Monday at the Machine

Sewing machine that is....

Working on "Carolina Chain" blocks this afternoon, a block from Bonnie Hunter's "Addicted to Scraps" column in Quiltmaker magazine.

A big pile of these five inch unfinished blocks have been completed.  I need to finish the rest!

When they are done, the next step is to deal with this stack.

Blocks for two different quilt tops are inter-mixed in this stack. 

These large blocks and 

These twelve inch blocks are in the stack.

 It is my way of keeping myself on track and focused.  

I think I have talked about this tendency of mine before where I will go off track when I get one or two blocks of a quilt completed and I therefore know how to sew the blocks together and it then becomes routine and monotonous. I get bored with doing the same block over and over. So I now inter-mix blocks from two or more quilts together into a stack and work on them little by little.  

Blocks construction may proceed a bit slower now, but I do see blocks for a top to completion these days.  In the past, I would usually set them aside and the project would then be quickly destined for the UFO stash.

Well back to sewing...

Louise, on the windy island, on a Monday afternoon, sewing in the hallway studio, in the sunshine

Early morning serenity, a "To Do List", and 52 Finishes

All is calm and quiet this morning. A quart of blueberries picked,

 a batch of laundry finished.  I love these cooler temperatures which energize me and make me want to sew and sew.

I am progressing on my 52 finishes.  Two more rows for the blooming 9 patch.  

Two more borders for the "Lazy Sunday", a Bonnie Hunter scrap pattern found in her book, and in Quiltmaker magazine last year.  

All of the blocks completed for the "Bricks and Stepping Stones" top, another Bonnie Hunter pattern found on her blog and website under the free patterns tab.  

Two rows were completed as "leaders and enders" between piecing the last rows of "Lazy Sunday". 

Oh, did I mention that I enlarged "Lazy Sunday"?  Those who know me are saying, of course she did.  The math challenge called to me when I was cutting the pieces last summer in the hotel room in Martinsville, Virginia.  I think I told you THAT story, didn't I?

Well on to other matters of the day.  Block of the Month patterns for NBQA to finish.  Invites to the January Quilters Retreat to send out ( did you see the tab for the retreat at the top of the page?).  And more blueberries to pick at mom's house.

Have a great day!

Design Challenges

Or did you actually read the directions, Louise?

I have been working on  "Lazy Sunday " a Bonnie Hunter, four part Mystery Quilt featured in the four past issues of Quiltmaker magazine this year.  The sewing has been rolling along and progressing to the point of actually assembling the blocks (see this post for the first block assembly ). The other day I decided to work on the parallelograms that will make up the last border.

188 neatly sewn and nicely pressed purple parallelograms ready to be trimmed.

Nice huh?

Until you actually read the directions!

Half need to go one way and half need to go the other way according to the directions.  All of mine go one way - to the right!

Now comes the design decision.  

Leave them be and let them march around the quilt, all facing the same way.  (Oh, did I mention that I have already sewn the seam for the little triangles that will be cut off each corner?)

Or, do I un-sew half of the parrallelograms in order to have them march the opposite way? ( oh, did I mention that I enlarged the quilt so that I increased the number of parallelograms to accommodate the new size and was hoping my math was correct?)

Or, do I do something different?  Such as, let half march to the middle and then add a piece of background for them other half of the border?

Or, make new parallelograms (oh, did I mention that I have very little left of the purple fabric, only four pieces left of the original 18+ fabrics? I suppose I could go shopping but some of those original fabrics came from deep, deep in the stash circa 1980)

Or what?

Decisions, decisions.

If you have an idea, please leave a comment to let me know your idea.  There is a copy
of latest issue of "Quiltmaker's Quilts from 100 Blocks" for the winner who will be chosen randomly from those who comment.  The decision does not have to be made today, so you have until the 15th of October to comment in order to win.

Thanks for your help!

Update!!!!
I decided to make the needed parallelograms.  I cut some new pieces from my left over purples and took apart some of the ones going the wrong way.  This update comes to you in January and the needed parallelograms are about have finished!

8 Left to Sew

When I started to make "Lazy Sunday" (a Bonnie Hunter 4 part  Mystery Quilt which was presented in four of this year's issues of Quiltmaker Magazine) I did not really comprehend the finished size of the quilt as it was presented in the magazine.

Somewhere along the line, (in a hotel room in Martinsville Virginia actually, and that is another story!) when I began to cut everything out, I decided to increase the size of this quilt.

Increasing the size increases the number of blocks, which increases the number of pieces to sew to make the units to make the blocks!

So long story short, eight more block X's to make.

 

I will finish all 32 Block X's, instead of the 24 called for in the pattern, hopefully, by the end of today.

By the way, I have already increased and pieced the units for the borders and all of the unit 11's (was 92 in the pattern but now is 128 for the increased size).

Only the unit 6, 7, 8, and 9's are left to do.  I have been sewing these as Leaders and Enders today, so I have made a good dent in them.

But increasing the quilt size increases the numbers here also.  I am hoping to finish these units by the end of this week.  That will leave Block Y and Block Z to piece.

I have targeted the end of October as the completion date for this quilt top. I am hoping to push this project through and make my self-imposed deadline.

Why the pressure you ask?

Bonnie Hunter is introducing this year's Mystery Quilt about then.  I want to be ready to devote my time to that new quilt!

Time is a wastin'.... Back to piecing 8 more blocks!