Design Wall Monday - 31 Oct 2016

Allietare just hung around on the design wall for a few days while I started gathering my supplies for En Provence.  As promised yesterday though, I have a photo or two of the progress I've made in getting blocks sewn to rows.

Half of Alllietare.

With the blocks sewn into rows, it is already looking less busy.  My neutrals lean heavier toward white, than cream and my gray is a lighter medium. 

Pinned Allietare rows.

Waiting to be sewn are the remaining rows.  They were all pinned just this morning.  It's a busy day for me, so wanted to get them done at least to this point for a photo.

Not much to see, but for En Provence.

This blue bin above, holds all the yardage, FQs, chunks and strips I've pulled for En Provence.  That does not mean they will be used, but they are contenders.  As the first cutting clue won't be for nearly a month, I don't know what size strips will be used for any given unit, but pulled what I have available anyway.  They can always go right back into the strip bins awaiting use in their forever quilt when that day comes.  

I'm sticking with this year's colors, and neutrals, which are about all that can be seen in the bin because they were the last to be pulled.  I think I'm a bit shy on neutrals and/or may want more variety.  I could cut into true yardage, but I usually start with the smallest bits of fabric and work up to the larger hoping that some day, all the "scraps" will dwindle.  Who am I kidding? :)

Linking at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.

Stash Report Sunday - 30 October 2016 - Week 44

I didn't quite get Allietare's blocks turned into rows but am half-way there.  I'll show pics tomorrow. 

Panda and I got together again on Friday and went to Lowe's to get our paint chips for this year's Quiltville mystery quilt.  Afterwards we stopped at the new Hobby Lobby.  I found a nice Paris themed fabric and chose to get sufficient yardage (probably way more than needed) to be used as the backing for the mystery quilt.  I also purchased another neutral, so my stash grew a bit again this week rather than decreasing.  All-in-all, even with nothing out yet this year, my intake has been minimal.  That's because there just hasn't been a whole lot of quilting going on around here, yet here I am, still planning on doing this year's m.q. along with a few thousand others around the world {grin}. 

After our shopping, we went to lunch at a new to us both Thai restaurant where I had Pad Thai and a salad that had the yummiest peanut dressing.  With Nick having a peanut allergy, I don't get to eat this favorite dish often.  

Used This Week: 0 yards
Added This Week:  5.5 yards
Used 2016: 0 yards
Added 2016: 17.1 yards

Linking at Patchwork Times

Something New

Monday night, Panda stopped by my house to see my Allietare blocks.  We usually meet at her place.  Our meeting was a little later in the day than usual, Nick was off to work already, and Marty was in Phoenix for three days, so that gave us the perfect excuse to go out and grab dinner.  We decided to eat at the restaurant Nick works at and since it was a quiet night there, he was able to sit down for a few minutes with us.  He also asked if I could take his rig and get gas for him (lol, I'm the one with the credit card), so Panda had no objection and we took care of that.  

Panda wanted to go to JoAnn's to look at Ott-Lites, so we did.  I've considered getting one myself, probably since I first started quilting back around 1999, but could never make up my mind as to which one.  Too many choices boggle my mind.  A 40% off sale was going on (pretty common) but while we were there we learned there had been a 60% off sale on the lights.  Boo, hiss, how'd we miss?  I finally chose the one with the flip light thinking it would be the best both for my small area, and for those times when I go to quilt camp.  I had one of those tiny little clip on lamps, but wasn't impressed in the long run with it.

Ott-Lite box.

Letting the light shine on my work space.  It made a huge difference! I didn't realize just how dim my space was until I lit that thing up! WOW!!  This will make it so much easier on my eyes...maybe even on my sewing accuracy?

This is all the space it takes up, just a little corner of my table.  The light turns on and off by flipping up that front part.  This model has been around for years and years, and I'm sure many of you have them.  Besides the 40% off, I utilized a $25 gift card I've had since July, so that made the cost pretty low.  Still, another 20% off (from the 60% off sale) would have been nice too.  

Panda said she had priced them at Hobby Lobby, and with this sale, the better price was at JoAnn's.  I don't think I've mentioned that we recently had a Hobby Lobby open up here.  I've not been to it yet.  

I'm having dinner out again tonight, so I think I'll keep working on those Allietare rows in the couple hours I have between now & then.  I have sets of two blocks sewn together from each row, so now they'll become four-block strips, more or less, depending on the row length.

Moving Right Along

I'll apologize up front for the poor image, but this room is just not big enough nor empty enough to stand far enough away to get a full image.

Yesterday while I was waiting for my usual meet-up with my friend Panda, I went ahead and laid out all the blocks onto the design wall.  Hah, definitely 'fun' with the vertigo.  Just happy I didn't fall off that stool.

Here's how it was looking.  I moved that brighter yellow-centered star block from the far left edge, down to the bottom row so it looks a little more balanced.  Moving blocks around could become crazy-making, so I'm calling it good-to-go, and will now sew them as they are.

Sitting as close as I do to the design wall it looks busy.  When Panda arrived, she thought it looks busy too. That's funny because I thought this one looked less busy than those of the last couple years.  

Design Wall Monday

I spent quite awhile on Saturday working on Allietare.  It would be really nice to have it at least ready for borders before Bonnie releases her colors for this year's mystery, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen.  It'll be close!  

For weeks I stared at this on my design wall while working on genealogy.  

Star block for Allietare.

All of the Star blocks had been finished and this is just a sampling.  Then I'd pinned the components of the alternate block and it languished for quite awhile.  Saturday was spent getting all of that sewn, including a little unsewing and resewing.  Also sewn were the setting triangle units as this quilt is set on point.  And now, this is what is showing on my design wall.

The two blocks side x side on the design wall.

This is not how the individual blocks will be placed, I need to lay them out on the floor and move some around before sewing, but the blocks are done.  You might notice that at the top left is one of the setting blocks, but it's not properly positioned as the Star blocks will be on the outer row all around rather than the ones I refer to as the 'square' blocks.  That makes a difference in how the gray fits together.

I'll be meeting with my friend Panda later today to show her my progress and then when I get home, I can lay all the blocks out.  I might pin them to the design wall, but this is a pretty big quilt and I'm not sure there's enough room.  My vertigo has been acting up so getting up & down on a stool while looking up and down, may not be the wise thing to do.

Linking up to Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - 23 October - Week 43

It's been quite some time since I posted a stash report.  It seems a bit pointless to do so when I know I haven't purchased anything, and I haven't finished anything either to the point of being able to count as out.  But, since it has been so long, I thought I'd go ahead and put my stats for the year out there.

Used This Week: 0 yards
Added This Week:  0 yards
Used 2016: 0 yards
Added 2016: 13.6 yards

Linking at Patchwork Times.

I'm wondering if I'll be able to get Allietare's rows put together by next week, or the week after even.  I think then I can count some fabric out; then the borders will go on and I can count more fabric out.  This year may not be a total bust after all!

Wait, What's That?

I was toodling (or is it tootling?) along today, working on Allietare.  That's twice in one week :) 

Wait! What? What's this? 

Something's not right!

Did you notice this from my post on Wednesday?  I sure didn't.  Until I started lining up the other piece that's supposed to match up to it to make a single unit.

Clearly this cannot be right!

No. No, it was not right.  How did I miss that?  I'd pinned the units almost two months ago, and didn't look at them again before sewing.  But when I went to iron them, while having the other unit at hand to press also, it was obvious I'd made a mistake...on every one of the units.  So I sat back down, pulled out my little pointy scissors I use for UNsewing and fixed that little problem.  That unit with the black square is supposed to be rotated once more to the left so that the black square is in the upper left of that square unit. 

That's better.  It reminds me of the 'winged' seeds of a maple tree. 

The diagonal section on the left would be the portion that had the mistake. It looks so much better when it's done correctly!  After I fixed it, I finished sewing all the component units together and this is the completed unit.  Bonnie said not to trim the over-hang on either side until it was sewn into place in the rows of the quilt, so I will comply.

A Warning

I'm not really prompt and consistent about opening my blog emails, but I did check it today.

I have one that seems rather suspicious, so I wanted to warn anyone reading my blog.  

I received an email from an identity "Sandy Weaver".  The return email identifies as "quiltincats@....".  I don't know if this is a legitimate person or not, though it sounds like a blog name I've seen, so I'm suspecting it IS, however, I suspect her account has been spoofed.  The only content in the message was "Hi webduckduck" and a link (which I NEVER open in questionable emails).

So, if you are, or you know Sandy Weaver or 'quiltincats', please have her look into changing her password and/or whatever it takes to make sure she isn't unknowingly being used as a pawn in spreading malicious emails by unscrupulous individuals.  Hopefully, she's already been made aware since 'her' email came in almost a week ago.

Not Gone...But Maybe Forgotten

I've not fallen off the face of the earth.  I've just not been in a quilty groove of late.  I am still working on Allietare when I do sew, and some more has been accomplished.  I last left off back in early September with having pinned the block elements of the second block.  And that's how the project remained until Monday, when I put in an hour of sewing time.  Here are the results:

These units sewn together.

More sewn units.  These will be trimmed even with the red eventually.

These were sewn too!

As were these...and these were the simplest with just the plain seam.

And we can't forget these.

The basic block layout.  All the units are stacked in order.

I now need to press the sewn units, then do some more pinning before sewing.  After that, the three 'rows' of the blocks can be pinned, sewn, pressed, and then I'll be able to lay them out on the design wall and start pinning and sewing into rows, which will eventually become a flimsy!  

At this rate, as I've heard the rumblings that this year's mystery colors, etc. will be released soon, I will not have this one done before then.  Interestingly, just today on my real me facebook, I checked the On This Day feature, and in 2014, the Grand Illusion mystery quilt information was released.  So I'm expecting for this year's to show up any day.  I caught one of Bonnie's recent posts where she said her new triangle tool was going to be used for it; I hope it's not a requirement.  At this time, I have no plans to purchase it (I believe she's out of stock but it's on order), and with my lack of quilting mojo, may just follow along this year, while I slowly finish working on Allietare!