I spend the morning finishing up my cards and I really didn’t feel like starting in on my next project after lunch. See Stacia, I am much more relaxed with this new method.
There are a couple of projects on my task list that I’ve been avoiding. They aren’t time sensitive and they aren’t high on my list of priorities but they can be taken care of bit by bit and, eventually, maybe I can mark them as finished. Today I decided they are worth doing on days when I finish a “real” project and have extra time in the day.
Today’s task is some cleaning. No, we haven’t made such a mess of the house in a few days that it needs to be done again. I’m going to start cleaning out my filing cabinet. There will be lots of shredding and sorting and re-filing but today is the day to make a start.
This was a Guild Mystery Quilt that was done as a Block of the Month over ten months, starting in 2015. To say I am late with a finish is an understatement.
As with all mysteries you don’t know what the quilt will look like so picking colours can be challenging. Had I known the name of the quilt I’d have picked fabric that was a bit more calming – neutrals and maybe some light blues for a seascape. When I look back (online) at the pattern the designer used very bright colours as well so I wasn’t too far off the mark.
I fell behind with the blocks early on but I was able to put the top together at the Guild’s Spring Retreat in 2017. At that point I wasn’t too far behind. I sandwiched the quilt in the Texada workshop during the summer of 2019. The quilt sat in a bin there but eventually came back to Powell River (in a bin) until the quilt came up on my 2021 UFO Challenge for February.
In spite of having been sandwiched at least two years ago a good pressing was all it needed and I was ready to quilt. I outlined most of the elements of the blocks and was excited to try some ruler work around the blocks. I’ve never done ruler work on a large quilt and it didn’t work well; I broke a needle only a few stitches in. My next idea was to do some free-motion quilting in the blocks but I was even fewer stitches in when I broke another needle. I’m not stupid – I knew when to call it a day.
Switching back to straight lines I incorporated a few techniques that Stacia and Deloise mentioned. Deloise says she never does stitch-in-the-ditch; she stitches a quarter-inch away from the seam line. As Stacia says you only see stitch-in-the-ditch quilting if you mess up.
Stacia mentioned she had a project where she switched out the colour of thread to match the fabric and, after all the work, it really didn’t show. So, rather than switch from blue to beige (the orange was already done) I went with orange thread on everything.
I was initially disappointed in the quilting on the border. I had a much fancier plan in mind but since the quilting hardly showed on the side that I did it on I decided it wasn’t worth the extra work. I reverse stitched that one side and went with a simpler pattern that I’ve used often.
I’m so glad to have the quilt done – not that I have a particular spot for it, but it is always good to have a finish.
I worked on cards again today. I have three tops ready for quilting and I’ll get them started this afternoon before supper. One of the last bits I did to get the tops ready was to baste some small hexagons (one-half inch). When I saw the pattern I knew I had some small paper hexies and I was lucky they were the right size, although I would have used them whether they were a little bigger or a little smaller as it wouldn’t make any difference in the card.
La Passion (Grit Kovacs)
As I was basting them I remembered why I bought them in the first place. Ages ago (2014 I think) I came across a stitch-along project that I thought I might like to do. It was made up of 17,000 one-half inch hexies. I ordered a package of the papers but, thankfully, reality set in and I never started the project.
Today as I was sitting and basting twenty of them I noted how quickly they were going together. Better yet, an inch-and-a-half square of fabric (which I have plenty of) was the perfect size. So I’ve taken another look at the huge project and I might attempt something similar using scraps and the hexi templates I have; it will not, however, be the same size as the one I dreamed of.
But I won’t get too excited about it until I have finished the cross stitch quilt squares; the hexies will be my next armchair-while-I-wait project.
Blocks can be tricky. Some are easily pieced and the colour selection for them is obvious. Some are harder to make but once they are done I’m glad I made them. Some teach me a new method and for some I have a tried and true method I use for a particular technique. Some in the Splendid Sampler series seem to have been created to use as many pieces as possible in a six inch block.
Summer Reading
I’m working on cards today. My usual method is to pull a number from the Splendid Sampler tin and, without thinking about it too much, make that particular block for the person on my list. Late yesterday afternoon I pulled a ticket and although I didn’t like the picture I gave it a try. I changed up the colours a bit but when I finished it today there was no way I could use it for a card. And how is that name supposed to translate into anything in the pattern? I’ll save it to practice some of my quilting moves on.
The next number I pulled was a very complicated pattern; I didn’t even put it back in the tin. The second one I pulled involved some hand stitching so I set it aside to use for a card that is due later next month. On the third try I pulled a card that I thought was suitable and it is finished; the second card I worked on today was also one that worked on the first pull.
Pat is entrusting me with supper tonight – Stuffed Peppers. He’s been telling me all day how to do it, even though I told him I was using my own recipe. He keeps making suggestions and I keep telling him I’m using my own recipe. His excuse was “I know how much you like cooking” and my response was “And I hate it even more when you tell me how to do it”. I hope they turn out!
