On December 24th, I wrote a blog post lamenting that I was behind on projects, creating a list and boldly stated that I was going to finish that list by the end of January. Well, I didn’t finish. I am, however, giving myself a break on this. The goal was to buckle down, organize and be efficient. I was all of the above and more.
I have a huge stash, a huge “idea” pile, stacks of patterns, many started projects, etc., etc. I am constantly getting ideas and starting new projects – I start way more than I finish (but in my defense – I finish a LOT of projects compared to the average quilter). For the last five weeks, I have worked on that list diligently and only started ONE new project. That project came out of a class that I took with two friends. Since I feel that socialization is my greatest need in life – that was perfectly fine to do! Side note: I ONLY used fabrics from stash for that project, so I’m addressing the other goal of the year – using stash!
Additionally, I am working more hours per week than I have for many years and that has severely cut into my project time. Three years ago, I could promise someone a quilt inside even a week because I was working 35-40 hours at a nearly stress free job. Now, it’s 60 during a full week (30 when I’m technically on vacation) and quite a bit of stress. I don’t have weekends off, but put in hours during both Saturday and Sunday.
I’m going to extend my time frame for the current project list, and when it is indeed done, I’m going to write another list from the already started projects and diligently work on that.
I have a nice wicker thing… ummm…. What is it really? I guess a “trunk” is the best word for it – in my sewing area. While my stash and the embroidery machine are in the basement, I mainly sew at the dining room table to be close to hubby. This trunk was originally meant to be a functional/decorative piece of furniture that would hide my sewing projects so that I wouldn’t have to do a lot of cleanup for company. In reality, the trunk is full of projects that I haven’t looked at in over a year and there are two buckets on top of the trunk and a large bin off to the side with more.
New “end” goal for all this is reduction and organization. I’m not going to put a timeline on it – that part was a failure – but I am going to state that the trunk will be the ONLY project bin by the end of this and that the armoire and sideboard in the dining room – different sorts of spaces – will hold tools and patterns; they will not be additionally overflow areas.
During whatever time frame that this takes – I will work on ONLY the current list with one caveat – class projects. I will not cease taking classes, attending block of the month programs, etc. Those are socialization for me and are important. However, I will make sure that I complete a minimum of THREE projects in order to add ONE (and no fair doing only the small projects!).
Scrap Tamers Problem
I think I screwed up… in a funny way. This year’s mystery for the scrap tamers group was done a little differently that previous. At the first session, we were given ALL the cutting directions. I actually missed the first session, and a friend picked up the directions for me. I diligently followed them, cut and put the pieces into various baggies. Now that I’m at the fourth clue (third with sewing actions since #1 was cutting) and something is wrong… I have too many pieces….
I’ve read, and reread the cutting directions for the clue, and conferred with a friend not in the group. (Friend who IS in the group doesn’t remember what was said at the meeting). There’s cutting instructions for the “main” pieces and cutting directions for the background. I cut according to ALL the directions for the main pieces. However, now that I’ve gotten down the road a little, I think that one section for the mains was if you used quarter yards and the other section was for if you used stash scraps. End result, I think that I have duplicated the cutting; I think I have pieces for TWO of the mystery. Note: the background fabric cutting directions were clearer and I only have ONE set of those pieces.
I have a class at Glad Creations tomorrow and I’m going to ask. But, I’m about 98% sure that I’m going to be redoing clues 2-4 on the second set.
So, here’s the plan: I decided to do the mystery with patterned black and red scraps from my stash. I used some of the extra scraps to make the Month 1 focus pattern – the Bali Runner (see here for a picture to get an idea of the color scheme). For the back ground, I used a white fabric with a thin, sparse black pattern in it. The white is more a winter white – not bright – so it’s more soothing than attention grabbing. For my companion mystery, I’m going to go the opposite path. Pink comes to mind…. A bright, attention grabbing pink. I have far more pink in my stash than any other color (I’m a girl, what can I say?!), so it won’t be an issue to come up with something. I may change my mind when I start digging through my stash if I find the perfect smooth pink, but I really think I’ll come up with something bright.
Since red (in the main pieces) is the color for heart disease awareness in women (wear Red for Women day just occurred) and pink is for Breast Cancer awareness – this could be a great quilt to give to a Women’s organization for a fundraiser. Readers – start thinking about that and put in your request to me for your favorite charity.
This will also be an interesting color study – with only ONE fabric change, how will the quilt look? All the main pieces were cut at the same time….of the same stash scraps… the same fabrics will be in both quilts… but the backgrounds will be different. This could be fun! Since it’s a mystery, I have NO IDEA of the pattern…..
Stay tuned!!!
Quilting on Minkee and Scrap Tamers Subject Deux
I have a friend who is an EXCELLENT seamstress. She’s done costuming for years and is highly skilled in sewing. Similar to me, when she started to run out of people to sew for (and dolls in my case), she turned to quilting to keep going on her love of fabric and color. She just recently completed a baby quilt using the tossed nine patch pattern. Her focus fabric was a black with bright colored cats on it. To complement it, she used bright fabrics, including orange Minkee.
Since she’s relatively new to this, she is only making tops. I know that she will eventually master quilting the sandwich. But for now, she turned to me. I’ve made bones about doing quilting for people in the past. I’ve been taken advantage by a couple people, including one who grew to expect me to quilt all her quilts, including one that was a commission, without paying me or even following through on promised favors. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to get paid for quilting. I don’t have a frame, I don’t want to make a living of it (heaven forbid!), but I do really enjoy being able to do things for my good friends. However, I do also expect them to return the favor in an equitable manner. I’ll expand later, but this particular friend has ALWAYS done that and will continue to get services from me for a long time.
Getting back to the main part of this bit – she also decided to use the orange Minkee for the BACK of the quilt. I’ve heard of people using fleece on the back of quilts, and I myself have used Minkee and similar products on simple, small blankets where only the binding holds the top to the back (maybe a few ties too), but I’d never quilted using Minkee on both the front and the back!.
I took a small piece from her, loaded the 40wt orange thread onto the Juki and gave it a test try…. Worked fine! We pinned out the quilt, and I started on it. (I also gave her a stack of half square triangles I had that needed to be trimmed – tit for tat, right?).
Thread break…..
Thread break….
Bad stitches….
Thread break….
UGG! I tried a different orange thread (60 wt) and it was even worse. Ok, think Mary…. What’s the issue here? You’ve used the 40wt orange thread on another quilt and you know that the Juki likes it…. It’s stitching fine for a bit, but then breaks…. It’s not breaking right away…. Think…. Think….
I’ve done a few quilts with a muslin back for the pieces (not sure exactly what that’s called), and had a similar problem. The advice I was given for that was to use a larger needle – 18 – than I normally use. So, I dug out my box of needles (I buy needles 300-400 at a time, pretty evenly divided with 9 – 11 – 14 and only a couple packs of larger ones), and tried it….
Success!!!
The quilt then quilted up quite lovely with only one or two more thread breaks. I used a simple meandering pattern as I do on most of my quilts.
Back to the second part of the story…. As I said, this friend is always good about appreciation. I figured we were pretty even since she trimmed up my half square triangles while I was quilt. I also was a baby quilt – not a large quilt! However, a week later, she handed me a package with two pieces of yellow fabric and one black and white (with tiny bits of blue) fabric!
So, now I have the fabric for one of the monthly focus projects from Scrap tamers…. Not next month, which is going to be a small project, but maybe the month after that.
Storm at Sea and Trim Plates
The friend from above and I took at class at Twin City Quilting. This was also the one new project that I started during my moratorium. The class was on the Storm at Sea block and some different quilt designs using it.
First – about the teacher and the class. Not good. She made some beautiful quilts but she just couldn’t teach well. No demonstrations, had us bring things we didn’t use and talked way too much about herself and what she’s done rather than focusing on the quilts, blocks and instructions. My take away from the class was that it was her show and tell/brag session about her skills and not a teaching / learning experience. I felt that the class was a waste of time and money.
I also felt that her instructions were subpar. First, her drawings were rudimentary and sloppy. Now I realize that no all people can have drafting software and draw things out professionally. However, I fell that she could have used a ruler and put more effort into her diagrams. She also forgot half of the cutting directions for one of the main fabrics and went around editing each person’s instructions. Lastly – the instructions themselves – specifically the fabric descriptions/directions. Rather than naming them “background”, “corners”, etc., she named them “dark”, “light”, etc. This seems little, but has really confused me. I switched up my color scheme from hers, and have to keep reversing in my mind: “where she says dark, it’s really my light background”, etc. It’s caused some cutting errors on my part. Note to direction writers: name the fabric with its purpose or location - not with a color or value because those can change from quilt to quilt.
This brings me to some larger comments about TCQ. I love the shop, I love the block of the month programs (the one I just finished and the one starting), and I love the advice I get there. However, their classes are priced higher than other shops and I’m not hearing good things about them. I doubt I’ll take another class there for awhile.
Next – about the project. The special thing about this method was that we were instructed to buy “trimplates” for the class. These are a set of custom rules/templates for cutting out and trimming up the smaller blocks that make up the Storm at Sea block.
One of my best investments of the year! These trimplates are really quite nice and made making the block a lot easier. There are two pieces which are printed with guides for all stages of sewing and trimming the blocks. By turning the plates and using different sides and corners, it’s quite easy to create a perfectly measured block. I’m normally a fan of paper piecing to get things exact but with these trimplates, that same level of accuracy is achieved with less work.
My particular project is going to be a larger quilt with pinks, black and black and white fabrics. Most of the smaller pieces that make up the larger Storm at Sea block are uniform. However, the sides of the rectangular pieces change fabrics from diagonal row to diagonal row. In my quilt, those are going to be black and white and pink/black/white fabrics and they increase in darkness from one end of the quilt to another. Hard to describe but I will show pictures later.
Mini Update on Contest Quilt
I have finished the eight triangles that make up the four squares that are the center of my design. See here for a picture of the test quilt’s center. I tried to take a picture but the lighting wasn’t good and two of the colors just run together. I’ll take better pictures (during the day and with the good camera instead of the iphone) when I get a little more done. So far, I’m quite pleased!
The Project List
Mariner’s Compass quilt
· Assemble blocks
· Cut sashing pieces
· Assemble quilt
Curved Piece quilt
Block of the Month – TCQ
Scrap Tamers
v Assemble quilt
v Bind quilt
v Cut out blocks
v Assemble blocks
v Assemble quilt
v Bind quilt
Contest entry
· Piece blocks
· Assemble blocks
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