Getting Organized and Piecing Blocks

My office, crafting room, and my library/fabric room are all upstairs. I got so tired of going back and forth up and down our steep and narrow farmhouse steps that I decided to recoup and try to get my working stash downstairs. I found these containers at Lowe’s for 5 for $5.00, and I bought a mess of them. It has certainly simplified my life though I am not getting the exercise I was getting hoofing it up and down the steps all day long.  

I finished 2 of my Vintage Quilt Block-Along Blocks and started a new one, completed one more of the blocks for my 100 Modern Quilt Blocks Project,and experimented with some little TicTacToe 5inch blocks. The foundation piecing is getting a little bit easier for me, but I still have a long ways to go before I feel comfortable with the technique. The one thing I have not done is to get back to work on the pink bed quilt I started in November. Maybe that will be my goal for next week.

This post is linked with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop 

over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Making Slow Progress

My Vintage Quilt Revival Block-Along Squares

As of this week I have completed three squares and am going to work on my fourth Sunday. I am definitely stitching SLOWLY...and ripping SLOWLY :-) I do a LOT of ripping.

This vintage quilt block-along is my first attempt at paper piecing. I was always afraid to even try it, but I’m beginning to understand it a wee bit at a time. It is such a learning process for me. I hope it will become easier with time.

 Square 2 ~ Riviera

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to take this apart.I was not pressing the pieces properly so this square ended up small. My guild friend, Sandy, at our local quilting shop told me to take the 4 sections apart, press the pieces correctly and fully open, sew it together again, and that should resolve the issue. UGH! I won’t make that mistake again. She also suggested that I leave the piecing paper on the blocks until I assemble them in the end so I can be sure of correctly matching up points. 

 Square 3 - Dakota Star

With this one the points were a little bit off at the center, but Sandy showed me how to clip the seam a wee bit freeing up the fabric. After I ironed it, the points matched up just fine.

Here are my three finished blocks.

I also pieced another square for my 100 Modern quilt Block project, but I photographed it upside down...oops. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to not use the black but instead some of my red geometric and red polka dots. Thanks to seeing the way Jennifer from Knotted Thread was posting hers, I decided to follow suit and take pictures of the squares alongside the page in the book. I just need to remember to place them going in the correct direction.

This post is linked with:

Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy’s Quilts

Sew Darn Crafty over at Karen’s Sew Many Ways

Paper Piecing Party at Kristy’s Quiet Play.

Slow Sunday Stitching

100 Modern Quilt Block Project ~ Chapter 1 ~ Crosses

This morning I completed piecing my first set of blocks, but I have not attempted squaring  them off as yet. It was quite the learning process. I fretted and stewed about choice of fabrics, sewed a lot, and ripped a lot, but I had an awful lot of fun along the way. Even though some of the blocks did not turn out the way I would have liked, I still left them so my boo-boos would be there to remind me not to make them again. Some of them are down right awful, but there are a few I will use for my quilt when I finish working through the book. Here are a few of the things I learned:

1. Be VERY careful about the fabrics I choose because they may well sew up differently than expected. By the end of the chapter, I was cutting out small pieces and lining them up exactly like one of the sections of the block to see if the blending was good or bad. 

2. Make sure I have fabrics with a pattern cut so that the pattern is going in the correct direction. Also, make sure all my fabrics are all cotton and not a blend.

3. Mark my 1/4 inch seams. Watch my stitches so I don't get off the magic purple line.

4. Study my light and dark contrasting fabrics carefully so that I get the effect the pattern is suggesting.

5. Do not use plaids unless I am willing to be happy with pieces that are not exactly straight.

5. Think of EVERYDAY as a SLOW SUNDAY and take my time. Slow down and smell the roses. Enjoy the flow of the needle and the feel of the fabrics.

Now, it’s time to start Chapter 2 which focuses on rectangles. This book has to be the best Christmas present ever. My daughter definitely knew what her mom would like.

This post is linked with Slow Sunday Stitching ay Kathy’s Quilt.

Slow Sunday Stitching

My daughter gave me the most wonderful quilting book for Christmas.
I would recommend it to anyone. I love it! 

Tula Pink’s City Sampler ~ 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.
(I have linked the title up with Amazon.)

The book is divided into six sections dealing with different types of blocks.

The first is crosses. The others are rectangles, triangles  stripes, squares, and Haiku. 

There are 14 different cross block patterns in the book.

On the left side page is a completed block.

On the right side page is the piecing order guide, recipes as to what size pieces to cut and how many, and room for notes.

 I am determined to make each of the 100 blocks over 2014.

 Here is what I have done so far...

 This is my interpretation of the book’s Block 5 shown above.

 It is hand pieced, and hand quilted for use as a coaster for my tea cup.

Back Side

The following three are my experimentation with the central cross pattern.

I was trying to see which I liked better...the dark background or the light ones.

This is another design with a floral cross and then the dark center cross.
I really like it.

I have had a wonderful 3 days playing with my fabrics, mixing and matching colors, and hand stitching. When the arthritis in my thumbs gets too bad, then I hit the sewing machine...but it is much more calming and soothing to hand quilt.

I also have followed the book’s suggestions and made myself a modified design wall. I took an old white board and affixed cotton batting to the cork side. The fabric blocks adhere to the batting wonderfully so I can see what I am doing. Easy Peasy! The problem is...where am I going to make one as the number of blocks increases?????? That’s gonna take some creative doing :-)

This post is linked with:

Confessions of a Fabric Addict~Whoop Whoop

Slow Sunday Stitching ay Kathy's Quilts