Queue

We've all been there: a room with a hint of a suggestion of a loose idea of a line. Nobody's officially in charge, but every person in that room knows exactly their position in the invisible queue. Newcomers are eyeballed suspiciously--will they try to jump ahead? Fat chance of that happening; a gentle correction ("I believe she was here before you") generally keeps things well in (invisible) line. The only time I've heard any kind of disagreement in these situations is when one person suggests, "You were here before me?" and the other replies, "No, no--you go first."

This phenomenon isn't restricted to mere mortals, by the way. As various projects were coming out of Leader-Ender status and into Full-on-Project mode . . .

All the triangle squares for the Lady of the Lake centers, sewn into 3- and 5-square strips.

Hide and Seek

As I grew out of childhood and into my teens, I remember thinking how tedious this game was, especially as The Seeker.

Its allure continues to dim the older I get, logarithmically I'd venture to guess.

As I close out August staying inside and away from the punishing Texas heat, chipping away at several piles in an effort to get them from over- to merely whelming, I find myself seeking things that "just a minute ago" were right there at my fingertips.

TA DA! A Finish

I put the final binding stitch (machine) in this Tuesday afternoon then photographed it Wednesday morning before things got too hot to be outside (typing this at 12:55 this Thursday afternoon, it's already over 100º in the shade).

71" x 89"

The checkered fabric is an old sheet behind the quilt, preventing splinters from the fence and moisture from the just-watered grass.

Breezing Along

Yesterday I didn't put a single stitch into any project. In fact, the only times I entered my studio was to put things away, as yesterday's Dreadful task was to clean up the dumping grounds that used to be my desk. It took all day and well into the evening, but what a joy it is to look at that nice clear surface again!

This morning I've been making up for my non-stitch day by putting in some serious time with the Easy Breezy blocks. In previous days I've been sewing blocks into columns of 8, then columns into pairs, until things got too unwieldy for easy rearranging. Instead, I hung what I had completed so far on the design wall, took pictures . . .

. . . then "cut" the images of the strips and panels apart and played with things virtually. 

Radio Silence

I hadn't meant to stay quiet for so long, but although I've been busy, I haven't had much to point to and exclaim, "TA-DA!"

This morning I put the final quilting stitch into Sugar Skull. I'd decided on diamonds in the white strips, which meant straight-line quilting, which meant my Brother 1500 on the "dinner" table.

And then there was one

One piece (out of many), that is!

Left column cut out from picture--really 7 x 9 blocks for a finished size of 70" x 90"

This sews up cuter than it originally looked on the design wall, so I'm glad of that. Having done one, however, that satisfied the itch and I can go on to other designs.

1 in 120

As part of the size evaluation journey I've been taking with the various flimsies hanging around, I cast my eye on the two piles of Leader-Ender challenge blocks lurking about:  

Triple Treat

120 at 6" finished

and Easy-Breezy.

80 at 8" finished

Binding thoughts

I've quilted the sandwich featured in the Gemischt post (I am LOVING my new weightlifting system!) and am in the process of sewing down the binding. I decided to use up ALL my 1.75" binding scraps, acknowledging that would mean having to sew the binding down by hand, but also relishing the fact that those scraps would be GONE, never to be replenished. I figured out some time ago that 1.75" was just a little too narrow for comfort, double-fold-binding-wise, and have been cutting bindings at 2" for several years now. Yesterday I simply decided I'd use up the narrow ones, once and for all.

There were some long strips but LOTS more short strips. I briefly worried about and wondered how to avoid seams in the corners, what with all the connecting of the itty-bitty pieces. Well, DUH Carolyn: plan the corners and put the long pieces there! And as long as I'm planning the corners, I might as well use the dark scraps so the mitered pattern would shine without competition.

Leader-Ender: Lady of the Lake

I'm feeling quite rumbly in my tumbly today (not in a good way) so while Zoe and I relax in my comfy recliner, I'm looking over the Lady of the Lake blocks I "inherited" from a dearly- and recently-departed Magpie. I'd promised myself that if Bonnie Hunter's 2023 Leader-Ender project wasn't something I could make with pieces I'd already cut using her Scrap User's guidelines, that I'd focus on the LotL blocks instead.

I decided it wasn't.

185J

I finished my chorus top on Monday, then put away the Janome Jem I sewed it on (it's got a nice variety of zig-zag stitches which come in handy with knits). There was a sad, empty spot on my table which needed to be filled, so I pulled down a machine I knew worked (I watched "Rosaleen" in action before I purchased her in May 2017).

I'm jumping the April 'gun' a bit, but I didn't want to waste any time trouble-shooting. I wanted to get right to sewing again!

Two Finishes

These have been done for at least a week, but I haven't had a chance to get with my tall hairy-legger to take the quilt photos until today. The blocks were a Quiltville Leader-Ender Challenge from 2019, Shoo, Fly, Shoo!

106" x 84"

The back is an Ikea duvet cover I found in GoodWill many years ago, lengthened with inserts of mixier-match rectangle blocks. As planned, the binding is the last of the blue fabric used in the sashing and 4-patch posts.

POUTs and MEQs

With an empty mid-arm and a very full flimsy storage system, I found myself staring at this the other day and wondering which one to move forward.

One of the post-its had '82" x something' on it (QI Zoe's got me pinned to the recliner, so I can't leap up and refresh my memory of the second measurement), so I figured that would be a good candidate if I could find a few yards of 42"-43" wide fabric in my backing drawer.

Cutting Session

 This has been lurking and growing for several days, so this morning I turned on the iron and tackled it.

Forty minutes later I had these strips, ready to trim down

Next String quilt

Now that I'm back home for a few weeks, I took some time to assess where I'd left things before I departed for Oregon at the end of October.

Remaining scraps from all the masks I'd made were collected for trimming down into the Scrap User's System:

the Leader-Ender Easy-Breezy blocks pinned in groupings of 10 and more "kits" assembled:

Selfish Sewing

10/31 Addition: this was sent to me recently--a group photo of some of the Austin Harmony Chorus who gathered for an outdoor, masked, and distanced get-together. It was at this event that I distributed the bulk of the masks. We gave them a try-out, singing some songs together (despite only having 3 parts in attendance), and we're feeling hopeful this'll be a viable rehearsal option.

I fly out again to Oregon in 2 days. I've been home for most of October, but it wasn't until yesterday that I had the chance to do some sewing just for me, some selfish sewing.

The Austin Harmony Chorus had been playing around with the idea of socially-distanced outdoor rehearsals, but before that idea could realistically advance, we needed Singers' Masks. Guess who volunteered to make some?

Design Wall progress

All the Y and Z blocks have been constructed and the applique blocks fleshed out to 24.5", so I placed what could fit onto the design wall.

I see it. I just didn't want to lower the design wall, again, to fuss with that corner, again, before taking this shot.

Single file, PLEASE!

Rather than waiting their turn and letting me work on a single log-cabin project, three more projects have muscled their way to the head of the line.

At the end of June, Mary (of Making Scrap Quilts From Stash) posted about a T-shirt quilt she was making. After having myself made one for a friend and having two more lurking about unfinished, the scales finally fell from my eyes. In an email exchange with her I wrote:

"The thing that struck me the most was: T-shirt quilts always seem to be made as gifts for others, never as a quilt for oneself! I just pulled, easily, 20 T-shirts from my drawers and hangers to assemble into a lap quilt for me. Why oh why did it never occur to me to make something for myself?!? Isn’t it funny how a chance comment or picture from someone else turns your whole perception of How Things Are on its head?

Also, I’m thinking that a lap quilt infused with my smell might finally compel the cats to snuggle with my husband if he throws it over himself. Otherwise, to them he’s just the Provider of Food."

Hot topic

Ironing--my least favorite step. In retrospect (take note, Current Self!) I should've ironed each strip/row when I completed it. But I didn't, and now I'm working through all 13 rows and 10 columns of this beast.

Because of the top's size, I've moved my ironing board into the dining room. There's simply not enough room in my sewing room for a large ironing project. I'll tell you what: if you want a good idea of the over-spray area generated by a can of spray starch, iron in bare feet on a tile floor. All will become clear (and very, very sticky).

Because I've moved my ironing board into the dining room, it's at a lower height than is comfortable so my back starts to ache quite quickly. I could only deal with half the top before calling it a day and surrendering the best seat in the house to Wraith. At least he's confining himself to the soft towel.

Or not....

I don't do yoga, but I can only imagine it was inspired by cats. Would this be the Flexible Feline position?

The Comfortable Cat pose?

Picking up where I left off

For my own well-being, I had to shelve that which kept me obsessed for the past 7 weeks. I have 224 on hand,

denim for 70, and enough elastic for at least 200 more.

If the demand suddenly surges (because TIFI has decided to start wearing one?) and there's a run on what I've got, I'll cut up that denim and get back to work.

Clear the Decks

There's a new project in town: face masks! While sewing these past few days, I'd been idly wondering if there might be a need for home-sewn face masks to fill the rapidly expanding void of PPE available to our hospitals and civilians. It seems there is!

So today I put the finishing touches on my Shoo-Fly Leader-Ender project, bringing it to the point where it could be put away for a while, yet picked up again easily. That meant sewing the last of the 520 posts to the last of the 520 sashings, and sewing those to the last of the 130 blocks.

I'm trying to drink more water--every cup of coffee gets followed by an H2O chaser.

Most of this had been done earlier this week, and was collecting on the ironing board.

It took most of the afternoon, but I can now set these aside with the knowledge that they'll be easy to put together when Project Face Mask is done.

Looks are deceiving: there really are 65 blocks in each stack. I counted them again to be sure! The blue border fabric is thicker than the white, which is probably why that stack looks so much taller.

This weekend I'll be playing with three mask patterns and several types of fabrics, wearing the results to determine how breathable they are. Several members of Austin Harmony Chorus are banding together to find where in our community masks are most needed, get them made, and get them delivered. It's amazing how fast this project came together!

I'll be sharing my results here too. Stay tuned!