Starting the second strip

 

There wasn't much time for crafting today, but I did manage to bind two blocks and join them together. This week is proving to be a very busy one, so I don't expect to get much done. Still, any progress is good progress!

First strip

 

Last night I sewed the first strip together for my current quilt. I meant to bind more blocks this today, but it didn't happen. Instead, I volunteered at the elementary school in the morning, did my lunch duty, and then went grocery shopping with Mom. It was a busy day!

Bookmark and quilt blocks

 

Today I gave Serafil another try, and I'm glad I did. Maybe it was a difference in my attitude, but this Curds & Whey bookmark tatted up beautifully. The thread is color #156.

I spent the afternoon binding the quilt blocks for the first row of my new quilt. It took me a while to settle on which fabric to use for the binding. My choice was this soft gray or a tone on tone white fabric. The white seemed to stark to me. I'm glad I went with the gray!

Busy Saturday

 

I forgot to post yesterday that I finished quilting the blocks for my new quilt. I know I opened my computer, but I must have been distracted by something. That seems to happen a lot these days!

This morning I finished reading The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier, the story of a glass making family in Murano, Italy. The story was interesting but a bit bizarre. The family ages normally, but they skip through time. Everyone else in the world stays on a normal timeline. The story starts over five hundred years ago, and ends after the 2020 pandemic. It was interesting, but not something I would read again. I do plan on reading at least one more book by this author with the hope that everything happens in one time frame!

Tollway Tatters met this morning. We had a nice sized group, and I managed to tat a Curds & Whey bookmark from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. Since I used larger picots than I have been lately, my three mistakes are pretty well hidden.

We talked about tatting with polyester thread and King Tut. I've decided I'll give the Serafil another try, and I'm really tempted to start a hanky edging in King Tut. Getting together with other tatters sets my mind spinning with ideas!

I squared up all of my quilt blocks this afternoon, and then I arranged the layout for my quilt. This one will be a little smaller than my last one, only 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. 

I've decided that I will machine stitch the binding, but hand stitch the blocks together. I need something that will keep me awake when Dave and I watch t.v. at night!

Half way there!

 

My allergies were really bothering me today, so I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I did take some time to quilt this afternoon, and I was surprised when I checked my progress to find that I have half of my blocks quilted. Yay!

13

 

I wasn't quite as tired when I returned home from school today, so I did some quilting. 13 blocks are quilted with 19 to go.

Tatting didn't happen last night. My hands just didn't want to work with shuttles and thread. I think they might have been protesting the number of books I've been moving around the past few days!

Back on track

I was exhausted when I got home from school. The beginning of the year gets tougher every year. I took a nap, something I rarely do, and then I headed for my sewing machine.

I'm keeping the quilting design very simple for these blocks.

The fabrics are so busy that I think anything more complex would be lost. 

Tonight I'll see if I can focus on some tatting!

Nothing to post

Thursday and Friday were filled with back-to-school activities.

We had a staff breakfast on Thursday, followed by a district wide staff meeting. I didn't have any other meetings to attend, so I headed home until lunchtime. Our district has been very generous with providing breakfast and lunch on that first day back. After lunch, we had another brief meeting. Then, I was able to head home to work on my online training sessions.

While watching my training sessions, I managed to knit three dishcloths. I had 14 to complete, ranging from 15 to 25 minutes each. I had until January to complete them, but I like to get them out of the way so that I don't forget about them! No, I didn't get them done in one day. I worked in spurts through Sunday.

Friday morning, I helped the new elementary librarian work on setting up the library. In the afternoon, Dave and I helped daughter Carol move Drama Club supplies back into their designated areas. There was renovation work done over the summer, and everything had to be moved out for the work to be accomplished. Naturally, it all had to be moved back!

Saturday and Sunday, all of my free time was spent making beaded pens for the middle school and high school students. Nothing new there.

Today, I'm heading in early to help the new elementary librarian. After that, I'm headed in for lunch duty. I hope to get some crafting done this afternoon. Making beaded pens was fun, but I'm done with that!

Blocks

 

Yesterday was so busy, I forgot to post on my blog! I finished sewing the last three strip sets in the morning. The next step was to cut the strips into 10" squares. After that, I layered the blocks with batting and batting so that they're all ready for quilting.

My math skills are not the best, but I knew something was off with my squares. I should have had an inch or two left after cutting each strip set into squares.

It wasn't until I was stacking the blocks in layers that I realized I had cut the squares at 10.5". I'll have to do some trimming before I start the actual quilting.

We have back-to-school meetings this morning. I should be finished around 10 a.m., but the full-time staff members will be working all day. Monday is the first day of school. We're starting about a week later than usual because of improvements being made at the elementary school over the summer. I'm really looking forward to my daily strolls around the cafeteria!

Starting over

 

I finally gave up on my Criss Cross bookmark over the weekend. I must have taken out the stitches on the end eight or nine times. I never did figure out what I was doing wrong. I finally snipped the threads and decided to start over.

My sister Janet loves rescuing bits and pieces that Mom and I have decided to discard. I'm not sure what she does with them, but she's welcome to all of my mistakes!

I started over using the same thread as my mistake piece, size 20 Hakelgarn, hand-dyed Buttercup from LadyShuttleMaker. I'm taking it slowly with the hope that I tat everything correctly this time around!

Last night, I sorted my jelly roll strips into eight groups of five.

The pattern that Joanne and I are following has the strips going from dark to light.

In the pattern, the fabric strips are a gradation from dark to light in shades of gray and brown.

My jelly roll doesn't have the same type of shading, so I just sorted them the way I thought they looked best.

I managed to sew together five of the eight strip sets before calling it quits for the day.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish sewing together the strip sets. Maybe I'll even start cutting them into 10" blocks!

Finished!

 

I finished my four patch pot holder quilt today! I am so pleased with the way it turned out. 

Note: Mom asked, so I looked it up. I started this July 20.

Again, I love the way the different quilting patterns show up on the back.

After dinner, I laid out the strips for my next quilt. Daughter Joanne and I are going to make the same quilt pattern. She organized her strips last week. I'm not sure when we will actually start, but at least I'm at the same point as Joanne.

Tonight... back to tatting!

Break

We had a break in the weather today... no rain! Unfortunately, we have a chance of rain every day this week. As long as we don't have any more storms for a while, I can handle more rain.

For tatting, I decided to stick with Curds & Whey from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. I decided to try some Serafil thread that I purchased several years ago. Tatting with polyester thread is not as enjoyable as working with cotton thread. I found it harder to close my rings and keep them closed. As pretty as this thread is, I think I'll save it for something else.

My sister came to visit this weekend. While she worked on making Christmas ornaments, I worked on my four patch quilt, I was inspired to keep working after seeing the four strips sewn together.

Since we were having so much fun crafting, I finished another strip. I have two more to complete, and then I will be able to finish the quilt.

As for Janet, she finished six ornaments this weekend. I wish I had taken pictures!

Thunder storms

We have had thunderstorms every day this week, not as wild as Tuesday, but enough to keep me off of my computer!

Dave has been busy cleaning up branches that fell during Tuesday's storm. There was so much more than I initially thought. Luckily, we had no other damage.

We're expecting more rain soon, so I thought I'd get a quick post in before shutting down my computer.

I finished another Curds & Whey bookmark from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #180 Honey Drizzle.

Between storms, I managed to sew together the first two strips of my four patch pot holder quilt.

Yesterday, I managed to sew together the third strip. 

We're expecting more rain soon, so I'll be signing off. Hopefully, there will be some clear time this afternoon!

 

Stormy weather

We had some terrible stormy weather today, with tornado warnings at 10:30 this morning.

We had several large tree branches come down, and we were without power for about six hours.

Our damage was minor. My daughter's friend in Indiana had a tree fall on her house. Most of the house is destroyed.

As of 4:30 this afternoon 95% of Lake County, Indiana was without powers. This has been an unbelievable summer for storms.

Luckily, I got a little bit of crafting time before the storm blew in and knocked out the electricity. I was so happy that I managed to join the binding properly this time.

It is fun to see how the quilting designs look on the back.

I only have one more block to join to this strip. I think I'll probably try joining the first two strips together before moving on to the third strip. 

Let's hope that we're through with stormy weather for a while!

Organizing

Yesterday was a busy day for me. My morning was taken up with a visit to the eye doctor. I have to go every six months to keep a check on cataracts that are developing. I don't do well with having my eyes dilated. It seems like it takes forever for my eyes to get back to normal, and I just don't feel like doing anything until that happens.

A few days ago I watched a YouTube video on organizing fabric. The woman I watched recommended foam board so that you can stick pins in it. I found a pack on Amazon, and it arrived yesterday. I found that if I cut it in half lengthwise, it fit perfectly in this fabric storage box that I have. 

I folded my 10" squares in half, layered them so that I could see about 1/2" of each fabric, wrapped them around the foam board, and then pinned the fabric in place. Now I can easily see what I have. It's pretty clear to me that I need some blending fabrics, so I'll keep that in mind as I sort through my stash.

Mid-afternoon, I decided to give sewing a try. Once again, I joined the ends of the binding incorrectly. However, this time I did notice that I had sewn my diagonal seam in the wrong direction. I turned the fabric the correct way and sewed the seam in the correct direction. Then, I took at the incorrect seam. It worked great, just like basting the fabric before sewing. Still, I will try and sew the ends correctly today!

Daughter Joanne and I are giving each other sewing inspiration by sending pictures of both the fronts and backs of each block. We both have other things that we need to do throughout the day, so we set goals for ourselves with sewing being our reward for accomplishing those goals. It's working pretty well for both of us!

Sewing proved to be a bit too much for me, so once I finished joining my newly finished block, I shut down my sewing machine for the day. I did try tatting after dinner, but I just didn't have the energy. Still, small accomplishments contribute to great achievements!

One strip done!

 

We had a beautiful day today! Mom spent the day reading and knitting in her favorite spot. She was telling my brother about the castor bean plant growing outside of her window. David asked that we send a picture. He was surprised at the size of the plant. Dave had planted a couple of castor beans out by our fire pit last year, but they didn't grow this tall!

I worked on my quilt and finished the first strip. I'm making progress in learning how to join the ends of the binding strips. I actually finished two blocks in a row with no mistakes!

New to me

The new sewing machine foot to help with seam binding hasn't arrived yet, but I really wanted to try this new to me technique for attaching the binding. I decided to play around with my machine and see if I could come up with something that works for me, and I did!

The front looks as nice as I hoped it would.

I think the back looks pretty good, too.

Since I had success with the first block, I tried another. It still looks pretty good. The only part I'm having trouble with is joining the ends. I've been joining the ends with straight seams, which makes for a bulkier intersection. I'm sure it will click with me, but for now I am really struggling with joining with a diagonal seam. Thank goodness for both written instructions and YouTube videos!

As an experiment, I joined the first two blocks with a zig zag stitch. I'm surprised at how sturdy it is. Since I am still working with inexpensive fabrics, I don't mind taking a chance trying something new. Mom said she would never look that closely to see how the blocks are joined. Daughter Joanne said she really like the look, so I'm going to continue. 

If I like the final look, it sure will save me a lot of time and a lot of wear and tear on my hands!

I haven't gone back to my Criss Cross bookmark. All of my brain power has gone into my quilting project. However, I still need to tat, so I loaded up my shuttle with size 20 Lizbeth #180 Honey Drizzle. My friend Denise got me hooked on this color when it first came out. I love the shading!

In order to give my brain a break, I'm tatting Curds & Whey from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. This still remains one of my favorite tatting books!

Rag quilt

 It's done! Including the washing and drying, it took a little over 24 hours to complete this rag quilt

This is a nice light weight lap throw. Since it's only two layers, it flows and wraps nicely.

The backing is flannel, so it's nice and soft.

I used all 10" square pre-cut fabric, which helped speed up the project.

The hardest part was the snipping. After assembling the blocks, I had to snip the seam allowances every 1/8". That part took me a little over four hours. Luckily, I have spring loaded snips. My hands were very sore at the end.

While it was interesting to learn a new way of joining quilt blocks, I'm not sure this will be a method I use very often. I have threads everywhere, which isn't unusual with sewing. However, with all those little snips I have a feeling I will be finding threads for days.

From everything I've read and watched on YouTube, a mesh laundry bag is recommended for washing. I did use one. I also put in a color catcher and a micro fiber cloth. It turned out that the color catcher wasn't necessary with this particular quilt. The micro fiber cloth did catch some of the threads, but not as many as I had expected.

After washing, I went outside to shake out the quilt. It's a good thing I did! I could not believe how much lint there was. I also turned the mesh bag inside out, nearly doubling the amount of lint. I put the quilt back in the mesh bag for drying. After one drying cycle, the quilt was still damp in spots, so I removed it from the bag and put it through another drying cycle.

There wasn't much in the lint screen, but there were still lots of threads on the flannel side. I decided to put it through the washer and dryer one more time. There were a couple of small clumps of lint in the washer. The surprise was that the lint screen had a thick mat of threads. There were still lots of threads on the flannel side, which came off easily with a lint roller.

This is not a true quilt, in my opinion, because there are only two layers. There are directions for making rag quilts with a layer of cotton fabric, flannel, or batting in the middle. I can only imagine how much lint one of these would generate!

Something new

Yesterday just wasn't my day for crafting. I set aside the bookmark. I haven't given up on it yet, but I also haven't figured out where I went wrong.

I tried piecing a pinwheel block from memory, and it did not turn out. I was able to salvage it and find the correct way to put it together. 

I tried a second time. It went together easily, but I wasn't happy with either block. The seams pucker and the centers don't lie flat. I'm pretty sure that the problem is with the printed fabrics. They were very inexpensive, from Temu, and they are coarser and stiffer than the solid fabric.

Feeling like a crafting failure, I decided to sit and read for a while. Then, daughter Joanne called and we started talking about rag quilts. I know that rag quilts have been around for a long time. They just never appealed to me. However, Joanne's daughters decided they wanted to try making rag quilts. 

I ordered pre-cut kits for both girls and for myself. Since they live so far away, I need to work on the same project so that I can answer questions over the phone. The kits won't arrive until next week. In the meantime, I've been watching lots of YouTube videos on rag quilting. Everyone has "the best way" to make a rag quilt, and each person seems to have their own spin on the process.

Since nothing else seemed to be going my way, I decided to shift to trying rag quilting.

Using pre-cut fabrics, I put the fabric from Temu on the top and flannel blocks on the back. I don't think it matters that the colorful fabric isn't quite 10" square. Putting the fabric back to back, I simply sewed a big X. I have a total of 30 blocks, so this will be 5 blocks by 6 blocks, lap throw size. I was able to sew all of the blocks in about an hour and a half, and that included pressing each piece of fabric to get the wrinkles out. Before dinner, I spent about ten minutes figuring out the layout for the quilt. They were all stacked in order for sewing in no time.

After dinner, Dave went outside to take care of the chickens and cats. I decided to see how much I could accomplish while he did chores and cleaned up. Using 1" seams, I had all of the blocks sewn into rows in less than half an hour. 

I also managed to clip the rows together in pairs. I'm ready to sew today!