Thursday, February 26, 2015

Good morning, Saskatchewan!

My BFF reads my blog every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  She looks forward to it and I sometimes feel just like I'm in her kitchen having a gab when I sit here and write it up.  Good morning, Jan.  I hope your day is fabulous!
I don't know why I start block of the month quilts.  I loose interest after a couple of months and it turns into a real challenge for me to complete what I start.  I want to start and finish everything.  I don't want UFO's in my house.
This is one of last year's projects.......Love Blooms Here from the Quiltmaker magazine.  I was all caught up and when the last block was published I never picked it up and looked at it.  In late January I decided this was it.......get it done.
Every piece on every block had to be sewn down.  The fusible web I had used was not adhering to the background fabric.
I bought this box of steam-a-seam when the product was going through some production problems.  I wish the store I had purchased it from, had told me.  I'm sure she knew, as it was really hard to find for awhile.
After 4 afternoons of sitting at the sewing machine I had everything done, that needed to be done.
Only one block was left to be done after that and then I hit a snag.  I counted up all the flying geese and I was 3 short.  
I made them up and then did a placement.  The only thing I didn't want was a bunch of blues all together.  Once sorted, I started to sew the entire top together.
That was an entire afternoon, so the border was left until the next day.
Here is a TIP for you when making your borders. I join mine with a right angle and every once in awhile the thread matches the fabric really, really well.  So well, you can't find it once you lay the ruler on top to do the trimming.
If you lay the stitching along one of the 45° angle lines on the cutting mat it makes it easier.
Lay your 1/4" marking on the line 
(sorry the photo is blurry)
and then trim away the excess.
 I grabbed my handy dandy stool and snapped a photo for you of the finished top.  I wasn't going to be bothered getting my winter gear on to take it outside on the snow.  Lazy?  Yes, I am.

 I made my borders wider than called for.  I thought what they suggested was just a titch narrow for my liking.


Fussy, fussy


I looked in my batik box and I have yardage and 1/2 metre cuts.   ( I dislike the word meterage, so back to the old way.) A couple of hours and I had a backing made......see below.  Once I measured the top I wrote it on a piece of paper so I could make the backing without having to remeasure.  The binding is in a bag marked, so I don't use that by mistake.

TIP #1:  I ran out of matching threads while doing this sewing.  I've decided in future when the spool is empty, I'm going to put it in a ziploc bag and the next time I'm out and about, I'll replace the threads I run out of.
TIP #2:  I also cleaned up my thread basket while working on this.  I became a bit frustrated while searching for just the right greens/blues/reds.  Now they too are in a plastic bag according to colour and lying in the basket.
TIP #3:  Make a backing when the top is finished.  I have an old picnic basket that I put everything into.  The top, the backing and the binding. When it's time to head off to the long arm quilter I can pick up and go.  This quilt is slated for April to be quilted by me.
This is our most recent visitor.  He has no name.......although I did call him "Blackie" the first time he visited.  A tiny black squirrel finally found the feeder.  We have loads of these little devils in the summer and they do test Karl's patience.  They are destructive with the veggies in the garden and so far, nothing he has tried has kept them out.  
Now I'm waiting for our last little creature to appear but I think some snow will have to disappear first.  We do have a resident chipmunk but so far no sightings of him.



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