sewing...and loving it

What fun to sew again! For the last few days I have been working on my Bama Belles challenge quilt with the stack of fabrics that I showed you in my last post. I am using the Jungle Nine Patch pattern from QuiltWoman--now there is a website that could be a whole bunch of trouble!

At first I was a little confused as they refer to the strip pieced section as "Triple Rails" I guess that is technically what they are but terminology was throwing me a bit. I suppose that I was seeing triple rail blocks as you would use in a quilt layout. If you were to try the pattern, I would not skip the part about doing the swatches to keep the numbering part straight in your mind. It is vital that you have the visual for the 12 subcuts you make from the strip sets as that leads you into the sequence you need to make the nine patches. I was referring to it constantly!!

I had also wondered how vital it was to have strips measure 22.5 inches as they recommend using fat quarters. I had yardage, rather than fats for this so could I just use half the width of the goods? Well, you know how variable THAT prospect can be with stuff measuring 40, 41, 42 inches of usable fabric. My conclusion was that some strips it would not have mattered if they were a tad short but if six cuts were needed, I only had about an inch waste, if that. I cut them to size even if it meant setting the leftovers aside. Those are the perfect size for bow tie blocks, true triple rail blocks and whatever scrappy thing I want to do down the line.

The color is off a bit in the picture but this is where I left off last night. The bottom 4 rows are joined but I still need to sew the top two together to finish it up. BUT I don't want to border this as 1) it is big enough for a donation quilt as is and 2) I don't honestly know what I would use to do the job and/or if I would have enough of any of it. Though it is not shown in this picture, I made another row to add just a little bit more length since I tossed the borders in the design. I drew it up in EQ 6 to get the sequencing right. I would have added another framed challenge fabric block to the deal but I already cut the leftovers up into 5 inch squares to do a Puss in the Corner AKA Uneven Nine Patch, Billie Lauder style. I had cut extra sub sections from the strip sets so those came in handy. Some. I just had to re-arrange slightly--remove one color and add another in the proper sequencing while others were just fine the way they were. Very little extra cutting was needed.

I could piece the back from the leftover fabrics but I have a feeling I might need those for the bonus challenge quilt. I have a nice piece of a rust colored print that the church secretary donated to us so I may use that instead, if there is enough yardage. Chris will get a big kick out of that when I show her at our next meeting. I am pretty sure that piece of white/green calico came from her too. I'll finish this up today and then get ready to start the 2nd top from the green habitat stuff.

Other than that there is not a lot going on around here. We finally have some cooler mornings so I don't have to get out of the house quite so early to go walk. I have found that my pace is a lot quicker the last two mornings and less arduous without with mid 70's and high humidity factor. We have had a fair amount of cloud cover lately but no rain to speak of so that as kept the heat down. The city spread some new pea gravel where there had been some washout so that helps too. Less worries about turning an ankle. Also I had re-loaded my mp3 player with some new tunes. Walking to the pace of the music has made me feel like I was almost flying around the track instead of trudging and begging to be done as I was on Monday.

I am going to try to keep better track of my mileage and worked up a spreadsheet the other day. I used to record this stuff but it fell by the wayside when I had walked about as far as from here to Clarksville, TN. After all I have been faithfully walking since March of 07 so mileage would add up especially since I go around 3- 3.3 miles most of the time ( the least I ever go 2.2 miles) 6 days a week most weeks. If I had kept it up I would probably been through Kentucky (Paducah!) on the way to IL, in my mind anyway. I am not sure whose blog it was (Paula at Coffee Time Studio I was thinking?) that mentioned that she was walking and keeping track of the mileage and when she had walked the distance to a favorite quilt shop, she was going to get a special treat from that shop. Good plan!! Now if there were some kind of reward to make me keep a food diary other than knowing that a weight loss plan is easier when you have to account for everything you pop in your mouth--weigh, measure till you get the eye re-trained for portion size? I have unfortunately put a couple of hard fought to lose pounds back on doing things "my way". I know what I have to do. Even if it a royal pain.............