Checking in

Well, I got all my Prairie Stroll blocks done on Thursday (last post), pressed them on Friday morning and there they sit waiting for me, LOL. Sidetracked again.

Pat is the next FAB to have a bday. I knew what I wanted to make and set about doing some of the prep work to get started on it. From here on out it will be "top secret project" (TSP) till her PAR-TAY rolls around next month. Suffice it to say, it contains several elements that I enjoy doing. Big hint there, Pat? That could be ANY quilty thing under the sun.


Anyway, there is a bit of embroidery on TSP so that is what I chose to do this weekend. That's me, chasing after the new, bright and shiny project, LOL. I make no apology for ever doing that as it is what keeps things interesting for me after days of "pedal to the medal" on donation quilts recently. The top will get done, just not this weekend.

Norma and I were chatting on Saturday morning about our quilty plans for the 3 day holiday weekend. I told her we should have thought ahead and picked a pattern and had our own little sew-in as we have done on many occasions, "something fun" that we both were dying to try. LOL, turns out she was itching to start on a Terry Atkinson "Fire Escape" and she had just the stack of fabrics in her stash to pull from. ( I think she was leaning that way after seeing Lois' top on the pinning table on one of my recent posts.) My "duty" was to work on my own bright and shiny TSP and cheer her on as she cut and stitched. She just told me that she has all 10 of her vertical rows done---woohoo! With the extra day off this weekend, she will have that finished to flimsy in no time.

The temps are down in the low 70's and there is plenty of cloud cover today as Tropical Storm Lee spins around down near LA. We are getting some rain, nothing measurable so far. The forecast for the next several days sounds like we are in for far more. I just hope that there are is no tornadic activity along with it. August was extremely dry for us.

Each summer for the last 3 years we have had wave after wave of ants in the house. This year DJ has been dutifully treating the mounds outside. For whatever reason, the ants just did not appear. Not complaining! They tend to dig and make mounds after it rains, and we haven't had any rain. All summer long, we have watched and waited for the other shoe to drop----and all the sudden there they were. A couple days ago I spotted a few by my bathroom sink---teeny tiny, grease ant looking ones. A few in the kitchen sink---a few hours later DJ spotted a pile of something on his bathroom floor near the stool and shower. Ants building a mound of what looks like wood shavings on the vinyl tile floor. I took a picture of it but UGH! Beyond ugh really. I was just sure I would see a pile in mine since we share a plumbing wall but so far no. DJ even went so far as to go down in the crawl space to look yesterday. No sign of them or an entrance point. Man, I hope those things are gone. When I think of how much food we have lost due to ants and the time they zapped out the a/c unit-----I am sick and tired of ants. Stay outside where you belong!

Shown, Skyler is a bit of a mellow mood. I had replenished the catnip in his mouse (DJ named it Mr. Rat) and that has really piqued his interest in playing with it again. His fav play spot is the living room and specifically, on the couch. I have found his toy in all kinds of places in the past few days: in my bathroom, clear up the hallway, at the foot of the bed. I should have "re-nipped" it sooner.

I hope you all have a safe holiday weekend enjoying whatever it is that you chose to do. Till next time------

WIP Thursday

A start----Prairie Stroll.  (The link and information about the pattern source is in a previous post.)  At this point I have 63 blocks chained through.  When I took the picture,  I had started adding the 2nd strip along side the "half 4 patch" unit.  Easy, easy piecing.

WIP no more

Another finish to flimsy. Not the best picture perhaps as I had to turn on the overhead light and then I got a nice shadow from the entertainment center but no matter.......top is done. The backing will be the same as the cornerstones as I have plenty of it, thanks to my mom.

I am going to seam the binding, press and roll it and then vacuum up the paper bits off the floor. Actually considering that most of these blocks were pieced to pages from an old phone book you would think it would be more of a mess in here. I was fortunate enough to get most of it removed intact and dumped into the trash collector hanging from the sewing table. BUT I have a box fan at floor level trying to disperse the cooled a/c air and probably fluttered a bit of paper around. It has looked far worse in the past.

Probably broke 4 needles on this project which probably a record for me considering it is a small quilt. This machine definitely does not like pins or I just had a knack for hitting them dead on. Now I need to change it again just because I was stitching paper with it. Way it goes.

Tomorrow, Prairie Stroll and see how far I get on those blocks.

a start

I reached my short term goals yesterday plus a bit of a start on another project to follow. When I quit last night (time to watch "The Closer" and "Rizzoli and Isles", after all) I had two blocks of first row dealt with. I did the other two this morning first thing. 5 more rows to go. I will have finished another Belles Scrappy Challenge top when I'm done.

I had a little light snafu in the sewing area this morning in that the light bulb in the halogen lamp I use on the left hand side of my machine table seemed to have blown. Well, I use the thing a lot and the original equipment had never been replaced. Nothing lasts forever. I had purchased a couple of replacement bulbs along with the lamp just to be sure that I had one on hand when I needed it.

You would think you should be able to just pop another one, right? The screws holding the lens on were factory tightened so DJ had to help me get it off as we didn't want to crack the glass. I would have felt better about using some sort of holder for the bulb like you do with my sewing machine--rubber thing to hold the bulb so you don't have to directly handle the glass. But it seemed to seat and the light worked, if temporarily. As soon as we put the lens back on, off it went. We tried the other replacement bulb---same thing. Phooey on that I said, I'll get another lamp. I had seen some desk lamps recently at Walmart that might work or I'll go see if Lowe's has another like this one in stock.

I got two desk lamps. As I recall, two of these were equal to what I paid for the halogen one. You see, the swing arm one I use on the right hand side would not stay up no matter how much I tightened the screws near the spring. I had to clamp it to my cone thread holder which worked but looked a little goofy and not very adjustable. That and the lamp shade kept dropping off. Well, naturally the halogen lamp is now working. Threaten it with replacement and it straightened up. Good! ...... I am keeping the back up just in case, LOL. Since the new one has a shorter extension I elected to keep it in the weighted base so it can be moved around on the machine table rather than clamped in like my old one.

While I was out I finally ran the Brother into town to the service place. Yeah, I was going to do that last week but I got busy sewing. The shop is not open on the weekend or Monday either. Hopefully it won't be gone for a couple weeks, not that I don't have others to use in the meantime. I really should be quilting but I don't feel like it---I use my Viking for that and buttonhole applique. Not bad for foundation piecing either since tends to sew a tighter stitch no matter where I set the stitch length. The Singer works fine for what I need it to do at the moment which is a straight stitch, forward and backwards. It has cams for some decorative stitches but I think I missed something in the instructions when I was playing with that in the past. I'll re-visit that or see if Lois can help me figure it out.

When I was doing the strip set piecing for the sashing and cornerstones unit, I also pieced the half four patch units for my next project, Prairie Stroll. I had kitted it up earlier this year and it is one of the many projects in the tower pull out bins next to the sewing table. The colors will not look a thing like this sketch! I am using browns, reds, greens and cream donation fabric mostly. When my mom sees it, she will recognize some of it as "Alice" fabrics. The pattern is from Quiltmaker magazine #81 September-October 01. They show it as a 9 inch block but mine is re-sized to a 6 inch finished block to better use my available fabric. Actually there are TWO blocks which alternate if you look at it closely and isolate the blocks. Yes, every other block is rotated a quarter turn to the right but the short strips are flip flopped too.

Part of the reason for drawing it up in EQ was to play with colors but also to verify what size to cut the strips since I was re-sizing it. Also I have discovered over the years that it is a good idea to leave a picture/directions/ notes in the kit so I would remember what the heck I was doing, LOL. I can't always find the magazine but I can print it off from my EQ files. Ask me (or my mom, LOL) why this step is important.

We have been blessed some with cooler nights lately and less humidity. The day time highs are still up there---high 80's, mid 90's by our thermometer and still no rain on the horizon. DJ was commenting that he was sort of surprised that we were not under a burning ban again. The yard gets more brown by the day and the bushes all have droopy leaves. I think the humidity was creeping back up today though as it just seemed hotter when I was out running my errands. More brow wiping on my part.

And sew it goes------I may have a t-shirt quilt to make for a friend on the horizon so I should buckle down here with this other stuff. Or not, LOL. Hear my husband saying "who give you all these jobs??" Me, that's who.

Short term goal: get a couple more rows of Scrappy Strings together. Half a top would be nice for a day's sewing. More, even better.

"Design Area" Monday, wk 36

Yeah, it doesn't look like much, does it? I should have included my pile of string blocks perhaps. I arranged them in rows yesterday but didn't take the project any further. Instead, I downloaded a pile of recipes from myrecipes.com into my cooking software and worked on my green work baskets. (The combo of recipe fox, firefox browser and Mastercook makes this process very easy---click, click, click)



My goals for today include pressing and winding up these two piles of binding, mostly because they are in my way for cutting into that pile of fabric on the left end. The cutting mat is under the pressing board, meaning you do all the pressing tasks before you remove said board to use the mat and rotary cutter jobs. Small jobs cutting jobs I tend to use my 12 x 20 June Taylor press/cut board with the small Olfa mat over cutting surface. June Taylor stuff is too hard and will dull up your rotary blade in no time flat. That's how I roll, LOL.



I have done my calculations about how many strips to cut for the sashing and cornerstone bits for the string quilt. A quick press of the fabrics and I'll be ready to deal with it---and cut more binding, LOL. I may have another top done soon but I will have to pull off the phone book paper after I add the sashing on all four sides of each block to stabilize those bias edges. DJ better be at the ready with the vacuum.

And here is how the honey and biscuit block is coming----slowly. There is a lot of stitching detail in these blocks! Link to Bee Tree Designs line drawings on Flickr HERE . You will have to click on ea image thumbnail and then click on the "view all sizes" button up in the upper right of the page to download them. I can't remember if I downloaded and printed the medium or large image but whatever it is fits on the fabric with plenty of trim room.

And sew it goes----better get busy on today's plans and think about what comes next as I finish up THIS top. (Machine quilting, probably)

blocks done

Today's goal: 11 string blocks to go with the 13 I already have done.

I used what strings remained in the Belles scrap box, raided my scrap basket and grabbed a handful to 1 1/2 and 2 inch strips from their respective containers and went to work on pages from the old phone book for foundation. I see a lot of previous projects in these blocks, LOL.

And here is where I am headed with it. I use the print out to figure out how many strips of sashing I need to cut but it probably won't be this pretty aqua/turquoise color. Try muslin and a neutral for the cornerstones, LOL. I wish I DID have something that color but I don't, nor am I purchasing any.

I do NOT do the sashing they way they often show you in the quilting mags and books. They will often instruct you to make a long skinny string of sashing and apply that whole little thing to a row of blocks with sashing in between the blocks. Nope, I do what I call "pre-sashing" the blocks.

Let me see if I can explain this. Are you familiar with a block called Children's Delight? (Horrid coloring on the quilter's cache site but you can see the picture anyway.) Basically it is a Puss in the Corner block with the sashing and cornerstone added to two sides of the block. When I first saw that block, the light bulb went off and it changed the way I do sashing forever. Put a sashing strip on the bottom of every block. Then you can strip piece the cornerstone color to however many strips of sashing you need to cut. (Count it out from the picture) Sub-cut the strip sets whatever width you wish across the WOF. I prefer it cut 2.5---you should get 16 cuts across 40 inches of usable fabric. Usually I add the strips to the right hand side of each block. Whichever block I deem to be the first one in the row I add the sashing/stone unit to the left side. When I piece the top row, I put the sashing/stone unit on the top of it as well. Then just join the blocks to form rows. BUT you will need one cornerstone all by its self, no sashing to complete this. Treat them the sashing and cornerstone units just like part of the block---which they are. Way easier to get it all to match up across the long row, less worrying about the seams nesting across the width of the quilt.

I got a call from a reader (hi, Mom!) last night. She told me that she had thought about doing that Staggered Brick quilt in the past but she was sure that the rows were done horizontally. Maybe because there appears to be one long continuous strip of the same color across the quilt top for each band. She had it all drawn up but the piecing was a bit complicated so she had never tried it. I think HER lightbulb went off when I was trying to explain how I did the vertical rows, just staggering over other strip up a half step. I may need to edit those instructions I gave you to say "vertical" We both were giggling about it---laughing with her, not AT her. Here she is my mentor and the one I ask---how do you think "................(Fill in the blank)" was pieced. Easier than you thought.

And sew it goes------

another finish to flimsy

Hot off the press---whatever you want to call this. Let's go with "Staggered Bricks"

I sort of wish that I had put a flap of something dark between the body of the quilt and the outside border but I am NOT taking it off to make that happen. It would have provided just a bit of separation between the elements and taken the dark out one more level. IIWII.

The binding will be the reddish looking print and I still need to seam it. Backing is in the washer.

I am not sure which project I want to work on next---too many choices, LOL. Maybe just some simple strings. I was packing up some abandoned blocks to send to a friend in another guild for their donation quilts and found a few blocks that could be trimmed down to match a pile I have started. That gives me 13 blocks that are done and some are from the Belles scrappy challenge strips/strings. With sashing I would need 24 blocks so looks like I am half way there. I love it when a plan comes together.