Happy Day!

Did you know that today is National Quilting Day? I was reminded earlier this week, but forgot about it this morning. A quilty greeting reminding us to celebrate just arrived from one of my Tangled Threads friends - I was glad to get that memory jog.

So . . . . here's wishing all of you a very happy National Quilting Day. I hope you all have a little time to spend quilting today - or doing something else that you want to do.

I spent much of yesterday and this morning finishing the March addition to Holiday Inn. I just love this little quilt! In case you hadn't noticed - I fussy cut all the "stopper" borders to give it a more "together" feeling. It doesn't really jump out at you, but I think it would be quite noticeable if I hadn't. If you click on the picture you can see the details much better.

One of you left a comment asking whether I used Thangles for the sawtooth border. I've tried Triangles on a Roll and wasn't impressed, and so I've never tried Thangles. I find that clever "shortcuts" usually work no better for me that just cutting triangles and sewing them together. What works best for me is to make many "parts" larger and then trim them down. I do this with half and quarter square triangle squares (hour glass blocks), square in a square blocks, and flying geese. The trimming down does take extra time, and can get tedious when there are hundreds of pieces to trim, but I love the way everything goes together so easily and perfectly after it's trimmed. I also use the "bias square" method of making triangle squares, using my Creative Grid rulers for the trimming instead of a "bias square" ruler. I have a tutorial on making triangle squares this way - check the list of tutorials near the top of my left sidebar.

Appliqueing I will go

It's truly amazing how much applique one can finish when one does nothing else all day for several days. Just so you have an idea how much time I'm talking about - during the week when the virus was the worst I listened to unabridged versions of Pillars of the Earth and Shadow of the Wind, plus a Nevada Barr mystery thrown in between the two epics, appliqueing the entire time - almost 70 hours total.

First I tackled the third block of Times Remembered, which I prepped at the end of last December. The pieces were large, so it didn't take that long to finish it. Now three blocks are done, with six more to prep and finish.

Next I got out the two Carolina Lily blocks for Jan Patek's Feathered Star - Girl Gang 2003-2004. Those took a little longer since there were two of them.

My fourth applique block was the last block I had prepped from my Mid-Century Album class. I really loved how it turned out. This is another that I prepped at the end of last year. It was so much fun choosing the fabrics for this one. Now I need to prep a bunch more blocks so progress on this quilt can continue.

Lastly I pulled out the borders for Heirloom Stitches and started working on them again. I finished one border and now have the second border almost completed. When I finish it I'll sew those two onto the quilt top and take a picture to post. I'm sure most all of you have forgotten what this quilt looks like. I'm determined to finish the last two borders this month also so I'll have a finished quilt top by the end of the month.

Before I started the applique marathon I did finish the piecing I'd been doing before I got sick. I finished nine more blocks for the Hourglass Quilt - for a total of 13 blocks. Then I tucked that project away again, as I didn't have the energy to piece.

All this applique has really gotten me into the mood for hand stitching again - the virus effectively ended my desire to piece for the time being. Since my oldest WISP's are applique projects I guess that's a good thing!

I hope I'm not boring you . . .

I just couldn't resist posting these two pictures than my daughter-in-law sent me tonight. Being a grandma is just the very best!

It took me all weekend, but I finally got all the hour glass blocks pressed and trimmed. There must be hundreds of them. This is a good stopping place I think, so tomorrow evening I'll clean off the cutting table and get back to sewing string blocks. Cher and I are having another cutting session next Saturday, so I have to make sure there is room for both of us to work.

I hope everyone had a wonderfully quilty weekend!

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Gratitudes:

1. Good arch supports in my shoes - I stood almost all weekend!
2. A plastic tote full of completed hour glasses
3. Homemade turkey soup from the freezer.
4. Freshly washed flannel sheets
5. Two patchwork quilts on our bed for snuggling under in the winter

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Progress

I've completely filled up my design wall, so I couldn't resist posting this picture. This is 180, 3" hourglass units. I think I have at least twice this many left. I'm going to have to start sewing them together so there is more room on the wall. I still have no idea whether I'm going to make it as is or like a medallion. Come on folks - let me know which you think you'd like best.

Obsessed with hourglass blocks

I kept wondering why I feel so driven to work on this quilt. I'm enjoying every minute, but it feels like I MUST get all the blocks up on the design wall as soon as possible. I finally figured out why - it's because I still feel guilty about starting a new project. My postage stamp top is up on the longarm waiting to be quilted. My string blocks sitting on the corner of my cutting table are an ever present reminder of an interrupted project. I don't know why I ever thought making this top would be a quick process. After all, it takes a LOT of 3 1/2" units to make a quilt top! I have all the hour glasses sewn together - now I'm just pressing and trimming them. I still have no idea how many I've made. There are 110 up on the design wall, which finished would measure only 30" by 33". I still have a huge pile on my ironing board to press, and a tub full already pressed to trim. I'm guessing maybe something in the range of 500?

I'm still not sure how I want to set these together, so I'd love your opinions. I've got two choices. Either make the entire top just as you see the blocks set out on the design wall, or make it medallion style the way I did my Broken Dishes. When choosing remember that all these blocks are the same size -they won't be two different sizes like the half square triangle squares in Broken Dishes.

I've been lazy this morning in that I'm not dressed yet. I need to do that because we are heading to Jeremy's and Chelsea's for another visit. I can hardly wait to see that little girl again. I bet she's changed a bunch in just a week.

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Gratitudes:

1. Weekends

2. A new iron that steams and doesn't drip

3. Signs of spring

4. A new rotary blade

5. A hubby who fills my gas tank

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Up to my ears in hour glasses

I had such good intentions for this past weekend. I planned to finish my string pieced top, then quilt both it and the postage stamp quilt. Since I took a personal day Friday I figured I could easily accomplish those goals over the four day weekend even with a couple visits to Sophie tucked into the schedule.

Well, so much for my plans. Sometimes I can be so easily distracted! My friend Kathie is making an hourglass quilt from 4 1/2" squares of 19th century reproduction fabric. She's been sending me updated pictures regularly of the quilt's progress - and it is beyond wonderful. All last week I was thinking about my big tub of 4 1/2" squares that have been aging for a decade or more on a shelf under my cutting table. So Thursday night I took out a couple squares and made a pair of blocks - only one pair of blocks just to see how they looked. And that was my downfall. This was just WAY too much fun! So Friday evening found me with that tub - cutting sets of squares into quarter-square triangles and stitching them together. Hundred and hundreds of them. I couldn't believe how many were hiding in that bin! I worked on them all the rest of the weekend other than a visit with Sophie and her parents on Sunday. By last night I had completed the first stitching on all of the triangles, and the second stitching on half of them. I pressed 30 blocks and trimmed them to size so I could see how they looked up on the design wall. I love it! Totally not fabrics I use these days, which made it all the more fun. Many, many fabrics I didn't recognize at all. I finally realized that they were from fabric clubs I belonged to years and years ago where they'd mail you a bunch of 5" squares every month. That was long before Nickel Quilts became the fashion, so I'd trimmed them down to 4 1/2" squares to get rid of the pinked edges. So many of these squares represent the only piece I have of each particular fabric. Others are from maternity clothes I made myself over 30 years ago, as well as many of the outfits I made my daughter over the years. How fun to see these again!

Thus I failed my one goal of completing at least a couple more UFO's before starting a new project. But I figure that's OK - this completely emptied my bin of 4 1/2" squares except for a stack of solids that I'm going to give away - so I'm sticking with my goal of starting new projects from my cut scraps only.

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Gratitudes:

1. Fabric surprises hiding in scrap tubs

2. A short work week

3. Wind chimes singing in the wind outside the bedroom window

4. Snowdrops and crocus blooming along our front walk

5. A great first checkup for Sophie and Chelsea

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