Stepping Stones Top

The Stepping Stones top is done. It is quite large and my quilt hanger was not able to hold it to its full width. I am pleased with how it came out, though I think I will add a quilting border to preserve the pattern.

I used the leftovers to make the back, which is even larger.

Stepping Stones Back

I don’t know when it will be quilted as I have not heard from my quilter and have not found anyone suitable to step in.

Stepping Stones Corner

In the corner photo you can see the modifications I made to the pattern.I am pleased with how it came out and how the green in the center works with the green border blocks.

Monday was the Boxing Day Sew-in, which was organized by Sandy and contributed to by various other podcasters and quiltmakers. I have to say that I jollied myself along to get involved and am glad I did, because I had a great time watching the tweets scroll past AND making major progress on the Stepping Stones.

Somehow the Stepping Stones project was well on it’s way to becoming a chronic UFO. I don’t know why. Somehow it just became a chore. I think that starting it around Thanksgiving and then not having my usual sewing time to devote to it contributed to the feeling.

Spending time on it on Monday and getting cheers from others participating in BDSI was the shove I needed. The support felt great and the project is well on its way to completion.

Starting Point

This is where I started. Looking at it now I find that I had made good progress. My whole problem was my attitude. Perhaps I am a fickle creature and if I cannot work on a project intensely, I become angry at it and want to move on?

During the day, we were all tweeting our progress and I was using my cell phone to take pictures. I hope the pictures are acceptable quality.

Center Done

By 10:30 or 11am, I had finished the center part of the quilt. I was able to start in on the border. As you may have seen in the previous post, I decided to modify the border so it looked more finished. As such, I needed 4 corner blocks that were slightly different from the side blocks and then 20 side blocks.

Corner labeled

Again, I was able to finish the corner (4) blocks and 2 of the side blocks. This allowed me to take a look at the way the corner would look and if my design had the desired effect. The quilt top always looks different once sewn together, but I think it will suit me.

Yesterday, I sewed several big chunks together. this is another monster quilt, so it is taking me some time to get it sewn together. I would like to have the top and back done by the time I go back to work on the 2nd. I had really big sewing plans and the holidays got in the way.

Now back to listening to my audio book and getting this baby finished!

Stepping Stones Revised

The only quiltmaking I have gotten done in the past few days is in my head and on EQ. I decided I would rather have a self border on Stepping Stones. I thought the border they had looked nice, but a bit unfinished. This is the current border I am planning on making.

TFQ pointed out that the green in the border looks good in the border, because I have more green in the center blocks in the EQ drawing. I have to make sure that I have enough green in the actual quilt.

I am at the difficult point in this quilt where I am over it, so I need to make some progress so i don’t have to add it to the 26 Projects list. I hope to make some progress, even a miniscule amount today or tomorrow so I feel like I am actually sewing. There is a possibility since all of my houseguests are gone until Christmas Eve and it is some kind of rule that I can’t sew on Christmas, so it is ok that they will be here. They may not even sleep in my guest/workroom since they hate walking up the 3 flights of stairs. Perhaps I’ll pretend I am doing last minute wrapping and go sew.

Spiderweb

One thing I have learned (or hope I have learned)is that projects get stale for me. This means that I need to focus on them, get them done and move on. Have I said this before? I think so. I am reiterating it here.

I have a stack of various sized strips I have been saving for this project. The longer they sit around, the easier it is for me to forget why I am saving them and the other day I thought I would just send them off to Katie. Then, I remembered why I am saving them and the big problem with finishing this quilt.

1. I have too many blocks. What do I do? Make a giant quilt that comfortably seats 12?
or
make a normal sized quilt and put the extra blocks in the Children’s Quilt Project bin at EBHQ?

2. The border. I want to use the self bordering technique, but I need to sit down and figure out how that will work with this pattern and paper piecing. I just have to do it. I never seem to do it.

I really want this quilt off my mind, so…

Soon, I promise.

Original Bullseye

This is an old photo of the original bullseye. I have made several bullseyes since I started this blog: Seeing Red, Feeling Blue, Passionate Purple. Still the original bullseye that started this whole crazy series is undone.

This quilt, and the Spiderweb are two that I want to finish! Perhaps in 2012? We will see.

Stepping Stones

As I mentioned before, I got this pattern from a Pam and Nicki Lintott book. One thing that is very confusing is that they have written the pattern for one line of fabric. I am not using that line, so I had to translate and that proved difficult for me. I don’t like the directions very much. I don’t think they are bad, but they don’t really work for the way I work.

So, earlier this week, I sat down with EQ7 and made a rendition of the quilt. This helped me wrap my head around the project a little more. This exercise coupled with the math that TFQ did for me when she was here  made me less frustrated and excited about this project again. I organized a bit last night while the boys were out, so I am ready to sew like crazy.

Moda Circa 1934

The other day, I stopped at the Granary in Sunnyvale and saw the Circa 1934 fabrics from Moda. I bought a few of them and a layer cake. Once I got the fabric home, I decided to try the Stepping Stones pattern using the fabric during the Thanksgiving weekend.  I can’t even remember the last time I bought fabric, washed it and immediately started using it. I want to get to the point where I do that more often. Sometimes the excitement of the fabric is fresh in my mind when I buy and I would like to capitalize on that excitement in my work.

Fabric selection for quilt

I didn’t buy large pieces of the whole line, so I knew I needed some additional fabrics. Also, I want to take Joanna Figueroa’s advice and work towards using only 80% of a line so that my quilts look different from other quilts that use a whole line.

4 Blocks

I looked at the layer cake to get a few ideas about colors to use. I picked some fabrics out of my fabric closet and set to work. There was a bit of pulling colors out of the pile, but I really wanted to sew and tried not to be too picky.

I am not very experienced at following patterns and I had trouble with this one. I am not used to making a whole bunch of one element at a time, then making a whole bunch of other elements and finally sewing them together. I have to admit that once your elements are made the sewing goes quickly, but it was a lot of time on my feet.

Also, I didn’t like the pattern, because it didn’t clearly tell me how many of each triangle square and four patch I needed, nor did it tell me what size they should be (finished or unfinished). I tried to guess and hope I got it right.

Finally, the pattern is not written in such a way where it is easy to switch out colors. I would have preferred if they used terms like “light,” “dark” or “medium.” Even if they used “large floral” or “fabric with small repeat”, it would have been a bit easier to NOT use the colors and fabric line the authors used.

1 block

The blocks appear large and are coming out fine. I am liking how it looks, though I see now where I could have used more contrast.

FOTY 2011 - Mid November

I can’t believe I haven’t posted triangles since mid September! But it’s true. I haven’t posted triangles since mid-September. I guess if I had actually pressed fabric in the past 2 months, then I wouldn’t be so behind.

It turns out that I have to press fabric, because the chair I lay the fabric over while it waits to be press keeps falling over. I spent a few hours on Sunday, after finishing a big project pressing and cutting the bits and snippets I need for various projects. I got quite a little pile going after not too long. I think the chair is a bit more stable now, but I just need to get the fabric pressed. AND stop buying new fabric.

Stars for San Bruno #3

I worked all Sunday and a couple of hours on Monday afternoon on the Stars for San Bruno #3. I am too small, so I asked the Young Man to hold it up to me, which, as you can see, didn’t work out very well.

The way I asked him to hold it is actually sideways. The plan was to make a row quilt with vertical rows of stars. If I would actually measure on occasion, I would have known that it would come out weirdly wide. Looking at it like this gives me a chance to see whether it will look ok with horizontal rows.

It definitely needs some kind of spacer on the [current] sides. I want something to separate the pieced stars from the embroidered stars I plan to use for the border.

Progress on one of the 26 Projects? Yes.

I wrote last time about needing to finish or abandon these projects because I needed the brain space. Also, I need to finish these projects because I am always on to the next idea. Today I was desperately trying NOT to think about the ColorBlock design. My whole afternoon sounded like this in my head:

Voice in my head #1: “hhhmm, what if I were to use a layer cake”

Voice in my head #2: “stop that! No new projects!”

VIMH#1: “I could calculate yardage for using a layer cake OR a jelly roll strip because they have about the same amount of yardage”

VIMH#2: “do you see the work on your desk? Budget? Contract? 12 phone calls needing to be returned?”

And on and on it went all afternoon. Finally, on the train home, I just calculated yardage. VIMH #2 is off for the weekend anyway. But this is how it goes! I have to get busy and do these WIPs. I really can’t imagine not having any WIPs, but it is good to have goals.

Anyway.

Here is the list, in no particular order:

1. Stars for San Bruno #2: finishing up binding and pleat on the back needs to be fixed. I am thinking of a heart.
2. Stars for San Bruno #3: I need to start sewing the stars together.
3. Pavers. Finished! YAY!
4. Food Quilt: needs quilting, backing and binding.
5. Jelly Roll Race: this quilt does not have good design. I am thinking of cutting it into different shapes and using the shapes for something else. I could make a bunch of interesting 9 patches.
6. Original Bullseye: needs border, backing, quilting and binding.
7. Corner Store: foundations cut; blocks not made
8. Spin Wheel: really not started, but supplies gathered.
9. Infinity blocks
10. A-B-C (A-Z) BAMQG Challenge – I am actually not sure if this should be considered a WIP, because I don’t really have enough blocks with which to make anything yet.
11. Aqua-Red Sampler – steady progress and isn’t really weighing on my mind, except for the fact that Frances has still not finished her Dresden Plate. What am I going to do with her?
12. The Tarts Come to Tea: I haven’t quilted on this since April. I need to work on the quilting. I was making good progress and then got sidetracked.
13. Kissy Fish: nearly finished, but I keep on fiddling with the embroidery and hand stitching.
14. FOTY 2011: not finished with cutting. Plan to sew at the end of January 2012.
15. Flowering Snowballs: I think this is a candidate for abandonment. Hand piecing doesn’t do anything for me and I am bad at it. I think I should make an effort to square up the blocks before I completely abandon the project.
16. Garden
17. Flower Garden
18. Moon and Stars: need to finish handquilting. This quilt is not interesting.
19. Pointillist Palette #4
20. See: needs satin stitching.
21. Self Portrait
22. Spiderweb
23. Under the Sea: class project; like the design, but not the colors much.
24. Pineapple: horrible mess. None of the ideas I have to salvage this project make me happy.
25. Flower Sugar Hexagon
26. Young Man’s t-shirt quilt: have cut up the t-shirts and am in the process of applying fusible.

A lot of this is excerpted from the WIP post I am compiling so I can post at the end of the year or the WIP post I posted at the end of 2010. Do you read these or are they too boring?

Ok, Officially, I, now, have 25 projects.

Jane Market Totes

Yes, I should have been working on the Stars for San Bruno #3 quilt, but I didn’t. these bags were cut out and I just wanted to get them out of my hair. I believe that these are the last two Jane Market Totes I need for Christmas. I counted three times as I was rearranging bags to take this photo and came up with the right number. I have to check with DH to make sure I know about everyone who needs one.

If these are the last ones, I would just like to point out that it isn’t even December much less the 24th of December and this part of the gift giving process is done!

I feel like these came out the best of all of the bags. I put some fusible interfacing on the bottom of the bag (after I cut out the corners) and that gave them a little more shape.

Friday, before the weekend, when I was at work, I made a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish during the weekend and trimming and binding these two quilts were among them. All of the tasks I wanted to accomplish were what I call ‘finishing tasks’ – making backs and bindings, trimming, applying bindings. Unsatisfying tasks, IMO. Of course, I like the finished products and I don’t mind hand stitching the binding, but getting to that stage is an uphill battle for me.

Hexagons, early October 2011

I buckled down and did the tasks and in between I added hexagons to the Sugar Flour Hexagon quilt top. I am not sure I will make a thousand hexagon quilts, but I making this one is really fun. The pieces are large enough so that it is not misery to machine sew the hexagons together.

I also enjoy the fabrics and, thus, the color placement. I thought of adding the hexagons in rows, but adding rows wouldn’t allow me to control the placement of the color in the same way.

I had fun with the blob, but want to make it more square, in anticipation of it actually being used for a quilt like purpose. I don’t know how large I will make it – I have plenty of fabric so that isn’t an issue – but I think, perhaps making the width in the neighborhood of how large I want the quilt to be would be a good idea.

Adding the hexagons was a really nice treat in between making the back, and binding and trimming Pavers and Stars for San Bruno #2.

26.

Yes, I have 26 projects in process. Too many. I was kind of appalled, actually, but when I thought about it, I realized that many of them are more than 3 years old. Some are half class projects. I used to stop, put a project away and go on to something new. I thought that was what quiltmakers did.

At some point I decided that I did not want to do that anymore. I have changed my process so that I gear up, gather, test and then focus like crazy on one project and finish it. I might be working on more than one project at a time, because they are in different stages, but at some point in the process each of them gets my full attention and gets finished. Once I focus on a project, I can finish pretty quickly.

I don’t enjoy making the back or the binding, but I get it done and THEN, only then, move on to the next project. Projects frustrating me now stay on the design wall so I don’t forget about them.

This post is not about finishing for finishings sake. I need brain space. I need closure on some of these projects. I need to work on them, learn what I need to learn, finish, or abandon them. They are cluttering up my brain and my fabric closet. They don’t allow room for me to start new things. And I have plenty of new things I want to start, fabric to buy, blocks to test.

Now I am on a mission to work through some of these projects. Stay tuned.

Mid Sept Triangles

Mid September already! The CQFA Retreat has been set, so now I have a working deadline. I am pretty good in the fabric washing department. The cutting of triangles for fabrics I have used this year (already in my fabric closet) has been spotty. I am not going back to make that up and will try and do better. No promises. It will be what will be.

Original Bullseye

This is the project that started the whole Bullseye project. This has been on my mind lately, for some reason that I don’t know. I always planned to do a border with curves in it, so it would look like a curve was going all the way around the quilt. I found directions. I have a test piece and I just decided that was not the way to go.

This quilt doesn’t lend itself to the self bordering technique. I have a lot of leftover circles that I could use in some way, but I don’t know what way. Aside from slapping on some borders and calling it good, I don’t have any ideas. Do YOU have any ideas? Even a little spark would be helpful. Let me know.