Three little things

Three things to be happy about:
(1) gourmet candy apples
(2) playing scrabble with a friend
(3) bottled water

I pieced the little half square triangle challenge we did during my guild's retreat last month, light gray and yellow.

It's so interesting that even though I had the layout right in front of me, I kept turning the HST's the wrong way!

Then it clicked - hour glass, hour glass...

Made one more 9-patch from the little churn dash blocks.

Going with 9 patches should work out okay mathematically, because I plan to do a 12 x 14 layout for the quilt.

Finished binding the little improv quilt; I'm so glad I went ahead and unsewed that first binding!

Does it look a bit wonky???  Trust me, it's not that crooked!



That's it for now, sew forth and sew on til later.

Playing with my churn dashes

Three things to be happy about
(1) a large umbrella
(2) watching "Fixer-Upper" (although by now they're all re-runs!)
(3) a new movie release

On the Lancaster trip last week I bought more fabric to beef up my black-on-white stash for the little churn dash blocks, I'm not finding much locally.

I love that little Mickey & Minnie Mouse piece and I started not to get it because it's a one way pattern, sometimes they're tricky to use.

As you can see I bought it anyway!

When my eye landed on this little green print I was immediately reminded of the churn dash blocks, and I wanted it for the borders.

I put it back because the background color isn't really white - but when I went back and picked it up again I knew I better buy it!

I'll use it as the outer border, I think it'll look great on the finished quilt.

Since I need just over 50 more blocks to make the quilt, I grabbed some of the finished ones and sewed them together at random, just to see how they'd look.

Looking good!  I won't worry just now about balancing the "grey" area, or sewing all the one-way patterns the same way.

These little 9-patch groups can be flipped around if I need to.


That's it for now, sew forth and sew on til later!

The good news is ...

The good news is - I've already filed my 2017 taxes!

And the other good news is I pieced this week's scrappy triangle block, another easy one.

As I mentioned before, the most "difficult" thing about these blocks is choosing the fabric.

This was my first effort, notice how blah it looks with that large triangle?

It looked okay when I laid it out, but when I got it pieced I realized the large triangle completely drowned out that small print fabric that touched it.

I really wanted to use that cute print, so the triangle had to go - it wasn't hard to replace it!

The other good news is I've dashed out more of the little churn dash blocks, I now have over 120 done, yaaay!

I'm going with a 13 x 15 setting, without sashing, with a green 2" inner border.  The outer border will be 4" for sure, but I haven't decided on the color yet.  Alternating black-on-white with white-on-black?  Or should the inner border be black-on-white with a green outer border?? There's plenty time to decide!

That's my good news, now I have to fight with Pepco over the ridiculously large bill they just sent me.  Sew forth and sew on.

The third week of the New Year

... in which Ringo Lake seems to have frozen over.  Aw heck.

Wondering how many ways I can say "I finished more blocks" and showing the same blocks - without becoming a bore!  I'll keep sewing together the pieces and parts I need to make the units, then join those wherever they need to go to make the magic happen.

You'll probably not hear any more about the On Ringo Lake mystery til you see the finished top laid out, possibly mid- to late-summer.

Or maybe you will ...

I've also done a few more of my little churn dash blocks, love em!  These do keep me interested because I never really know exactly how a block will look til it's sewn together, and that's part of the fun/mystery in making these little blocks.

I really like using black on white fabrics for the background, and even though I have a pretty good variety of those fabrics, I still find myself looking at them whenever I go fabric shopping (which isn't often, thank goodness).

Making a "potato chip bag" from some very pretty Alexander Henry fabric I found in my stash.  The pieces are all cut out with fusible added on the back, the strap is made, I just need to sew the bag together.

Because my bee doesn't meet in December, we always have our Christmas gift exchange at the January meeting.  This year we're each making one gift, wrapped, to be chosen by a fellow member by drawing a number from a bag.  It's
always fun seeing all the gifts and wondering what you'll get - just like Christmas!

That's it for now, today is our first Guild meeting of the year; it's supposed to be a nice day for it.  It'll be nice to see everyone again, after a whole month!  Sew forth and sew on til later ...

The second week of the New Year

... in which Linda is still wading into Ringo Lake!

Among other things.

I can't believe how long it's taken me to get set up with my Verizon Fios tv, for pete's sake!  Sunday they installed my boxes - and let me pause here to say the tech arrived a full 45 minutes BEFORE the promised time, history in the making!  Monday I discovered I didn't get the DVR feature as I was sure I ordered, but maybe there was a communication breakdown.  Tuesday I took one of my boxes to the Verizon store and traded for a DVR box, then discovered I'm not satisfied with the package I ordered.  Having to upgrade from "Custom" to "Preferred".  At this point I'm still waiting for the upgrade to kick in *sigh.*

Whatever.

Oh yes, sailing On Ringo Lake.

I'm still putting together the units I need to make the blocks.

At this point I haven't started on the last step, which I think is making the sashing units.

Managed to make six blocks so far though, these is them!

Still cutting the shapes I need from 3-1/2" strips, using my Easy Angle ruler.

I love the coral/peachy fabrics I have but I look forward to putting them aside, I'll add lots of scraps to my abundance. 

I like this pokie-dottie piece though!

Meanwhile, I've been neglecting my wee churn dash blocks, waah!  I'll be glad to get back to them, I'm so close to finishing all the blocks I need.

But I want to finish sailing on Ringo Lake first, lest it become a *whispering* UFO. 

That's it for now, I hope you enjoy reading my post, I got up at 0 dark :30 to make it - that's 6:30 for normal, unretired people!  Sew forth and sew on til later ...

Using leftovers

Teacher says, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."
ZuZu Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life

Part 2 of the On Ringo Lake mystery found me digging into the box of leftovers from En Provence, I was sure I had something in there I could use.  I found some 2" strips -  the neutral ones went into my Ringo Lake box, the purple and green ones went right into the string bin!  I want to use up all of the already-cut strips before I cut into my yardage.

I'm almost convinced about this: flying geese are not my friends!

I used my beloved Simple Folded Corners ruler with not-so-keen results.  See the little slanted corner on the top one, at the bottom edge...

Then I used the diagonal line method - bad bad bad!  This time the top edge went wonky.

Then I tried the third method Bonnie suggested, using my companion angle and easy angle rulers.

This method worked much better for me, with some slight trimming. 

I believe this is the method I'll use for these geese, although I know I made them before (in Allietare) and they worked.

Oh well.

Meanwhile, my little churn dash quilt is growing by leaps and dashes! 

It's now large enough for a throw, but I want to go bigger. 



Have a great Saturday, sew forth and sew on...

Churn dashes, scrappy triangle

Three things to be happy about:
(1) bright colored fabrics
(2) fried cabbage
(3) hand made gifts

I spent part of yesterday working on more of those little churn dash blocks.  There was quite a traffic jam behind the presser foot! 

I like to sew the corners and sides on an entire block layout at once, just string em along.  You're looking at something like 13 blocks, ready to be pressed and trimmed.

These little blocks are easy enough to piece, but I was having backache issues bending over my cutting table to trim that many units at one time.

But yesterday a light bulb went off: why not raise the height of the cutting table, from the surface??  (As opposed to placing risers under the table legs, which don't exist.)

A simple project container, with a spare piece of shelving placed on top for stability!  This works perfectly for my 12 x 18" cutting mat.  In the past I had moved all my stuff to the kitchen counter, which is a little higher and it helped a bit - but this is much, much better!

Cootie trimming!

Clipping those little background bits from behind the green bits got done while catching up on the Outlander episodes I recorded.

And last but not least, block 8 of the Year of Scrappy Triangles sew-along.

This is the first one I made with variations of just one color; interesting but the fabrics sort of bleed together.  Oh well...



We've come to the last day of another month, November just flew by!  Have a great Thursday, do something fun, sew forth and sew on...

Part 1 completed

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a clean kitchen
(2) watching an old movie
(3) a red stapler

One of my favorite movies is Office Space, that came out in 1999.  I still laugh at that movie!  Also, My Cousin Vinnie.

Yesterday I finished up the remaining units needed for Part 1 of the Quiltville mystery...

50 units done, plus a few extras!

I also got a few more of the little churn dash blocks done, with three blocks in the trimming stage.

*******

Last Saturday our bee had it's last meeting of the year, we usually end the year the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

It was a laid back, low key, relaxing kind of  meeting.  There was hand work, some watching of You Tube videos, and just chatting and sharing.

A few quilts were shared:

Pat's colorful curvy quilt

Linda's music inspiration

Loretta's Words to Live By

And I was gifted a very generous bag of scraps -

I can't wait to dig in!

**If you've ever left a comment on my blog and I didn't respond, please forgive me, evidently some of the comments don't get mailed.  I check my email rather than the individual post, and if there's nothing in my Yahoo mailbox I assume there aren't any comments.   For some strange reason Yahoo is rejecting some of the emails.** 

Today will probably be a no-sew day for me, have a great Tuesday!  Sew forth and sew on til later

Time for a group picture!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) tuna fish salad
(2) fresh flowers on the table
(3) mixing your own raisin bran

I like buying plain ole store brand wheat bran flakes and mixing in my own raisins, to control how many are in each serving.  I don't need "two scoops," that's way too many if you're watching your sugar!  Toss in a few almonds and it's just as good as Raisin Nut Bran but without all that extra sugar they coat the raisins with.

Churn dashes! 

I laid out all the little blocks that I finished so far, to see how well they play together as a group.  Just short of 50 blocks, more than enough to see what they look like - and I like what I see!

A final layout hasn't been decided on yet - set them side by side, no sashing? or sash them in groups of four?  or set them on point? or ... ?  Who knows?  Not me, not yet!

Some of the background fabrics I used create little shady patches in the quilt, I like that effect!  They're sure to get moved around though.

(These photos were taken in waning daylight, the quilt isn't that grey.)

There's this one little alien in there, where I used a "neutral" background when I first started, rather than the white and black that I'm using now. 

I made a snap decision - he can stay for now!

Now this was too cute not to share - my neighbor biking his kids to school, on the way to his office.  They usually get lots of beeps and waves on the way.

The two-year-old gets buckled in at the back, but his four-year-old brother does a great job holding onto the side rails.

They're off on their day, I hope you enjoy yours!

Sew forth and sew on til later...

Ready to roll!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a lovely sunrise
(2) spinach omelet
(3) mint-flavored floss

As I'm writing this post the sun hasn't risen yet, but I know it's coming.  The sky has grown lighter, maybe it needs a bit more shut-eye!

Saturday I introduced my friend Felicia, the MIB (missing in blogland) Slow Quilter, to one of my favorite places - Fabric Place Basement!

I'm getting ready for Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery ... I really didn't want to buy more fabrics, thinking I would use from my inventory this year. 

But I didn't have enough of any one colorway to substitute my own fabrics.
 

... so one thing led to another

... and another

and another....

Now I have all my fabrics gathered and boxed, waiting for the first clue!

I bought 1/4 yard cuts from 12 fabrics in the coral/melon/peachy range, and the same for the aqua/turquoise range.  I deliberately got cuts from two dark fabrics that pushed the range a bit.

I already had enough browns, I just cut 1/4 yard pieces and put the rest away.  And my neutrals go without saying, I have a BIG plenty of those!

Meanwhile I'm doing some assembly line work on the little churn dash blocks ...

My Accuquilt die cuts nine 2-1/2" squares at once, so that's a no-brainer!

I kitted up little batches of green scraps for the sides and the corners, I chain sew and string along enough for three or four blocks before I

press...

trim ...

snip ...

One day this will be a quilt!

I'm a poet and don't know it, sew forth and sew on...

Bits and pieces

Three things to be happy about:
(1) freebies
(2) grab bags
(3) swag bags

Same thing, right?

I was reading someone's blog and I noticed she was doing Pat Sloan's Grandma's Kitchen sew along.  Somehow I forgot Pat does a lot of sew alongs.

The names of the blocks are cute and they look very interesting, so I thought I'd jump right in!

Because I'm a bit late to the party, I started with the newest one and I'm working my way backwards.

"Game Show & Soaps" finishes at 12 inches; "Loose Change" and "Pantry Goods" are both 10". 

Just to get it moving I just chose black, white, red, and yellow for my color palette.

I coulda chosen another way to make that center block in the top one, eh?  Lots of points coming together in that one!

Finished a few more of the little churn dash blocks.

I used the same fabric that's in the large block above, I like the way it looks in the churn dash.

A few spider webs for Halloween, even though I don't "do" Halloween!

This time I paid attention to the direction of that wavy striped fabric, it does make a difference - but at the same time it doesn't matter.

You know what I mean?  Sew forth and sew on...