Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I spent part of my lunch hour working on the Frolic! borders yesterday. I also worked on it for awhile after work and after dinner.
I can’t tell you how fabulous it was! I got the side borders on the quilt, which meant taking the HST borders and sewing them together. They fit really well. I didn’t have to ease barely at all. I am thrilled. On to the top and bottom borders. The end is near!!!
I started on the blue/turquoise HSTs. I can’t say much more.
I do have more blues/turquoises/aquas, which should come as no surprise to anyone. It makes for a more entertaining piecing experience.
I still have to make sure I don’t put two of the same fabrics next to each other.
Progress.
The first set of borders is finished. The HSTs are sewed together, but the strips are not sewn to the quilt.
The photo shows the border strips hanging over the top of my design wall. I worked hard at not putting the same print next to each other. They are controlled scrappy and I am pleased with the way they came out.
I didn’t have as many red-violets as I have other colors, but I do like that color. Not quite pink, not quite purple.
I know it is hard to see the borders, but, trust me, they are fabulous. 🙂 Click on the photos to see them larger.
I will start working on the blue HSTs soon.
I don’t know if I will keep this quilt or give it away.
I talked about trimming Frolic! the other day. I spent the weekend working on the pouch, but was able to sew the first border on to Frolic! as well. This corner detail shows the border up close and personal.
It was a BIG hassle, because the entire edge of Frolic! is on the bias. If I have any advice for you it is: DON’T MAKE YOUR EDGES ON THE BIAS. It is doable, as you can see, but a lot of easing went into adding the border. You can’t just sew and extra 10 inches on to the edge and trim it off. Bias stretches. By adding a longer border and trimming it, you will get waves and I didn’t want a wavy border.
N.B. I wouldn’t dare question Bonnie Hunter’s reasons for telling me to make the quilt this way. She had good reason (math craziness) for make the quilt this way. I just suggest that YOU not design a quilt this way.
Also, if I had been thinking, I would have sewed a mitered corner. I wasn’t thinking and I don’t think it will matter in the long run.
As usual, though I didn’t design this quilt, as you know, this quilt is larger than my design wall. Thus, it is hanging off the design wall a bit and might be hard for you to see in the second photo (right).
I have the HSTs for the next two borders, so I need to get sewing.
Today would be Tax Day, but it isn’t and I am pretty sure I don’t need to go into why.
This is the last seam. I had to take a photo, because I feel like this top has been such an effort.
Yes, the top is together.
Finally! Seriously, I feel like this center took for-freaking-ever!
As I said last week, I have a long way to go before I can get it to Colleen, but this is major progress. I feel like I have accomplished something.
My friend Cyndi retired (even though she is about 35!) just before the shelter-in-place order and she is going to town on her UFOs. She is the rockstar who finished her UCAB already.
I think I might need to do something with the secondary blocks/setting blocks. They really look good sewn together. The bad part is that the block is made up of the edges of the main blocks. I could include the pieces on the edges of another block. I just have to figure out how to do it.
I liked this top before I started sewing it together, but I like it so much more now. Despite my whining, I think it looks great. I am constantly amazed how sewing the blocks together can change the look.
Someone asked me why I just don’t put it away and work on something else. Yes, I have been *almost* miserable working on this at times, but I want to keep my habit of not putting a quilt away. I don’t want to build up my UFO pile again after working so hard to get it down to a manageable size. It would be easy to put it away, but I don’t think it would feel good and I am sooooo looking forward to add the yardage to my “Fabric Used” spreadsheet!
I am finally sewing the Frolic! quilt top center together! Yay! I say and I am sure you say, because we have both, probably, had enough.
It isn’t really pretty, though, as I sewed sashing to the blocks in an attempt to chunk the blocks and that worked against me in the final stages. I have had to do some partial seams. Some blocks ended up with sashing on them and others didn’t.
C’est la vie. I see the end.
As I said the other day, I made good progress over the weekend. I have made better progress-
< this is one of the good things about shelter-in-place: sewing at lunch time >
Since then I finished all the blocks, half blocks, quarter blocks: ALL. Hooray. Now I just have to sew the thing together.
This doesn’t mean the piece will be finished. There are still at least two borders, the back and the binding. Perhaps by the time shelter-in-place is over, I will have it done.
The weekend was tough. The sense of unreality I am home all.the.time was very strong. I couldn’t really wrap my head around it even though we have been living it. I took the car out for a spin and felt like I had forgotten the finer points of driving. It is hard to explain. The only thing I can do is not to think about the unreality and list off the good things I have.
Be that as it may, sewing must go on. I am focused on Frolic! I want that quilt off my design wall. I want to work on other projects. For once, I don’t feel like my weekend sewing was futile. I feel like I made real progress.
One thing I did to get to this place was sew a big chunk together (upper left hand side). Once that was done, I repositioned all the other blocks so that they would be in the approximate place they would end up when the quilt was finished. This small act allowed me to see what else I needed to sew. As you can see, All I need to sew is 4 more half blocks. Halleluijah! I can really see that the end is near.
You might wonder why I don’t just toss it on the UFO pile and move on to something else. That is devil talk! I don’t want my UFO pile to grown any higher than it is already. This thing will be ready to go to Colleen when shelter-in-place is over. With any luck, it will go with three friends.
No joke. I really can’t count.
The other day I crowed about finally finishing all the whole blocks for Frolic! I was really thrilled. I made progress!!!
🙁
I didn’t actually finish all the blocks. I just counted wrong. I thought I had made 5 rows of 5, but in the photo, you can clearly see 4 rows of 5.
I didn’t figure it out until I was working on the corner and put the blocks on point. In trying to place them correctly, I realized I was short.
WTH?
I counted, recounted, looked for missing blocks and finally at the photos. I realized what I had done and that I was just so anxious to finish that I had counted wrong.
This was supposed to be fun, not a long and difficult process. I don’t mind difficult quilts with a lot of pieces, but I am still not quite recovered from Flying Away.
Now I have to decide whether to work with the blocks I have or make another 5 blocks. Those whole blocks have 65 pieces each. While I have some already made, I don’t have all made. 5 more blocks is not that many, but still.
Sigh.
I spent the weekend working on my Ultimate Carry All Bag. I really needed to get on it since a few people have already finished it, like Cyndi. I am supposed to be one of the leaders, after all!
I already made the small front pocket, which is actually the third sewing step. As I think I mentioned, I don’t recommend skipping steps, but I needed to create the tutorial. Needs must.
With the small front pocket done, I only needed to create the two larger pockets. The one shown above is pocket #1 and is almost finished. I haven’t sewn up the sides or made the pleat in the bottom.
The green pocket with the pink binding on the mesh is the back of pocket #1. This is a hack I added. There was nothing on the back of this pocket. I know I might put stuff in it and forget about it. Still, why not have more pockets? More pockets are better IMO.
Pocket #2 has the pen holder. I don’t like white elastic, so I used more of the ByAnnie double fold elastic. I like the variety of colors and the elasticity. I wasn’t sure I would put the pen holder elastic on, but I did. Actually, I shortened it and added another Clippy pocket I thought it would be useful.
I made a ton of t mistakes and a lot of ripping went on over the weekend. These pockets are not difficult, but the instructions are unique. Also, I am experiencing a low level of anxiety generally and that is making it hard for me to focus on something as complex as bagmaking. Working on the HRTs is satisfying and not too difficult.
The other night we tried Virtual Craft Night. I think it worked pretty well and I got some cutting done. Usually, we do handwork, but I wanted to get those Frolic! pieces cut. Since I was in my workroom with the computer, I decided to rotary cut. I balanced the computer on my cutting table and cut away.
The blue pieces are sets I need for the Frolic! half and quarter blocks. I still have to figure out the last few pieces. There are some blue and pinwheel pieces I need to cut as well; I am just not sure what exactly I need to cut.
Bonnie‘s directions are great; the problem is that I have already done part of the cutting for the full blocks. This means I need to figure out what I have left to cut. I couldn’t do it while on the virtual session with my friends. I had to think and that requires being alone.
The beige and orange pieces will be used to make another Spiky 16 Patch quilt. Yes, this will be another another non-Color Strip donation quilt. Some recent orange and red and pink donation blocks inspired me. I had to figure out how to cut those spiky rectangles all over again.
I have been sewing a little each day on my lunch hour (who needs to eat?) and after work. It is keeping me sane while I help DH get used to working at home. A few seams a day really does make a difference.
Now I am finished with all of the whole blocks. The next step is half and quarter blocks. Yes, I am going to make them.
As you know, I have been working on the Traffic Jam pattern. I am using Mini-Charms that have been laying around for awhile. One thing I know, but came to my attention again was that Mini-Charms are not 2.5 inches square. they are about 2.5 inches square, but not exactly.
I decided to ignore that fact on the first block and found that the 4.5 inch corner pieces didn’t fit. It should come as no surprise, but sometimes I need to see for myself. Sigh. Also, I often hope for a little magic. There was none to be found.
After taking apart the parts of the block I had sewed, I decided to trim the 4 patches. This can be tricky, so I took pictures of what I did.
First, I centered the ruler over the 4 Patch block.
I have the 4.5 x 8.5 inch Creative Grids ruler** that fits my hand very well. I use it all the time so I also know it very well. By focusing on the total size of the 4 patch(4.5 inches), I was able to find the center of the block on the ruler.
You can see by looking at the 4.5 inch square that there are pinked edges outside of that line.
Next, I trimmed two sides and flipped the block around.
In the picture on the left, you can see that I have trimmed all four sides of the 4 Patch and it is exactly 4.5 inches square.
Also, I don’t have those pinked edges. This is now the perfect size and will fit with the 4.5 inch plain squares in the block above.
While I am on the subject, this concept applies to the single mini-charms as well.
You can see that the mini-charm is not exactly 2.5 inches. It needs to be trimmed. I trim all of my extra mini charms, so I have fewer problems when I put donation blocks together.
Don’t assume your patches are the right size. Measure and trim as needed.
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I am sort of keeping up. I am still working on Clue 4, but I did finish Clue 5. This was another clue that went pretty quickly and where I used the Triangle Technique for making HSTs.
I find now that I am two clues behind as Bonnie slotted in a clue on New Year’s Eve when I was otherwise occupied. Oh well, one is pretty easy, so I should be able to catch up soon.
My design wall is not full right now. Neither design wall is full as I work on gifts for Christmas and upcoming birthdays.
My small design wall is not completely empty either.
There are two projects on the left. I have the leftover Strip blocks from my donation quilts in the very upper left hand corner. I am saving the leftovers for a quilt that will encompass all the colors.
Directly under those blocks are the 2.5 inch squares for Fabric of the Year 2019.
Bottom left: the Ring Toss block is still hanging around.
In the middle, you can see that I have made progress on the White improv donation top since yesterday.
That’s all there is. Stay tuned as I get back to making some quilts.