Today’s sewing was all WIP related. I have chosen the Strip Mirage I started for my great-niece as my February UFO to work on, and hopefully FINISH in February. I had the top all done except for borders. I got them added today, made the backing and I have the binding strips cut. It’s all ready for the longarm.
After, I got that done, I pulled out some indigo fabric from my stash to make 380” of binding for my Barn Star Sampler. I used quite a bit of fabric from my stash for my Barn Star Sampler, but I did have to buy a few background fabrics, and some teals as I didn’t have enough in my stash. I had plenty of indigos in my stash as called for in the pattern, and used this one in some of the blocks and also had plenty for the binding. As I was cutting the binding strips, I saw the date in the selvedge. Oh my, it’s 20 years old! How can it be that 20 years have passed since I acquired this fabric?! I still love it and glad to be using it, finally. I also still have about 1.5 yards left.
I would love to finish both of these this month, but I plan to hand stitch the binding on the Barn Star Sampler, so I seriously doubt I will get it finished this month. We shall see….
I finished two more of the 24” blocks for the Barn Star Sampler I’m making. This block was pretty fun to make. I didn’t have to use the seam ripper near as much as I did on the last block.
After I finished them, I took all the blocks I have so far and laid them out on the basement floor following the layout in the pattern. You can see I still have several little blocks left to make and two more 24” blocks to fill in the empty spaces. I mostly used fabrics from my stash, but I did have to purchase some extra background and some darker teal, as I just didn’t have much of that color in my stash. I think I’m going to be pleased enough with it once it’s all together.
One thing that frustrates me is that this one fabric isn’t photographing the way it looks to the naked eye. At least not the way it looks to mine. The fabric in the background of this smaller block looks like a nice dusty rose pink, very similar to the pink in the large block next to it, but in photos, it has an orangish or brownish tint, and just looks kind of yuck next to the other blocks. I’ve tried all different kind of lighting, and it doesn’t look good in any photos.
Finally, here it is again on top of the whole stack of blocks. It really makes me wish I had used a different fabric for the blocks I used it in, but I’m not going to remake them. Especially not since they look good enough in person. 🤷🏻♀️
I have been working on client quilts, as well, and will catch up sharing some of those here soon. I’m also working on a very special t-shirt quilt project for a sweet local family, but that is super secret for the time being. Eventually, I will get to share about that here. My “sewjo” seems to be in full swing lately, and I’m here for it!
We are under the gun today for potentially very severe storms. Some rain sure would be nice, but praying we dodge the bullet on all the bad stuff. They are saying on the radio, as I type, that we could have large hail and tornadoes. They are saying that we should actually hope for no rain today, because if we “break through the cap” enough for moisture, we will also see bad storms in this one. We have a 40% chance of wind, hail, and possibly tornadoes. 😬 😩
This past week, my quilting attention went mostly to this lovely Optical Illusions quilt that I am quilting for a client. She made it for her 16 year old grandson. I felt a little intimidated by it at first, but this has actually turned out to be so much fun to work on. The center part is just straight line quilting through the intersections, in such a way as to enhance the 3D-ness of the piece. It’s just really cool. I’m doing all the black thread parts first, and then I will switch and finish up with the white. All I have left with black is the very outside border, and whatever I end up doing in the inner sashing. The outside borders will be the same as the pattern I put in the inside border corner pieces.
I’ll share pics of the whole quilt once I get it off the frame. I had to take a pause on the mermaid I was quilting because my client ordered little eye and mouth appliqués that she wanted me to stitch onto the face and we are still waiting on them. One of those times zippers on my longarm leaders came in handy. I was able to zip it off and lay it on my guest bed in the meantime, and move on to the next client quilt.
Last week, my Sunday Funday sewing time ended on a down note. I thought I was zipping along, making good progress on the diamond star blocks for my Barn Star Sampler. I was working on assembling the four corner units for each of the two blocks. Well, I don’t know how I goofed up so badly, but I sewed a total of 32 half square triangles into their units backwards or upside down. Good grief! I spent some quality time with my seam ripper, and felt for sure the pieces would then be distorted enough that they wouldn’t go back together nicely. I finished redoing them this afternoon, and I now have all 8 corner units done, and they didn’t turn out badly at all. The next step is to make 16 elongated flying geese units. Hopefully, I will get those sewn together without mishap. 😂
I’m no stranger to the seam ripper, but that was a much bigger mistake than normal. I’m ready to get these two giant blocks behind me. I was supposed to have finished my blocks in February, and then assembled the quilt top last month, according to the QAL schedule. Obviously, I didn’t make it on schedule. This block is month 9, so after it I have blocks to do for months 10 & 11, then the mini filler blocks and top assembly for month 12. I haven’t decided if I’m going to custom quilt it, or do a pretty edge to edge on it. I’m kind of leaning to doing an all over edge to edge. We shall see when I get there, I guess!
I’m curious to see how noticeable the eclipse will be here tomorrow. We are not in the path of totality, and that suits me just fine. Sounds like it’s going to be crazy in those areas with so many flocking in to see it. I find them (eclipses and gigantic crowds) kind of unnerving for some reason, so I’m just fine staying where I am, and going about business as usual.
I did get some exciting news from an area quilt show this weekend, but I’ll share that in an upcoming post! If you’ve made it this far and are still with me, thank you for stopping by!
Well, after being down with a bad headache all day yesterday, I felt much better today and made up for lost time. I even had to keep my two youngest grandsons from 3:45 yesterday afternoon until their parents and older brother got home from his track meet last night. I’m usually a pretty fun grandma, playing games, going for walks and pretty much whatever they want, but my husband had to take up the slack for me last night. I hated that I couldn’t play.
Back to today, I stayed on track with starting my day with household chores. Then onto my longarm business time. I started loading my next client quilt while waiting for a drop off and consult with a client. Then I got to stitching. Such a cute mermaid quilt for a little girl’s birthday. I’ll show a little peek of my progress.
I worked on it til time for dinner, stopping for a quick lunch and to swap out and fold some laundry. After dinner, which was a delicious Home Chef meal, I worked on my Barn Star Sampler a a teeny bit and then sewed two more rows of a special t-shirt quilt I’m making for a family.
I ordered a set of Bloc Loc rulers to trim half square triangles, and they have already shipped, but I may have to trim this whole stack before they get here. I only trimmed 8 of the 64 today, and made these little units. I have the next 8 units lines up and ready to trim and sew.
And, that’s about a wrap on today. I’m going to mix up my sourdough before I go to bed so it can rise overnight. I hope that works out. I’m basing it on how long the first batch took to rise. We shall see!
I’m trying to get into a better time management routine between my housework, my quilting business, and my personal quilting time. I used to subscribe to Flylady years ago, and I’m giving that another whirl. After the required morning caffeination, I get myself ready and then tend some household chores before I start my quilting workday.
Today, my workday consisted of taking our tax paperwork to the accountant. I had to fold and package up two quilts for shipping and get them to the post office. Getting quilts neatly packaged takes a significant amount of time. A quick trip to the bank and home for a quick sandwich and then spent almost three hours working on a very special t-shirt quilt commission. I don’t usually make t-shirt quilts as part of my business, but this is a very special case. Finally, this evening I found time for a little personal sewing. I made 64 half square triangles for the Barn Star Sampler. I’m working on the diamond star block and you make two of that block. I ran out of steam after pressing them, so trimming will wait.
Tomorrow afternoon and evening I will have my two youngest grandsons. So, I’ll definitely be busy then. Have a terrific Tuesday tomorrow, y’all!
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 