Finishes!

Our recent quilt retreat proved to be quite productive in that I finished three projects - all WIPs or UFOs. Having these things "nagging" me over the past few weeks and months had become rather a burden, and it feels like a weight has been removed by having them done - to the flimsy stage, at least.

First, I concentrated on the final steps of the Star and Chain quilt - the Thimbleberries project which was left over from last year's retreat. The blocks were all completed, and through the early part of this month I had been working on sashing strips. Basically, all I needed to do at retreat was to stitch the rows together. That required a lot of pinning and pressing, but the resulting quilt is so worth it.

Next on my to-do list was to add borders to my swap quilt - actually, a mini-quilt. Six of us in the Frankfort Girls group exchanged blocks and made the arbitrary goal of having the mini-quilts together for retreat. I needed to add my borders. So here is that quick job completed.

I probably will hand quilt this mini using a Baptist Fan motif with big-stitches. This style of quilting appeals to me as does the muted, low-volume look of this quilt; I am glad to have a chance to see it all coming together.

My third finish of the retreat involved facing a repair job - fixing my Jelly Roll fiasco from last September. I made such a mess of that seemingly easy quilt, that I just stuffed it away for 6+ months in aggravation. It definitely had been the biggest "nagging" quilt of the three, so I did the best I could with it - the old make lemonade out of lemons theory - and I think this finish will be just fine. Should anyone study the construction, they will surely wonder why there's an odd seam going down the length of the quilt. Once it's quilted, though, I suspect it will be nearly invisible.

In a few days, I plan to share the ugly truths about the errors I made with this easy quilt. I need to get my thoughts sorted out, first, and figure out how to explain it simply. Honestly, I am not really sure what all I did wrong at this point.

So those are my finishes. Right proud of this, for sure - I gleefully checked them off my list. Gives me a "clean slate" sort of feeling.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Star and Chain Update

Yesterday was one of those days where I went into it believing that I could be truly productive and accomplish quite a lot. I learned after an hour or two that progress on this quilt is better suited to being an exercise in patience. No 'hurry-up' allowed!

Star and Chain is the cover quilt on this 1999 Thimbleberries book. From the very beginning, I had it marked as one I wanted to make. After a wait-time of 18 years, I still liked this quilt, so I pulled and cut a bunch of Thimbleberries fabrics from the stash and took it to Canter's Cave last April with the hope of completing it all in that 3-day retreat. If you like something for that long, then you know you have to follow through, right?

Retreat was productive, but I didn't get it finished. And, sadly, it has spent the entire year since retreat stored away in the quilting room. I definitely wanted to get back to it, but last year was so busy with all those UFOs I wanted to finish. It just wasn't meant to be.

In the last week and a half, I have revisited Star and Chain, and with very hopeful optimism, attacked the remaining steps with the notion of having a quilt top in short order. Little did I know that the piecing would be so involved. I had all the stars made, and most of the sashing 'chains' made. I finished those off quickly and thought "now I'm in business; I will join this all together in no time."

Not so fast, Miss Let's Get'er Done Fast! Those sashing strips still had oodles of piecing to do before I could begin joining rows. S-L-O-O-O-W-W work, for sure. Here are some pictures of the effort. I will have to have patience and fortitude through the remainder of this process.

First, I had to lay out all the stars and arrange them in a pleasing yet random fashion. I mostly left everything where originally placed - a rarity, for sure. I hope I don't end up regretting that. You see, by the way this quilt is constructed, once you put a star in its place, the sashing that it goes with has to be put in place. This allows for no switching around or changing one's mind. I would hate to think about trying to keep it all straight if I were to sew something out of place. (That's why this quilt is laid out on the guest bed and the door is shut to keep the cat out.)

In the picture above I have sewn the bottom or border sashing, the row of stars and the next sashing row. It took me all day! It surprises me that so much piecing is still necessary at this stage of the process. Normally by now, putting it all together is relatively simple. This one is not. I have to pay attention to all sorts of things. And pinning is absolutely necessary. To the point of excessiveness!

But gosh, won't it be a pretty thing? I love those deep, intense colors. I recognize that this won't be the most perfect quilt ever made - those intersections! - but by gosh, I am going to have it finished before too long.

A finished quilt is better than a perfect quilt. Right?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Seam-Ripping

You haven't seen much of me here for a few days. The reason is that I mostly am not getting as much sewing done as I ought, and since this blog is primarily about my sewing and quilting, I have no material.

However, I do occasionally get some time in the quilting room, and over the weekend, I sewed 24 chain units onto the last 12 stars.

Wrong.

All had to be ripped out.

The photo above shows very clearly what is wrong. That rectangular unit is upside-down. So all 24 seams needed ripping out. I grabbed the iPad to watch something while I ripped. It's always best to have a diversion from the boo-boos. I used this opportunity to begin the second season of The Crown. Good choice, too.

In other news, I am reading a book on my iPhone. Do people do this nowadays? I have to admit that I am not minding it at all. My book club's selection for this month is So Well Remembered by James Hilton, published in 1945. Because of its age, I had a hard time finding a copy, so I ordered it through iBooks. A bit more than half-way through it, I find it quite enjoyable, and consequently, I am reading when I ought to be sewing. (I have always had this problem with books. They have a way of consuming me!)

Also, MLB has started up and I want to watch the Indians whenever I can, so I have taken my tub of Lake Effect hexies to my chair in the family room where I can stitch and watch ballgames at the same time. After about 3 games, I can see that this is going to be very productive. The few hours each evening is showing satisfying results. Below is an early picture of my work on this long-term project.

Hey, come back tomorrow! I will share update pictures of the progress I have made on Lake Effect. I really do think you will be surprised at how much I have done.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Returning To WIP

I don't know precisely what the distinction is between the WIP (work in progress) and the UFO (unfinished object), but my own definitions mean that the intent is to get back to one (WIP) while the other is definitely off my radar and might be dealt with at some distant time (UFO).

Because the work on this was never far from my mind, and I definitely only put it away because I really did have UFO goals to meet most of last year, this WIP has at last made its way to my tabletop.

The quilt is going to be Stars and Chain from a very old Thimbleberries book. Last year at the Canter's Cave Retreat, several of us took up the common goal to sew a Thimbleberries pattern, or use Thimbleberries fabrics, or both. I wrote about it in this post, if you want further details.

The parts to the quilt have not seen the light of day for a year, and consequently, I had forgotten where I was, what the next step is, and where to direct my focus. I eventually got it all figured out, and made good progress on Monday when Sharon was here sewing with me. She had to listen to a good bit of grumbling and whining while I tried to solve the sewing mystery that came with this revisit.

I still had chain parts to make- brown ones, blue ones, and gold ones. Below are some blue ones in the chain-piecing process - here, I'm ready to cut off the corner triangles.

It feels good to get back to this. I still like the fabrics I chose, and I am excited to see the pieces coming together as well as they are. My sewing time has been rather limited this week, but perhaps this weekend I will be able to get a big hunk of time to devote to it.

Hope you are accomplishing great things!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Canter's Cave Wrap-Up - Part 1

So much was accomplished at Canter's Cave last week that I feel it necessary to spread out the updates over 2 or 3 posts just to keep the material manageable. Here in this first post, I will share with you the progress I made on my work over the course of the 2-and-a-half day retreat.

The theme (optional) we gave ourselves was to make a Thimbleberries pattern or use Thimbleberries fabrics or do both pattern and fabric. I selected a pattern called Star and Chain from the 1999 book Blue Skies; Star and Chain is featured on the cover, and I chose a darker set of (mostly) Thimbleberries fabrics for my version.

I began my work by making the 30 star blocks. That means 120 flying geese units. It seemed to take forever, but I eventually got them all done. Above are the parts for the red, gold, brown and green stars. I finished the blue stars first.

When I realized I was going to have a boatload of cut-away corners, I decided I would not waste them. I sewed them as I stitched, cut them off and packed them into a plastic bag for future use. Yes, that is a very small seam - about 1/8th inch after cutting.

When I finished the stars, I had the chains to make. For sashing strips, this was an involved step. I needed 120 units that leaned left and 120 units that leaned right. Yes, I sewed those extra cut-away corners, too.  It was like I was making 2 quilts at once, you know?

Thankfully, dear Jan offered assistance with cutting and pressing some of the final chain units. This freed me up to just concentrate on sewing. Whew. All the parts are mostly made and I will soon be ready - hopefully this week - to begin assembling.

Above is sweet Jan in full helper mode. She not only worked on some of my blocks, which you see on either side of her mat, but she helped Terry with pinning her king-sized quilt.

Not all my stitching was smooth-sailing. More than once I found this (above) on the bobbin-side of my blocks. Minor setbacks like this give me time to step away for a minute, get a snack, take a walk, stretch the legs and then get back to it. Generally, a quick clean-up of lint or re-threading the machine was all that I needed to do.

Above you see the fruits of my retreat labors. Thirty stars completed; all the red chains completed; half of the blue, brown, and gold chains completed. Partially completed blue, brown and gold chains. Ah! I need to amend my earlier statement: this is NOT all of my work. Somehow the green chains are MIA. Maybe they are buried further down in my tub. I do believe they are done, though. I need to sew corners on the remaining brown and gold chains, and then cut and press them all.

I will be in connecting mode soon!

Just a point of emphasis here. This pattern requires 736 2.5" squares. Of those, 616 are used in either chain units or flying geese units. This means that I have 616 itty-bitty HSTs - 2" - awaiting me for a future project. And they are all sewn together! I know I will appreciate this bit of extra effort. Right?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Retreat Time Again!

The 4th Annual Canter's Cave Quilting Retreat is coming up Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. I am so stoked for it! We will have 8 quilters, including a couple of newbies along for the fun. Unfortunately, however, this also means that a couple of regulars will not be attending. Things come up; plans change; life happens. I know it will still be fun, despite missing those who can't attend.

There really are no rules for Retreat, but in the past we have loosely held some sort of theme or challenge for quilters to work on if they want to. Everyone is free to work on whatever projects they please. If any quilter wants to join the challenge, though, we will be using the time-tested Thimbleberries patterns and/or fabrics as our theme. We can make either a Thimbleberries pattern using Thimbleberries fabric or just one or the other, however best suits the individual.

You more seasoned quilters will surely recognize some of the fabrics and the book. These are straight out of 1990s through early 2000s. Aged to perfection, right?

This little challenge suits me well. I have long sworn by the dependably accurate and fast patterns from Lynette Jensen, founder of Thimbleberries. I tried once to count up how many quilts I've made using her patterns, and I lose count after about 20. Suffice it to say, if I need a quilt in a hurry, she is a go-to for quick results. Here is a link to a post I did last year featuring several of my Thimbleberries creations.

The pattern I am making is called Stars and Chain; I will be using darker fall or winter colors, as opposed to the dusty pastels in the picture.

I was a few inches short when I cut the red, and had to resort to piecing this long strip of ends so that I could get the remaining bits needed. Took a bit of extra time, but that's okay.

The color in this photo looks altered; must have been the lighting in my room. Anyway, these are all the color parts of 30 star blocks. There will be lots of flying geese units, and that means there will be lots of cut-away HSTs to create from the waste.

The chain portion of the quilt requires 568 2.5' squares. Yikes! Well, ya' gotta' cut 'em out if you're gonna' sew 'em back together! This was a task and a half!

All the parts are cut. I will keep the star parts separate from the chain parts. Hopefully I can stay organized.

Today, DH and I are picking up my mother for a trip to Peebles and a quilt show sponsored by the Loose Threads group. We will combine the trip with a visit to my great uncle and aunt's, and cousin Marilyn, who is a quilter and a member of  Loose Threads.

Busy, busy! Hope you are accomplishing a lot in your sewing room! 'll be back to retreat prepping later today.

Happy Quilting, Friends!