Stars and Stripes is FINALLY looking like a Quilt!!

While I didn't get a lot of time to quilt on Thursday night, I did quilt for 3 hours Friday night.  I only worked on one thing, the "Stars and Stripes" quilt for my boss.  I must say, I am now VERY glad that I spent as much time as I did squaring them up and trimming them to be exactly the same size after my episode with the foot on my machine.  This quilt is coming together very nicely... So, I sewed 72 small squares into 2 large squares and now I only have 14 more large squares (or 504 more small squares) to go...

First Block, all laid out and ready to sew...

Chain piecing one of the rows of the squares.

OOPS!!  I try to share my failures as well as my successes...
This would be a FAIL!!

Second Block.. All sewn up and finished.

Some close up detail.  Click on any pic for a larger size...

So, that's what I got done Friday night.  Now tomorrow I have to clean the garage, change the oil in the vehicles, and help Trish with a few things around the house... I don't know if I'll get to sew anymore or not, but it's nice to see this quilt FINALLY making some progress!!

Until Next Time,
Paul

Thursday's Quilting Night # 7

Last night was Quilting night, however, it was an abbreviated evening.  My wife did not have to work last night, and the neighbor's daughters spent the night at our house last night.  It's fun to have 4 & 6 year old giggles in the house again, but I'll admit, it's nice to be able to send them home!!

Up until last summer my wife cared for these two girls while their mom was at work, but last summer mom decided to quit her workplace job and assumed the job of full time mom.  Since the girls had been at our home daily since they were born, they really are like part of the family, and my wife could not say no when they asked if they could have a slumber party!  So my daughter Chyenne (10), my wife Trish, Maddie and Cam all had a fun evening of painting finger nails and working on little crafty things.  Unfortunately, they were using MY quilting space.

So, I watched some TV and surfed the web, patiently waiting for access to the space I needed, and when they finally went to sleep, I got to work.

I finally finished trimming the HSTs and thought about starting to piece the big Stars and Stripes quilt together, but decided I needed a break from the Stars and Stripes, and I only had about an hour to sew.  I do not want to feel rushed on that project, so I finished my Block of the Month Blocks and I worked on my "Summertime Fun" quilt.

Here are my two BOM blocks... Note how terribly out of square they are.  You may recall that last week I mentioned that I had accidentally put a 3/8" foot on my machine that I didn't even know I had... Well, apparently I had that foot on my machine when I pieced the center part of these blocks two weeks ago.  Last night I pieced the sashing, and now I have my usual 1/4" foot on my machine...

So, NONE of my corners matched up.  I marked centers and had the first one completely pieced before I noticed.  These blocks are so simple and they have always just matched up perfectly, but last night I was watching TV, not devoting my full attention to the sewing, and the result is obvious.

I decided to piece the second one exactly as I had the first one.  I am going to purchase some more fabric and re-do this block set using the correct foot for ALL pieces.  I learned something, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time, right?

I also worked a little more on "Summertime Fun", my donated charm pack quilt.  I decided to try something different with this charm pack...  I assembled 4 nine square blocks, each ~15"x15" (A,B,C,D) and then I set one on top of another (A on B and C on D), and randomly cut them in half on a diagonal.  I then attached the left of A to the right of B, the left of B to the right of A, left of C to right of D, and left of D to right of C.  I put a 2" strip (1.5" after sewing) of my grey pebble foundation material between each of the halves I cut.

I am thinking I am going to do another random cut and reassembly but this time Stacking A&C, and B&D, but I am not yet sure...  Here are some Pictures of "Summertime Fun"...

The Four Nine Patch Blocks (A,B,C,D)

 

A on B (lines are matched up)

The first Diagonal Cut (A&B)

The Second Diagonal cut (C&D)

The Re-Assembled blocks...

I also happened to stop in an antique store recently and found these treasures...

My Grandfather had one of these!!  He got all "high tech" and purchased an electric Typewriter, but he kept his old black "Whack and Slap" typewriter close by.  Seeing this brought back many memories about Grandpa...

This little gem has never been opened!!  I tried to find a date on the box, but was unable to.  I am guessing it is older than I am!

And this does NOT belong in an antique shop!  I bought this album the day it was released, and I am NOT antique.  (Getting Old, but someone PLEASE tell me I am not "Antique"!)

OH, and look at what arrived in the mail... My Kona Solids for the Kona Solid Swap...  I labeled them up and I will send them off tomorrow.  In about 4 weeks, I'll receive 12 FQs back...

I hope to get some extra quilting time in this weekend after I clean the garage and change the oil in the vehicles.  I need to start piecing "Stars and Stripes"!

Until Next Time,

Paul

Thursday's Sewing Night # 6

Well, It's now late Saturday night and I am finally sitting down to post about my Thursday Night with my sewing machine, and I must admit, all I did on Thursday was trim more HSTs.  It seems like I have been doing these forever...

I shouldn't have to square up a 3.5" squares, but I did.  I also discovered why I had such a difference in some of my 3.5" HSTs.  My 1/4 inch foot wasn't on my machine!  Here is what happened.  About 3/4 of the way through the project, my machine began rattling and my timing needed to be adjusted.  I took off the foot, put it in a box with all my other feet and when I reassembled my machine after adjusting the timing, I put on a 3/8 foot... I didn't even know I HAD a 3/8 foot, but I do.  And it looks exactly like the 1/4 inch foot.

SO, I decided to trim ALL of them down to exactly 3.25".  

This is what my trimming looked like...

I kept all of the trimmings so I could take this photo...  Wish I had a use for all of this...

 

So, after completing all of my trimming I realized that I somehow mis-counted and I was 30 short for my Red on Reds.  So, I sewed up 30 more red on red HSTs...

But all of this trimming and cutting HSTs was driving me nuts, I just HAD to sew something, so I decided to set the big project aside and work on a few other things that are sitting around in need of some attention.

So, I completed my two BOM blocks (I still need to do the standard stashing).

Robert Kaufman Fabrics gave our local chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild, Columbus Modern Quilt Guild some Kona Charm Packs to give away to members! We were challenged to create a quilt that uses as many of them as possible.  The theme is Summertime Fun.  The only real requirement is that the Bright Color Kona solids be prominently featured in our quilt.  As such, we were asked not to add a lot of other fabrics.  We all agreed to limit ourselves to one additional solid and/or one additional print.   So, here is the charm pack layed out on a grey pebble print that I am going to use as a backing, and possibly as a background fabric on the front as well...

 And after laying it all out on the table, I couldn't resist and I started sewing.  At first I was thinking I would do a pinwheel quilt.  I started sewing some more HSTs for my pinwheels.  I decided to use a new method... (well, it was new to me and can be found HERE), and I will NEVER do it any other way, it was so easy and accurate.  (NOTE: While I like the explanation on the link, I don't know about the accuracy of some of the math)... But after doing 3, I stopped.  I JUST made almost 600 of these, I want to do something DIFFERENT.

So I changed gears and started sewing the charm pack squares into large nine patches.  I dropped them all into a box and started grabbing them out and sewing them together, almost randomly.  I got them all sewn into sets of three, next, I'll combine 3 of those to make a nine patch, and then I am going to start cutting those up and re-sewing them together... I'll try to be better about getting "in process" photos.

Then I looked at the clock and realized it was 2 AM, and I reluctantly put it all away and went to bed!

Until Next Time...
Paul