Still in Blue

In Canada, it is a long weekend for us, so pedal to the metal, I'll be sewing some blues.

Here's what I've manage to do since my last post.

Katherine Wheel is November 5. It has 16 pieces and it is very easy. This one is a contender for RSC 2020. (OMG! I've just said that! 2020? Ouch!)

Darting Bird is next. I did a reverse version.

 Lol. No it's not that crooked in real life. I've used only two fabric instead of the three asked in the pattern and did the bird darker then the background. A simple 9-Patch with 15 pieces. Love this.


On to Nov. 7, Straw Flowers.

Now that was a challenge! Each quadrant is 2 inches unfinished. I'm happy that its 44 pieces fit so well together. YES! Done!


Road to the White House was much easier. It has 22 pieces.

November 9 block, Air Castle was made back in October, due to some of its pieces were made while making another block. For fear of losing the pieces, I made Air Castle right away. So, here's one you have seen already (probably).

25 pieces, not counted in October's grand total.


Next comes a hot mess. I don't like my choice of fabric but I am not starting it over. (not yet anyway!)

Wild Geese on November 10 is anything but nice. It is a wonky version of the original design. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :^\

Side note: my office has moved on October 24, to a new town where nothing is ready for us. Why did they made us move so soon I have no idea. The phone is not connect and there's no Internet. Our passes don't open doors and some desks received aren't the right one. Then the contractor kicked us out because we were in their way. (Of course, we are; it's NOT finished.) So, we work from another department with our stuff in boxes at our office which we can't go and get. Lovely, really! I work with my personal phone for lack of a better option. I am so tired; we all are. But it is business as usual. The educators have playgroups at different venues, where they have to haul boxes of toys and craft supplies. I do my best with their paper work, sometimes working things out from memory. I don't know yet where we will be on Tuesday. Still it doesn't explain such a wonky block but thanks for letting me vent it out.


I shouldn't think of that since it is the week END! A looooonnnnngggg weekend. It is our Remembrance Day on Nov 11. Appropriately, Nov 11 block is Poppy.

Isn't this a cutie? I love it. Hey Cynthia, here's another one for your garden. Wink! (You should check her garden quilt. It's awesome!)
Those little pieces in the corners are cut at 7/8 of an inch. I was wondering if any of this fabric would show once all the parts were sewn together but yes they do! 16 pieces.

All these blocks are 3.5 inches. Only 5 more to go and I am done with the wee blocks.

Talking about Poppy, I am also working on a border for Field of Poppies (a.k.a. Good Fortune by Bonnie K. Hunter). Here's what I have:

Option 1 

Option 2 

Option 3 

Option 4

This is what I am playing with this morning. What do you think?

Oh son is up! Time to go grocery shopping and then ... more sewing. :^D

Hope you can find some sewing time too. Enjoy!

;^)


Joining Angela at SoScrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise from Put Your Foot Down 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good is

Aster (corner #3) is done. As in done, done, done!

It has 157 pieces that finally fit together. Phew! (See last post to know more about its story. It is worth it.)

No Y-seams! I am really proud how it turned out. I've lost one point only. To me, that's excellent!


Only one more Corner to go. With the adventure I had with Aster, I think I will start working on corner #4, Christmas Iris, this week. (I hope I still have hair by the time I am done.)



While sewing Aster, I used the next few blocks as leader - enders so I have 3 more blocks/days done. They are:

Nov. 1, Good Fortune with 20 pieces

Nov. 3, Green River with 7 pieces soooooooo easy!

Nov. 4, Friendship Name Chain also with 7 pieces

With these blocks done, there is only 56 blocks left to do. Whoop Whoop!

I've also made a few 4-Patch blocks for the border of Field of Poppies.

Only need 116 of those. It's a whole lot better than 365, lol.



The Bad is

There is still 11 dark 3.5 inches blocks to do. :^b

So, I will do these first, regardless of where they are in the month of November. Then only the light 6 inches blocks will remain and there are 44 of those to do. Yay! The end is near.

The Ugly is

My sewing room! Nope, no pictures allowed. :^D
I so want to put all those little bits of dark blue away. Soon, soon.

Maybe I should include myself in this category because many of you question my sanity. It makes me laugh. Yes, I am crazy with this quilt or should I say crazy about this quilt? Either way, I am guilty!

I so want it. I still so love it. It really is the ultimate sampler. It will be (after my boys of course) my pride and joy once it is done. I am sure that all those who have completed this quilt or Dear Jane Quilt understand me completely.

Quilting is a crazy hobby. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

;^)


Joining Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Keep the Instruction Close By ....

... and the seam ripper even closer. Believe me, you'll need it. :^(

Working on corner #3 of the 365 Challenge Quilt. So I grabbed by sewing capsule and started sewing.

 Working hard on avoiding Y-seams. So here is the first block. It's good. I need three so back to the sewing machine.

Made two more. One needs to have a talk with the seam ripper. (Already?)

Flipping corners instead of Y-seams.  Saving the little tiny bonus HSTs blocks.

May I ask why you are saving these little tiny weeny HSTs?
"I don't know" replies the old crazy nag bent over her sewing machine. "They're cute!" she says still stitching away til it's bedtime.

Pinning units to a Styrofoam plate, trying to keep the ones that lean to the left separated from the ones leaning to the right.

Sewing evening after sewing evening. Eventually, the plate got too small or the project got too big ... whatever! I needed a bigger surface to pin the units. Found a piece of batting. Good enough!
Pin, pin, pin the units. Sew, sew, sew the little pieces. Bedtime. (Already?)

Then, Oh NO!!!!! Look what I forgot to do. The green circle is right; the others are wrong. Can you tell what is missing? Fudge! You need to follow the directions better than that if you want to finish this block one day.

Super Seam Ripper to the rescue! (What a waste of time!)

As I try to put units together, I saw that the branch units are smaller than the petals units. WHAT!! Out came the ruler and DARN! they are smaller. But why? I followed the instruction. Started looking for answers and I noticed the seam looked big so I measure it. Double darn! It is too large. Fudge! Let's see. Where have I put the seam ripper.

I hope you can see this on your monitor. At one point, I had switch foot on the sewing machine. (yes, the one on the sewing machine, not my foot. I would never change my stinky foot!) The stitch line on the left is with a quarter inch foot. The stitch line on the right is a quarter inch from the edge of the fabric. So quarter inch foot my hind foot!! Now how many pieces have I done with the quarter inch foot? AAAArrrrrgghh!

Seam ripper is hiding somewhere under this I think!

This is the difference between a quarter inch seam and a quarter inch stinky foot! The proof that all quarters are not the same.

Some evenings later, the basket gets done. I am getting so close to the end.

Then I couldn't sew them together. It didn't fit. Oh WHAT NOW?!!

Sure enough. Look. The branch isn't the same size. But I am not sewing with the stinky foot anymore, so what gives? While looking for the seam ripper I found this.

So if this is the "O" piece, what the heck have I sewn to the basket? Who cares. Super Tired Seam Ripper to the rescue.

Aaahhh! This is so much better. But now it is too late for me to do anything more. It's bedtime again!! Aaarrrgghh!

It'll have to wait one more evening.




DARN!




From these 5 pages of instruction,  ...






... I finally got this beauty ...

... named Aster ...









... on my design wall ...

It is late, it is dark, it is not the best picture but it'll have to do for now. I will take more pictures tomorrow when the lighting is better. For now I am content.



I am soooo bent on finishing these blocks, that I could so sew, sew, sew! But I need to pay attention to the instruction and where I leave the seam ripper. ;^D


Enjoy!


I need a glass of wine now.   \_/   Cheers!


Joining Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More
Angela at So Scrappy 
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Another Month Done

9-Patch blocks are growing in my sewing room lately. I love 9-Patch blocks. The doubles won't go in the same quilt. :^D

These are my leader-enders lately as I need something simple in between 365 blocks. I've also made a few 4-Patch in green. There's a certain quilt that is asking for a green border. Care to guess which one?

On the Blue front, the month of October is done. Yes, done! Thanks to the long weekend I had enough time to finish October's blocks. The line-up looks like this:

October 27

this is my cute Centennial block with 21 pieces. The pattern says to trim it to 3.5 inches. "Houston, we have a problem". It doesn't measure 3.5 inches. How can I trim it?  :^(  Let's start that one over again.

Still not perfect but close enough. I'm sure Mango Feet has an easier way of putting this little beauty together.  Hers are so lovely. You should check it out.


On with Oct. 28

I had to do not one, not two ...

... not three but FOUR 3.5 inches blocks in order to make one 6 inches block. On any other day, these four units would have counted as four days! But they were very easy so, in the end, it's all good, lol.

Look how lovely it turned out. This picture is showing the real colors. I don't know why the units have an orange tint when photographed on the cutting board.  So, Blazed Trail at 6 inches with 48 pieces.

Now this is Riley's Knot. I bet you can tell where I had my partial seam, right? lol. No, I wasn't drunk. (maybe I should have?) Sewing a partial seam on a one-inch piece of fabric is quite a challenge to say the least. But doable.
Riley's Knot - 17 pieces.

On to October 30 with French Silk Pie.
Have you ever had a piece of French Silk Pie? Not to brag that everything French is best (French Fries, French Kiss, Haute Couture, etc.) but French Silk Pie is divine ... and for your information, not French at all, lol.

Back to quilting.

Here is my block for October 30 with 33 pieces and if I say French Silk Pie one more time, I'll bake one. 8^)

And on the last day of October stands All Hallow!

I am so in love with this block. I want an entire quilt made with this one. I find the fabric in the middle too light but it'll brighten up the others that I find too dark. This is another 6 inches block with 48 pieces. Lots of HSTs and Geese units in this one but it is an easy 9-Patch type of block. I ♥ it.

And that's all for October. The final count of pieces is : 865. For those of you who do/did Bachelor's Puzzle, the total will be different.

On to November. Whoop Whoop!

I will start with November 2 since it is the third corner of the Challenge and it is full of Y-seams!

Yikes! I need to re-figure this one. But it is a beautiful block.

The basket looks like a killer and it might take me a few weeks to make it, lol. I'll see you then.

;^)

I will be with
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

This Took For EVER

Wee sewing again with one inch HSTs. Lots of one inch HSTs.

But let's start at the beginning with

Oct 24 - Key Lime Pie - 29 pieces

The pattern says to keep the other "almost" Hour Glass units (whatever they are called) to use them in the block from November 9.

Guess what?

I did November 9 right away for fear of losing the useful units. (I do know myself. VBG)

So here is November  9 - Air Castle - 25 pieces (Too dark)

Then back to October with the one that took foooooorrrr E.V.E.R

Oct 25 - E.V.E.R. green Tree - 42 pieces

The next one took foooooorrrrr E.V.E.R. too!

Oct 26 - Original Design with 45 pieces.

Then ... I did a little HSTs indigestion so ...


...  I took a break.



A well deserved break.

Wasn't that a wonderful break? I soooo love my drive to work. Of course, at this time of the year, Canadian forests are at their best and I am mesmerized. I have to "endure" this wonderful scenery every day, for 35 minutes, because it's like that all the way home. Awful isn't it? :^D  Sometimes, I have trouble keeping my eyes on the road, lol.  I could have stopped at every mile to take a picture but I'll spare you the entire 35 minutes.

Now back to wee sewing to October 27 with Centennial

(I am still picking fabric for this one, so you will have to wait a wee bit longer for this one.) (More pictures?)

It's so much more beautiful live

Take care. 

;^)

Oops forgot to add my little 9 Patch blocks done this week with a little bit of black.

Can you spot the little "make do"?

Joining Sarah at Confession of a Fabric Addict
Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

TN&TN at The Needle and Tread Network