Squaring up a VERY WONKY quilt

Although I didn't have solid plans for yesterday - there was a quilt to trim, applique to cut, etc. —I got none of that done. 

Instead, I was repaying a favor, and someone came to use the long arm, so I spent the day helping with that. WAIT—that was the easy part. She also brought a wonky quilt that we attempted to square up. Hmm—that was quite the mental exercise, and before we knew it, it also turned into a physical one. 

I will say (and I told her) that I disagreed with the construction method, and something strange happened in this instance. When you take one strip of fabric, add a second strip of fabric, and then continue in that fashion, the result (after adding MANY strips of fabric) is that the end is usually longer than the beginning. Not so with this one - the end was much shorter (or narrower by at least 11 inches) if you want. And it had quite the bow in it! 

The task of the day was to try to salvage the quilt. Of anything I've been asked to do, this one stumped me. 

We started by clearing off one work table to see if we could square it up. Hmm—that wasn't working well, so we tried folding the quilt in the opposite direction, parallel to the seams. Then, one side of the quilt was trimmed. We tried using that edge as a guide to cut the other edge. 

To our horror, that first cut did NOT look good at all. One half of the side was straight, and then at the fold, it took a crazy angle. 

So we laid it out again and tried to square it up—again with it folded in half, but in the opposite orientation. But NOT before I gave the darn thing a good press with steam. This is what it looked like. 

Trimming a quilt by folding it

You can see how the end on the bottom was significantly longer than the top edge, and it had significant bows in it (I wish I had taken a picture), which resulted from sewing row after row in the same orientation. I believe this was a tutorial online! Sigh.....

That wasn't working, so I moved more furniture so we could lay the quilt top out flat. Oh boy—this is pretty wonky. What to do? 

Then, I decided to use a floorboard as a guide. So we lined up one side with a floorboard. Then I took MANY rulers to continue that straight edge on the quilt top. Once I was happy with that, I marked the line with chalk. The ends aren't going to be square—the ends of the strips, that is, as some of them have a bit of an angle. But the edge of the quilt was STRAIGHT. The mat went on the floor, and she trimmed it along the chalk line. Ignore the pink tape measure - it makes the side look wonky, but it was just lying there at this moment. 

Trying to get a straight edge

We used THREE long tape measures in our journey, as well as many rulers. NO—the quilt sides are not 90 degrees to the top and bottom, and I'm hoping that can be fixed when it gets quilted. 

It took a lot of finagling to get the other side parallel to the first. Do not ask me why this wasn't a simple task, but it wasn't. I think the curved seams gave off an optical vibe that was very distracting to work with. 

Attempting to square the other edge

However, we persevered, and the second side is now parallel (more or less) to the first one. This quilt ended up being 73 inches wide or somewhere in that range, and it's much longer than the width, so it was a challenge to deal with, not just the wonky seams but the optical illusion from the curved seams and the size. 

But here it is - more or less trimmed and ready to be quilted. 

The quilt is salvaged

So here's some good advice - just because someone posts a video on how to make a quilt - don't believe it! If someone thinks they have a better method for making a jelly roll quilt, don't believe them. While I think this was to emulate a jelly roll quilt, with the goal of making it larger, there are better ways to make a larger jelly roll quilt. Speaking of jelly roll quilts - the construction method dictates that the quilt is a specific size. You can mess with that to some extent, but you will run into significant issues if you're not careful. It's a simple mathematical formula to resize a jelly roll quilt. I should explain it one day. 

The second thing is NEVER just take one strip of fabric and, without measuring it, add it to another piece of fabric and then repeat that process. The lengths will NEVER be the same, and they will skew, as happened here. I'll equate EACH new strip in this quilt as a border, and one should NEVER just sew the border onto a quilt. It needs to be measured, cut to the appropriate length, and PINNED. 

How would I have done this? I could have measured the first strip, and then I would have cut the next strip to the EXACT SAME length, and I would have sewn a pair of strips together after pinning them. Then I would have sewn the next two pairs and so on. Then, when I had a pile of pairs, I would have started to join (always pinning) the pairs. Continuing to sew to the first row (column) means that the strip gets handled a LOT, so it tends to stretch, while the final row was handled once and didn't stretch. 

By sewing in pairs, each strip is handled the SAME number of times - zero stretching! 

I want to find the instructions to see if this was, in fact, how the instructor said to sew this quilt because EVERYTHING about the construction, as I understand it, is WRONG!!! This is from a YouTube instructor, where I saw in a short video this morning, earns about $8K monthly from her videos. I hope the others are better than this one. I'm missing out on making a lot of money! But I do NOT want to be tied to making videos. I have better things to do! I could make videos on decluttering! That would be entertaining. 

Happily, the quilt on the long arm turned out beautifully. 

The quilt turned out amazing! 

I did accomplish a few things. I sorted through two of the boxes of novelty prints and removed FOUR large pieces that can be used for quilt backings. They were measured and moved to the quilt backing area. 

Four quilt backings are measured and on the shelf

I removed a couple of fruit fabrics as I have a separate storage area for them. 

Fruit fabrics

And those new plastic bins hold much more fabric than the cardboard boxes. It was a fun trip down memory lane as I went through all those prints. Gosh, I seem to have everything on fabric. Do you see the matches?

A bin of novelty fabrics

The next quilt is loaded on the long arm and ready to go today. I have some applique to do, and it's Monday Sewing, so it'll be the perfect day for that. 

Here are some photos of what's in bloom in the backyard. Two lilies have appeared in the pond. 

The first two lilies in the pond

Oh dear -- I need to find out what this flowering shrub is. Gardening was never my strong point. Where are the bees? This one is also quite fragrant and beside the gazebo, but it has been a few days since I've been there. No time!

Another flowering shrub

My one peony is starting to bloom. I had a better picture than this, and I think I should plant a few more plants (bushes) behind this one. It seems to thrive in that area, and there's a lot of empty space there. OK—where do I get peonies? I want colors that are different from the fuchsia I have. 

My peony

After our water issues were resolved, I could get the pump to the pond going, and Miss Murphy was again fascinated by the waterfalls. Oh, and you can see the remains of our irises. We have yellow ones. I'm surprised they are still living because they are right where Murphy likes to tramp. 

MOM -- there's water flowing!

Meanwhile, Lexi just watches. She's so calm compared to Murphy. She's my "hero" and will save the world. Do you see the resemblance? 

MOM -- I'm on watch duty!

On that note, I have a ton of follow-up emails to complete today. I'm a tad behind in that, but I also have stuff to do in Studio B since I didn't get much of my stuff completed yesterday. And I was OK with that. I'm glad I could help with those two quilts, and now she can move forward on completing them. 

And I'm off to spin class and want to find those instructions! Just because you can doesn't mean you should! 

I managed to get a bit more put away in the kitchen, and the spice drawer is almost finished. Why is it taking so long? I have to wash the little funnel after every use, and rather than take the time to dry it, I let it air dry. When I have a minute or two or just pass by, I grab the funnel and fill another jar. I thought of a great idea to store the excess spices. If I had ripped through the process, I wouldn't have time to mull over the ideas, so slow and steady is how I work because I'm problem-solving as I go. 

This method has worked for me for years - I will NOT change it, despite all your "protests" that I move faster. 

I hope you are all tackling your drawers or some areas of your house. It doesn't need to take hours - a few minutes well spent in any area can start to make a difference!! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Back to work

Hmmm -- I had a great day yesterday, but here's a mystery to ponder. We are doing our virtual challenge and as a result, I can see the number of miles logged by each day by our little group of four. I just eeked out 10,000 steps in the day. Shelly took a walk so I get where she got her miles, but Laura???  What did Laura do to get her miles yesterday??  I'm impressed Laura - keep it up. It just means that I'm going to have to up my game!

It's a new week and a new leaderboard - who will get the yellow jersey???

I took the dogs for a bit longer walk in the morning because I knew we wouldn't get our second walk in because of the rain. Oh well - it's off to the gym on those rainy days to get miles. Lots and lots of miles. But no one is competitive! Oh no!!!

I will say that at the end of the day and if you're trying to get in extra steps? You need to walk with purpose. My darn FitBit will not register little motion steps - it has to be purposeful walking or it won't register!

Anyway - I was busy in Studio B yesterday - all day! I have a quilt that needs to be out of the house by Wednesday. I started to cut it yesterday. Don't fret - it's on the long arm as of last night! I don't make my quilts complicated with a lot of pieces - I like to have fun with them, but keep them simple. The quilt is 72" by 88" or something like - a wee bit larger than I normally make, but it had to be that way to get the pattern. I LOVE IT!!!!! I'll share it with you when I can.

Speaking of that, I often make these quilts and send them off for publication and then never show you. But I received a magazine in the mail last week so I'll show you what I made.

This is the magazine - it's A Needle Pulling Thread - Issue 51. It just came out and the theme for this issue is Destinations. If you watch the pictures on the masthead of that website, my quilt will come up.

Issue 51 of A Needle Pulling Thread

I chose a beautiful fabric collection from Northcott called Paris... Always a Good Idea! It's a gorgeous collection and I love the muted, vintage look.

Here's a partial view of the quilt.

X Marks the Spot

Here's a close up of some of the quilting. Yep - I found a great pantograph with Paris written all over it and the A is the Eiffel Tower. How cool is that? I love it!!!!!

The quilting on my Paris quilt

I'm not showing you the entire quilt - no - you have to go to the newsstand to see the rest. There are loads of other great projects in the magazine - an article on whether to pin or not. A beach themed towel and bag made by my colleague, Margaret. The gorgeous quilt on the cover, a bargello bag, triangle placemats, two great artists reviews and well - there's a lot. If you're into knitting and cross-stitch, there's stuff for you as well so that's a bonus. Check it out!!!!

As I mentioned, the next quilt is already on the long arm. I thought I knew what I was going to do for the quilting, but changed my mind when I finished the quilt. I'll find something else and get started on that this morning. I have ONE more quilt in the funnel to make. I'd better get designing! But I have loads of challenges to work on - I'll be sharing some of that with you tomorrow.

I have a class this afternoon on Decorative Stitches provided the weather cooperates. So far so good - I just don't want people traveling in freezing rain. With the preparations for last week, the space in Studio B had gotten a wee bit out of hand. It was time to tidy up!!!

I have quite a few quilts to trim so I started with the largest one. This is that darn dimensional flying geese quilt. It's now trimmed and ready to be dropped off. Yeah!!!!  There was no fabric for the binding and not sure they want to use the flannel from the backing. Not my problem. It's going out the door tomorrow. They can deal with the binding.

One community projects quilt - TRIMMED 

I still have a pile of quilts that need to be trimmed, but I'll get to them perhaps this morning. These ones will need the binding put on. Some are mine, some will be donated. No worries - that won't take long once I get myself geared up.

Quilts that need to be trimmed

Then I decided that I should tackle that pile of quilts that I unearthed a while back. The ones that are almost ready to be moved into the "to be quilted" pile.

Quilt tops almost ready to move to the "to be quilted" pile

I laid them all out to see what was there. Yikes - this is totally crazy!!!! Some of them already have the binding made and are just needing a backing. Really?????  This is just insane. But then remember that it was NOT easy to find backings so that's why they sat.

A quilt top and a binding

So I glanced at the available backing fabric and found a yellow print. I've cut two pieces. I'll trim the selvages off later today and sew the backing together. That'll be one that can get moved. This is what the top looks like. The size is perfect for Quilts of Valour. I made this one several years ago in a class that I was teaching. It's from Marti Michelle - I don't remember the name, but I think it was called Northern Reflections.

My quilt top

Here's my backing - ready to be sewn together.

Backing to be sewn together

I also found these two bindings. Now, what quilt do they belong to????? This is totally unacceptable. How can I be so silly to not label these darn things? I don't think they belong to any quilt in that pile. But I'll get checking later today to see if I can match them up.

Two bindings for what quilt??

I haven't finished going through the "to be quilted" pile to verify what quilts are in what tubs. Most everything is listed and labeled, there are a "few" quilts in the last couple of months that didn't get logged in. I'm double-checking all the tubs, as some quilts got shifted or physically removed (and got quilted), but weren't taken off the master list.

Oh - here's my scrap basket from cutting out my quilt yesterday! I'll tell you that I used batiks and I'll show you the collection - it's called Ride-On by Banyan Batiks. Of course - so appropriate for me!!!  But the quilt design could be used for any collection with larger prints.

My scrap box

I also dug out my yoga bag project and I hope to at least take stock of where I am in the process later today. Hmmm - don't I have a class to teach? How much later today am I talking about??? OK - so some of it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Yoga bag bits

One of our local schools posts a virtue message on its outdoor sign. I spotted this the other night and took the picture. Self-control was NOT in my mind when I was in the US. The dessert I ate was OBSCENE. I'm kind of ashamed of myself. I know I don't need them, I know that I don't want to eat them. I was INFLUENCED by my peers. I WILL NOT DO THAT again!!!  The scale told the ugly story this morning. I'm still in my buffer zone, so I'm not worried. Again - it all boils down to it's OK to eat sugar, just not excessive quantities of refined sugar. My body hates me for it.

Self-control

I will do better!! And I'll get those steps in. Although the weather isn't good again today - we'll see what happens.

It was super easy to focus on making that quilt yesterday and only ONE error. I got it done, hung it up and compared it to the diagram and realized that one section was upside down. But I finished The Alice Network audiobook. It was a very good book - very frustrating to see how people were treated during the First and Second World Wars. It's also so inspirational to see the sacrifice that men and women made to win the war. The story is loosely based on the story of a real spy - Alice Dubois in the First World War. I see that I have another one of Kate Quinn's books in my reader. I might wait and read someone else in between.

It's going to be a super fun day and I'd better get moving if I want to keep up to my team on the virtual challenge. Who knew that something so silly would get us motivated to move and keep moving!!!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Why do I work best under pressure?

I don't get it - I have deadlines. I'm very aware of the deadlines. My brain just doesn't seem to work unless the clock is ticking!

I'm working on a project - one that I can't share with you at the moment. I had a date in mind when it needed to be done. That was yesterday. Oh yes - along with everything else that had to be done. I had done a bit of preliminary work on the project, but I was overwhelmed. It's not quite my normal kind of thing to do - yep - my own worst enemy in that regard. As the deadline approached, I was working on the project but didn't seem to be committed to it. Well - at the ninth hour yesterday, I finally realized how I should be tackling the project. I didn't get it completed for the date that I wanted, but now that I have a very solid plan, it shouldn't take long to complete.

But why is that? Why won't my brain function that creatively when there isn't a deadline? I've no idea. Something I'm going to try and work on this coming year. While I don't mind the pressure and I seem to thrive on it, it can be a wee bit stressful if there is more than one deadline looming in the same time frame. I don't like that - I eat bad things when I'm in that situation. Still maintaining my "buffer zone" weight so I'm not complaining, but I don't like when I eat too many bad things!

So here's a situation I can share with you about being creative. Remember that reversible quilt I was working on? Well, it's being picked up today. That means I need to get it trimmed. I was tempted to NOT trim it, but I knew I would be helping this customer out a lot by doing so. We did have a chat yesterday and she is good for future (I hope!)

The quilt has been languishing on a set of work tables since I took it off the long arm. How to trim? Remember that the side edges of the front are wider than the back and the opposite is true for the other two edges. Does that make sense? If not - here's a better way of saying it. Suppose the side you see is the back. The sides of the back are wider than the front of the quilt. But the top and bottom of the back are shorter than the front. Don't ask how or why I quilted it like that. A challenge to myself I suppose. That does NOT allow you to give me a quilt like that!

The quilt waiting to be trimmed

How to keep the edges straight? I decided to get out my 20-inch square ruler and the medium size cutting mat. I used 15" as a guideline from the edge of the light green to the edge of the quilt maximizing the amount of fabric that was in the quilt. Very little was trimmed away.

Trimming the large quilt

I didn't touch the corners, yet. Just focused on the long edges. I trimmed one side and then moved to the other side of the table to trim the other side of the quilt.

One side almost trimmed

Then I flipped the quilt over so I could see how much fabric there was on that side. I think the measurement was something like 15 ½" from the outer edge of the center panel. So now all four sides are cut, but the corners are not. Is it going to work out and have nice square corners?

Surprising, those corners were PERFECT. 

Getting ready to trim the corners

See those corners exactly matched up!!!  They were perfectly square. All four of them were like that.

Corners are perfectly square

Now I realize that I was making it square with the method I used to trim. Despite the issues with the size of the two pieces, the customer had done a very decent job of measuring the width of all the pieces so I have to give her credit for that.

Anyway, it's now packed up and ready to go. Yeah!!!!!


Then it was onto the next customer quilt. And despite the fact that it was a large lap, it was a breeze to quilt. It was perfectly pieced. There was a striped fabric on the back and it was perfectly straight throughout the entire process.

The only problem? It seems that the bobbin loves to run out when I have this much quilt left to stitch. 

Bobbin runs out with this much left!!!

Here's the final quilt. It's now trimmed as well and ready for pick up later today.

Customer quilt - DONE

I'm down to six more customer quilts this year. I know - one more got into the line and I knew that - I was just ignoring it for the moment as I still don't have the actual quilt in my hands. I'm going to beg off doing one until the next year as I want to do something different on the quilt. But I have to ask the owner first. I don't see a problem - that one has only been sitting in the pile for a couple of weeks. One extra week or two won't make too big of a difference.

The big question will be - can I fit two more quilts in before Monday? The next one (which again is HUGE) is already loaded on the machine and I'll be working on that one today. I'm going to drive my Sit n Sew group crazy while I quilt the other one tomorrow. It's a wee bit noisy and normally I wouldn't do it, but I really want to get that one done as well. I'm on a schedule.

Did I mention how much I love my Quilt Path (the computer on the long arm)? It's my new best friend, to say the least. I have BIG plans on clearing up a bunch of stuff in the studio. BIG plans. Customer quilts are under control and since there's not a lot in the funnel for next year (but there could be if you call me!), then I'll be working on clearing up the community projects quilts that are sitting here waiting to be done.

That's exciting and each day I wake up ready to go. That truly is a great thing. I can't imagine getting up and dreading getting out of bed each day! And thankfully I'm one of those people that get out of bed and within minutes can be working. I don't need coffee, I don't need time - I get at it!!! That's all good because this "hobby" of mine has turned into more than a full-time job.

I have a story to share with you about a new quilt store in my town. Technically, it's not new, but a lot of people don't know about it yet. Michelle works out of her house and has a long arm business (but don't go to her for quilting your quilts - come to me instead!!!!)  OK - it's a free country - you can go to whomever you want and I know that I've been super slow in the past and I hope to change that this coming year. The turnaround has to be faster and will be faster, now that I have a plan.

Anyway, back to Michelle. I knew that she had fabric and I knew that she stocked a lot of Northcott. Would she happen to have some of the fabric that I needed for my quilt??  I had already tried another store a couple of days ago and they were out. I sent her an e-mail late the other night and I got an early morning phone call - she has the fabric. She's about a 15-minute drive away and I got half a meter. Thanks, Michelle.  The shop is called Quilted Memories. She operates out of her house. She's got a decent amount of fabrics - lots of blenders, wide backs. She also has a LOT of kits. Things like Riley Blake (Lori Holt) baking sew along, the Halloween quilt by McKenna Ryan, and the Elizabeth Hartman - the North Stars.  OH - I wanted to buy a kit, but then my right brain said to the left brain - "Are you CRAZY????   Don't even think about it!"  Check out her website for the fabric/patterns only - remember!!!!

Oh - I should mention how I knew that Michelle had purchased that missing fabric. If you go to the Northcott website and select the fabric collection that you're looking for. Under the Product Finder title in the top right-hand corner, use the drop-down menu to choose your province/state. A list of the SKUs (fabric numbers and a picture) will appear along the top - you may have to scroll left and right. and a list of shops that purchased the fabric. Now keep in mind - PURCHASED is NOT the same as still having it in stock, but it's an amazing starting point. Be sure to keep that in mind if you're looking for something. A GREAT tool - thank you Northcott for that.

Thanks to Michelle, I was able to finish cutting out the magazine quilt and it's ready to sew together today. 

Then I was off to teach a class last night at Oh Look Fabric. It was the last class of the year at that store, but we've got a HUGE line up of classes for the coming year. There's a partial list already on the website under Workshops. More will be added. While some of the classes are for beginners as the shop gets a lot of newbies (which we LOVE),  we have some amazing design classes and other fun stuff planned. I'll be posting ALL of my classes next week so you can pick and choose what you'd like to do. FUN FUN FUN!!!!!

I had two ladies in the pillowcase class who had attaempted to sew before, but with very unsatisfactory results. Both of them went home with a COMPLETED pillowcase. What's the best part? They were excited like crazy and so happy to have made something themselves. That's what teaching is all about and hopefully, we'll see them back for another class.

Two amazing pillowcases - DONE

While I was at Oh Look Fabric, I found this wild panel by Guicy Guice (Andover Fabrics). It's pretty cool. What to do with it? Well - I thought I could quilt it up and make a cushion cover or a wall hanging with it. Or it could become a block in a quilt. Not sure yet.

Wild panel

 And here's one of the corrdinates.

The panel and a coordinate

I'm not sure why designers are making these kinds of panels rather than letting the quilter do the work, but the pieces are so small, that you wouldn't want to piece it. Anyway - it's interesting and could become a great challenge. Oh yes - I can think of a few things to make with it. Now to find the time!!!

And look at my cute new pouch. I love it - nice and bright!  I love that it has a side pocket! Thanks Andi!!

Nice new pouch

I see that the Pantone color of the year has been announched.  Oh my - It's called Living Coral - let's face it - coral is in the orange family. I love it!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. Got some paperwork to do before I hit the long arm.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!