Monday, October 28, 2024
Studio Assistant Exam
Sunday, October 27, 2024
More Color Choices
Now that the Running Out of Rain Cloud quilt had an allover horizontal pattern of hot pink lines quilted in, I needed more and different colors. I chose a thread that went with the other four colors in the quilt.
I did the first corner triangle matching the diagonal. I think it looks pretty good with the mustard gold thread just in the triangle. And what the heck is that spot? I hope I can get it out before I photograph this quilt!
Gives a really nice texture.
I think that t's a pretty color combination too.
Here's how it looks with all four corner triangles quilted on the diagonals. That was the easy part now for more decisions, like what to do with the corresponding light blue triangles. Also on the diagonal (with the light blue thread or the mustard gold?), or go for vertical lines instead. We shall soon see.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Voting Done
Now we can put our "I VOTED" stickers on our phones. That's one of our dumb family traditions, we stick them on the back of the phone case and they usually last until the next election. This time we each got a different sticker from our county. These are from a contest that they ran a couple years ago. I'm excited to have Otter 841.
I'm really feeling hopeful for this election and hope that you've made a plan to vote if you're eligible. If you've got a complicated ballot to work on, this is a helpful resource to start researching the issues you get to help decide.
Friday, October 25, 2024
Back On The Horse
Thursday, October 24, 2024
It Finally Happened
It all happened so fast that I couldn't even tell you what my mistake really was. Bad timing of taking my foot off the pedal and moving my hands into the needle area. I'm really thankful it was just a glancing blow on the side of my left ring finger, not too close to the cuticle, and not in the fingernail. (always the nightmare possibility to me). So phew on "lucking out" I guess, only a bandaid required.
So yeah, it's definitely time to quit quilting for the day. I really should know better than to keep quilting when I'm tired.
One of those lessons learned for good now I hope!
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Raincloud Quilting
I think I may either go back in-between these lines with some other colors from the quilt--mustard, red, blue.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Sew Magnetic
I just received a new tool from Sew Tites, it's part of their new Sew Magnetic products, a rotating cutting mat. It's definitely pretty pricey, but they had a promo of BOGO, so friend Jaye and I went in on two of them, cutting the price in half.
It's a really great size for a lot of blocks and also for fussy cutting smaller pieces. I like the grey and white, it's a nice medium grey which will be great contrast for most fabrics. The cutting lines and markings are very clear..
You use it with these Booster Magnets to hold the fabric or the ruler. They also sell magnetic rulers that work with the mat, the magnets are built into the acrylic ruler. I wonder if the other SewTites magnets that I have would work, I'll have to try that out.
I tried it out with the fussy cutting templates from Jaybird Quilts and it really helped keep it stable. You still need to put a finger or two on it as well, but it really helps stabilize things. As my hands start to get more arthritis, I can see how useful this system will be when I need more assistance to cut safely and correctly. The mat rotates really smoothly and it's not too noisy like some of the other rotating mats are, I appreciated that a lot.
What a great product this is! I love being able to spin it around instead of rearranging the fabric and ruler for each cut. That is one of the main reasons I go wrong on cutting things with templates especially. I would definitely recommend getting one of these if you do a lot of fussy cutting, or block trimming in your quilting. Not having to grip the ruler so tightly made it so much easier on my hands and fingers, which has been a problem for me lately. I was able to concentrate on being safe with the rotary cutter, and ended up being a lot more accurate.
I'm also considering investing in the large mat and big ruler (the non-rotating version) as well because this system really worked well for me.
Monday, October 21, 2024
City Sampler Quilt Top
It took quite a bit of pinning along those long sides, but it was worth it and I got it done.
This may be the biggest quilt I've ever made! It measures: 110" x 110"! I hope that the long-armer will be up for it and it'll fit on their machine.
Now I really have to think about how I want this quilted...Oh, and I have to make a back and binding for it too.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Stars & Flowers
Here are all the blocks I've been making lately. All 12.5" square.
The solids really work in this one well.
This is an older print, but it's A) The Right Color B) Not Too Contrasty. I think it works just fine. You can really see that the outside light color is a pale peach in this photo. Not white or off-white.
This might be my favorite print I used in this block, a little more current.
This one is cool too, although the directionality maybe doesn't work out too well when doing the 2 at a time HSTs.
Of course this picture has them in the wrong placement, but oh well, you probably get the idea.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
City Borders
Friday, October 18, 2024
Un-Mixed Friendship
I was laying out possibilities for the Friendship Stars that I'm making and think that I like them better un-mixed up. This one of all solids is quite nice, very clear.Little paws are staying away as I'm sewing all the blocks strips together. He does like to observe though, especially when I'm using the steam iron. All that hissing is rather provocative I suppose. That was a whole lot of pressing seams open happening for this project.
After the pressing and sorting comes the pinning.
Ready to assemble now.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Wandering Wednesday: Sacramento Family
We had a long day of driving on Saturday, over bridges, through several cities to get to my Uncle Bill's 80th birthday party. This is the Carquinez Bridge and some very nice cloud cover. We were glad the party wasn't held a couple weeks ago when it was so hot. We haven't seen the Sacramento branch of the family in a while so it was a greatly anticipated event.
We pulled up a bit late as the highway construction delayed it. Thankfully I happened to see my Uncle getting out of his car in front of my cousin's house so we went around the block and waited. We were glad we didn't' ruin the surprise. Right when we got there, my cousin Angel wrangled almost all of us for a group picture, there were several normal ones and then the regulation silly one too of course.Here's why I noticed Uncle Bill, check out those colorful pony tales! He and my aunt have been using temporary hair dye of various colors for a while now and they both love all the smiles and comments they get from people. They are truly fun and unique people that have always been wonderful to spend time with.
The younger cousin generation got wrangled to varying degrees of displeasure for a picture with the birthday dude (so said his sash!). My two kids are on the right hand side.
Then it was all the way to Oakland where we dropped off our DD at her place. This is a picture of some interesting graffiti, lights and underpass. What a fun day, mostly spent in the car, but even that was fun because we got to spend time with DD. Totally worth the drive, I'm really glad we have such good, interesting people in our extended family to spend time with.