn't. I'm glad I kept both. They were both worth reading.
And so I think that's all I have to share.
Time for lunch!
Happy quilting and reading,
Katie
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