September and still over 100

My weatherman husband has told me more than once there is going to be a change at the end of the week... he just didn't tell which week and what kind of change.  It certainly hasn't cooled down any... but he did say there is going to be a change soon.  I guess that means sooner or later.  Meanwhile 100 + is the norm... every day, and has been since sometime in July I think.  Feels like an oven outside most of the time.

Back a few months ago, I think I just went to session number 5 of this 6 month, once a month quilt class.  I found out in the second session that the blocks for this quilt were all taken from the library files in EQ.  The quilt was to be made from Batiks and each person was to make their own choice for the background.  The picture of the example used a very dark batik that almost looked black.  I don't like working with black fabric.  It is difficult to see what you are working on sometimes.  After our first class where we were given the fabric for the first block, minus the background, we went out of the class and selected the fabric for our individual background.  I picked my background based on these first fabric pieces.

The upper right hand corner block is the final block, and there are only 4 of them. Three of the blocks in this quilt required 8 blocks of each.  I have one more to complete of this last one and I will be ready to sew on to the last strip for the bottom.  I showed the two border fabrics I found in a post I put out there back a couple weeks ago.  I did the first center block with the templates provided in the class, then I figured out the blocks were from EQ, so I printed paper piecing templates for the remaining blocks, except for the turquoise and lavender blocks which were just simple squares.  When I get on a roll, it is hard to slow me down.  The last block that is the corner block shown above is not even going to be given to us until the next class at the end of September.  I anticipate having the borders on before then, so I might end up not going to the last class.  I'm hoping the borders will improve the looks of this quilt.  At this point I'm not real impressed with how this is turning out.  The blocks and colors don't seem to make a good presentation.  I have had to fill in with shortages in the fabric provided in the class, but mostly the choices were made for me.  The only difference I have made is my choice of background.

Ribbon Lanyard... add on

Back a while ago I posted a tutorial on how to make a ribbon lanyard... something I find very necessary to keep my scissors handy.  The original post for this tutorial was a year ago in May, so you will have to go to the archive files for May of 2010.  I've made several over the years, but you can always learn something new.  I had a request to show some pictures of the way that I tie the ends when I am done looping.  Well, in order to show the end, I needed to make a new lanyard so I could take the missing pictures.  I always seem to get a little frustrated with how I start... you tie a knot on one end and you have two spools of ribbon on the other... and where is the starting loop to come from? Today when I sat down to start my new lanyard I decided to take some pictures at the start also.

 

 

 

In the first picture it shows the green with a loop in it under the straight piece of purple.  With the two ends together, take the ends under and come up around and down into the loop formed by the green and purple ribbon (not the bigger green loop showing on the right). Pull the ends through and finish the knot.  Give a little tug to tighten.  You now have your beginning loop on the right.  Maneuver the two ribbons into position.

 

 

The purple ribbon needs to come around to the left to begin the looping.  Proceed to the previous tutorial to work through the lanyard to the point it is ready to be tied off.

 

Finishing off the ends

 Cut the ends leaving 3 or 4 inches to give yourself room to tie off the ends properly.  Take the opposite ribbon end and thread it through the last loop.  Pull ends to snug, then tie a simple overhand knot.  It may take a little maneuvering to get it close enough and to look nice.

 

In this image the short ribbon ends are from the start and the longer ribbons are at the finish.   On the right it shows my choice to tie my lanyard ends together using a square knot.  I also found that by using a wider ribbon the end result is the lanyard seems to have buoyancy... it stretches when I pull, then springs back when I let go.

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Quarter Trim Paper Piecing

How's that for a name?  I have been doing paper piecing for a while and I don't think I use all of any one technique.  I've put together a tutorial for my version of paper piecing and I thought I should give it a name.
These are the tools that I use for my paper piecing. 

A couple things I forgot to include in my tutorial is the settings on my sewing machine and the paper I use.
My machine defaults to 2.5 when I turn it on.  When I am doing paper piecing, I turn that down to 1.6.  At 1.6 my paper tears away easier and is still possible to rip it out with a seam ripper if I should make a mistake... no one makes any mistakes... Right!!! 
There are all kinds of paper out there for this purpose, but I use the common 20# paper that is used in most printers.  Once I am ready to rip the paper off the fabric, I fold on the stitch line and carefully pull to start the rip... most the time it rips off fairly easy.  Occasionally I might need to use a pin or tweezers to get out some little scraps of paper, but that is not the norm.  I recently found that I could print on paper from a doodle pad.  That is newsprint weight paper that is in a pad for kids to draw on.  It has to be trimmed to fit in the printer, but it does go through my printer fine.  I printed on this paper for a friend who wanted a lighter weight paper.  The doodle pad had 60 sheets and it cost $1.84... so it was pretty cheap.
Oh yes, I have to give you a link to the tutorial... Quarter Trim Paper Piecing
There is one other note I should make regarding how big to cut your fabric pieces.  You will typically have a little more waste with paper piecing because you want to have a little more than the 1/4" seam allowance on all sides of the piece, and making it even bigger is not an issue.  The area that I have the biggest issue with is triangles or angled cuts... sometimes when you flip the triangle over into place after you have sewn it down, it doesn't fit the way you thought... so it is worth double checking before you stitch triangle pieces down if you don't want to use your seam ripper.

Needle trick

I guess it's not really a needle trick, but something I learned a while back that I think is a pretty neat way to bury those threads.  Could be most people know about this, but it is still worth sharing for those who do not.  When you are quilting, you typically draw your bobbin thread to the top when you start and stop.  This allows you to tie the ends to secure them, but then you have to "hide" the thread ends.  I have a needle threaded ready and waiting to do just that... bury the thread.  I use a thread that is a little heavier than some of the thread I use for quilting, but not so heavy that is will make a big hole.  I probably cut about a 12 to 15" piece and fold it in half and thread the looped end through a large eyed needle... not too large though.  I put the needle point in close to the base of the tied ends and direct the needle in a clear path... maybe an inch, under the fabric but not through to the back.  The needle in the picture is just laying there so you can see the loop good.  After the needle is inserted, I position the loop over the insertion point and pull the loose ends of the thread up through the loop with my fingers.  Holding the loose ends securely, I pull the needle out the other end and continue to pull... releasing the thread so the ends come out the other hole.  I don't like to stop and start any more than necessary, but this little trick makes a nice clean finish, quickly.

This quilt is not a quilt that I pieced, and the border was actually hand appliqued, but my friend wanted me to quilt it.  This is part of the border... I chose not to show the whole quilt with it not really being my quilt, but this was the part I liked the best and I wanted to share.  It was my husband's suggestion to echo the elements in the border.  I meandered on the blocks.  He often gives me good feedback when I ask for an opinion of what I should do.  Sometimes he shakes his head and says I don't have a clue, but this one he was pretty sure it would look good echoed.  I think he gave me good advice.  I was very pleased with the thread I found to use. The variegated red/yellow blended in nicely on the border.  I changed the thread when I meandered on the blocks to an off white on top as I thought the red would have been too high of a contrast. The blocks were retro little children playing.

I am in the process of echoing the elements of the border on my hand applique quilt that I have been working on for a while.  I have the hand quilting for twoof the borders done and I actually attached these side borders using my QAYG technique.  Couldn't wait to get all four borders done because I wasn't sure how the QAYG was going to work with the borders.  Pretty slick how it is turning out.  Hand quilting takes a long time, but I am on a roll and really anxious to get it done.  I didn't post a new picture because it looks kind of funny with just the side borders attached, but I will get the next two borders done and a new picture posted... very soon I hope.

Another WIP - start of a new quilt

I really have no real count of the works I have in progress, so adding one more really does not matter a whole lot.  It is nice to occasionally finish one, so starting this one is going to be a good thing because I have a target date that has already been established.  New grand-baby will be here in November.  When we were visiting earlier this summer, my DIL and I went shopping and bought the fabric she would like me to use in the quilt I will be making.  I have been trying to find the right pattern to use and yesterday I worked on creating my own design in EQ.  Of course I didn't create blocks that have never been used before, but I put some existing blocks together and came up with my design.  This is the center block... an Ohio Star, and it is 24" square.  There will be a white border around this block and then there will be flying geese all around, and another white border.  We did not buy fabric for the backing, so that is still another decision I will make once I get to that stage of the project.

My Country Cousins quilt is in its final stage, the hand quilting of the border.  The four borders have all been hand appliqued, but the quilt-as-you-go is going to take a bit of time, as I am echoing all of the elements, and that is a slow process.  The trick will be when I get to the point of attaching the borders with the QAYG technique that I used to join the twelve blocks of the quilt.  I'm not convinced I know just how that will go, but I am confident it will work out fine.

Momentos from the cabin

Our cabin in the mountains will be a fond memory for many years to come. Not going there anymore will seem strange, but I have many momentos.  Actually we brought alot of "things" back home, and have found uses for a few.  Like the "garage art" that used to hang over our beautiful stone fireplace.  I didn't want to fold it up and leave it in a stack somewhere, so I decided to hang it where no one can get real close to critique it.  It was a quilt I made when I was still just a seamstress.  Probably the last one before I jumped head first into real quilting.  On this quilt I did some hand embroidery, some fusible applique, then pieced the border.  Didn't know I made bear paw cornerstones at the time... it was just a block that fit the theme.  I hand quilted in a few places and used a fancy stitch to machine stitch lines in the outside border.  I had no clue how a binding was supposed to be sewn on.  There was no real plan, it just kind of came together as I progressed along. This quilt is suspended so that you can walk under it without hitting your head.  Our garage is almost two stories high.


One of the bigger items to come back with us is my  cutting table.  It folds up pretty compact, but it still needs to be stored somewhere.  Well last week we found a use for this table. We sometimes enjoy putting puzzles together, but it requires a big table space and you have to be able to cover it up or move it because they typically take several days to put together.  When we first thought to bring it in to temporarily set it up in front of the fireplace we were trying to figure out how we could cover the puzzle in progress so that the cats don't walk all over it and lose the pieces.  I just happened to have an extension for my design board that folds up so I can put it away when I don't need it.  It is flannel covered coraplast board that is 24" by 48" when folded (it has a hinge) and opens up to 8' long... so that means we open it up and spread out the pieces, then when we are done for the evening... close the top down over the puzzle.  The added bonus to this setup is... I'm not going to load it up with stuff like my cutting table gets loaded, so when I want to pin something or have an open table to spread something out... my closed puzzle cover works great.

We even brought back a puzzle we had bought about 10 years ago that we never opened out at the cabin.  The bag inside is sealed and it looks like brand new.  It has 1,000 pieces and the picture on the box is pretty obscure, and there is no picture inside the box, so it looked very intimidating... the reason we never opened it.  My husband did a search online and found the puzzle is selling on eBay for a pretty good price.  I think we have decided that is the best thing for us to do.  It's called Buried Blueprints, and they are definitely buried.  We could probably buy a couple puzzles that we could complete for the price we could sell this one that would be too frustrating.  Puzzles are supposed to be a fun past-time.

Pillowcase Day

A while back my Monday quilt group made pillowcases that we donated to the Air Force Hospital here in San Antonio.  The lady that is our contact recently asked if we were thinking of doing it again anytime soon.  We kind of have an open agenda on Monday... pretty much everyone works on their own project unless someone comes up with something that we need to do as a joint effort.  Our group is not just quilters, we have some ladies come that knit or crochet, or do other crafty things... but sometimes just visiting with everyone is all that is accomplished.  When we make pillowcases, everyone can get into the works.  There is cutting and pinning and ironing, so those who don't sew can feel that they have contributed.  Someone has to take them home and wash them and bag them.  So if we make lots of pillowcases it becomes a fun time for everyone.  This Monday is designated as "pillowcase day".

With all that said, I decided today that I would make a pillowcase to freshen up my pillowcase making skills.  One of my grand-daughters has a birthday coming up and I thought I would make her a pillowcase.  I figure that she might have a reason to take her pillow along to a slumber party or on vacation, so I put her name on the trim.  I didn't want it to be too obvious that her grandmother made it, so I concealed my signature on the inside of the trim.

Today was our day to head into the big city.  We didn't stop in the city, but headed through and continued on to Castroville to one of our favorite little restaurants.  There is also a really great bakery in town and a wonderful quilt shop.  I found a perfect piece of fabric for the border on the quilt I am working on from the $5 quilt class I'm in the middle of at another quilt shop in SA.  The quilt is an on-going 6 month project, and 99% batiks, but I can see the end and there was a table of batiks for 50% off.  The stripe colors were just perfect.  I was very pleased that I just happened to find that piece of fabric.  I will be sure to post a picture of this quilt once it is complete.
I'm sneaking up on the completion of the borders for my Baltimore Country Cousins quilt.  That will be such an awesome quilt when it is done.  I'm not getting too excited about it yet... it's hard to say what could get in the way of getting it done... but I'm real convinced I can get it done soon.