Another Summer Finish

This one came together relatively quickly and jumped right to the head of the queue.

70" x 90"

Why Can't Carolyn Count?

So, back to the Arkansas Cross Road blocks and project.

From this layout of all the pieces . . .

. . . I carefully sorted everything into two piles, making sure the blocks with the bright orange squares were equally split between the piles. It doesn't look like it here, but the bright orange really flashed out to me in person, and I didn't want them all grouped in one border or area.

Reading Material

I'd mentioned an interesting brown fabric I found at clearance price at the Wisconsin quilt show, but had forgotten to post a picture of it then. Since it was hanging around waiting for the next load of laundry to accumulate (I hate to run the machine just to spin out rinsed fabrics), I took a photo.

Huh.

Those Flipping Corners

I'm back in my studio! I realized a few days ago that I had been suck[er]ed into (by a friend's overwhelming enthusiasm) a project that was Too Soon and Too Much, so I asked that we pump the brakes on that until after the holidays. There was no need to dive headlong into things right this minute--which we were doing--and everyone else agreed. Big load off my mind, and lots of time freed up as a result.  

My pile o' squares, after their Big Adventure in Wisconsin, weren't content to going back to Leader-Ender status when we got home.

Proof

I woke Friday morning determined to see if I could make the inner star of this pattern, and if so, was it worth it?

It was! It wasn't difficult, and Proof Of Concept was rapidly achieved.

Slow and Steady

I'm definitely not winning any races with this approach, but things are getting done! 

Two weeks ago in my last post, I showed these columns, the medium lights and the darks sewn together.

Those were moved to a different location as the other half of the columns were created from the light and medium dark strings, filling the design wall once again.

And naturally from there everything got sewn together.

Overdone

My enthusiasm to enter my studio and start sewing did not wane once Competition was over. I've been sewing like a fiend for a week, and various parts of my body are the worse for wear as a result (I overdid it, plain and simply put).

The string project I thought was to be a long-term, add-as-strings-became-available type project, saw itself as something entirely different and forced its way to the head of the queue. Trouble was, I didn't have enough strings in some of the hues to complete the required number of blocks (which I had increased a few weeks back in order to make the top twin-sized).

The first plan was this size, possibly finishing out around 56" x 70":

The revised plan, requiring 15 to 24 more blocks in the various hues, and theoretically ending up at 69" x 90":

New Queue!

Fans of Eddie Izzard will hear his excitement in the phrase "New Queue!"

That's what the orphan legacy scraps (left over from this quilt and this quilt) and my bulging string bin have decided to form: a new queue of projects.

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.

ta da

Pinning! Yay!!

I made sure to include a peek at the backing--I'm very pleased with how that came out.

Starting a session of pin basting always seems so overwhelming that I find myself repeatedly thinking, "You're doing it, Peter!"* in order to keep my spirits up and interest keen. In reality it's a 5-hour process, which includes breaks and lunch, so it's really not the day-long procedure it always seems in my imagination.

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.

A finish, and more

I haven't blogged in over a week, but I've been plenty busy! Thing 2 got home today after 9 days away, so the first thing I had him do, once we were both awake, was hold my most recent finish, Sunburst:

70" x 85"

This is the last of the N1C tops. I started it in June 2018, but getting involved with Community First! Quilters really pushed it across the finish line.

Stash

As soon as I saw the donated partial bolt of fabric I knew exactly what flimsy it was meant for, so I took it home with me after one of the Community First! Quilters meetings. The sheer amount of fabric made it a good candidate for trying the folding-and-pinning method of washing/drying (works wonderfully, and well worth the effort).

(I know, you feel like you jumped in at the middle of the story, don't you? It'll resolve soon.)

Recently,  after washing/drying the last couple of quilts and measuring how much shrinkage resulted, I padded the raw flimsy guidelines to 74"x94" (for a Twin). Suddenly, that perfect piece of backing yardage was a smidge too small, and I'd have to embiggen it with some of my stash.

My stash isn't huge; I'm not sure I'd even categorize it as "large", but in it I found two perfect pieces.

I'll show the resulting back in a future post, once I've finished quilting everything together.

This serendipitous find led me to ponder a few things, such as 1) how great it is to have a place (or two) to donate my handiwork, 2) how great it is to have a definite size (limit, in some cases) to work within, 3) how lucky I continue to be to have just the right fabric on hand for making/finishing these tops, and 4) would anyone care what my stash looks like?

Friday, MyDay

What did I want to do for ME, today? Tuesdays are devoted to The Dreadfuls, but Fridays are just for me. So how did I want to splurge?

My first choice was mundane in the extreme: I needed to mend my favorite sheets, probably for the last time. I found the last excess piece from this project and used it to mend the latest threadbare spot. After this, I'm going to have to look for another set of sheets.

After that was accomplished, I ironed my lastest flimsy: Angry Birds (Ugh!)

Gemischt

Yesterday (Friday, my day "off") and this morning were quite productive. I expect Fridays will be my 'mainly me' days going forward, as I've gone back to the Dreadful Tuesday mindset from my working days. I was at a point in my job that I could take a paid day off each week and I chose Tuesdays because it usually took me hours to wind down from Monday night's chorus rehearsals. To give focus to those days, I started designating them for those tasks I'd been dreading (for days, weeks, months), steeling myself mentally for the hard slog ahead and dedicating the day to plowing through whatever onerous black cloud had been hanging over my psyche.

These days the dreadful trifecta is: clean the litter boxes, take my blood pressure, catch up on chorus and/or Mom's finances. Other tasks pop up occasionally; I'm certainly not looking forward to dealing with Mom's 1099s again, but that's what Tuesdays are for!

Back to the present. This happened yesterday.

I've received many compliments on the 'acid wash' of my denim coat. That's not acid wash--that's 30 years of legitimate wear and tear!

A finish

Yay!

 

This is roughly 70"x88". I added the stripe border to build it out to closer meet the Twin guideline of 70"x90".

Happy Little Clouds

Quilting has begun. After pondering several designs that I could possibly accomplish without a stencil, I finally decided to just do wavy lines back and forth.

Final Two

Two shopping days before Christmas, not that that's relevant to my life other than peripherally. Ninety-seven days ago someone on the Heartstrings group noted there were 99 days left until Christmas Eve, and wouldn't it be fun to challenge ourselves to complete a task a day? I chose to interpret that as 'make daily progress on something sewing-related and stay accountable by reporting it to the group'. In that time I've completed the Twin Hugs, my Mom's wall-hanging from my Dad's shirt, and my brother Steve's quilt started by my Mom. I've made progress on other WIPs and started a new top as well. But while I'm encouraged by and happy about all the forward motion this challenge produced, I'll be so glad to end the challenge and stop holding myself publicly accountable every day!

One of the Big 2 under the needles lately is my latest idea of what to do with my rolls of scraps. This is how that unnamed one stands right now:

It's 86.5" by 36.5" currently, seen here at right angles to my original idea in which this would be a middle panel with large sections above and below to be filled with something later, when I determine what that 'something' will be.

There's every possibility that I'll decide 86" is a nice length (instead of width) and will end up doing something completely different from my original idea.

Being Reminded

Nann's been busy catching up with blogs, and the comments she added to my last three postings reminded me that I haven't written anything for 2 months. What could possibly have distracted me (she wonders, facetiously)?

The week after I wrote my previous post, I was in Oregon again to move my mother here to Texas with me. The past two months have been a flurry of furnishing and getting her situated in her new Memory Care "apartment" (the facility is 2 miles from me), getting her Medicare insurance squared away, appointments with new doctors, three ER visits, two hospital admissions/discharges, and trying to get her to sleep at night! It's been intense, and I learned pretty quickly that I'd need to take mornings for myself and devote the 1-5 pm time slot to visiting and amusing her.

During her recent hospital stays I was reminded daily that the elastic on my mask was absolutely shot and needed replacing.