forward progress!

With so many projects going on at once, forward progress is all I aim for each day.  (And generally, with quilting, how often does backwards progress happen?!)

In no particular order of projects, I'll start first with the finish of the 100 blocks!  I'm a few days ahead, but got to the point where it was easier to just keep sewing them and finish than to drag it out any more.  I'm over this project.  100 days is a long time.  And I get it.  That's part of the challenge, but I can tell you I will not easily fall into this trap again.

The blocks?  Oh yes.  A collage of 87-100!

I plan to sash these with a narrow, solid black.  I believe there is a whole-quilt deadline, too, so I'll likely be working on a layout for these in the near future.  But I am very happy to have them all done.  I even cleaned up the project box all the fabrics were hanging out in and put them back in the closet!  (After I cut squares for the Single Girl quilt, of course!)

The Little Miss Sawtooth quilt-along is a little slower paced, with just a couple of blocks to make every two weeks.  Thank goodness!  Due by Thursday night are three blocks, one of which I opted to not make.  (I'll explain in a minute why.)

Remember a few weeks ago, I made a whole ton of flying geese for this project?  Well, they are star points.  I knew that (and probably told you that), but now the fun is making centers for those points!

I chose two sets of outer points and then worked from there to choose fabrics for these blocks.  Two of the block "Josephine."

And just one of the block "Sadie".

So, you see the blocks for the week are actually block centers.  And the third block (name I forgot), is just a solid square of a fabric.  I decided, using my colored chart, to skip that one and instead make an extra of the pieced blocks.  I have noted on my chart which will get two and which will get one, so I should be good when those blocks are assigned.

But I did work ahead on this project.  The alternate blocks are large 4-patches.  Made of 6" squares.  And with my dwindling stash of lights for this project (supplemented nicely with a recent shopping trip!), I decided that cutting the large pieces first would make a whole lot more sense than hoping to have enough at the end.

I matched them up in foursies and have started sewing some of them, leader-ender style, as I sew the blocks.  These are assigned for the last week of block-making, which will be nice when I get there and am ahead!

Next up, because it has a deadline that I really don't want to mess up, I worked on Jordan's quilt.  I have had all the blocks made for a little while, but needed to find time to lay them all out and get everybody in a happy place.

This is just a quick shot of the middle, taken after crawling around on the floor for a while, and sent to the cousin for a final check.  She loves it.  I think it looks kinda drab and masculine, but it's what she asked for and if she thinks it's right, it's right!

I picked it all up with labels and proceeded to sew like a madwoman, paying attention and being careful to make sure I selected the right block from the correct pile and keeping it orientated correctly and pressing in the direction that would make later construction go well.  Until the last two rows.  Apparently I got cocky and all of a sudden I had 2 blocks in one pile and 4 in the other.  A little unsewing happened and there are a few fabrics touching each other that weren't before, but it's nothing life-threatening, so I left it.

After I had rows assembled, I started sewing them to each other.  In case you want to see what 100 9" blocks looks like mashed behind a sewing machine - here you go.  It was getting sketchy at this point, but since the next step removed 40 of them, all was well.

And the kitties were really well-behaved.  Only a little design floor help and they ignored me through the construction entirely.

Until I was trying to pin 6 rows to 4 rows.  The dreaded last seam.

He burrowed right in and proceeded to try to take a nap.  He was not happy with me ousting him, but I was not going to stop there.  I was too close!  But I even kept going and cut, sewed and pressed binding!  Now I just want to go shopping with the cousin to select a fabric for the back.  She trusted me with the front (which I'm glad for - you all know how explaining scale and saturation and all that to a non-quilter goes!), but the back can be anything and I'd like her to have a hand in that choice.

It feels like there hasn't been as much sewing lately, despite all of these projects.  Or maybe just the top-finishing that has led to fewer boxes of projects hanging around makes it feel like less?

Nevertheless, I have kept busy.  I have been toying with rearranging the side of the room opposite the sewing table, but was struggling with how to do it and keep all I have.  I wanted it to be homier feeling, but finally relented with this:

Yeah, it's upside down here, but it's just the box.  (I promise I put the shelving unit in right-side-up!)  I decided this would be a good option and I could keep the lowest shelf up higher to allow kitten clearance and the furnace register to do its thing, too.

This is the area where it is supposed to go.  That door goes into another bedroom - a bedroom with another door about 3 feet away that opens into the hallway.  And on the other side of this door, there is a couch.  So it is not opening any time soon.  So a shelving unit there will not be a problem.

I wish I had widened the shot, but at the time, I had no idea what would come of this.

The lowest shelf is Christmas and birthday gifts.  They all end up stashed up here (easy to hide when the kids come over!) and in a big, messy pile that takes over most of my floor.  I'm hoping the shelf will help with some of that.  (I'm sure it will get worse before the holiday gets here!)  And the bookshelf next to it got some more attention, but that second shelf from the top...I dread sorting that mess out!  But it's a start.

And it snowballed from here.  You can kinda see the edge of the ottoman from a chair on the photo edge on the right, right?  Well, that was on an angle, but I decided to set it straight.  And then I decided the leopard print wallpaper border (visible most in the "before" photo of where the shelf goes) had to go.  At least in that corner.  And then I decided to hang some of my mini quilts in that corner.  Because, after living here like 17 years, perhaps it's time to CLAIM my sewing room?

But I got carried away really fast - first googling how to remove that wallpaper border, then googling how to temporarily hang those mini quilts without putting holes in the (impermeable-to-nails) actual plaster wall and then doing all the things.  Before I knew it, I was sweating and done and had taken zero photos.

I think I vacuumed an entire cat worth of fur from that chair.  The cats love it and previously I had just put a blanket over it to contain some of it.  But with this new setup, I have decided the afghan my grandma crocheted needs to be out and I will do a better job of keeping the chair de-furred.  And perhaps in use.  (Because the before had project boxes all over the ottoman, so as to be unusable for anyone but the cats to have something to dump on the floor.  Those boxes are now on shelves.  And I promised myself they will return to shelves every night.)

Freddie and Gabby take turns with the new setup.  (The first day, Gabby would walk in, give me the side-eye and walk back out.  Now she likes it.)

And Freddie loves the afghan.  He comes in, kneads it up some, and crashes while I sew.  Gabby is still a little irked that it is no longer on the diagonal, making a fun little hidey spot in the corner, but I also removed all the junk stored under the chair and ottoman, so she has a good, tidy hiding spot there instead.  (She may also be angry that I removed the mostly-shredded pad of newsprint that she enjoyed destroying while hiding under said ottoman...)

I have plans to do the other side of the room as well as the closets, but that is going to be a big project and probably a fabric-purging one too, so I'm putting that off until probably after the holidays.  Or at least until some of these quilt alongs and projects with actual deadlines are done.  Also, it's so tidy in there, I don't even want to sew and mess it up!  (Even if there still is ugly leopard-print wallpaper border over there!)

But I have been sewing.  Obviously.  I finished the 100 blocks and started on a few more arcs for the Single Girl quilt.  No photos of the arcs, but they're in the very early stages and waiting patiently for me to return from my list of non-sewing chores today.

Did I wear you out?  Remember I did this over the course of a week, so it's really not that bad.  I even took Saturday off!

Happy quilting,

Katie

rolling right along

I should have more photos, but I don't.  But I'll share what I do have!

First up, we left early last Wednesday and headed north to Drummond Island.  Remember I didn't get to go earlier this year and, since the hubby has a new boat, he wanted to give that a trial run on a short trip.  Unfortunately, the boat was having work done, so we had to go without it.  But we have friends on the island, so the hubby fished on their boat for a few days.  I worked on the seeds (no photos), but didn't get as much done as I thought I might.  Oh well, the prep I did will last for another day.

We stopped on the way home to a scenic lookout with a LOT of steps.  Unfortunately, the colors are just barely starting to change, so the scenery wasn't as spectacular as it might have been, but I did take a few photos...from well back of the railings because I'm a chicken!

You can kinda see the Mackinac Bridge in this first one.  Tiny, but about dead center.

To the north.

To the east.

And this foggy parking lot about halfway between home and our destination was kinda fun...

It was crazy high fog.  It wasn't slowing traffic down on the freeways or anything, but just kinda creepy that it was a few feet off the ground where it started.  It lasted probably 30 miles and then it was gone again.

I took no photos on the island (it wasn't great weather - okay for fishing, not great for photo taking).

When I got home, I had one extra block, but I needed to get a few more of the 100 blocks done.  I'm caught up through today and debated doing more when sewing Sunday, but other projects with deadlines were also looming, so here are just three more - 84-86.

Only 14 more to go.  Depending on how things go in the coming days, I might just power through them all.

Next up on the list was the Free-Wheeling Single Girl Quilt Along. My pattern arrived in time for the second step, which was actually starting to sew.  The first step was a fabric pull and I knew I could at least get a start on that without the pattern that was lost in the mail and being reset.

I decided to do nine circles, one in each color, though I'm debating about doing royal blue and turquoise because this only represents 8 circles.  And that doesn't make a very good 3x3 layout.  So I'm in limbo there for now and will have to pull my fabrics out and see what I can do.

In the meantime, despite the requirement for the week being make one set of arcs for one circle, I will be making a larger quilt than the four-ring quilt-along version, so I knew I needed to up my game.  This is a scary pattern for me, but I decided procrastinating wasn't going to do me any good, so I pulled out my oranges and started sorting, hoping I would have enough to not repeat the fabrics.  Well.  I have more orange than I thought...

I separated them into piles so I would have a good distribution of color and opened a chocolate to fortify my courage.  Maybe you can't read it, but it said "You've got this" inside.  I think they knew!

It went very fast and I was happy with my results.  A little bit of a learning curve to figure out how to place each piece so it went the right direction of the arc, but I made it.  And got faster, too!

I'm very happy with this one!

And while I had the stuff out and my courage up and had the system working, I might as well do yellow, too, right?

The grey will be the background.  I think.  It's the overdyed muslin again and I'm a little concerned it will look odd because the rings are actually pieced as quarters and then sewn together.  That may look odd.  I'll have to cut some pieces and lay it out and make a decision.  But next week, the requirement is to sew one set of arcs into the background and make a full circle.  And since there are tips and tricks given with each new step, I'm going to hold off for that.

Also, the yellows look pretty washed out here.

But, while the creative juices are flowing, why not do red, too?

My reds are sadly lacking.  Due to my crazy hearts in stars quilt made for Project Quilting, my brighter reds were much depleted.  And it's not a favorite color, so it's not one I lean towards when making quilts or building my stash.  But I found enough and it's not as bright as it might be, but I think it will do just fine.

I got lazy and didn't lay them all out and take a photo that way, but you get the idea.

And there are the other parts.

At this point, I had about 30 minutes until I had to start dinner and decided to tidy up my mess and switch gears.  But this is plenty enough for this week and a little extra for next week (which will probably be a good thing since I have to sew them all into backgrounds AND would have had to make two sets of arcs).

Sunday I made a trip to pick up a few more lighter fabrics for background for the Little Miss Sawtooth quilt along.  I have no photos, but I realized that one is going to take a lot of lights and I wasn't sure I would make it.  And adding them later is harder than mixing them in from the start.  Or near the start.  This quilt along has two-week intervals, but the next step started Sunday.  So I'll be making at least 3 blocks for this step - probably more, because, as always, I'm making it bigger and need more blocks.  There are 15 blocks and I need 18 full blocks and 6 half-blocks.  I think as I go, I will choose the ones I like better to make extras.  And those that can be easily halved (some are 3-patch, some 4-patch...) will probably be done as I go, too.  There are also a lot of large 4-patch (2x2) blocks that are the alternate blocks, so I'm debating working on those as I go for an earlier finish.  (Maybe I could have it done by Christmas?!)  But no photos.  Again.

I DID take a photo of these...

Every year for quite a few years now, I have made pillowcases for each of the three nieces on my side of the family.  Usually I don't think about getting the fabrics until the selection is picked over.  But the middle one with the animal cookies caught my eye and I decided to get them already.  And that flamingo print?  I absolutely love it. I debated buying a bigger chunk and using it for a quilt back at some point.  But I was already spending a lot on everything else (two rolls of batting also came home with me!), so I decided it was a bad choice for a "someday" project.

Jordan's quilt has seen progress.  Before we left for vacation, all the blocks (100!) were completed, but those have been tucked away for a bit, awaiting the projects with sooner deadlines to get their time.  I hope to have time later this week to lay them out and start sewing them together, though.  Then I'll try to schedule a time to go with the cousin to pick a back for the quilt.  I tend to go wilder, but I'm not sure what she will think is good for her daughter, so we'll see.

And tiny stars have been happening, too, as leader-ender sewing for the 100 blocks.  I'm not sure how those will progress once that project ends, but for now I'm making good progress!  But since it's a forever project, I'm not in a rush.  I mean, I'd like to get it done sooner than later, but there are so many other things going on right now, I need to pace myself.  And perhaps quit deciding to join quilt-alongs?  (Maybe that will be a resolution for next year?!)

That's all the projects for now.  I need to get better again at taking photos, but, well, I get all wrapped up in things and then it's over.

Time to go make myself some dinner and decide what else to do tonight...

Happy quilting,

Katie

a long post...

It's been more than two weeks and, as those of you who know me guessed, a lot has happened.

I'll start with the hardest part first.

Because the details hurt, I will summarize to say that over the holiday weekend kitty Lexie took a turn for the worse.  Emma had also been having increasing health issues.  So we decided that Wednesday, after 15 happy years with them, we would say goodbye to both together.  They were littermates and spent their entire lives together, so, hard as it was, we decided this was the best decision.

These are the last photos of each that I have and I am happy to see that in both they were having a good time.  (Lexie inspecting a quilt and Emma inspecting cat toys that were sent to a friend.)

But on to happier things!  (Because I can only cry so much...)

I'm going to try to do a quick update on everything...

Projects that were in the works before the tragedy:

100 blocks - blocks 59-76 have been completed.

I'm getting tired of these, but nearing the end.

Adrian's quilt - top minus borders has been completed.  Yesterday I purchased fabrics for the borders and binding.

Purple will be a skinny inner border and binding.  Blue will be a wider, outer border.  First on my list of quilty chores today.

Kae's baby quilt - top, including embroidering antennae has been completed, awaiting quilting and attachment of buttons for antennae balls.

And how perfect is my finger for an antennae template?

Ongoing projects that get random attention:

Tiny stars - working as leader-enders for 100 blocks and getting a lot done.

This is not all of them completed recently, but I didn't feel like laying them out only to have to pick them up again in a few seconds after the photo.  But you get the idea!

Bird Seeds quilt - prepping "seeds" (finally) for a road trip in the near future.

I would love to be able to put this one together soon.  It's been waiting too long!

New projects:

Little Miss Sawtooth - a quilt-along I joined on a whim.  Currently in "step 1" phase.

As you can see, I'm using the same fabrics from Adrian's quilt.  Because I bought way too much.  I have an idea where this quilt will go, but I'll save that for another day.  Coloring sheet is just an idea.  Actual fabrics/colors to be determined.

Jordan's quilt - for a cousin's daughter for her college apartment.

Fabric has been purchased and washed.  I plan to make the Yellow Brick Road pattern and hope to get started on it today.  (I wanted simple because it's due at Christmas!)  Colors selected by the cousin, it will be a surprise for her daughter.

Hands2Help 2020 September project - leftovers that have been staring at me.

Leftover trimmings (and some leftover yardage) from Chelsie's baby quilt finally made it into a small baby quilt.  Note - do not trim setting triangles, no matter how too big they seem, before construction is finished...see middle photo!  Still needs to be quilted, but binding has been made.

Quilts I plan to start soon:

Single Girl Quilt Along - starts this coming Monday.  I have ordered the pattern (which is technically called the "Free Wheeling Single Girl Quilt" because of upgrades to the original "Single Girl" pattern) and am excited because this one has been on my bucket list since forever.  I still have to decide on fabrics and stuff, but whatever.  There's time.

Farm Girl Vintage 2 Quilt Along - starts November 1st.  Lori Holt's new book came out this week and she will be doing a quilt along to compliment the book.  I got my book yesterday and can't wait to start!  Fabric selection, etc, to be determined.

So there you have it.  Lots going on in my sewing room.  I have an actual list pinned to the wall to remind me if I decide I don't have enough to do what to work on!

And with that, I am going to head up to the sewing room!  Borders await!

Happy quilting,

Katie

PS I promise to try to post more frequently in the future.

the book quilt

The final sharing period for the Summer Book Club Quilt-Along quilts is happening on Instagram now (look for the hashtags #summerbookclubqal and #sbcqalgp for finished quilts and tops), so I can FINALLY share my whole quilt!

(I mean, I guess I could have shown it earlier, but this is more fun, right?  Also, there may have also been six other quilts needing to be shared after finishing, so I can wait...)

Way back in May, I signed up for this quilt along.  I purchased the quilt block patterns - there are a few different books - and then almost talked myself out of it.  It was paper piecing, after all.  But one day, after seeing blocks start popping up on my Instagram feed, I decided to give it a try.  I mean, this was paced out over quite a few months and there were prizes, too.  Who doesn't like a bonus of prizes?!

And I sewed the first one...

...and it was all over.  I was hooked.  My fussy cutting was a little off (I got better as I made more), but I absolutely was in love with this block.

So I did some math, figuring out how many blocks using a standard border and then figured out how many I needed to make each day to have all the blocks done by the time we needed to start sewing the tops together.  It was a ton of fun seeing what fabrics others chose and I had a blast raiding my stash for fabrics that might not get used anywhere else.  (Well, maybe the back of a quilt or a pillowcase, but for my usual style, larger prints often aren't usable.)  I found fabrics I forgot I had.  And used up bits and pieces of fabrics I had just a little bit left - the binding on this block, for example.

The paper piecing wasn't bad.  There aren't that many pieces for each block and I only sewed ONE piece backwards in the whole quilt!  That's a huge win for me!  (But paper piecing is still not my favorite method of block construction!)

You've seen all the blocks as they've been made, so I'll skip ahead to the deciding how to lay it out part...  Originally I planned to do a straight layout, using the borders already sewn around each block as a sashing of sorts.  But then I saw one that was offset and went "hmmm..." So, with some help from the cats, I tried out a few options.

I guess I didn't upload (or save...oops!) the layout choice photos, but I did think long and hard before deciding that I liked the straight layout after all.  The offset I would have used wasn't much and for either a horizontal or vertical offset of just about an inch, it really didn't have a lot of impact.  I decided to just go with the straight setting, squinted a little at where all the blocks ended up on the floor, moved a few and decided I could spend a week rearranging and it wouldn't get better.  It's busy and colorful and just needed to be put together.

The top came together quickly, and before I knew it done!

Then my hubby left for vacation without me.  I had time off from work, so it was a vacation for me, too, just one taken at home.  That included Starving Emma.  And I decided, after chatting with a quilty friend, to make it a Longarm Week and try to quilt as many tops as I could.  I imagined one per day, but didn't set that in stone because you just never know.  (But you all know I made it!)  This quilt was first on the list.  It had an actual deadline, soonest of the quilt-along deadlines, and I was excited to be able to use it once it was finished.

You can see the back a little here, as I took a photo just before starting the last pass, but here is a better shot:

I was at my local quilt shop, looking for something else entirely (exactly what I can't remember...) and found this.  It just seemed perfect.  Like keeping track of how many books you've read this year or this summer or whatever.  And so I bought the end of the bolt, hoping it would be enough.  Knowing if it wasn't, I could figure out something.  But it was perfect.  I got lucky!

I chose to quilt it with a motif that makes me think of cotton bolls, but I'm calling it popcorn because that seems more fitting with a book.  You can sort of see the motif in the photo above...but it might be better in a minute with the whole finished quilt photo, too...

After the quilting was done, I knew I needed to do a scrappy binding.  So I raided my stash of leftovers, added up lengths as I pulled them out of the mess (it was tidy once...it is not any more...and the pile is still rather large...) until I had the right amount, sewed them together...

...and then onto the quilt.

Since this was the first day of my Longarm Week, I sat down with needle and thread (I opted for off-white, as it matched the back fabric and would hopefully hide any sins of hand-binding!), cranked up the Netflix and some Gilmore Girls, and started a binding marathon.  I had no idea if I would finish that night before bedtime, but I was going to make a good effort.

Turns out, if you can just sit down for a stretch of time (don't forget your thimble!), uninterrupted, you can actually sew a whole quilt binding on in a few hours!

It took a few days to get a good day for photos, but I dragged it outside and hung it on the line.

The clothesline sags in the middle, so it looks crooked here, but it's fine.  I'm just a bad photographer.  Or impatient...

I love it.

The grey-overdyed muslin I used for the background is a little stiff.  I'm a little worried that it will fade since I didn't wash it before I used it, but I'm hoping that it will soften with washing and won't fade.  Of course, I'll throw in a color catcher, but there's still a chance.

It measures 64x63", so a little wider than tall, but not enough to make it look wacky.

And a few more photos from along the way...

Lexie plopped in the middle of a block as I was trying to take a photo.  She gets ideas that she needs ALL the pets RIGHT NOW and pursues them seriously.  This was one of those times.

And of course, Kevin helped with the book about Minions!

In other, more recent quilty news, I purchased some purples and a few more lights for the quilt for my niece.  The photo below is all the fabrics, but the ones in the pile on the left are the new additions.

I still need to do some math to see how many of each color to cut, but I hope to start tomorrow.  Maybe tonight, but my book is calling to me and it has been neglected quite a lot lately...also a nap sounds kinda good...

And, of course, the 100 blocks project continues.  I worked ahead by a few blocks today so I am caught up through Saturday.  I have to work both Friday and Saturday, and would like a full day to work on Adrian's quilt (at least to get pieces cut and paired up to be ready for sewing), so I decided I would take today and make a few extra blocks.

Some of these are SUPER simple, but that makes up for others that are none too fun (loads of half square triangles anyone?!).  At #48, I'm nearly halfway done.  Some days it feels like more of a chore than fun to make these, but I'm committed to finishing.  And I'm sure, like many other projects that seem to stretch out forever, once it's done, I'll love it.

So that's all that's new around here.  With a finished quilt, it makes me look like I've gotten more done than I really have since the last blog post, but I haven't been lazy either!

Happy quilting!

Katie