I wasn’t a very good participant in the Labor Day Sew-in. I only made a half-hearted attempt at participating via social but I did sew like a demon. I had a goal of piecing the top to FOTY 2013 and making blocks for the donation top.
Journal Cover Front
I accomplished my goals and made a bonus journal cover – not the whole cover, just the front, but I did it as leaders and enders while I put the rest of the quilt top together.
I have to get some new journals before I get to use this cover. I am going to try to just use ShapeFlex on both insides of this one. If I decide to use flannel, I will measure this time. 😉
It almost feels sinful to enjoy sewing for charity so much. Odd, I know.
I spent all afternoon on Saturday sewing at the Charity Sew Day. At first, since I don’t like lugging my sewing machine around, I thought I would run around and cut and press for people. Nobody responded to my forum post about that idea so I brought my back up machine. What a waste! I forgot the foot pedal so I ran around and used other people’s machines while I was doing an improv quilt top, then Gerre let me use hers pretty regularly when I started on the second top.
One of the great things was showing Gerre how to do leaders and enders. She was charmed and made 2.5 blocks at least in between her Dr. Seuss wonky log cabin blocks. That means another person knows how to do leaders and enders and more blocks will get made.
Michelle and Peggy were really well organized, as usual, and had a number of different solids to use with our scraps.
Flower Sugar Lap Top
I took the ends of quilt backs, which Colleen cuts off and returns to me. They aren’t much good unless I want to cut them up into squares or something and I never seem to get around to that. It occurred to me that I could make some Improv quilt tops with them so I brought them along. Two birds, one stone: gets the ends out of my house, adds comfort and, hopefully, beauty to someone else’s house.
The first top I made was made from the leftover back pieces from the Flower Sugar hexagon quilt. Edge pieces were quite large and I sewed them together relatively quickly. This is not great work of art, but it isn’t completely boring either. I brought it home to make the back for it. I’ll use some of the leftover Flower Sugar fabrics. I still have a lot of them and I am happy to use them for a good a cause. I may also ad something to the bottom. It looks a bit unfinished.
Star Sampler Charity Quilt
Next, I took the edges from the Star Sampler and worked with those. Michelle had an idea to make a sort of easy log cabin, but I thought the pieces were too small and I made them into rectangles. I got pretty far – to putting on the sashing – but I wasn’t able to finish the top, which would have been my preference.
I still have trimming to do and the sashing to finish. I will have used all the green fabric, from the charity stash, before I get to the two outer borders, so I have to figure something out about that. I don’t know what, but something.
I have two long strips of Philip Jacobs Chrysanthemums that I will put on the outside. I’ll probably put another border on after that, but we will see. I pinned a lot of it together so I could just sew on Sunday.
It was also fun being there with other people. Gerre, Rhonda, Susan, Leanne and Lindalee, with our bosses, Michelle and Peggy, of course, were all there sewing and we were laughing quite a bit. Kelly stopped by, but couldn’t stay.
Rhonda’s Improv Medallion
Rhonda made a large house block quilt and then worked on an Improv medallion piece. The stripes were made by sewing 2 parallel straight lines the width of the black and white fabrics (right sides together) about an inch apart, then she cut 1/4″ away from the sewn line and had strips already sewn together. I want to try the idea.
We played around with the placement of the stripes – both width and direction. It was kind of a group activity and really fun to see how people interpreted the design.
That coffee cup fabric is really nice and in a colorway I haven’t seen. I have some with a teal background. This colorway goes well with Rhonda’s overall design.
Rhonda’s House Block quilt
Rhonda has only been quilting for a few years and I am continually impressed with her design sensibility and what she chooses to tackle. The house block quilt reminded me of my house block quilt, mostly because of the placement of the house block.
In case you can’t tell, she made the door open, which is a really nice touch.
I also really liked the four patches she used as windows in the upper story.
Gerre was using Dr. Seuss fabrics to make wonky log cabin blocks. The red in that line of fabric is very primary, making the blocks really super bright. Working at her table made me feel very cheerful.
Leanne brought some fabrics that were not her style and she was trying to figure out what do with them. They felt as though they had never been washed even though she said they had.
Lindalee was making strip sets and ended up with two strip blocks, where the strips are on the diagonal. She does really nice and precise work.
Michelle was working on two really, really Improv quilts. One was blue and gold and had inset strips throughout the blocks. The other was a beige and purple piece with a lovely New York Beauty-like arc as part of the design.
Peggy’s Brown & Turquoise Charity Project
Peggy was working with brown and turquoise and she did an excellent job. I really love the color combination and know that my sister would love it as well.
there was a lot of discussion about layout and at one point the two shorter sections were down at the bottom, placed symmetrically. I’ll let your imagination consider what the visual symmetry could have symbolized. Someone suggested moving one up and filling in top and bottom and that solved the problem. It is really a nice looking quilt and a good use of color.
Even though I sewed steadily, I didn’t get as much done as I expected. I have high expectations, but am satisfied with what I got done.
The Labor Day Sew-in was fun. What can be better than sewing in your pajamas and chatting with your friends?
The first thing I finished was four ATCs.
Bag in Process
I worked on the bag for the Purse Palooza. Putting this bag together was difficult, because of all of the layers. In some parts there were 7 layers. That doesn’t even count the areas where there were seam allowances. I had some trouble with a needle, so I tried a leather and a jeans needle.
I did finish it. DH had to help me with the rivets. I might make another one with canvas just to see the difference. Not sure I will finish it before Purse Palooza, though if I used the same fabric, I would be a bit ahead of the game since I cut some extras. We will see.
Hanging Out on Google
Monday, I worked on recovering our couch cushions. The last time I recovered them was when we were staging our old house for sale. The Young Man was a baby so about 17 years ago. One was shredding. Sheesh. What a pain. The fabric was terrible and I had all sorts of problems sewing them. The only thing that made the pillow recovering bearable was the Google Hangout with the other Twilters and podcasters. Look for a post on that project soon.
After finishing the cushion covers, I was a little bit at loose ends. I didn’t have a specific project that was really at the forefront of my mind. I didn’t have enough time to start quilting the Wonky 9 Patch, so I just puttered around tidying up and sewing hexagons together.
I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would, but some of these projects have been on my mind for awhile, so I am pleased with my work.
JulieZS wrote two posts! She wrote about Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3. She is the winner with the most number of posts. Julie has been doing a great job posting frequently lately
In the United States, most of us get Monday off to celebrate Labor Day and all that hard work that we all do every other day of the year. “Off” is relative, of course, because I will be “working” at my sewing machine with my podcast friends, Tweeps and other bloggers.
We are all participating in a Labor Day Sew-in. You can, too. Get those fuzzy slippers and get to your sewing machine. Nowhere to go, no supplies to collect, just get to your sewing machine and sew. In your own house.
Quiltin’ Jenny has a hilarious post (she was first) about the LDSI. Very Lazy Daisy (who is nowhere near lazy, BTW) also put a post up accompanied by the hilarious tweet:
Daisy’s Tweet
Other pod-bloggers who have posted about the sew in (some of whom are hosting giveaways):
Pam posted a new podcast episode – 90 minutes long! What a bonanza!
I’ll add to this list as I see/hear of other posts
I took yesterday off as I was trying to piggyback an extra day off onto the long weekend to pretend I had a vacation. I still have errands and stuff to do today, but am already making some progress.
What’s on my list?
ATCs – I need them for next week.
Purse Palooza bag – don’t want to leave it until the last minute and I am considering making a second one.
Color challenge? Possible, but unlikely, though I did make the batiks.
Russian Rubix – I’d like to get started on that, but am having trouble selecting a background fabric.
There is an idea in the back of my mind to quilt the Wonky 9 Patch quilt. We’ll see how that goes.
Want to follow along?
First and FOREMOST: Sew!!!
Post a blog post with your list and link back here
Use the #LDSI hashtag on Twitter (let’s trend on Twitter, Tweeps!)
I took the day off of work Thursday and went to a BAMQG Sew Day and Workshop. After some personal drama (locked myself out of the house), I got there at 12:30 only to be faced with more personal drama (I forgot the bag that includes my rulers, rotary cutters, mat, pins, etc). Fortunately, I sat down across from Peggy and next to Amanda. Between them and Claire, I was set up to rock and roll the sewing machine.
Sew Day Projects
I WAY overestimated what I could get done. I brought a Chubby Charmer filled with fabric and batting for journal covers, fabric for napkins, flannel for receiving blankets. I brought enough to survive some kind of siege that included sewing.
I really only got to the journal covers and I made the parts of two and finished 3-4.
My problem with Sew Days is that I want to just walk around and talk to people and not sew. If i bring my sewing stuff (and why wouldn’t I since there I have a gene that makes me physically unable to bring sewing stuff with me to a Sew Day). I really should be quite ok with socializing. Socializing is good!
Sew Day Work shot
A number of people had just arrived when I got there, so, despite the lock problem, I wasn’t terribly late, but I am sure I could have gotten all of my projects done had I arrived at 10am. 😉
Still, it was great to be there. I hadn’t been to a Sew Day before and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy hauling all of my stuff, but once set up, I just plowed through [spoiler alert] journal covers. I am glad I got them done and I am well set up for journal covers now.
In the work photo, you can see my stuff bottom right, Peggy top right and several other sewing machines and people towards the back of the photo. It was a great little group in our area. Big bonus? We were right near the iron!
Monkey Dot Cat Bed
The first thing I did was make a cat bed. I figured that anything I made after would contain schnibbles and I could use the cat bed to contain them.
Also, I have four I need to make for Amanda and the homeless cats. I thought about bringing them all as they are quick to make, but decided on other projects.
Jennifer’s Round Robin
Jennifer, who usually photographs the projects at the BAMQG meetings, showed us this hexagon piece. It is a round robin for one of the BAMQG groups. I love the shape! Who would have thought of creating a hexagon?!? Obviously someone did, but it is fabulous. The whole piece looks like a mosaic floor to me.
I am lukewarm on round robins and this makes me rethink that.
Also, I have to give a tiny bit of credit to ‘modern sensibilities’ as I don’t think this would have shown up in other kinds of round robins. I think that if you don’t know you can’t or shouldn’t do something you just try it and there is a lot of that going on in BAMQG.
Yes, Journal Covers
Yellow & Pink Journal Cover
What I really wanted to do with journal covers was use up the pieces trimmed from quilts that I made and had quilted. My quilter diligently saves the batting and the sides for me and one day (I talked about it in the last week or so) it occurred to me that I could use those pieces to make journal covers. This is a great use, actually, because the trimmings are often long enough so I don’t have to cut part of a 1/2 yard and then cut some more, so that I only have a large scrap left.
When I went to Sew Day, I had in mind that I would whip up several of them. What the exercise turned into, even though I did make 3 or 4 was an exercise in design. I learned a couple of things:
I don’t like just having strips of fabric for the journal covers. In the Yellow and Pink journal cover, that strip of pink that reads as a solid really bugs me. Not enough to rip apart the journal cover, but enough to put it on a journal I have already used and not carry it around for 2 months. The remedy is to cut those strips into a few pieces and pieces and piece them back together in a sort of checkerboard.
Batting doesn’t work for me. I took all the small pieces apart and they will go to Amanda’s cat bed project. I need to find something else that gives the cover a bit of body.
Green & Letters Journal
Either I need to do a moderate amount of piecing or just cut a piece of fabric, like my recent Philip Jacobs journal cover and make a cover out of one piece of fabric. I do think patterned fabric, like the green and letters journal cover works. I think it works because there are blocks of color. The blocks of color combined with a bit of piece make the piece interesting. I am not a big fan of that chocolate (though it is chocolate) brown and green and yellow, but I like the letters and thinking about writing letters, or just writing, in general.
Leaders and enders are great. This is old news, I know. I am a big fan of leaders and enders, as my faithful readers know and using leaders and enders in the middle of the journal covers project meant that I had most of a journal cover top done by the time I got home.
Leftovers Journal Cover
The last journal cover I made wasn’t finished at the retreat. I began using the leaders & enders technique to sew bits together as I made the other journal covers, but I only ended up with the piece you see in the photo by the time I left. I don’t need to make sure that the family is warm when I make pieced items, nor is there a shortage of fabric at my house, but I still can’t seem to throw fabric away.
We ended the day with pizza. Usually, not a good choice for me, but there are 5 people in the guild who eat GF diets, so we had the option of 3 gluten free pizzas! The Awesome Amanda went to Red Brick over in San Mateo and picked up pizza for us.
The crowning glory, though the Sew Day was pretty awesome, was participating in the Bill Kerr workshop. Stayed tuned for the notes on that.
Yesterday I detailed all the BFSI comments you wrote (keep ’em coming!) and the prizes I gave away. I actually did get sewing done, which was great. I don’t feel like I got as much sewing done as I would have liked, but I got enough done. I guess.
As an aside: Is it ever really possible to get enough sewing done? I don’t know what enough sewing is, so I can’t say. I would like to try to figure it out, though.
Enough of that.
I know that there were a number of people who had to work, Kati had problems with her laptop, so could only follow along and others had family obligations, so I feel lucky to have gotten done what I did get done.
I started out the day by getting up a bit on the late side…for me. I got up around 7am and since we had 24 people over to eat the night before, I got the first load of non-china dishes going in the dishwasher while my tea steeped. There were also some things that needed to be soaked, so I put them in hot water as well. I could hear the call of Twitter, though, throughout the chores, so I didn’t stay away for much longer.. My phone has been acting up, so I gave it a good talking to, which encouraged it to work. I was able to use it during the day as well.
I kind of think that I did some #BFSI warm-ups earlier in the week with the cat beds and the donation blocks. Who doesn’t need a good warm up?
I promised to make two pincushions for the BAMQG raffle basket, so I decided to get busy on those. The meeting is next week, after all, so I didn’t have much time.
I used a charm pack from Sandy Gervaise called Objects of Desire and the Petit Gateau pattern from Fig Tree quilts. This is the pattern I used before and I liked it.
In general, I like Sandy Gervaise’s fabric designs. They are fun, generally cheerful or have a bit of humor. She also usually includes dots, which I love. I have found, thoughn that her color choices are usually a bit too beige for me. She often has a really good and fun print on the front of the charm pack, but as I pick through the fabrics (which is one reason charm packs are great!), I find many of the fabrics to be ‘Meh.’ I don’t hate them by any stretch, but they aren’t my favorites.
Pincushions in progress
Why choose ‘meh’ fabrics for pincushions, you ask? In small doses they are a relatively cheerful and a nice combination of fabrics for a pincushion. It took me some time to get them together, but once I made the half square triangles, they went pretty quickly. I sewed a couple of charms together to make the gusset piece. I thought about digging around in my fabric closet, but have plenty of charms, so that worked for me.
I have a lot of charms from the pack left so might make a couple more pincushions as gifts. They are fun and cute.
I have some hand stitching to finish, buttons to attach, but I am pleased with the way they look. They are cheerful and I like the different scales of fabric.
I also worked on the A-B-C Challenge. I know I talked about it before, but in order to get to the stage of FINISHED top, I worked on the border on Saturday as well. I spent most of the time that I worked on this piece on the grey inner border.
Patchwork Wheel #7 & 8
I also always need leaders and enders. That is mostly how I am getting the Patchwork Wheel blocks done. I doubt I will get a quilt top from them finished by the meeting next Saturday, but I can finish it by January.
Sandy talked about her BFSI experience on her blog. Sarah detailed her progress and she had to go to work! Pam did a lot of sewing work, but admitted to finishing the Star Wars quilt during the Black Friday Sew-in. Katie made major progress on her Orca Bay quilt. She was being good and trying to finish it before Easy Street started.
I am hiding upstairs for a minute to breathe. I am Miss Popularity down in the dining room (she who brings food is popular) at the moment.
The Black Friday Sew in is on Friday (thus the name). Sandy organized all the things she wants to work on and I realized halfway through the main course that I had not thought about what I am going to work on tomorrow. Yes, I have to sort silver and put the china away, but I am talking about PROJECTS! Sewing projects!
Yikes!
The Spiderweb top is done and I am still ripping out paper, so I will start the back, etc after I finish the ripping. I don’t want to work on that, because I want to be at the machine and ripping out foundation paper is a good TV project. I have to put the borders the A-B-C Challenge, so I will definitely do that. BUT what else? I don’t know. I do hope something occurs to me before I waste a whole day staring at the machine.
T-shirt quilt, I think.
Patchwork Wheel blocks
Perhaps those two projects will keep me busy and I will get a lot of them done.
