Gone to Castroville

It's another Friday and I chose to go to Castroville this time.  I can't resist the bakery there and the wonderful quilt shop, Fabric 'n Friends.  It was only a few weeks ago that our Friday date took us to Castroville, but I knew there was another really neat restaurant there... and my husband had not been there.  If you are not aware of this restaurant, you might pass it by thinking it was just a hotel, but I had been there before with some of my quilt friends.  The Alsatian Restaurant has really good food, at a reasonable price, and the view from our table was really awesome.  We chose to eat inside this time because it was way too hot to enjoy eating on the deck.  Castroville is a really neat little town.  It is probably as close to San Antonio as we are.  We are just southeast, and Castroville is due west.  It makes for a really nice Friday ride.  Lots of ranch land along I-90.

On the quilting front, I had not done any sewing for a couple weeks because we had to take an unscheduled trip to Ohio, but the good part is we happened to be there at the same time as the NQA show in Columbus.  We saw lots of really great quilts, and there were lots of vendors with neat stuff for sale.  I took lots of pictures...  my husband actually took more than I did.  I'm not sure that it is OK to post pictures of another person's quilt without their permission, so I will refrain from sharing those with you... but I was very impressed with the detail in most of the quilts.  Makes me realize how much longer I have to work at perfecting my skills.

I don't typically get any of my own quilting done at my Monday quilting group... we work on a common project quite often, but I did get back into sewing on Monday, and actually started two new projects in the last couple of days.  I really need to start more projects... I do not plan to do a whole quilt for the BOM this year, but I thought I would do about 3 blocks and create a table runner.  I'm still trying to find the right applique technique that I feel good about when I am done... I am not there yet, but this is the first block I did from this year's BOM.  I used freezer paper and machine applique.  It isn't too bad, but I am not real pleased with the finished block.  I will maybe use raw edge on the next block.  I'll keep this one for myself, or store it in a drawer.
In the current issue of American Patchwork & Quilting (August), I am making a wall hanging from the Color Option feature for the quilt that is on the cover.  I am not very far, and I needed at least one more fabric to complete the set I am using for this quilt.  This morning I found the missing fabric at Fabric 'n Friends.  I was able to finsih the first arc of points when I was at my Thursday quilting group.  The colors are not showing true in this image... those lighter points are pale green, and the darker is much brighter.  I really do like the paper piecing technique.  It really creates a nice finished piece.  This is a fairly large arc,  It took two sheets of paper that had to be taped together.  Most paper pieced blocks I have worked on have been like 8.5" square.

Hope you all have a great weekend. 
We should have a quiet one and maybe I can get lots of sewing done.

BOM - piecing is complete

I would like to say that it is done, but I do have to add two outside borders... a 2" and a 4" to make it fit the bed better. Without these two additional borders the quilt top is only 84" square right now. If I add 12" (6" all around) to that it still keeps the quilt under 100" which is as large as I want to try to quilt on my frame.

If you haven't heard about The Quilt Show online, you really need to go check it out. The web address is http://www.thequiltshow.com/ . If not for this connection, I would not have had the opportunity to create this beautiful quilt. Never dreamed I could get so intricate. The instructions, in pdf format, and the videos that went along with each segment, made it very easy to accomplish something of this magnitude. Now that my piecing is all done, today I watched the newest show that featured Carol Doak who is the Queen of Paper Piecing. I learned additional techniques that I wish I knew before I started this project.

Now the Quilt Show does have a yearly fee involved, but it is minimal considering all the money that I spend on quilt books, etc. I did my BOM using the website patterns & instructions... and all the fabric was from my "stash". They had kits available, but it was not required to buy a kit. Quilting will add a new level appreciation for what I have already experienced here, but all I can say right now is "Wow, I did that".

BOM Progress - new border

It really takes determination to keep at a quilt that is as intricate as this one is. There were actually 176 flying geese in this last border. In took 28 paper-pieced strips with 6 on each... that takes a little bit of time. The nice part about paper piecing is you can pretty much count on the flying geese strips to be the right size when you are done.

There is one more border to add. I think there are 72 sawtooth stars in this border. I have 8 stars to complete before I am ready to construct the border... and oh yes, 4 log cabin blocks for the corners. The end is in sight.

Sugar leaped at the opportunity to pose in the middle of the quilt when I layed it across the bed to take a couple pictures. Then of course there is Boston, knicknamed the "String Katza" because she likes to be in the middle when I am sewing or knitting or doing anything that involves string. If she cannot nab a string, she is going to be in the middle regardless.

Fluffer likes to nap on the ironing board.

Block of the Month progress

I have had this star border done for several weeks now, but I have been putting off trimming these borders so I could move forward on this quilt. I had to do a bit of reconstruction on some of the blocks so that they would all play nice together. It appears that my effort worked nicely and all fits together fine. It is now on to the flying geese border, that I have not even started yet.

Block of the Month

In August I decided to subscribe to The Quilt Show, an on-line TV show that features Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. The first "show" that I watched featured Marti Michell and I learned alot. I explored the site a bit and liked the BOM, block of the month, quilt and decided to go for it. It started in January, so I was way behind when I started. I did not opt to buy the kit, and have been using fabric from my stash. The image of the center is how far I got by the end of September... and that is with being gone for a couple weeks for our trip to Colorado. For eight months all you do is make blocks that will be put together to make two different borders. You do eight of the small sawtooth stars (72 in all) for an outer border and four of a larger border star that will go on next when I get all 24 done.

I finished the 24 blocks and put them together with the setting triangles and trimmed the borders to size, then tried laying the borders around the center to attach them, and nothing was lining up at the corners. I decided I should have made sure they were all the correct size before I started putting the setting triangles on, and I ended up taking the blocks apart from the setting triangles. Some blocks I had to actually take completely apart. Making sure your seams are all exactly the same width is crucial when you have so many pieces in one block. Anyhow, after reconstructing the blocks and squaring them up... making sure they were all exactly the same size. When I put the setting triangles back on... I had to cut new triangles... the borders are all the proper size. With Christmas just around the corner, I have been quite busy with meetings and parties and quilting for others, that I haven't had time to get back to my BOM. That will hopefully be the first project I attend to once I am back to a more normal schedule.