Friday, March 5, 2021
I spent a lovely day with Stacia and Deloise and there will be two more days of it. First up was the March miniature from our postcard collection. I’ll post pictures soon.
And what a treat to look out the window while I’m sitting at the table to see this basket full of purple. You can see that the crocuses are bigger than the weeds now.
And if I’m at my chair in the living room this is what I see. Still lots more to come out.
Thursday, March 4, 2021
I finally got the first block for my postage stamp quilt finished. This was a sample to see if the design I worked out on paper translated to something I wanted to make. I quite like it in spite of how much time it took.
There are 32 coloured four-patch blocks which translates to 128 one-and-a-half-inch squares. I’m trying not to repeat a fabric within those 128 squares so it will take some sorting out as I put the pieces together. No guarantees there won’t be repeats though.
The centre is made up of a pinwheel and an addition 8 two-patch squares. I’m not concerning myself as much with the fabric on those two-patches but I’m going to try to have the pinwheels similar in some way. This particular block has the same background fabric but I know there will be lots where the background and the wing of the pinwheel are the same.
This will be my leader and ender project for the while (long long while).
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
I went to the fabric shop as soon as it opened this morning but I wasn’t able to find the fabric I wanted. I had pretty much given up on getting anything when I spied a display on the top of one of the cabinets. It was a decent match but there was just short of a metre on the roll. I bought it all.
When I got home I rejigged my pattern so that I could incorporate different backgrounds into the quilt but not waste the three blocks I had done. Sadly that meant I had to reverse stitch most of them in order to put them back together with the new blocks (not yet made) so they fit into the pattern. It also means that all the half-square triangles need to stay together as the focus fabrics in each block need to be the same. I’ve got three of the blocks back together so I’m caught up to where I was yesterday!
As I was putting together the first block I realized I didn’t have a leader and ender project. So I took some time out to draw out the pattern I’m hoping to have for my postage stamp quilt. On paper I like it but there are a lot of tiny pieces to put together to make a 12-inch block. I thought I might have time to get a sample block done today but no such luck.
A day or two ago when I told Pat I was doing a second day of clean up he asked me what I was avoiding (he knows me well). As a matter of fact I am not avoiding anything; now that I have the threads pulled out for my quilting project I’m anxious to get at it.
Monday, March 1, 2021
The first of the month is a fun day in my sewing room. The UFO Challenge for the month is released, and all the cards I need to make also come up on my task list. Today I’ve worked hard but all I’ve done is get things ready.
I have three Easter cards to make and five birthday cards. I picked out patterns for all of them but haven’t started assembling fabrics.
My UFO Challenge quilt was to be my “Paris Through the Window” but it was too big to sandwich inside. I checked the weather and the wind isn’t going to cooperate to do a spray baste sandwich outside so I packed it all up and put it in my bag for Texada. Since I don’t know when we might go over to the studio I fudged the numbers and got a quilt that was already sandwiched in the right spot. Bonus – I have two of them that are related themes and fabrics.
The Seminole sampler was presented by one of our Guild members once a month at our Tuesday sessions. Big surprise – I never stayed caught up and when I went to put everything together there were some patterns I just couldn’t figure out. Rather than spend too much time on it I put together a small quilt with the rows I was able to do.
The Seminole Mini was put together from scraps from the Seminole sampler. The mini was to be used for the Hands Across the Water Challenge but that event didn’t happen last year; when it does happen again our Guild is the host and I’m hoping that the decisions we made so long ago will be the same as what we’ll move forward with.
Stacia, Deloise and I will be sewing together (virtually) this weekend. First up will be our March miniature so I cut out the pieces I’ll need for that. The theme for the rest of our weekend is “Donation Quilts”. I dug out the one I want to work on and did a bit of cutting. I originally planned to use different backgrounds in each block but I’ve rearranged the pattern and I think it will be best to use the same background for all the blocks. The three blocks I have done have a grunge background; I don’t have enough to finish all the blocks so I’ll head up to the quilt shop tomorrow to see if I can get more. If I can’t I’ll have to make another decision.
My evening knitting is going well but I’m a long way from having a finish.