What happens when you don't pay attention...

Three things to be happy about:
(1) being able to read the fine print
(2) keeping a secret
(3) flexible straws

Amy at Diary of a Quilter has a great tutorial on making an easy fat quarter bag, and I thought I'd give it a try.  BUT, the one she teaches finished at something like 9 x 11 and I wanted to make mine a bit larger.  Did I get out my pad and paper and figure out the perfect size?  Of course not, I figured I could wing it!

I picked two pretty batik FQ's and a darker one for the handle, so far so good.

Here is where I deviated ... rather than cutting the FQ in half, I decided in order to make my bag bigger, all I had to do was NOT cut it, yes!!!

Because my fabric was bigger, I placed the handle at 4" from each side - clever girl!

After sewing the short ends I was pleased at how well I lined up the seams to sew the long sides...

I really like that darker green with the hints of rust!  So... I sewed the long sides, leaving a roughly 3" opening for turning, so far so good.  When I did the gusset part, I decided since the bag was bigger, I should make the gusset twice as big -  so I sewed it at 2" rather than the 1" called for in the pattern. 

Makes sense, right?  After I turned it back right side out and took a good look at it .. yech!

It finishes at 17 x 9-1/2, how wierd is that??  It's way too wide for the height - for a soft bag, that's not good a'tall!

So your lesson for today is ... take shortcuts if you must, but Pay Attention!  I'll probably use this bag for small grocery items, so it's not a total waste.   :o)

Sew forth and sew on til later!

more stars for my stripes

I've been having fun making the stars for my stripes! Thanks again to all who suggested I use a less than pure white for my light star backgrounds, it makes a big difference.  I searched my stash and found more fabric than I realized I had... stash shopping/diving is a good thing!

See the difference between the two?

I've decided to do half light and half dark stars, 18 of each - I think that should give a lot of variety to the quilt and keep the eye moving.  For the dark backgrounds, I'm keeping a pure white for the star points rather than off-white, I discovered the white adds a lot of punch - look at that sparkle!

When I stopped and looked at the stars I put together and the fabric I pulled for others, I noticed I have quite a bit of blue, I didn't know I had so much blue in my stash!  Or am I subconsciously pulling blue for some reason?

Anyway, these are some of the light stars, a few of which haven't been trimmed down yet. 

My blocks are finishing at 9-1/2" but I've been cutting the squares at a straight 4 inches to make the oversize block.  So I lose a skinny strip when I trim ... oh well!

Because the strings have a lot of busy-ness going on, I wanted to keep the background of the dark blocks either small/tiny prints or reads-as-solids.  The strings don't need a lot of competition.  But the light stars!  Those rascals can have very busy points without adding chaos!  I think these are some nice prints to use on the points.  (Say that fast, three times)

In the light blocks above, notice the green points, and those blue ones - busy prints, both!

Here are some pieces cut out ready for the points, and then some points ready to be trimmed...

And finally, what you've probably been waiting to see...

I did a quick and dirty layout of a few blocks, just to see what I can see.  I'm [almost] positive I'll alternate the stars, light on one row and dark on the other.  I have to decide which way I'll have the strips going though; it would be nice if they could sort of enclose the star blocks, but that won't happen, can't get the math to work..  I can't decide at this point because there will be more blocks per row, twice as many in fact.  Notice again how those white points sparkle - I think this will be a pretty quilt!

Have you all been watching the Bonnie show?  She sews!  she sings!  she gives tips!  My machine is upstairs, else I could sew along, but I enjoy just watching.  Bonnie is a fun sew-along person and she's very accommodating!  She stops to check for comments every so often and she's glad to answer our questions.  IF she's on, she usually posts a notice on her blog; or you can click on the LiveQuiltCam!  tab on her blog.  Look for her - you'll be glad you did!

Sew forth and sew on

good decision and a treat

Three things to be happy about:
(1) dining room dimmer switches
(2) ripe slices of cantaloupe
(3) low humidity

Monday I arranged a handyman to come install my new ceiling fan, then I trekked out to Home Depot to get it.  Lots and lots of choices!

I wanted one as close to the old one in style as I could find; naturally I didn't find exactly the same fan because mine is so old, but I found a close approximate.  "Good enough for government work" as they say!

Sometimes it's funny how things work out; Home Depot has an installation service that, I was told by a floor person, would cost something like $120 plus tax to install my fan.  After a certain amount of rigamarole I decided to let my handyman go ahead and do the installation. Good decision!

When he got here I told him what happened and asked if he thought it could be repaired ... yep!  Here's the culprit:

It was a bad pull chain switch that he swapped out and I'm ready to roll!  Total cost: $147 - I figure I saved the $85 I paid for a new fan (which I'll return), so I'm $58 ahead!  I doubt if Home Depot's electrician would have been willing to do anything but install the new fan.

At the fair the other day I got this candy apple because it looked good!  They were making them fresh right there and the smells were heavenly and there were so many varieties ... you know how it is!  

When I got home I was thinking "Now why in the world did I buy this candy apple?  I'm not gonna eat it!"

I cut into it and it looked good ... I tasted it and yum!!!

The tartness of the granny smith apple is the perfect match for the caramel, cashews and dark chocolate!  I think they named this one "Rainforest Crunch" and it may have been the reason I chose this particular one.  Years and years ago, Ben & Jerry's had a Rainforest Crunch ice cream that I fell in love with!  It was a brazil nut crunch in a vanilla ice cream base and man was it good!  They retired it years ago though.  Thank goodness...

I figure this little goodie will last me another three days in the fridge.  That's it for now, tomorrow I'll show you some progress on my Stars and Stripes quilt... oh boy, I can't wait!

Sew forth and sew on