Catastrophe averted

 Hi everyone! Spring is busting out all over around here, and I have the watery eyes and itchy nose to prove it. I don't mind though! It's nice to be back outside. I even dug in the dirt for a little bit this week. It was to bury a drainpipe, but hey-- it counts as working outside!

So, I have a rescue of sorts to show off today. I know you'll remember this and the tragedy that it almost was:

 

 

Yes! The Snail's Trail quilt, all finished and cuddly! Honestly, I didn't think it would really happen.

If you all recall, I made this from blue and beige scraps, cut using an Accuquilt die I borrowed from a friend. Somehow, it only made a very small dent in my scraps, even after I expanded the size of the blocks with the math help of a very nice woman named Ila. I finished the top last October, and then it aged a bit, until I had a longarming appointment.

And then came the tragic part of our story:

Yep, the tension messed up when I was most of the way through my longarming, after I had quilted almost 3/4s of the way through the quilt. I didn't see it until I advanced the machine to quilt the next section. Two whole rows of quilting, all messed up, and no way to finish the rest of it without fixing the bad section. I cried. I took it off the frame, brought it home, and cried some more. I seriously considered cutting the good part of the quilt and tossing the part that was messed up, plus the remaining unquilted part.

Obviously, I didn't do that. I spent many hours over a few weeks taking out the bad stitching, then took it back, reloaded it on the longarm frame, and finished the quilting. (Pro tip: If you ever need to do this, a seam ripper will not do. Save your sanity and use a very sharp pair of small scissors. Also, keep a lint roller really close by to get all those tiny threads.) I used all the scraps of blue binding that I had to finish it off, so all of it but the backing is scraps.

 

It took some serious work, but it turned out okay! I really love this quilt. If I look at it carefully, I can see where the quilting stops and starts again, but I don't think that other people can tell. It's really hard to get everything lined up exactly the same if you have to reload things. Once it's washed, I think it will be hard even for me to see it.

So there is the happy ending to this almost-tragic story! I love the quilt and I would totally make it again, and I'm saving my pennies for a Snail's Trail die of my very own. I've seen this pattern in lots of different colors, but I think I like my scrappy one best. It reminds me of sand and water, like a nice relaxing beach.

I hope you all are having a good week. This weekend is both Easter and Passover, so much happiness to all who celebrate these holidays, and a happy weekend to everyone!

 

 

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap! and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Twisting and turning

 Hi everyone! How are you all? Thanks so much for your good wishes about my foot last week. It is doing much, much better, thanks. Turns out that if you actually sit down and put your feet up like you're supposed to, your foot gets better. Who knew?

So I was able to get down to the sewing room this week, and while I was down there, I finished piecing together the Snail's Trail quilt top. Yay me! Here she is:

 

 

Yahoo! If you recall, this top is made entirely of scraps from my very full blue and neutral scrap bins. Unbelievably, even with all the fabric that this top took to make, the scrap bins seem to be just as full as ever. I used a whole bunch of different neutrals, and I used the dark and medium-ish blues. I still have a bunch of light blues to use up and am going to need a few good ideas for that project.

The Snail's Trail blocks look really intricate, but they are very easy to piece. I borrowed an Accuquilt die from a friend to do most of the cutting, then added a last round to make the blocks bigger with some more cutting. The die cutting made things really easy, and it all went together really well. The borders are strings left over from cutting the block pieces. Hey, it worked and it used up a bunch more scraps! The final outer border is the leftover pieces from trimming the backing on another quilt. They were long and skinny and found a good home here. I plan to use a scrappy blue binding to finish everything off.

 

I thought I was super lucky while I was making the blocks, because there is no matching to be done. Then I started stitching them together into rows and holy cow, those points are zero fun to match. Don't look too closely, because a lot of them don't match up. I gave up after a while, and it's a scrap quilt anyway, so there's a few places where I should have gone back and ripped out the seam and restitched it, but I just didn't.

 

 

For this quilt, my only real concern in assembling both the blocks and the final quilt top is that I didn't want any of the same fabrics touching each other. Amazingly, I think I managed that, which I think means that each of the blocks has scraps of at least 20 different fabrics in it. I was able to use up a bunch of little pieces, and the only trouble I really had was the larger outside pieces. Most of my scraps are actually small, so finding big enough scraps for the outer pieces was a bit difficult. There are a couple where the grainlines aren't what they should be, but I won't tell if you won't.

 

So there we are, another finished top, and a bunch of scraps turned into a quilt. Hurray! Now, what should I do with those light blues? 

Have a wonderful weekend, and if you have any good ideas for the lights, let me know! I'll be resting my foot again this weekend, which is just my way of saying that I'll be reading on the sofa. It's a good excuse!

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap! and the Patchwork and Quilts party.

More projects than time

 Hi all! Hope you're all doing well so far this week. I'm settling in to the semester, which is good because we're now in the third week. How did that happen? No idea. I've been too busy in another stupid meeting to notice. But the good news is that we have not had any Covid cases so far. Yay us! Fingers crossed that we stay this healthy as the colder temps set in.

I've been working on several things in the sewing room lately, and this is just a short update so I don't forget what I'm doing. Hey, it happens. First, I've finished off the blocks for the old and new quilt, and they are awesome, of course, and I've started a layout. Here's what I've decided:

I chose a layout of staggered columns, which I think will really showcase the blocks. The hard part is getting the colors balanced, and then deciding what to use to offset the columns. Do I just use a big rectangle as a filler? Or maybe a flying goose? Or a half block? I think a half block would be most interesting, but I'd need to choose a block or two that would still be interesting cut in half. Any suggestions?

One more quilt that is nearing completion is the Snail's Trail quilt, which is at a good stage. 

I made twenty blocks, then decided that that wasn't enough, so I cut ten more, which should make the quilt a good size. I have to put the last round on the last ten blocks, then I can finish this off. Not sure about any kind of a border, though. I have tons of blue scraps left over, so maybe I can think of a way to use more of them for a border.

Finally, I've also started putting the Laundry Basket Quilts mystery together! I'm stitching it together in quadrants so that it's easy to manage, and it's going well enough so far. I'm really excited to get this off the wall and figure out some borders for it as well. It's going to look really great once it's all done.

Lots going on! Enough to keep me busy, anyway. The heat continues here, though the days suddenly seem to be getting shorter. It's a bit darker in the morning. Ah, well. At least the flowers are still alive!

 

I'll close with those pretties, and the note that this is my 600th post, for anyone who's keeping track. Thanks for hanging around and keeping me company this long. Enjoy the rest of the week!

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

Making blocky progress

Hi all! How is your week going? We are still hot and sticky, and expecting more rain. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As you read this, I'm probably in yet another meeting getting ready for the upcoming school year. I really like teaching, but I could really do without the meetings. Apparently, Zooming meetings was too productive, so we can't do it any more. But sitting in meetings does make for fun quilt idea sketching time!

In between meetings, I've made some progress on the two quilts that I'm currently working on, the Snail's Trail and the old and new quilt. First up, here are the last of the modern blocks for the old and new quilt:

Yay! Aren't they cute? As I said, these are the last of the "modern" blocks for this quilt. I have only eight of the more traditional blocks left to piece, and they are the ones I need to paper piece. I've printed the patterns and chosen the fabrics, so I'm looking forward to finishing these blocks really soon.  And many, many thanks to Preeti and Wendy, who sent me some of the fabric I was missing. It really makes a difference in the quilt!

So, there's the update on that quilt. The other quilt I'm working on is a scrap Snail's Trail quilt, trying to use up some of the many blues and beiges that I have. I've made about a dozen blocks:

Once you cut all the pieces, these blocks go together really easily. It's fairly mindless and soothing. My only issue in putting them together is variety-- I don't want to repeat the same fabrics in the same block. Sometimes it happens in spite of my best efforts. Really, though, that's the only problem with these. Well, that and the fact that they haven't used nearly as many scraps as you would think. I still have tons!

Last time I posted about these, I asked if anyone knew the math to make the blocks a bit bigger, since the original blocks would have finished at 8 inches. A very helpful reader named Ila emailed me a super-cool and very mathy diagram, and it worked! You can see the difference in block sizes above. The bigger blocks finish at a weird size, about 11-1/3 inches, but it doesn't matter because they are all connected to each other. Thanks so much, Ila!

So, two quilts, moving right along! Perhaps during the next meeting, I'll try to sketch out a layout for the old and new quilt. I haven't decided on one yet, and it would be a good thing to think about. And if anyone needs some fabric, be sure to check out Bernie's retirement sale right HERE. There are still many fun bargains left! 

 

I'll leave you with a photo from one of the flower pots. The heat and rain have been really great for the flowers and grass. Enjoy the rest of the week!

 

 

Sharing at Midweek Makers.

Just keep cutting

 Hi all! Well, just like that, it's August. You know what comes this month-- the end of summer and the beginning of school. Amazingly, this week has so far been one of the coolest parts of the summer weather-wise. How does that happen? I don't know, but I'm not sizzling, so I'm pretty happy about it.

Today's post is brought to you by two overflowing bins, but first, here's a picture of what is coming out of those bins, just to have something pretty at the top:

 

 

A Snail's Trail block in blue and beige! It doesn't sound like it would work, but it does. They are the colors of water and sand, after all. And I can't resist taking pictures with the flowers, plus they're a nice contrast, aren't they? They are turning out great, even though they got a late start this year.

As you may recall, I sorted scraps and emptied the last of the boxes of bits and pieces over the last few weeks. It turns out that I have a lot more blue than I thought, and a whole lot more beige. I seldom use these colors, so they mainly sit in the bins.Take a look:

The beige fabrics multiply in the dark, I'm certain of it. I haven't bought any in forever, and I even gave a box of beiges and tans away, but I still have a ton of bits and pieces. I think most of these got cut off backings, but there are all kinds of pieces in there.

I decided to use these together in a quilt, and I borrowed an Accuquilt die from a friend to do the cutting. Quite a while ago, I bought a used Accuquilt, and I've been making good use of it ever since. Even used it was pricey, but it was worth it. The dies are also pricey, which is why I've borrowed this one. I have some dies that very kind friends have given me, and a few that I bought (also used.) Borrowing and trading with friends is the way to go if you can.

 

So, over the course of a couple of hours over a couple of days, I was able to cut the pieces for 30 Snail's Trail blocks out of those bins, and there are plenty of hunks and chunks left. I'm surprised to get 30 blocks, but I may try for a few more because these blocks are only 8 inches finished. Anyone know the math for expanding the size? I would just have to add more triangles, but I'm not sure I have any pieces that are big enough for that (now that I think about it.) Most of the scraps are truly scraps and are pretty small.

For these blocks, I've been using the dark and medium blue values, so I'm going to have to think up another project to use up those lighter blues. I have a couple ideas, but I'll have to finish this up first. I have no deadline for this, but all of those pieces are so nicely cut and arranged, it's a real motivator to get them stitched up. And it's August, so there's not a lot of time!

Hope everyone is having a great week. While I was out on the deck, I also got a photo of some very petite peach roses that I planted in a pot so the deer couldn't get to them, so I'll leave you with that photo. Happy stitching!

Sharing at Midweek Makers and Oh, Scrap!