Showing posts with label EPP. Show all posts

Three Years Later...

Three years ago, Fat Quarter Shop hosted an EPP sew along.  I bought all the things and stitched together the pieces in a somewhat timely fashion.  Then I had to sew the finished piece to the background.  And there it sat, in various stages of completion for close to three years!!  Have I mentioned how much I dislike appliqué?  

 I finished stitching down the star to the background Monday night.  I had enough backing fabric that I could hook it to my long arm.  I was going to stitch a small, wavy line using a ruler.  Well, the ruler was actually little scallops, not waves.  So then I was going to try to use the Jane ruler I bought at MQX from Gina Perkes.  This ruler does clamshells.  You need to have a marked one-inch grid.  I pulled out the stencils I bought from Dorie Hruska.  They are all on the diagonal and I need a straight grid.  So I marked it with my rotary cutting ruler and blue marker.  I guess it's really easy to get slightly off while marking by hand.  Enough that the accurate grid the ruler depends on is just not there.  (Lesson learned:  buy the stencils.) Okay, now I have a more-or-less one-inch grid marked all over the top.  What do I do?

 I finally decided to try doing an all-over continuous curve design, specifically, the Terry Twist(TM). Yes, that is a trademarked design.  I thought the one inch was a bit small, and I did not feel confident in my ability to stitch it.  So I went with a two-inch grid.  I did much better than I expected.  The one-inch would probably have looked a little better, but this mini quilt is finally done after three years.  Good enough!  Pattern is by Fat Quarter Shop, fabrics are Kona Snow and Meadowbloom by April Rosenthal.


Our FLL competition was Saturday.  The boys did so well.  We set goals to improve performance in Core Values and Project over last year and score at least 150 on the robot.  While we haven't seen the judges' marks yet, we felt that we significantly improved Core Values and we thought our project was outstanding.  Our robot crashed and burned during the table runs.  We always expect a bit of that, but it was worse than normal this year.  Our third run, the robot actually froze up and wouldn't run the program.  Still, we got third place in robot score and third place overall, which means we're heading to state on December 1.  And the middle school team, 3/4 of whom were on our teams during elementary school, also qualified for state and got a robot design trophy too. Overall a pretty good day!
My father-in-law is coming in just two more days!  I cannot wait to see the cabinets.  I don't think I mentioned, but he is also bringing a few more cabinets for my pantry.  Those will enable us to store away the canning jars and accessories, along with a few rarely-used counter-top appliances. We've been busy trying to finish off a few small things in the sewing room and also picking up the main part of the basement so that there is a clear, clean path from the slider over to the sewing room to bring in the cabinets.  My husband does outstanding work, but cleaning as he goes along (or at all) is not his strength.  And the basement has been a construction zone for two years. Anyway, we're just about there and I cannot wait!
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Postcard from Sweden Mini Finish

My last week has been fairly stressful--the last bit of preparation for the FLL tournament this Saturday, elections, well...actually that's about it.  Things are falling into place nicely for the tournament.  I had some issues with getting the t-shirts printed.  I think everything is under control there, finally, at the last minute.  Elections.  Not a super great day to be a Hoosier, not that I ever fully feel like a Hoosier, nor do I think I ever will feel like one.  I'm always a bit embarrassed to say that I live here.  Well, on the bright side, the political ads are over for a bit. Just think of all the good that could be done with that money instead of spending it on advertising that no one likes.  Do these ads even influence any voters?  I only ever hear complaints about the commercials.

 On to much happier things.  Last week I was ready to re-quilt my Postcard mini.  I got the quilting done on Halloween and even started binding it.  I finished it totally on November 1.  I decided to use clear thread on the top and a gray on the back (which is gray).  I quilted in the ditch horizontally and vertically and also did the diagonals.  Because I had many attempts at the quilting, I had a lot of needle holes to address.  I ran the finished mini through the steam cycle on my dryer.  That took care of the holes and also made the quilt shrink a bit out of square.  I went with it, happy to have it finished.  Even though it is now a bit wonky, I still am pleased with it.  It's around 18 x 22.
(c) A. Hammond

Last week Monday my guild got together to make a charity fundraising quilt.  We made some improv-like Christmas tree blocks based on a tutorial available from Amy Smart.  Improv is NOT my thing.  I am a math major and a type-A.  I like my things even and as perfect as possible.  I like preciseness and improv is not that.  I went along and tried to contribute a few blocks.  I then got the job of attaching the vertical white borders and the outside borders, along with quilting it.  The quilt top in progress and some fabrics for borders and backing made its way to me on Friday.  I worked on the borders and quilted it Friday and Saturday before passing it along to another member for binding.  Since this required a quick turn around, I chose to do an all-over loopy meander. It is 40 x 60.


Can you find my seam join?  I was pretty proud of it!  LOL

Because this week wasn't stressful enough, the power cord that runs my stitch regulation decided it would be a good time to develop a wire break.  I would be quilting along and my machine would just stop mid-stitch.  We found a similar cord on Amazon that I hope will do the trick.  It arrived yesterday and I haven't had time yet to try it out for compatibility yet.

 Kim of Maggie Magpie Studio sent me a bunch of Bonnie & Camille's April Showers scraps as part of #getyourquiltywishesgranted4.  I feel very thankful for her generosity.  Look at all this beautifulness!  My plan is to make a king size granny square quilt for my bed using these plus the jelly roll and a few other scraps I've managed to buy.

I really have felt the need lately to work on getting more UFOs finished.  I started an EPP mini back in 2015 when Fat Quarter Shop did a quilt-along.  I was new to EPP then, but got it all stitched together well enough.  Then I had to stitch it down to the background and there it has sat, in progress, for almost three years!  I picked it up again this past week to try to finish stitching it down.  I'm getting closer; more than half way.  I just have the top six diamonds left to sew down.  Have I mentioned how much I dislike appliqué?  To clarify, I love how it looks and HATE doing hand sewing of it.  I cannot figure out a good way to get a nice point on the ends.
Let's see.  I finished both pairs of pajama pants I was working on for my kids last week.  No pictures though.  I have almost one side of the Tula quilt binding sewn down.  No progress made on any cross stitch.  I've been focusing on sewing down the EPP and alternating that with binding. Sunday my husband and I will try to get everything in my sewing room ready for my father in law to come in and work.  We have a bit of floor leveling left to do, a bit of drywall patching and then painting in the closets, and painting the window frame if there's enough time. I cannot wait to see my cabinets in there!

 Last Friday, after several days of heavy rain, I looked out into my garden to see an obscene display of stinkhorn fungus.  So gross.  They smell terrible. The only way to remove them is to remove all the soil and mulch around them.  Not worth the effort since they are, um, erect, for a day or two, spew seed, then become flaccid and wither away.  They are sort of funny in a juvenile sort of way.

I have four pink flamingos protecting day lilies in my lower garden.  Lately I've been finding them off their posts in the morning.  At first we thought it was due to high winds, but now I am convinced the deer are pushing them over in an attempt to get to the lily leaves.  Evidence--lots of deer footprints and chewed off leaves.  I did, however, find that one of my flamingoes was host to a monarch.  My picture is rather blurry, but maybe you can see the empty cocoon?  It's circled below.

Well, I guess that's it for this week.  I need to get going on cleaning since we have a dinner guest tonight.  And I have a few more FLL paperwork things to get done.  Until next week.

Update 5/13/21:  Linking with For the Love of Geese.
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Construction & Deconstruction

I haven't been doing much sewing in the last week.  I cut all the diamond angles of the jelly roll quilt I started, but really can't face sewing them all together at the moment.  They are currently living on the design wall with the Queen Bee quilt blocks that I haven't worked on in at least a year.

 I also decided that I really need to finish off the Fat Quarter Shop EPP I did a few years ago.  It just needs to be sewn to the background.  I got a few of the points sewn down, but it's really slow going and I am not enjoying it at all.  I'll try to keep plugging away at it though.

 I did work on stripping a dressing table for my daughter.  We inherited it from my grandma 12 or 15 years ago.  That was about at the point where we started relocating for jobs a bunch and we just kept hauling it with us.  We've been in our current location for six years (a record length of time in one place for us).  A few years ago my husband started to strip the table, but it got set aside.  I decided that we really need to have this finished, so the kids and I started working on it some more.  My son made it a few minutes before losing interest.  My daughter lasted a bit longer.  I ended up doing the rest of it on my own.  There were at least three layers of paint on it--white, yellow, and an odd orangey brown. There are drawers, a three-panel mirror, and arms along with the table. It now needs to be sanded quite a bit before it can be repainted.
My husband has a break before his next MBA class starts, so he's been working on finishing the bathroom.  The trim is all in place and painted.  The sink cabinet is in place too (of course, since it had to be in place in order to do the trimming).  He has everything taped off so that the walls are ready to paint, but I guess he decided to do more work on the drywall last night. So now he has to sand and then clean up all the dust before he can actually paint.  Sigh.
This picture shows the trim before painting.
The trim with paint.
Taping in progress.  Tip:  use painter's tape along the ceilings to avoid having to clean up roller marks.
I haven't been spending much time outside lately because the weather hasn't been too comfortable.  I did notice that most of my hosta next to the garage service door has been eaten. Then, a few feet further away, I found another chewed plant.  It used to be a hosta too.  I really need to weed.  


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A Few Small Finishes

Over the weekend we travelled out of state to get my kids from their grandparents'.  I had a few small projects to finish off, so it seemed like a good time to work on them.  First is this mini made with the leftover bits of my two Lori Holt Bubblegum Kisses quilts.  I was hoping to use the leftover backing as backing on this project too, but, alas, it was too small.  So I had to use some of my background yardage.  I used the leftover binding from one of the Bubblegum Kisses quilts as well.

Second is this Bonnie and Camille mini mini.  I originally made this for round two of the B & C Barn Quilt swap.  As I was finishing it, I noticed that it had a small red speck that I think is Kool Aid on it.  I couldn't send it like that, so I made a new one.  The red speck one languished here forever (a year!).  I decided to just finish it off for myself.  I used the leftover binding piece from the Bursting Star quilt I shared two weeks ago.  It's maybe not what I would have pulled from my stash as a binding, but the leftover piece fit exactly, so I figured it was meant to be.  Did you know that I have free instructions for how to make this block?  It's called Eight Hands Around and it is a 6" block.  It's a lot easier than it looks.

 I also brought along my EPP project.  I'm not sure I love it so far, but I will stick with it to finish. I'm glue-basting the fabric to the papers, but it's not holding very well and I find it very tedious. On the plus side, once I'm done sewing, I'm done.  No appliqué is required to finish, which totally increases the chance that I will actually finish.
I'm excited that my husband has agreed to finish the downstairs bathroom during his time off between classes.  We brought back enough trim from his dad's shop to finish the bathroom.  The trim for the whole basement is made, but we couldn't haul all that.  We're getting a bit closer on a cabinet plan for the sewing room too. 

 In other news, while I was at my parents' house, my mom made me cut my dad's hair.  It was really weird!  I should mention here that although I cut my husband and son's hair, I just use clippers and I have no training other than watching a video 20 years ago that came with our clippers.  Dad's hair ended up much shorter than he's used to, but it was a free haircut.

 I've gotten a few more sets of Polaroid blocks in the mail.  Both were side swaps.  That leaves me needing two more side swap sets and five more sets from my actual swap group.  The mailing deadline is Saturday.

 Other things I'm thinking about:  I can barely stand to look at the news headlines lately.  So much discouraging.  It's really got me down. Why is Kids Bop still a thing?  Why was it ever a thing?  Can spiders live under your carpeting?  How terrifying to consider.  I don't love going really fast on boats, especially when eight year olds are driving.  Why don't people know what a yield sign means? Why don't people slow down?  Why do they text while driving?  What could possibly be so important that you can't wait until you stop? Life is already fleeting; slow down and don't be risky.

Linking with mmmquilts.


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Quilting, Snow, and Legos


We finished up spring break with a trip to the Brickworld Lego show.  This is basically a bunch of people's Lego collections on display.  There are also vendors, of course.  My son's favorite display is the M-Tron Space Mining display.  The size of the display grew significantly from last year.  Besides wondering whether they keep it set up, and, if so, where, we were pondering just how much money they must have invested in all the parts.  As we were speculating the worth of the collection, I got to thinking about how quilting as a hobby could be comparable.  Do you know how much money you have invested in your machines, notions, stash, patterns, etc.?





Space Conga? 
Chewy!  What are you doing here?
Here is a brief video of part of the set up.  Make sure your volume is off, since it's just background noise.


Another favorite was the Space series.  My husband had several of these sets growing up and my son has found instructions and rebuilt a few of them.

I thought this farming display was cool.

 My personal favorite is the droid factory.  I was hoping they would have it on display again.  It has so many details.  It's just fascinating in person. Here is a brief video of it.  Turn your sound off, please.
Oh, Grumpy kitty.
In other news, we got a ton of snow yesterday.  I'm guessing 4-6 inches.  The roads are okay, so no school delay or closure.  It's supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow.  While the snow looks pretty, it is spring and it can just go away.  I want my spring flowers back.
Yesterday at dinner time.
Today at breakfast.
I haven't really progressed at all on my Postcard quilt.  I pressed the row I had made last week and cut the next row, but haven't sewn it yet.

 I've been trying to figure out how I want to quilt it when it's done.  Since it's all solids, whatever I do will really show.  Eek!  Any suggestions you have are welcomed.

 And, because Postcard isn't on my UFO Challenge list for guild, I was looking over the list to see what else I might be able to get done.  I have two candidates selected for quilting:  Paradiso #1 and this purple/green flower top that I made prior to 2006.  Honestly, I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt either of them.  But I am determined to get them done!
Also, our next program at guild is EPP.  I'm not interested in doing the project that will be presented, but the cover image of the last Make Modern magazine caught my eye.  I had ordered a whole bunch of blues as color samples and between those and my leftovers from the Postcards quilt I have almost enough to do the project.  I wanted one more dark, so I ordered Kona Prussian yesterday.  Fingers crossed it fits into my progression.  
Kona cotton colors from left to right:  Royal, Pacific, Malibu, Water, Niagara, and Lake.
I will leave you with this random fact, as photographed on the bathroom mirror at the state fairgrounds.
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Guild Mug Rug/Coaster Swap

My guild met last week and we exchanged the coasters/mug rugs.  Here's the one I made for my partner.  It definitely fell into the large mug rug category.  I used Cotton Way's Bobbin Box pattern as a base and used Bonnie & Camille Basics for the fabrics.

I received the cutest hexie-shaped coaster.  It's perfect because the fabrics and colors are all ones I love and it's also something I would never make for myself.  
We also had the gift exchange.  Here's most of what I included in my gift.  Not pictured is one more pattern and a pin.
Here's what I received.

I was quite happy that the mug and my mug rug match.  Nice coincidence.
In other news,  I'm so relieved that Alabama came through.  I feel a small amount of hope from this.

 Also, I finished up the fish quilt top and quilted it yesterday.  I had a moment (or ten) of panic when I thought I broke my bobbin case with a row and a half left to go.  I thought the bobbin was empty, so I went to pull it out of the case and the check spring fell out too.  After reading posts in the FB group about it, I finally found a description of how to reinsert it that made sense.  Whew! Disaster averted.  I started binding last night and only have about 380 inches left to go.  I have 10 days.  No sweat, right?

I was feeling good about it until I realized that I still have to embroider 10 shirts and make a teacher gift in that time or less.  I can do this.  I can do this.  I can do this.

 At least the decorating and wrapping is done.
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Another Mini Finish!

I'm nearing the end of my swap quilts and I'm really glad!  I sent out a birthday swap gift a bit ago.  Now that the birthday girl has received it, I can share!  For this one I made a mini quilt using Kate Spain's Canyon fabrics.  My picture isn't the best for color representation.  (Can't wait till we are past winter.  Lighting is hard.  So dark.)  The oranges are coral in real life.  I quilted this mini on the long arm.  I marked all the loops.  I should have marked the outside loops too.  I thought it would be easy to just use the foot to space them.  Yeah.  Didn't really work.  Live and learn.  And probably need to practice a lot more.
Front
Back
Here is the entirety of what I sent for this one.  She likes pens and I think she is interested in English Paper Piecing, so I sent some things that I've been using for EPP.  In case you're wondering what that strange thing on top of the spool of thread is, it is a rubber thumb from the office supply.  I use them for thimbles because they are inexpensive and make gripping the needle really easy.  I also included a quilt book.

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