Inevitable, and flying geese

I've been expecting this. I just didn't think it would take nearly 3 weeks of constant sewing before it happened!

Under the needle when this happened was the backing for my current project, the Vet quilt. I've been hard at work these past 10 days getting the top finished. I decided on flying geese to fill the empty spots, and further decided to split those empty sections into 8 small, instead of 4 large.

The geese were made using the no-waste method, but when you use that, directional fabrics end up at right angles to each other. So for each large square of 'grey', I'd end up with two geese with vertical stripes and two with horizontal stripes.

I didn't have enough of that striped shirt for all the geese, so I used cotton sheeting with the same off-white hue for the rest of them. The 'grey' geese are also from a shirt and is actually a small blue check. The illusion of grey ties in with the other hints of that color throughout the top.

I came across my note-to-self about how I was going to set these originally. I smiled and tossed it into the recycling bin.

While I'm on the subject of those geese, I did some experimenting with the no-waste method. The chart...

... would have me trim my Scrap-User System 6.5" squares by 1/4", and my 3.5" squares by 1/8" to get the 2.5"x5" geese I needed. That is SO not me! Instead, I used the sizes I had and figured out how to place everything so they came out perfect.

The trick is to scooch the little squares (the red-orange ones in these pictures) toward the center by 1/16".

 

When all four squares have been sewn on, the resulting block will have enough extra fabric for a good square-up and trim, but not so much extra that you feel guilty for having wasted it! (Edit: for Pete's sake! Yvonne had all this on her site already. Here I was feeling so clever!!)

Pink wasn't down for very long. I simply transferred the new belt from Rosaleen onto her and will buy her own belt later. While I had Rosaleen at hand, I added her new switch (my son brought it over on Mothers' Day).

I have a table for the Juki now (and am still recovering from assembling it by myself!) and will get the machine into it and wired up tomorrow. None too soon--the backing is finished and this project is ready to be basted then turned into a quilt! I'd love to be able to hand over a finished quilt at the meeting this Saturday, but I'm no Wonder Woman. 'Tswhat's (or "It's what it's").