March 31, 2018

I can’t believe that between my own photos and the ones I take for the Guild I couldn’t find a “Before” photo of this project. It will be a good reminder for me to take a photo for the next one.

The class for this table runner was taught in November, 2016 so it isn’t as old as some of my projects. The class taught us how to do Invisible Machine Appliqué. We used wash-out interfacing for the shapes and then used InvisaFil thread to stitch down the pieces to the background. I managed to get the table runner stitched together and about half of the shapes traced. By the end of that class I had stitched down two of the trees.

My machine didn’t like the InvisaFil thread and continued to break. Also, my class machine doesn’t do zig-zags all that well, and neither do I. When I pulled it out to work on it this month I decided I would finish it using hand appliqué. I didn’t like the wash-out interfacing as I found it much too stiff; it holds the shape well but was difficult to hand stitch through. I have no idea what it will be like once it is washed.

I worry about the felt nose, eyes and buttons when it goes through the wash. And what was I thinking using a white background?

Although the project still needs to be quilted (and washed) I’ve made great progress on it. It will be up next for quilting and will be my Show and Tell for our mini meeting in May.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

I have a couple of bags to get packed today – maybe even three.

I’m heading out this afternoon for my Thursday sewing session. I haven’t touched that project for a couple of weeks and it is ready to go on the design wall today. My sewing partners are way ahead of me – Jessie probably has hers stitched together and I know Gail is ready to start sewing. Hopefully they will take a break from where they are at and help me get mine laid out. I generally have two bags for sewing – one with my project and the other with my sewing machine “stuff”. I need to clean my machine before I go – it has had quite a workout since last Saturday.

I am also packing a bag so I’ll be ready to go over to Texada after sewing. I have collected quite a few things so I may have to either take a bigger bag or take two of them. Of course I could leave out the wine and the hot cross buns, but that seems like a foolish thing to do.

But before I go I have some tidying up to do all over the house. I may even have time to do some vacuuming.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

I haven’t posted in a few days but I’ve been busy. Pat is over at the studio so I’ve been having a crafting retreat all on my own. Mostly I’ve been sewing but there has been some colouring and knitting added to the mix. When I talked to Kathryn a couple of days ago I said that I wasn’t going to post unless I had something to say other than that I had sewn all day. She said I still made it sound interesting so here goes.

I’ve been obsessed with 9-patch blocks since the class on the weekend. The new technique is quite fast as everything is chain pieced – in fact you chain piece, cut, press, chain piece some more, cut, press and you’re done. I did a few more blocks on Monday afternoon, a few more at the bee yesterday and then yesterday afternoon I finished all 78 blocks. I had to press a few of them this morning and then I tried to sort out what I could use for sashing. I think I have a fabric picked but I’ve been doing math for an hour trying to figure out how much I might need. I thought the blocks would be arranged in an 8 x 9 grid but when I added sashing the quilt will be huge so I’ll have to rethink some part of that design. Or maybe run through the math one more time.

I finished a couple of projects on the Island – I’ll report my March UFO challenge later but I was pleased to get the Guild’s February Row-by-Row block finished. We were provided with only a sketch of what the finished project should look like and I was at a loss. Appliqué was out (too many big and tiny pieces); I thought about thread painting but I’ve never done that and it seemed like it would take a lot of time and thread. I decided to try colouring the block; we had a demo on the technique a few years ago at the Guild and Stacia, Deloise and I have a project to do using that technique. So colouring it was.

With February’s Row-by-Row out of the way I was able to finish the block for March at the bee yesterday. A much easier block as it was all pieced. I don’t really see how it is going to fit in with the other blocks but I guess that is the challenge. And speaking of the bee, I came home with a few extra things. The sister of one of our quilters brought some of her fabric and patterns for us to buy – I came home with a nice collection of browns and a few others as well. Another quilter brought me a new Jodi Picoult book (small great things) and I borrowed a table runner book from the Guild library (yes Elizabeth – all the fabric for your table runner has arrived).

I made hot cross buns this morning; I got an early start and had the potatoes boiled and mashed before eight. I make the dough in the bread maker but I had a few issues this morning. One, I missed the part where you added the mashed potatoes so I had to dig a bit through the layers to get them in somewhat the right place. Two, I held back the raisins and peel until the beep but I never actually heard a beep. So when I decided they should be added the dough had already risen quite a bit so not all the fruit mixed in the way it should have. They were out of the oven and ready for tasting by noon; I didn’t put any icing on them but I’m happy with the results.

It was a nice afternoon so I decided that I’d do a walk-around to distribute posters for our next event at Cranberry Hall. Walking down the hill to the ferry terminal was pleasant but walking back up Courtenay Street was a bit of a hike. Fortunately there was enough flat ground before my next stop at 7-Eleven and Capone’s that I had caught my breath and could speak coherently again!

Have I wasted enough time yet? I really intended to quilt all day today so I could stitch binding when I’m on Texada over the weekend – if I stay up late enough I may be able to get it done. I’m off to the movie again tonight.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Pat left the house before me this morning – he was headed to Texada and I was heading to a Guild class for the day. The class was billed as a Magic 9-Patch technique and it certainly was that. I started out with a plan that involved a lot more blocks than most people – that was due to my math skills that thought 10 blocks wouldn’t make a very big quilt. So I cut out enough fabric to use up 36 of the squares that came in my layer cake. Of course I didn’t realize that from those 36 squares I would end up with 72 blocks. With sashing between the blocks and the rows I won’t have to work very hard to end up with a King-sized quilt. It’s a good thing I know someone with a King-sized bed!

There is still more work to do but I hope to finish all my blocks on Tuesday. The next class with the Guild is learning how to free-motion quilt this particular pattern; that class is a week after the Spring Retreat so hopefully the sashing can be done at the retreat and I’ll be ready to go.

Although I’m tired tonight I’m going to do a bit of work to prep some appliqué. Once that is done I may sit and knit for the rest of the evening. I’ll be back to quilting tomorrow.