Design Wall Monday - Week 21, 2015

On my design wall...still..just..this:

Tiddly Winks

With no further progress.

It's been paperwork, lots of rest and laziness relaxation, every day chores, and just other distractions keeping me from sewing.  I played with organizing my flannels - hadn't touched them in so long, I forgot what I had, so they got to see the light of day and breathe some fresh air while getting refolded and re-organized before going back into their bin in the nether reaches of the guest bedroom closet.  Yeah, they don't fit in my stash closet, hehe.

I have only a little over a month before I return north, and then a week and a half after that is quilt camp so before I leave, I need to plan what I'm going to take to work on.  I have a couple of projects still in the works, one that I started while at camp last year. 

There's this one (above), Subtle Charm.  This is the only block I finished at camp last summer.  All the pieces are cut and ready to be sewn.  I think it will travel with me.

And there's this one...the one I had SO much trouble with that I just packed it away to not be dealt with until my brain could focus better.  And I've determined that if it still comes out wrong, I'll just trim each block to a consistent square and be done with it! I may be 'twisted' to take this one along.

Sister's Choice still needs to be sewn together.  May have to determine the layout beforehand, but it could be a good traveling companion too.

Tumbler could use some more work, as could Pyramids.  And I need to do something with all those Bowties, and Spools I've made as leaders and enders.  Scrap O' Nine Tales still sits as finished blocks.  Lots I could work on, whether here at home or away at quilt camp.

I have so few projects remaining to be pieced unless I start something new.  I'm thinking maybe I could use quilt camp to practice some free motion quilting.  I have far too many quilts that need to be quilted, I almost hate to start anything new.  I could pre-layer some muslin and scrap batting pieces to practice on.

Let's go see what shows up on others' design walls at Patchwork Times.

A Little More of Quilt Camp

Did I mention that I had a nice time at quilt camp?  I think I may have had a better time this year than last actually.

My aunt Irene and I shared a room.  The building our rooms were in has a huge room with a big wood-burning stove in it and that's where all sewing was done.  The stove was most definitely NOT needed, though I'm sure that in cooler months, it might be appreciated greatly.  It was quite warm, I lie, it was hot.  Far hotter than last year.  There is no air conditioning there.  It cools off wonderfully at night so of course, windows were opened up as soon as the outside air was cooler than indoors or if there was a breeze.  They were left open all night too until it started warming in the mornings, which was fairy early.  During the day, we had numerous fans going and that helped some.  One of the hottest days was registering around 84 inside.  The bunk rooms were more shaded so stayed quite comfortable even during the day.

 

 

Sleeping quarters ... only the sheet was necessary!

This year, we were in a room that was just slightly larger, and had two sets of bunk beds rather than two twin beds.  I  liked this better, as it was easier to toss extra stuff onto the upper bunk than it was to stuff it under the lower one. 

Each room has a window.  The windows look out to the parking area.

There are no bathrooms in the individual rooms, rather there is a women's room and a men's room which the latter is designated "women" by a paper sign taped over "men".  Each has but one toilet, and one shower, and two sinks.  Another set is on the upper floor.  With just 14 of us this year, there never seemed to be any waiting time for toilets or showers.

Ann

As my aunt and I have a cousin who lives near Sisters, we arranged to play hooky from camp and go have dinner with her on Thursday night.  We had a wonderful time chatting and catching up with all things from the past year.

A spinach salad that had bacon-wrapped prawns, oh yeah, yum!

 We ate at a Mexican restaurant, out on the patio.  It was nice and the food was mighty good.  When we got back to camp we asked how that night's dinner was.  The camp has a new cook this year, and I'll just say that the regulars who have been going to quilt camp for its entire eight years, were far more happy with the meals prepared under the direction of the previous cook!  Upon hearing what the meal was, we were very glad to have eaten in Sisters.  Apparently, the main parts of the meal were cooked cabbage, potatoes, and chili.  Interesting combination.  Sharing the camp at that time was a Latino youth group, and a couple other very small groups, so perhaps the cook was trying to please their tastes?  For breakfast the following morning we had tamales along with a few other things.  I can't say as I've had tamales for breakfast before, but hey, it was good, and it may become a breakfast staple, or not.  All groups eat in the 'mess hall' at the same times.  The youth group left Saturday morning, and the meals after that improved tremendously.  We were treated with a very yummy tiramisu for dessert Saturday night.

 My aunt Irene started this quilt last year.  In all the years (decades) she's been quilting, she had never done triangles before, and she struggled with it a bit and after q.c. last year, she set it aside, but this year, she plugged on and finished it, and was pleased with it.  She's not a perfectionist, and will often be heard remarking about imperfections something to the effect of "If it can't be seen from atop a galloping horse, it's good enough.".  She has every right to be proud of her accomplishment with first-ever triangles!

 This is the other top that she finished at camp this year.  Quite lovely!  The following few pictures are those of some of the other ladies' projects.  It was quite a treat to see each lady working diligently on her project and then seeing the results on the show and share evening.

I believe she said this was her first quilt and it might have been started at last year's camp - but I could be wrong.  It's very nice!

This is for this lady's son.  I think she said it was for his high school graduation, but that was two or more years ago.

I like the scrappy simplicity of this one especially.

In addition to the 'Stairstepper' project I showed in yesterday's post, I also worked on my Sister's Choice blocks finishing the final 40 of 72 blocks.

Some of the first Sister's Choice blocks completed in 2013.

I also started a new project, again having cut most of the pieces while still at home a couple months ago.  It has a gazillion quarter square triangles and I finished on the initial test block while at quilt camp.  While in Sisters on that Thursday waiting for our cousin to get off work, we stopped in at The Stitchin' Post and I found a nifty tool that I wasn't even aware existed.  I'll try to post about it tomorrow, or somewhere in the near future along with a photo of the single block done for this project ;)

Oh, and as it was SO unbearably hot this year, both my aunt and I opted to forego the show in Sisters, and stayed back at camp contentedly sewing, and trying to keep cool!  There's always next year, right?

Empty Design Wall

I'm down to the last two days to get myself ready to head back north.  Since I don't know for sure if I'll be back before quilt camp to get my quilt supplies, I need to be ready with all my supplies and projects along with anything else I may find time to work on at my dad's.  Better to have everything with me than to be without necessary items.  At the rate I'm going, I may have to rent a storage locker in my dad's town!

Above are four bins with individual projects.  
     There's Stairstepper, which has been assigned, and for which fabric had been set aside, but that's as far is it had been worked.  
     Another is Gathered Over Time, written about here and here.  I had the 9-Patches done but had not cut the solid squares, so that is done and I need only sew block to block and row to row.
     Yet another is Sister's Choice, also written about here.  I had kept a row up on my design wall but took it down today to keep all the parts together.  I have less than half the blocks completed so there's plenty of work to do there.
     And, lastly, a completely new project: Subtle Charm.  I found this pattern, in one of my intact The Quilter Magazine from I think 2000.  And the fabric I chose has been sitting in my stash since I believe 2005.  I had wanted to use it for a quilt for our master bed.  It seemed I pretty much had the quantities of fabrics needed, though my color-way is completely different than the pattern.  Most of the fabrics are Moda's Robyn Pandolph 'Bed of Roses' design. One of the pieces of fabric is shown below.  That was the only one of the four fabrics required that I was a bit short on.  What do you do when short?  Why you run to the internet - knowing the fabric is nearly 10 years old!!  And in only minutes, I find someone selling an entire yard on eBay with a starting bid of $4.50 plus s/h and no bids.  Guess who bid $4.50?  And there was less than two hours remaining :)  I had to set up an eBay account, then figure out with Marty's help how to pay it through Paypal, and the seller was VERY prompt and it is on it's way to me.  The only problem, and it's not really a problem for me, is that it won't arrive here until Tuesday, maybe Monday, but I'll be on the road Monday.  Still okay, as the additional fabric needed accommodates the outer border and binding, so I can still do everything up to the outer border.  I am happy.

 I pre-cut as much as I could on all of these projects because with limited space at quilt camp, I didn't want to hog the table set up as a cutting station; better to have it all done ahead of time.

 Now, here you're probably wondering why I'm showing you the package from my printer's ink.  See that little triangular paper drawing (i.e. template).  Well, the pattern calls for that and I don't have one of that size in a purchased template, and I couldn't find my template plastic, so, remember the old phrase "necessity is the mother of invention"?  Uh, huh, I 'invented' my own template plastic from the plastic case of the ink.

You can barely make out the plastic case after being trimmed of the back molded portion and the cardboard insert. 

I've trimmed it down to a useable piece, saving the rest.  You never know when you might need more! 

 I couldn't find the skinny permanent marker but had one of these Micron Pigma pens and a little ruler and traced the pattern.  I'd taped the plastic to the paper because I didn't want any slips.

 Seeing double?

 Clear tape! Yes, because I didn't want to take any chances in smearing those new lines and/or having the lines rub off.  Not that I'll be really using the lines.  In fact, all I'm really needing this for it seems, is to lop off the points at all three triangle corners.  I'm sure I'll be happy I do that when I get to that point, but it's probably something I could work with even without the template.  Had I read that far into the pattern, I probably would have dismissed it completely as soon as I read 'template'.  That's how I am.

 The finished template, bubbles in the tape and all.

Oh, and who do we have here?  No, she is not traveling with me, and I'll miss her.  I'd opened my bin of Bow Tie Sets to get that re-organized to also include with my packing, and Raven decided since she's a Tuxie, she needed a Bow Tie.  Funny how the label hits right about where a tie should be, lol.  She was quite content to be there, in my way, and has done this repeatedly with other fabric and papers when I have them on the table.  As you can see, she's quite the chunk and fills up that bin.

Design Wall Monday

Oh my stars!  Having been gone for the better part of three months, I forgot that Monday's are for reporting in for Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times. 

I can only show what was still hanging from my design wall when I left on 2/2 as I've not yet had my machine in a usable state...perhaps today though, it will come out and play.  

I have parts of three projects on my design wall: 1) 7 blocks from the Sisters Choice project (no photo), 2) one block from Twisted Sisters which needs to be fixed and figured out as to what I'm doing wrong for it to not be lining up correctly, and 3) some itty bitty 9-patch blocks that I have to revisit to find out what I was thinking with them, I believe I may have been doing them as leaders and enders. 

L=problematic Twisted Sisters block, R=Mini-9-Patch blocks

Please bear with me while I pick up speed and get back into the groove of things :)

Back On Target

Alright!  I'm back in the groove, but far behind where I was, or at least thought I was.  I took all the stitching out of every single unit, both sides. 

My plan today was to finish picking the loose threads out of the last bunch of 30 or so units that remained by bedtime last night.  Didn't happen until late in the day.  And not without another issue.  I had napped before getting back to this, and obviously was not yet awake when I put the first two 'flaps' on the side of the triangle.  Ack!  Glad that was only the first two of the re-sew chain!

Um, yeah, time to wake up!

But, now I have all of two units re-sewn with narrower seams and they are looking good.  I will be working on these all evening.

That's more like it, whew!

First 'flap' on several triangles.

This is what I've been working on but still on my design wall is Sister's Choice.  I had hoped to be working on a few more of those blocks.  Ah well, later in the week I will get to them.  I haven't even had time to check what others have posted at Patchwork Times for today's link-up, but if you're here, you've probably already been there because I'm getting this posted now.  

I am also linking up to Quiltville for Monday's progress report on Celtic Solstice.

November NewFO

Yes, it IS hard to believe it's already time for posting about our November NewFO's, but indeed it is.  I'm linking up to Barbara's Cat Patches.

I've kept you up to speed on my progress on this latest project, so I'll just re-link some of the previous pictures of Sister's Choice.  It is a selection from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  She provides instructions for some wonderful scrappy quilts.  (The pattern is here, along with her pictures.)

 The review:

Corner squares

Sets ready to sew

9-patch units

Star-point units

Star-point unit pressed and grouped in sets of 4

A completed block

Another completed block

28 finished blocks

I have 33 blocks finished.  I need 72, but think I've planned for 77 (there's that math problem again).  It's better to have more than less I suppose.  Or, maybe I'll turn it into two quilts.  I'm already surprised at how large it seems on the design wall, but then I left a little space between each block.  If I put a narrow sashing in, then I likely will make two, or not.  I will continue to work on it though I'm working on the mystery quilt (Quiltville) too.  There's time for both, right?

Design Wall Monday - 25 November 2013

With Nick home from school all week, it doesn't seem like Monday.

I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon sewing together the separate components of the Sister's Choice quilt blocks and was able to get eight of them done.

The pile of 2.5" squares for the four corners of each block.

The finished 9-patch units

 I may have to go back to school to take remedial math.  My project calls for 72 blocks.  Somehow I managed to come up with 77 9-patch units, so I have five extra.  There are two I put into the 72 that I'm not sure I really like, so I may swap them out and then use all the extras on the back.

The 72 sets: each has one 9-patch, four star-point units, and four corner squares...and an accurate count of 72!

The stack of five "extra" 9-patch units.

The very first completely finished.  That upper left square appears a little dark, but by the time it's incorporated into the completed quilt, it'll fit just fine.

The first eight blocks finished.  I left a narrow gap between them all. 

I'm still considering a very narrow sashing so leaving the gap will give me room to audition some fabric choices to determine if that's what I really want to do, partly because I'm not thrilled with the idea of lining up the star-point tips.  As it is, I'm finding that many of the star-point bases, don't line up really well with the 9-patch seams that they adjoin to.  So much for precision piecing though I thought I was doing pretty well.  I'm not going to be a perfectionist on this one, and those slightly 'off' parts aren't glaring so will stay that way.

Once again, it's link up time at Patchwork Times.  I'm sure glad Judy does this as I really enjoy seeing what others are doing.

It's Wednesday

Sure seems to be difficult lately for me to pick a title for my posts! "It's Wednesday" is highly creative, no?
 
Well, last night I was able to finish the star-point units for the Sister's Choice quilt blocks.  Tonight I will press the points open and decide if I want to co-ordinate these units to the 9-Patch units, to some degree, or just let them randomly fit where they will.  

The reds are quite variant and some of them don't play as well as others with some of the 9-Ps so those will be the ones I'll be more attentive to in matching up.

This being Wednesday, I met with my quilt student but I don't think we even mentioned quilting.  We had a shortened time so just sat and chatted.  We won't meet next week because of all the Thanksgiving goings on. 

Her husband will be home all week, so we might get together earlier in the week just for girl-time without the kids.  She has three and our normal times are often interrupted with childrens' questions while they work on their homeschool work.  

One of her daughters is only seven, and really wants to learn to sew, so I said I would be happy to help her do that.  The sweet daughter was so excited today she could hardly sit still. 

I Heart Quilts

 I added a link over at the upper right-hand side back to my Duck Out of Water blog should you want to see my non-quilt stuff.

 

I need to find a better place for this in my Sanctuary.  For now, it's just dangling on the plastic thing where I wrap the cord to the mini-blinds.  It's not a very large plaque, only 8 3/4" wide x 5" high including the wire hanger.

I stacked sets of the star-point units as I pressed the points open.

Another stack of the star-point units prior to pressing.

The stacks you see are the last of the star-point units that need to be done.

That's all for now.  I think I'll go work on those units.  Then I need to finish some paperwork.

Design Wall Monday 11182013

This morning I pressed open scads of star-point units so that I could have something to show on my design wall.  I hastily pinned up the 9-Patches, Star-Point units, and corners for each block.  If you haven't guessed by now (I know some of you have done this quilt) I'm doing a quilt from the Quiltville site, a free pattern Bonnie Hunter calls Sister's Choice.  She used scrappy greens for her star-point units, I'm using shades of red and brick.

Temporary Random Placements

Off to link up with Judy's Patchwork Times and to see what you all have been working on.

Thanks for stopping by.