Quilting and other Things

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  That's a pretty good description of how this quilt is going.  Its been a long time since I started the Love Entwined quilt.  I thought it was two years ago but when I look back it was 2013.  I found the pattern when Esther was first releasing it as a free BOM.  I've changed my mind several times about how much I will do but at the moment I'm just doing the centre block. The quilt has had long periods of idle time. Back in 2013, one of the first steps was the tiny circles around the compass.  They seemed very intimidating at the time and I tried several ways of prepping them before going back to my favorite trace the shape and needle turn.  As documented here , they weren't so scary after all.  More little circles appeared on another shape in the centre and I took this photo during the preparation to show the size of them.   One of the next things that looked really intimidating wa...

Last month I signed up to do a Gravity Quilt workshop at Hobby Horse .  Yesterday was the second class.  I decided that I should take some of the 365 blocks with me to use as enders and leaders while I was stitching the blocks for the gravity quilt.  The gravity quilt blocks I was making used 6.5" components.  The 365 block had me make half square triangles that I trimmed to 7/8" the joined with some 7/8" squares to make a four patch before joining with some slightly larger pieces to make a 3.5" square. Its a study in contrasts :) two gravity blocks and Tulip Lady Fingers for the 365 quilt I really enjoyed sewing the larger seams.  I had a second block with me but didn't get to it.  That's the block from Oct 21st so I have three more blocks to make from this week to be up to date.  (since the designer is in Australia, I always get tomorrows block today.  Rather fun).  Soon I'll start stitching these small dark blocks into four pat...

Participating in Heidi's OMG worked well last month so I'll try again this month .  This month I'd like to get the zig zag border stitched down.  I wasn't sure if that was practical but last night I made really good progress stitching the first border at the guild meeting so I think its quite doable.  Once the zigzag is done, I'll be able to start planning the 4 vases of flowers that go in each corner.   Other things to be worked on this month are the wedges for the Gravity Class, the 365 blocks and place mats for the guild to donate to the Meals on Wheels. 

At the beginning of the month, I joined Heidi's OMG . My goal for September was to get the zig zag border prepared for my Love Entwined quilt. Despite having to make some new pieces because I had the wrong number of each colour, the border pieces are joined together and its pinned in place ready to be stitched. It's nice to have that bit done. I'll probably machine baste it in place so it's easier to take in my purse and work at when I'm out. The stretch goal was to get the applique done as well.  That didn't happen but I'm pleased to have the pieces ready to stitch.

On Friday night, my sister and I went to Paint Nite at the Aquarium.  She got the more experienced apron -- her choice, she picked two aprons out of the bag and handed one to me.  More Experienced Apron Inexperienced Apron Over the course of the evening, we painted an underwater scene with two turtles.  We sat at tables and each had an little easel, a paper plate with the required paint colours, some brushes and a red drinking cup with a bit of water.  The evening started with us making a promise to enjoy ourselves, not moan, groan and complain and to NOT drink from the red cup.  Good idea.  It looked uninviting.  The instructor took us through step by step demonstrating on her canvas.  A bit of yellow and blue on the brush to start and start filling in the canvas.  Table setup; Don't drink from that!;  Painting started; Getting messy Water finished; rocks added; underwater life added; turtle begun At the e...

Elaine wrote a post the other day about what stops us from moving forward.  It was inspired by this post from Anne Sullivan at PlayCraft. The two posts got me to thinking about why my list of Quilting Projects is so long.  So I went back to look at the list.  There are currently 52 projects on the list (it will be 54 by Sunday night as I'm taking two classes this weekend). 1.  SQUIRREL! There are 52 (almost 54) items on the quilting projects list because something else came along that grabbed my interest and took me off another path.  I've been trying this year to move projects along.  I picked a few at the beginning of the year that I wanted to progress and some of them have been moved along. I also said I wanted to get some finished and I have including one that was started about 1996/7.  My design wall earlier this year.  There are atleast six different projects up there. I cleared the cutting table off for something and pu...

Last month I finally finished stitching down everything I had basted into place on my Love Entwined Centre . I had cut all the zigzag pieces months ago but didn't leave notes as to what my plans for them were. I think I've figured it out although there aren't as many of each colour as I think there should be so maybe not. On the weekend I paired up the colours and spent most of the drive home from Dad's stitching pairs together. It was rather nice that Karen was driving :) I've pressed some of the pairs and started to sew them into pairs. I hadn't used these little scissors before. They were in a gimme bag either at our guild anniversary dinner a few years ago. I was taking a flight and wanted to take the sewing with me on the plane. These seemed to be the correct size but I thought if they got confiscated I wouldn't mind too much. I've changed my mind. Not only are they cute, but they cut well and are a nice size for carrying with my sti...