Well, I went on an in-town retreat last weekend with MN Quilters. Lots of fun! I got around 20 hours of sewing done, which is great because that is the only sewing I have done in about three weeks now. A combination of lethargy, lack of motivation, and a very messy sewing space had defeated my will to do anything. I also spent the last two days cleaning my sewing area and sorting fabric, so maybe I will be getting back on track now. So, what did I get done?
I finished the circle in my Tula Pink Dahlia quilt. Well, except for the outer gray because I ran out of Kona Charcoal. I went to get more at Crafty Planet, but when I compared it to the inner circle it must be a different dye lot because it was much lighter. I have ordered more off Fabric.com (where I got the original bit) and am very much hoping it matches better.
I also have to re-do the very center where all 16 points come together because it is all bulky and buffl-ey and won’t lie flat. I will rip it all out and re-stitch it with Aurifil, I think. I don’t usually use it because it is so expensive, but that seam is so bulky. I also have some “Bottom Line” 60 wt.; maybe I will try that instead.
I changed the center color to pink and dark pink from the pink and mustard because the mustard flowers just looked too busy.
I also started a two new projects this week, because I already have about 10 projects on the go, so what’s two more?
First, I want to finally use up all the denim and corduroy that is taking up two giant bins in my fabric stash. After thinking for quite awhile (*cough* 5 years), I decided to make a very heavy and warm camping quilt. I am going to use a wool blanket from goodwill for batting so this thing will be crazy warm. Since it is so thick, I am likely going to do a raggy-style quilt for this since I can’t imagine trying to quilt a queen sized denim, wool, and corduroy quilt on my home machine! Either that or I am going to tie it. Not quite sure yet.
Anyway, I figure I need about 288 six inch squares each of corduroy and denim, and 288 five inch squares of wool. I almost got all the corduroy cut up, so my project for the week is to work on the denim and wool. Camping season doesn’t start until May, so I have a little while to finish yet.
Second, I have been thinking of doing something string-ish with the bits and odds and ends from my 100 shirt deconstructions. I got Bonnie Hunter’s book String Fling because I was smitten with the Orca Bay pattern a couple of months ago and decided that would be perfect for the shirt bits. I drew 5.5 and 3.5 inch squares in Illustrator and printed them out on copy paper. I then cut out the squares close-ish to the line (maybe 1/8 inch outside).
I started by doing some blue and red string blocks and they are so fun! I was doing these the same day as the very fussy Y-seams and inset inner circle of the dahlia quilt, so these seemed so free and easy. I can foresee many string quilts in my future. What a great way to use up otherwise useless bits! I finished 14 of 64 red and 13 of 72 blue blocks.
I had taken a few blocks of Supernova with me, but it turned out I had sewed a few of the half geese mirrored, so that was a wash. One goal this week is to finish cutting the remaining blocks.
I also managed to get two blocks of Bali Star done. Man, I hate working on this quilt. Too bad it is going to be so pretty or I would have scrapped it by now. Total number of blocks assembled is now 8 out of 90. (I have all the block components done, but it still takes 45 minutes to just assemble the 5 pieces of the blocks together!)
And lastly, I did a bunch of four-patches for the Jacob’s ladder. I put one block together and now I am thinking meh. It is pretty washed out. I need to think about this one.
