High Contrast Precision Check

These blocks represent a big shift for me in several ways: working in black and white and piecing in miniature, each block finishes to 4".  I started this project a year ago last summer, it is the Summer Sampler at Temecula Quilt Co., this online project offered four blocks a week over the summer months to completion.  I have chosen to follow my own schedule however (read between the lines: she couldn't keep up the pace!) and have resurrected this one from the bottom shelf of my carefully stashed UFO's. 
The high contrast of the chosen fabrics have really kept me on my toes, each teeny-tiny triangle has to be accurate and precise or it would stick out, visually, like a sore thumb. I laid out each block at the cutting table and carried them to the machine on a small cafeteria tray*, assuring each piece, in each row, would remain in order. I chain pieced the rows and "webbed" the block together by chain piecing each row to the next. I then pressed the seams open; doing that is very helpful to make sure that points are not cut off as the final row seams are stitched.

Look for the "v" that forms on the reverse side of the open seam 

and establish the next seam directly through the  "v" for a perfect point.

I will continue to make these blocks, all forty of them, as time allows. Challenge yourself on your next project to stitch as precisely as possible. Working small and in high contrast is completely unforgiving; for me, it has been a good way for me to tune up my skills, the results are worth it.

Life is Good!

On this, the eighth day of November, I give thanks for a 

creative outlet that continues to challenge and reward.

* I recently found the small cafeteria-style trays at a local hardware store. They are perfect for organizing and moving small pieces as well as for stacking and storing projects-in-progress.  

Time Saver?

This is a very basic and traditional block; "Airplane", cut precisely with my new Accuquilt "toy". I just love the die cutter and my mind is spinning with all the great projects I can accomplish in a more precise and faster way. We're rocketing into a new year, 2013 will be here tomorrow! My grandmother told me, when I was too young to understand, that as we grow older time seems to go faster. This memory is so vivid that I remember the exact spot where both she and I were standing at the time; I didn't believe her though.  It's funny to me now how I have remembered this and how much wiser she's become as I have aged. And so, now I have a tool to assist me make more quilts... faster and better. Will I have more time in which to quilt them? Probably not, I'll only find more to do! Will that make a difference? Not one bit!  It's almost unbelievable to me that another Christmas has come and gone; I hold on as tight as I can but the moments, days and weeks still fly by. When I began quilting in 1983 I didn't even own a rotary cutter, I carefully cut my fabric shapes with shears outside the pencil lines drawn around hand-cut cardboard templates. The quilt world has changed enormously in thirty short years; and yet, with all the time saving devices that I accumulate, that one precious commodity still slips away! Today I'm only looking forward. After all, I don't have time to look back! There are more quilts to make, faster and better. I've decided not to blink anymore, it's my resolution.

Happy New Year!

Life is Good!

Cool Tip!

I was going to entitle this post "HOT" tip, but it's really not that at all... it's a "COOL" one. How many times do you finish piecing a block, press it flat and transfer it to your cutting table for that final squaring up only to discover it's anything but square? For me the answer is fairly often. I compensate when joining the blocks together but it's rarely a precise proposition. That is, until, I've learned to just cool it! As eager as I may be to square up those just-finished blocks if I leave them on the ironing board to cool completely before trimming they are, usually, just perfect! So simple, it all comes down to patience. Time spent cooling now is time saved struggling to get the blocks to fit together later. Sew cool!

Life is Good!

Living On Borrowed Time?

I was sitting in a crinkly paper gown on the examining table at the Dr.'s office and he was sitting on the rolling stool, facing me. He was explaining all the details of a serious condition (with a long name) caused by precision piecing in patchwork; the consequences of which would result in premature death. He raised and eyebrow and declared that he'd once seen a patient live to 49 years old, but that was highly unusual and not at all the norm. I kept trying to interrupt him and tell him that I was already older than that but he just kept shaking his head and talking, he wouldn't listen to one word from me; that's when I woke up. So much for sharp points and perfectly matched intersections... maybe I should take it a little easier... geez... I don't want to kill myself here... what's the point in that?

Life is Good!