Careful Cutting

I usually don’t start my basting the second the BOM monthly package arrives. As much as I would love to drop everything and start cutting and sewing, I have stuff I need to be doing, such as work.

I also pre-wash all of my fabric, including the small pieces for this project. The point is that it takes me a little bit of time to get to basting. The good thing about the delay is that I get to see what other people think.

One thing that happens is that people start complaining about not having enough fabric. I have talked about my strategy before, which is to just buy more fabric if I don’t have enough. I always think it is me.

Skinny Triangles - La Pass M11
Skinny Triangles – La Pass M11

The complaining started even before my pretty pink package arrived, so when I got ready to baste, I knew I had to be careful. I also challenged myself to get all the pieces I needed out of the fabric given. I cut the skinny triangles one at a time, lining them up carefully next to each other.  I didn’t have  yards left over, but I ended up with enough to cut a few more skinny triangles.

My expectations are not that we get yards of extra fabric. I am happy to get just what I need. Who knows, though? I never participated in a BOM before. So far, I am satisfied.

More Joins – La Pass

La Pass M6,7 & M10
La Pass M6,7 & M10

I joined the three rosettes I talked about the other day. It was hard because I couldn’t grab the two pieces properly.

I think it looks pretty good. I wasn’t as stunned by the completion as I was after the first join.

This entire piece is about the same size as one of the larger rosettes. Obviously, it isn’t the same shape.

La Pass M11 Arrived

La Pass Month 11 Arrived
La Pass Month 11 Arrived

Yay! Month 11 is here! The pretty pink package arrived the other day and I getting ready to baste.

This was supposed to be a beast because Pink Door had to move some of the rosettes due to shipping delays. It doesn’t seem awful to me.

La Pass Month 11 Fabric
La Pass Month 11 Fabric

There is a lot of fabric, however. This is the first month that will include Tula’s new line, Tiny Beasts.

The rosettes also include the Alice fabric. The directions say to fussy cut her face, but I am going to skip that part. I’ll figure out a way to use the other parts of the fabric.

All the fabric is washed, so I can get started as soon as I have a spare minute.

More La Pass Joins

La Pass: Joining months 6,7 and 10-full
La Pass: Joining months 6,7 and 10-full

This is a La Passacaglia heavy week here on the blog.

You can see the new fabrics I highlighted in my post “That was Then This is Now” the other day in the Month 7 rosette (upper left).

If you look at where the Sew Tites are placed, you can see where I will join the two sections (Month 7 to Month 6 and 10).

La Pass: Joining months 6,7 and 10
La Pass: Joining months 6,7 and 10

I spent some time the other night adding the various pieces I needed to Months 6 and 7 so I could join them to Month 10. The yellow arrows point to the star points as well as the star points/diamond combination (middle top).

I am ready to sew the three rosettes together. I was going to do it Friday, but got home too late and was tired.

I definitely get a different view when the rosettes are even set together. This realization makes me wish I had spent more time looking at the rosettes together.

American Jane Donation Top

American Jane Plus top in process
American Jane Plus top in process

After seeing one of the donation quilts quilted by Lee Ann last month (? or maybe the month before?), I decided to make another of the Plus quilts with a charm pack I have had for a long time.

The piecing is done with a charm pack from American Jane. I am working through charm packs I don’t think I will use in other work.

I like American Jane, but the colors are just dull enough that they don’t go with other fabrics I use. This charm pack has been hanging around my workroom for too long. It is time for it to go.

Because it is a charm pack and I am not using a pattern, I am missing 3 5inch squares needed for one more 9 patch. The sticking point for moving on with this quilt is finding fabrics that will do with the others so I can finish the last 9 patch.

My goal for this weekend is to find 3 charms (or 5inch squares) that won’t look out of place with the other fabrics. I am sure I have a red I can use, and probably a cream, but will have to look for a third fabric.

That Was Then This is Now

La Pass Month 7- original
La Pass Month 7- original

As mentioned, I had to change out some of the fabrics on Month 7. Month 7 looked like:

Notice the light green Fruit Snacks fabric on the pentagons on the right?

Now this rosette looks different. I didn’t want Fruit Snacks to be next to other Fruit Snacks, so I changed out the pentagons to the emerald fabric I used in Month 9.

Too many Fruit Snacks
Too many Fruit Snacks

I like the way it looks and the Fruit Snacks star points can be seen.

Month 7 reimagined
Month 7 reimagined

More Joining of Rosettes

The other day I talked about joining two rosettes. This achievement emboldened me to join another piece to those two rosettes.

Of course, joining more rosettes gets more complicated, because joining pieces are required. What I call ‘joining pieces’ are pieces that need to be added in between the rosettes so there are no holes. I am not sure why these weren’t included when we sewed the other rosettes, but it doesn’t matter.

Joining 3 Rosettes
Joining 3 Rosettes

It was easy for me to add one more rosette to those two rosettes I joined the other day except I had to include a joining piece.

When I set the three together, I saw the hole. I went and looked at the layout map we received and also at the book. The book, not clear in the best of circumstances, was pretty clear on this point.

This meant I had to figure out what to do. Or do nothing.

Joining 3 Rosettes-target
Joining 3 Rosettes-target

Laying the rosettes out allowed me to look at them to see how the rosettes fit together.

The circled point is where I had to fit in a fabric. I wanted it to look as though the rosettes fit together well. That spot is not is not ideal as it is not really any part of any of the three rosettes. 

The start point was already cut and basted. It is attached to the bottom rosette with a clip so all I had to do was decide on a fabric for diamond.

Joining 3 Rosettes-full
Joining 3 Rosettes-full

After looking at the whole piece I decided on the peach hexagon fabric. Look carefully in the middle to see it laid together in the spot. It kind of looks, which was my intention, like the peach and orange rosette is peeking through from behind the green rosettes.

I got distracted by finishing the Take A Stand bags, so I haven’t joined them together yet. I still may be able to do it before M11 arrives.

 

La Pass Joined

La Pass M10 & M6 joined
La Pass M10 & M6 joined

I finished Month 10 a few days ago. As mentioned, I am waiting for Month 11 to arrive. I started looking at the piecing directions for all of the rosettes and decided to dip my toe into joining some.

I was a little stunned after working out the details and doing the sewing. I am not going whole hog into joining all the rosettes, mostly because I have nowhere to store larger pieces. I do plan to join more as I have time.

I think the two look great and I can’t wait to see more of what happens as I join the pieces

 

La Pass Month 10 in Process

La Pass Month 10 in process
La Pass Month 10 in process

I am speeding along in sewing the Month 10 rosette together. I will probably have to find another project on which work for the rest of the month. I am making good progress.

I changed out a number of fabrics this month. I added the coneflowers. I wanted a little space for the roses to shine. I wasn’t sure if the coneflower fabric would provide space, but I think it does. It also continues a mini theme from Month 2 (Rosette #1).I have a couple of other coneflower fabrics in different colors and hope to be able to add them in as well. I’d like to add at least one more coneflower fabric to balance out the two I already have.

I also used a Carrie Bloomston fabric for the center, replacing the Curiouser and Curiouser cat fabric. The rainbows don’t show up as well, but I still prefer the newsprint fabric to the cat fabric.

La Pass Month 10 Basted

La Pass Month 10 Basted
La Pass Month 10 Basted

I spent Sew Day on Saturday cutting and basting my La Pass Month 10 pieces. There are under 100 pieces, fortunately, and they are now basted and ready for stitching. I am relieved as I thought I might not have enough time to baste all the pieces.

Auditioning centers
Auditioning centers

First, I had to decide on a new center fabric. I am not using the Curiouser and Curiouser cats. They are too scary looking. Tula might like them, but I don’t.

The Carrie Bloomston text fabric is the one I chose for the diamond pieces in the center. It is not the same gold color as the cats, but will work just fine.

I actually changed quite a few fabrics in this month. I hope it works with the rest of the quilt.

La Pass Month 10 Received

La Pass Month 10 papers etc
La Pass Month 10 papers etc

La Pass Month 10 arrived FINALLY. It seems like it took forever to get here after I sped through Month 9. Really, it has only been about two weeks and I had a lot of other hand work to do that I really needed to get done.

La Pass Month 10 fabrics
La Pass Month 10 fabrics

It’s more green again, but also tending towards yellow. I know they wanted to include more yellow, but the Tiny Beasts fabric was delayed. I am not using the cats and may use the same fabric I used for the Month 7 small rosette center for the Month 10 center. I pulled out some other yellows, but they were brighter than the cats and I wanted to stay in the color range.

I thought I would have time to start basting during a 4 hour meeting yesterday, but i really had to pay attention and take notes, so no basting. 🙁

Half Hexie Fills in the Gap

Half Hexie to date
Half Hexie to date

Because of the light La Pass month, I have been working quite a bit on the Half Hexie Star. It is not as fun as La Pass, but I do want to get it done. I have put so much work into the piece that abandoning it is not an option.

I looked at the piece on the living room floor and it might almost be wide enough as well as long enough. Both ends need some filling in.  Two columns on the right (photo top left) need to be finished.

Half Hexie column in process
Half Hexie column in process

I am pretty sure it is long enough, but it is definitely not wide enough. First, I assembled as many stars as I could, then I started adding stars to the larger piece. Most of those were foreground stars.

The column on the left (photo right) consists of the stars I have added. The background column to the right of the new stars is pretty complete, so I can add a number of stars and keep my hands busy in the evening.

Half Hexie fill ins required
Half Hexie fill ins required

Soon, I found that I didn’t have any of the white with dots I am using as background stars, so I had to cut more of those. I didn’t have enough paper, which meant I had to remove some of the papers from the larger piece. I like the structure leaving the paper in gives, but needs must. I also ordered some more papers from Paper Pieces.

I started assembling more of the background stars over the weekend. I’ll figure out where to insert them as soon as I get several. I’ll need to cut more fabric and assemble more of the background stars.

La Pass month 10 will be here soon, so I’ll put this back on the back burner except for cutting background fabric.

La Pass Month 9 Basted

La Pass M9 Basted
La Pass M9 Basted

Month 9 is very light, so I was able to mostly baste it at Craft Night last week and finish during a work meeting.

I am now stitching the pieces together and I think I will finish soon. It is nice to have a light month, but I don’t know what I will do when I finish. More half hexies, I guess.