Combining My Blogs

In the days to come, I am going to be combining this quilting/needlework/crafting blog with my other blog ~ http://climbingthedigitalmountain.blogspot.com ~ because it’s just getting way too complicated for me to try to keep up with two different blogs. Guess I’m just getting old!  I will very slowly and gradually move over my most recent posts because the blogger directions for exporting and importing appear to be a bit tricky and confusing to me and I do not want to lost anything in the process. Today’s post for the weekend  about my progress on the Vintage Quilt Blocks Block-Along has been posted to the other site and here is the link:

http://climbingthedigitalmountain.blogspot.com/2014/01/quilting-and-frigid-weather.html

I hope I will get to see you all there.

Happy Quilting.....Genie

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.

Red Cross Vintage Block Complete

Five Vintage Blocks Completed out of Twenty

Three Sections Complete

Four Sections Complete

 My Red Cross Block Completed

For this block, I created a little guide pattern. I had to use small pieces of fabric because I didn’t want to cover up the piecing number order. It really did help. I did not to my knowledge reverse any of my segments, and I am happy with the way this one turned out.

Beginning Mayflower Block

Foundation Piecing

Upper Left Section

 Guide to assembly of Mayflower in book.

Vintage Block Sampler Quilt

(You can see the Mayflower block is in reds on the left, 
and the Red Cross block is right above it.)

This post is linked with Paper Piecing Party at Quiet Play.

Another Oops ~ WIP ~ 1-15-14

Rolling Squares with Another Flipped Section

Vintage Square Revival Block-Along

I thought I had completed my first four squares, but not so quick, Genie.  This one was by far the worst for me. I have no gray matter in my brain when it comes to math and geometric shapes and how to flip shapes one way or the other. Even after checking and double checking I still end up piecing them incorrectly and ripping out over and over again. I posted this last night and still did not see my error. My thanks go out to Suzie at Silly Goose Quilts for telling me the grim news. I will go in, rip it out, and fix it. Thanks you so much, Suzie, for telling me about it. This seems to be the story of my life. Now, I know why I did not ever do the complicated blocks you get with paper piecing. Guess today will be stop Red Cross block, rip this one VERY slowly, and restitch. My favorite nun in boarding school years ago told me if anything was worth doing at all, it was doing correctly and to the best of my ability. My goodness, how those words have stayed with me. 

Redone...How in the world did I miss that one???????

Back of Red Cross First Quadrant
This is way too many pieces for someone’s beginning attempts at paper piecing.

 First Quadrant of Red Cross Block

Left and Right Upper Quadrants 

This post is linked with
WIP Wednesday

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.

WIP Wednesday ~ 1-8-14

 Vintage Quilt Revival Block-Aong

My book arrived on Monday so I have started my quilt blocks. This is a wonderful book which goes along with my 100 Modern Quilt Blocks beautifully. For the block-along, we are to complete two blocks a week for a total of 20 blocks.  I just finished my first one...

Oh, Happy Day!

Classic Double Z Block ~ Block #1

Keeping these blocks in the right direction for sewing was a major problem for me. I would flip the one on the right over on top of the one on the left, but somehow I would flip it again so I sewed the wrong sides together. Finally, I figured out a plan. Flip the 2 squares on each other and then take my purple marking pen and draw 2 arrows in the CORRECT direction and write the number to the row on my ironed out seam. Voila...it worked. It took lots of ripping before I figured out a plan, but I did it. 

Here it is sewn together...

...and the front of my finished first square. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to force myself to use stash fabrics if at all possible, so that is what I did. The colors are more muted that they are showing up in this shot...way more vintage looking.

Now, I am ready to tackle block #2 which involves paper piecing...ugh....Classic Riviera Block

This post is linked with WIP Wednesday

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.