Stitching Kindness

Accepting the challenge that my small stitching group threw out there earlier this summer, last week I began setting together the blocks from Susan Ache's "Stitching Kindness" sew-along. As someone who has a deep love for all things red and white, this was an easy one for me to participate in.

The block sub-unit looks much like the Swiss flag to me! This one goes together in rows rather than blocks.

I stitched up the block sub-units and copied the embroidery designs for hand stitching this way, using a light box. 

This is how far I am as of today; I have almost all of the embroidery finished and am working totally from my red stashed scraps, the only fabric that I've bought for this one is the background setting pieces. I am using my all time favorite DMC floss: red #321. It will be SEW much fun for us to all get together later this fall to compare our finished quilts! I know that two of us are using all reds, but Quiltkeemosabe, who has an impeccable eye for color, is striking out on her own with an alternate colorway; I can't wait! The one thing that I wished I had thought to do is to have prewashed my red scraps, or at least soaked them in Retayne before I began piecing. I am considering soaking the finished top in a Retayne/water solution for color-fixing that way before I quilt it. Does anyone have any experience in using the product in that fashion? Or, would I be better off to quilt and finish it and then soak it as described? I'm really unsure how to proceed. Any and all advice is welcome!

On the other side of the studio I've loaded "Zippity Doo Dah" onto Snowbird and quilting has commenced. I've chosen "Flying Paisley" as the pantograph and am using a light silver gray thread to blend in with the chambray linen. 

This one has the very BEST BACKING fabric of all time! I had been saving this on the shelf for a long time and decided it was time to use it (I still have another 2 yards! 😉).

It's a rainy, gray Labor Day Monday here today; how are you spending your holiday? 

Life is Good!

Hitting the Road, and Hitting a WALL!

I'm packing today, and hitting the road tomorrow; yes, it's that time again! Are any of you going? I'm excited to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, see the always AWESOME quilt show and to visit the vendors mall. I'm taking a machine quilting class from Bethanne Nemesh on Friday.

This is the class that I've signed up for: "Fast to Fancy Freehand Feathers", isn't this photo tempting? We'll see how much I can learn in four hours! I'll give it my best, and I'll return with a full report. In the meantime, I've hit a wall with the Temecula Scavenger Hunt sew-along. If you've been following the last couple of posts from me you'll know that two of our grandchildren are currently visiting. In a slap-dash attempt to get ahead with this weeks' clue and get my quilt on schedule before I leave tomorrow, I quickly got all of the nine-patches stitched up and set yesterday afternoon. I thought I was ahead of the game; how clever of me!

From here, it was a hop, skip and a jump to bordering two sides and calling it a day. Think again!

 I pieced together the framed nine-patches with the spacer strips, as instructed. It did not fit-- at all!

With both ends pinned, I had a bit of excess in the center! Okay, this clearly wasn't working!

Back to square one. Here's the cautionary tale: ALWAYS square up, at every step! I did not!! The instructions were clear, the blocks should measure exactly 3 5/8" after adding the four side triangles. 

We won't even mention what mine were measuring! I was over-confident, I never even checked. 🙄

Check out the difference that going back to basics makes! I took each block apart. Just like I taught my granddaughter last week, I marked my seam lines and realigned my thinking to an ACCURATE 1/4" seam allowance! See what a difference it makes?

With pieced blocks this small, it makes a HUGE difference to be 100% accurate, and that's everything!  All that debris, in the lower part of the photo is what I trimmed away, block after block. I was truly giving my seam ripper a workout!

Good to go; at last!

So, here's where I am right now. I laid out those re-sewn, and perfect, nine-patches alongside one edge and measured. It's all good; but then-- it's not! I'm unhappy with that light brown framing these blocks. I feel that there needs to be more contrast at this point, a much darker brown to echo back to the center rows. I have to continue taking these apart anyway,and so-- these framing triangles are going into the trash can and a darker, espresso brown is going to be reintroduced. This next step will have to wait until I return from MidAtlantic though; I need to finish packing, and I need to add a new seam ripper to my to the top of my shopping list! In the meantime, I'm going to pop up some popcorn and enjoy some after-school time with my grandchildren while I still can! 

I'll be back soon. 

Life is Good!

Progress and Pet Peeves

I've been keeping up with the Temecula Quilt Co.'s  Scavenger Hunt  Sew-along through their blog. So far I've been able to keep up week to week, this week's installment, however, is a bit delayed due to an immense amount of piecing required and the fact that we have two additional people under our roof right now (ages 7 and 9); I have no spare time. But, I'm happy to report that I can easily fall back into a routine established a generation ago of having beds made, rooms tidied, both laundry and dishes done and being dressed and ready for the day-- all before 8:30 AM! But, yes, I tire out quicker than a used to. Mr. Goodneedle says that keeping children is a young person's sport. 😉 Our daughter-in-law is currently experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Holy Land with her parents, the photos that she's shared so far are incredible. So, we have a few extra plates at our table and heads on pillows under our roof at night. It's all good.

And, sew... here's the progress on these log cabin blocks to be added to the above sew-along soon. These will finish to 3.5" I have sixteen done and only need eight more. 

I have managed to squeeze in some time to begin setting some of this Scrappy Sixteen together. I have named this one "Out Of The Box" since there's an illusion of the 16-patches pushing beyond their boundaries as well as the very literal fact that all of these scraps have been rescued from the bin where they've resided for years. They've finally been liberated - out of the box!

Here's more progress-- the current state of affairs with our porch project. Managing to get sub-contractors on the job between rain showers here has been a feat! We've had rain, rain and more rain!

I can't recall ever having daffodils blooming this early before! All these weirdly warm temperatures in the south combining with the afore-mentioned rain has produced blooming way ahead of schedule.

So, Pet Peeves-- as promised. I have a list. You know, those things that can annoy and bug you way too much; yes, I'm guilty of finding annoyances and bothersome occurrences to whine about. #1 The way that tissues are packaged today: I used to be able to go to the store and choose a box of tissues in the box design that I liked, to match the  room where it was being placed. Well, now, it's much more difficult-- they're grouped by fours and bundled with shrink-wrap. The combinations of patterns and colors always includes an outlier that doesn't match anything! 😬 There's no option for single purchase, either. #2.  Using the word "adult" as a verb: "I don't feel like adulting today." To me, this is beyond annoying. I have heard it used but draw the line now that I have seen this phrase emblazoned on T-shirts and bumper stickers. Grow up, people; you are one. #3. Paying for checks to spend my own money. Grrrr. I understand that someone has to pay for them. I write so few checks nowadays that actually having to spend money for 200 checks to be printed seems ridiculous to me. There are no such things as "mini" orders. It looks as though I'll have checks to spare for the rest of my days. I had a fourth, but now I cannot remember, for the life of me, what that was. So, maybe that fourth item on my list was forgetting things! I don't know. Anyway, so here I was with my list of peeves, feeling like I was in charge of owning my own grievances and the sermon on Sunday took my list, chewed it up and spit it out! The sermon text was Matthew 5:21-37, it reads as a guidebook in Jesus' words on how to live. Basically, I decide how to respond to life's annoyances and petty peeves; I can let these little things bother me, weigh me down, rob me of my happiness or, I can take a deep breath, smile at how good I have it, and move on (not sweating the small stuff; and really, truly, it's all small stuff!) to live a life of witness to those around me. Because, when it comes right down to it, we're all human; we have that in common, but we can choose WHO we follow and HOW we follow! Jesus calls us to a new life in God. I was renewed and energized by breathing in and holding on to that simple truth. I've reset my thinker. Can you do that too? Can you toss what's weighing you down and live lighter, happier? It makes a BIG difference; to you and to everyone who's in your life! Give it a try; it's powerful-- and liberating! 

Mr. Goodneedle didn't forget Valentine's Day last Friday. 

See, I do have it good; I know that. 

💓

Life is Good!

Up next: On Her Way

  

Triangle Tuesday

I'm a sucker for alliteration-- that's why "Triangle Tuesday" sounded so appealing. Yep, I've been stitching up tons and tons of triangles! These triangles are actually composed from squares. Squares marked and chain-stitched into an endless train that will eventually be cut apart into a mountain of half-square-triangles. These are small, the smaller the unit the higher the chances for error -- seams that might be slightly off can make a huge difference in the finished size when these HSTs finish to only 1.5" Here's where the better part of  "Triangle Tuesday" comes in: "Terrific Triangle Tuesday with Tucker Trimmer!"

Each cut-apart HST unit is pressed, toward the dark fabric, and then trimmed up with the Tucker Trimmer; you'd better believe that all those minuscule trimmings on the right side of the photo (above) make ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

Trimmed units, taken to the machine...

...combine for precision like this! 

Careful pressing and trimming with the Tucker Trimmer really do work!

And, sew-- where are all of these half-square triangles going? This is where I stand today after clue #3 in the Temecula Quilt Co. Scavenger Hunt Sew-along; it's going on now. This measures 12" X 45" at this point. This may just be one of the most brilliant marketing moves that I've seen in a long time. I've long been a fan of the Temecula Quilt Co., this sew-along requires the purchase of their latest book to solve the weekly clues. No complaints whatsoever, the book is fabulous and I'll be creating more from their tempting pages. Sticking to my guiding word for 2020-- "VISION", I am only using what I can clearly see in front of me: all of my own stashed and labeled cut scraps (Scrap User's System)! It's all good. And what's even better? Alliteration at its best: Triangle Tuesday with Tucker Trimmer! Use your tools, that's what they're for; you'll be happy with the results!

Life is Good!

Up next: Off the Wall

A Finish and Another Sew-Along

This finish has been a long time in the making. This small quilt is the result of the Temecula Quilt Co. 2015 Summer Sampler Sew-Along. I was diligent (in the beginning) about keeping up with the blocks as posted on their blog.  I decided to do mine using the black and white scraps (generously sized leftovers!) that I fell heir to after my mother finished her own black and white quilt. 
She passed the bin off to me, I sorted through its contents and set right to work. I decided to use flax colored Essex linen for my alternate, plain, blocks. This project stalled a few years later and was relegated to another bin and stashed underneath my cutting table; out of sight, out of mind. Late last year I unearthed the project, determined what was needed to complete it, and did just that.

I chose to quilt it with a custom-sized (4") Easy-Peasy Baptist Fan pantograph by Urban Elementz. The blocks in this sampler quilt measure 4", finished. I also decided to round the corners. 

Additional leftover scraps combined to form the backing.

I don't often round corners, mainly because I was afraid of bias binding; I'm not sure why. The binding went on flawlessly and smoothly. I hand-basted it in place before doing the handwork to join it to the back and was pleased with the results.

I'm going to do this again, I love the appearance of the rounded corners. I conquered my fear! There's no stopping me now.

Ultimately this quilt will be utilized as a table quilt on our breakfast table in the kitchen. 

Sew, what's next? I have decided to join in the fun with their latest Sew-Along; this one is called Temecula's Scavenger Hunt, this is block #1. I am using all my scraps-- I haven't lost sight of my guiding word for the year: VISION. I'll use up what I have already cut and stowed. Wish me luck!

On Thursday this week out youngest granddaughter, Lynnleigh, turned seven years old! What she really wanted for her birthday was to get her ears pierced. But, she explained to me that she "wasn't quite courageous enough, not yet". However, undaunted by the fact that her ears aren't pieced, she came to her birthday dinner wearing clip-on earrings. She was very proud of these! I couldn't help but stifle a giggle. She's growing up very fast, but sitting at the table with her wearing these earrings (like the type that my own grandmother used to wear!) was almost too comical to believe. She is precious. 

Life is Good!

Up next: Strawberries and Cream

Retreat Stitching Success

After my fabulous weekend away at the Quiltville Inn Retreat*, even with all the distraction of the beautiful and incredibly accommodating setting, there's more; believe it or not I actually finished quilt tops and have show and tell of my own! This little beauty (quilt measures 45" square) is the 2012 Summer Sampler Sew-along from the Temecula Quilt Company blog. I had half of the 4" blocks done before we left for the weekend, in preparation I had the remaining blocks precut and ready to go. I used scraps that my mother gave me, leftovers from a quilt she had done and decided to set mine with Essex linen. The colors are true in this photo (left), it's a bit washed out in the one below. I believe I will quilt this all over with a small scale Baptist Fan pantograph. But, for now, this one has been relegated to the to-be-quilted queue. There's something new on the rails of the longarm right now.

* (Click here if you missed my previous post)

On day # 2 of the Quiltville Retreat I got this much of the Texas Tears top together. All of the blocks are done, from here it's just a matter of sitting down and finishing up the assembly of rows. I'm not sure about the quilting yet on this one. I went back and looked at the photo I had taken of the antique quilt that was the inspiration for this one and found the hand quilting on that one to be minimal. Well, this won't be hand quilted (!) and I believe I can do better than a minimal job and find a design that will work. My inspiration quilt did not have an outer border but I plan to add one. 

So, with all that piecing going on... guess what else happened? This! If one is retreating for the weekend at Quiltville one MUST be leader-endering at the same time, right? Of course! This tumbler charm will be quilted sometime in the new year and added to the donation pile; I can imagine the recipient finding little surprises here and there hidden in the novelty prints. I do believe this is my fifth tumbler charm quilt, I've lost count, they're made oh-so-easy with the 4" Accuquilt die cutter. All in all it was a very successful time away for those up-until-now UFOs that have been hiding under my cutting table! I'm already leader-endering more tumbler rows for the next quilt top while I continue to set Texas Tears. 

Sew on and sew forth!

Life is Good!

Up next: Triple C