Change of Plans

I've been at it until it was done. I am so pleased with it. 

The original plan was to add some appliques on the border. I find the border pretty "naked" at the moment.

The mitered corners are almost perfect. Only one is off-centered. For a first try, I think this is excellent.

 

I had cut the fabric 7.5 inches, thinking I will have enough to add a diamond unit at intervals on the border. I didn't know the hexies were to eat 2 inches of that border.

A replica of the diamond will never fit "nicely" on this narrow border. So ideas for plan B are churning. 

Photo 1 for top and bottom

Photo 2 for top and bottom

Photo 3 appliques on the sides 

Photo 4

Photo 5

Which idea would you go for? Or if there other treatments you think of, please let me know.  There's always the possibility to quilt the border so that it makes its own design. Thinking ...  

 

Personally: 

For those of you who don't follow me on Facebook, I had a very fun week. NOT! I started my vacation on Monday, August 31. During the weekend before that, I was suffering from stabbing pain in my head and I could barely touch my skin, it was that painful. Saw the doctor on Monday who said I might be suffering from "Giant Cell Arteritis". It's an infection in the cell tissues of the arteries. So, got a prescription, order a blood test, and a biopsy. The next day, went for the blood test. Back home, DH said the hospital called for the biopsy. It is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm like "wow this is going so fast. It must be really bad". The next day, (Wednesday) at the hospital, told the doctor I only been taking the pills for two days. (The pill did work instantly on the searing pain, btw.) She didn't seem concerned and proceeded with the double biopsy. Yes, one on each side of the head. She removed about an inch for the artery above the temple. Needless to say, I have a different kind of headache now. Lol. 

The swelling is coming down real nice. Still waiting for the result of this test. So, sewing hasn't been on my mind lately. 

How about we finish this post on a happy note? Care for some reds? 

A dear friend gave me a big bag of scraps right before my vacation. Perfect timing. There were also magazines in the bag and I spotted this quilt. 

Dreaming in Dutch. If I could I would start that one right now. Instead, I tried to work on a crumb block. 

Here's my humble beginning with the colour red. 

Have a great long weekend everyone. 

;^)

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique for Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching

Whatever Wednesday Hexies Edition

The closer I get to finishing a flimsy, the more the quilt pushes back the finishing line. It never misses. Remember Jacob quilt's borders ordeal? (See this post.) (Also this post.)

The Quilt of the Century has its own little mischief in store for me.

It first started with, Oh! What the Flinging Burgers is this?? 

A stain! Yes! In the middle of my border. Why didn't I catch that when I was pinning the border to the quilt? Because this is MY life. It's not all pink and rosy Barbie's life. That's why! 

Well, now, that won't do. So I unpinned the border. You can see the wet spot where I tried to wash it off. 

Cut the stained fabric out and pinned it back to the quilt. Make sure it is at a 90 degree angle with the side border. Looks good. 

Sat down and sewed the pieces together by hand. Turned the quilt around to admire my great job and 

"The fabric IS backward, ladies and gentlemen. Yeesss, it has been sewn down with the wrong side up. What a DREADful deception this must be for Chantal." says the narrator of my life as I just sit there, eyes wide open, while the desire of stabbing this quilt to death overwhelmed me. (Can't wait to quilt this one now!)  

Unpinned the border from the quilt once more, armed with my faithful seam ripper we slashed this seam wide open, flipped the darn fabric over, kept a quarter inch seam allowance,  

and pinned it back to the quilt! Now! Made sure the fabric is on the right side. Measured everything twice. Made sure it is at a 90 degree angle. Made sure the border does not wave in any directions. Now. Can. I. Sew. The. Darn. Thing. On. Yes. Or. No? 

Nah! Too tired! I'm going to bed. Tomorrow's another day. 

;^)

Working with the new Blogger. 

Not that I think I am any better than anyone else, (cause I'm not) but because this is what I do and I thought it might help others have a more pleasant experience with the new Blogger. It might help with those photos that don't always behave well ... and it might not help. 

When I start a new post, I type a few lines and then I remove the hidden formatting. To do this, you have to click on the three dots at the end of the tool bar. (which is under the title of your post)

A little tool box will appear. Now, highlight all your text written so far in your post, (you can hold control (CTRL) with the A together to achieve this) then click on the crossed T in the tool box (clear formatting). 

You will notice your text change a little bit. If you had paragraphs, the distance between them will be different. It is do to the cancelling of the multi-spacing. I do this because I like to decide how many spaces I want between my paragraphs or photos. It is MY post. (I hope this is not too hard understand.)

Anywho! You do as you wish. It is yours to have fun with.  

As always, enjoy! ;^)

Joined 

Denise for Put Your Foot Down 

Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Kathy at Kathy's Quilt 

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Little Bits of Purple

The purple crumb bricks are done ...

... just need to trim them down to the right size.


Working on the last border of Quilt of the Century. 

I don't sew the first two hexagons. I will sew the borders together with a mitered corner and then sew the corner hexagons down.


Also did a lot of masks, picture to come later as the masks are already being used.

Three of my four men are back at work. This means a lot more washing, disinfecting and laundry than usual. Therefore sewing is not a priority. I will get the hang of it all and when a routine is established, it will go faster and I might get more sewing done. The boys try real hard to follow the directions. At least, they don't forget their mask on the kitchen table in the morning (masks are mandatory everywhere you go now) or in the car at night. We'll get there, eventually! lol.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

;^)

Joining: Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Kathy at Kathy's Quilt

What am I Doing?

 Lots being happening in my life but not much in the sewing room, so I skipped blogging for awhile to spare you the boring part of my life. 

Ever so slowly, the Quilt of the Century is progressing. 

The left side border went on so nicely (it still had the pieces of paper in the hexagons) that I had a mind to restart the right one. Because on the right border (the hexagons didn't have the pieces of paper as a support), I find the line of the border not as straight as the left side. I'll see how much it bothers me when I get the top and bottom borders on. 

As I was removing the paper pieces, I was wondering "do I have to remove the basting threads too?"  Would love to have your feedback on this one, please. 

I did another pajama for DS3 in flannel while I finish assembling his flannel quilt. This is only the center of the top. 

Also did a placemat top, finally. Just one! Like I said not much went down in the sewing room. :^D

I manage to get the purples out. Need to cut the second purple block (selvage on top of picture). I should have went with a scrappy background for this project as it is getting hard to find pieces of neutral fabric big enough to cut the 8.5" pieces. 

I will leave you with this poster found on the Internet. I hope all of you are well. 

;^)

Joining:

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts

Frédérique for Patchwork and Quilts

Nicole at The Needle and Thread Network

Awful Weather Makes Beautiful Progress

Again, we are stuck in humid, hot weather with storms basically every night. Today, it's raining. That means the sewing projects are progressing. 

Let's see what I did this week beside watching TV. Yes, I've been binge-watching Project Runway with some needle work. I'm already at season 5. 

First, I did a label for my latest finish and attached it to the quilt. It was fun playing with the EPP hexagons again, so I continued. 

Don't know if these are labels or a new project. I was just sewing rosettes out of hexagons prepped a long time ago. Then I thought about my hexie project and started to work on it. 

Tried one diamond shape for the border of the Quilt of the Century. I'm not sure about this. So instead, I attached all the pieces for the last row at both ends. 

After, I started to attached the border. It's a very soft ivory fabric.  The progress is very slow as I am sewing it on my lap. I constantly have to make sure the border isn't waving. 

I'm thinking of moving my quilting frame around so I can use it to sew the borders and be able to watch the screen at the same time. At the moment, these two are facing each other, so my back is to the screen or to the quilting frame. Not convenient. Anywho! 

I managed to play with the crumb blocks too. Played the shuffling game with the blocks and invaded my son's project. Oops! He is building me an Adirondack chair. I am so spoiled. 

Two sections of the quilt are sewn. Not exactly quadrants but that's what I always call them.  This is the top left side ... 

and the top right side. It will be an 8 X 10 layout. 

And that's all. Hope you are all well. 

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts. 

Enjoy! 

;^)

Dark Green Saturday and Whatever

Another week has gone by. Another week where I haven't done much on anything in particular. Like most of you, I am restless.

Played with hexagons a little bit. One side is done and working my way through the last row. I decided to use the same fabric as it was already out. :^D

back side of the hexagon quilt

Worked on Jacob's Ladder but not enough to mention it. Thank you SO much for all your comments on my last post. I truly appreciate every single one. Some were eye openers for me. I was really down and out about it. The difference between the block's units and the border units is 1/8". Not much of a difference but after 30 units, the difference was too much math for my poor restless head. I didn't feel like sewing the border on as I knew the bottom wouldn't line up with the quilt and the Super Seam Ripper would have to come rescue me once again. You know when you just know you are heading towards failure? Yep, that was me. :(

Anywho!
I found a few scraps and I just had to play with them. And that was FUN.

This is a maple leaf block. It was ALMOST 4 inches before finish. It was given in a bag of scraps a long time ago. Don't remember where it came from but I like it, with all its quirky-ness.

The choice of fabric is not the greatest as it is hard to see the leaf, the HSTs are crocked and it has a point issue but I like it. Maybe it was the first block a little girl did, or a tester for some new machine, who knows?

It lost some major points when I paired it up with a backing ...

... to finally give a purpose. It is now my newest pincushion. I found a scrap of leaf print and fussy cut one leaf so the back looks like this:

So, one tiny little piece of scrap got used up. Whoop Whoop! No? Lol.

I got some dark green out and made 9 Patch blocks because I'm restless and can't concentrate on anything for long. Is it the funny (not "haha" funny!) weather or is it the confinement that makes us feel this way? Either way, I'm suffering from it too.

One green is actually blue but pairs up beautifully with green ...

... and blue. I really like this little bit of scrap.

Since I found another bag of blue scraps, it lead to ...

... more blue sewing. There's even a dark green in there too.

And some whatever because we can all use more blocks, right?

Eighteen more 9 Patch added to the lot. But how many is there in the lot?
Let's count.

127 in the sewing capsule plus 5 already sewn in a block plus 18 done this week brings us to 150. Do I finally have enough? The pattern calls for 229 9-Patch units but it is too big (75"X 75") for me. If I do a 4 X 6 layout, I need 150 9-Patch units.  Really?!!  I'm right on the dot?  Wow! I'll keep making them since  a- it's fun; b- I'll need a good variety; c- there's always another cute 9-Patch quilts I want to make, lol.

Oh! Another thing I did.
I did some masks. Aren't we tired of hearing about masks? I am too but it is the newest fashion that no one can live without, literally! There's a lot of patterns out there but this is my favourite one.

I like it because the shape makes it easier to breath if you wear glasses (you don't fog up your lenses) and the ties wrap around your head and at the back of your neck like this. It doesn't bother the ears. Very easy to make. (I used shoe laces for ties.) The sides are open to slide in another layer or mask for the professional people.

You can get the pattern here. 

That's all for now, friends.

Stay safe because it's not over until the hospitals open their doors again.

;^)

Joining
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Kathy at Kathy's Quilts

May. Finally!

So happy to see May. I hope it will bring some warmth with it as the trees are still bare. They are now starting to show buds but usually they sport some tiny little bright green leaves at this time of year. Oh well. I'll enjoy whatever I get whenever I can.

This was last Saturday afternoon. It's was cold-ish but warm enough to play outside. I did lots of Economy blocks then. 

The total for Jacob Ladder's border is now 50 Economy blocks. I believe I have 40 more to do. Lots of blues in here.

Played with more blue crumb blocks

which wasn't easy because I have a whole lot more dark blue than lights and brights.

This poor bag is so full. I need to do something about this ... maybe this weekend.

Hey! Look who I found!

It's Jacob! Gosh! I love this quilt! All in blue and green with whatever neutral I had.  It's a pre-blog flimsy.  I will recount how many blocks I need for the border. I also have to find a fabric for the inner border that will play nicely with all the blocks.

It's nice to revisit these fabrics as some I don't have anymore, like these.

You won't believe what I found while looking for Jacob.

Yep! Another bag of blue fabric. Oh! but there's a lot of lights in this one. Okay, so I'll definitively be sewing more blue this weekend, and finish the crumb blocks properly.


Angela announced the new color for May and ...

I have a head start. Dark green is very present in the Economy blocks since Jacob has a lot of those too.

The hand sewing is coming along too. It is very slow sewing as the hexies don't have their paper backing anymore.

Still, half of the row is done, so I see it as good progress for the little bit of attention I gave it.

The other end has its paper still attached. Hopefully, it will go faster.

So, that's all I have for now.
You take care, stay home no matter what they are saying. I love how this post on Facebook explained it.

Only 3% chances of catching Corona-virus. If I give you a bowl of 100 candies and I tell you three candies are poison and you might die if you eat one. Would you still gamble and eat a handful? Because you know you will meet more than just one person out there. 


Please, stay safe as I love you all.
;^)

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