I'm Not Eccentric...

Or maybe I am.  I do have my own ideas about some things.  I believe that food tastes best with a particular fork and spoon.  And coffee tastes best in a certain mug.  But that's not the eccentric I'm talking about.  I'm talking about this block:

Eccentric Star

And this warm weather is much easier to take with this block:

Electric Fan

This block needs few words:

Economy Patch

Sorry.  Getting a little corny there.  I cut and sewed these blocks earlier today. (seriously!)

Hope you had a good day.

-- Pat

New Long Term Project

I've decided I am going to create a project to make all the paper-pieced blocks in this book.  I'm going to call it the '300 Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks Project'.  How's that for an 'original' name? 

As of yesterday, I've made 59 blocks.  I finished another four today.  Only 237 blocks to go.  I expect this will be a long term project.  It took two years to finish the 501 Quilt Blocks Project.  I imagine this will be about the same.  Here are the four I finished today:

# 38

# 108

# 107

# 119

After a little break from sewing these blocks, my intention was to sew a few blocks from the '501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks' book by Judy Hopkins.  But...I found some 4 inch fabric squares I've had for at least 5 years and I just HAD to put them together.  It's very scrappy!  My intention is to quilt it with the 'white' one as the backing fabric and the other as the top.  If it turns out okay, I hope to use it to make something else.  I can't talk about it yet but I should be able to in the next week or so.

Hope you had a good day.

-- Pat

Goals & Challenges

Some of you know that I worked my way through 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks by Judy Hopkins back in 2010-2012.  I made every block at least once.  I still use the book fairly consistently.  But today, I've been trying some old skills.  I made one of the paper-pieced blocks from the book 300 Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks by Carol Doak.  I tried to remember all the little details without actually reading the instructions in the book.  I think I covered my mistakes pretty well by adding a border and cropping the photo to look somewhat straight.  I'll have an easier time on the next one but just for fun, I think I'll take a look at the instructions before that.

# 37

I'm considering taking the book on as a new challenge to myself.  I've paper-pieced some of the blocks already for this wall hanging I made for my daughter in 2013.

I didn't use all the blocks that I pieced but I only have 241 more to go to make goal.

The other skill that needs refreshing is fusible applique.  This is the simple block I made.  It comes from the book 505 Quilt Blocks by Better Homes and Gardens.

K13

I haven't decided if I'm going to add this to my list of long-term goals or not.  I've had the books hanging around for quite awhile.

As you can see, I enjoy all types of sewing.  Every day is something new.  Variety is the spice of life or something like that.

I just realized that today is Slow Stitching Sunday.  I missed last week because I was busy with something else.  I can't even remember what but it was not hand stitching.  And it looks like I'm going to miss out today too.  If you're interested in what others may be doing today, pop on over and take a look.

Hope you're enjoying your day.

-- Pat

I'm excited!

A few weeks ago, one of the editors at Quiltmaker Quilty Pleasures blog requested photos of quilts using the color brown.  As some of you know, I use a lot of brown fabric so I sent along a few photos of my quilts.  Guess what?  Three of them were included in this post Quilty Pleasures Blog -- Brown Part 2.  I never expected any of my quilts would be blogged about.  Very cool!  Check it out!

I rearranged my sewing space (again) last night with the intention to help relieve back pain while cutting and piecing.  I took a grooming table and placed a table top on it and moved a small dresser away from the wall and placed my ironing mat on it.

This puts everything at a more comfortable height.  The little dresser is going to be perfect to keep some of my sewing supplies in, which will be nice since Speckles likes to help me with them.  I put my new ironing board in the closet to be used when I'm doing something other than piecing.  I rearranged the closet some and intend to buy a few more storage bins.  I need to give a little more thought to this before I buy anything else.  Maybe I can re-purpose something else.

Speckles found something new to play with.  When I first bought my machine, I had to pad the knee lever which lifts and lowers the presser foot so that I could reach it better.  I did a quick fix by wrapping it with layers of batting and masking tape.  Did you know batting is fun to scratch at?  I found a solution.  My sister sent me some 'cat' socks.  I placed one over the end of the knee lift lever.  We'll see how that works.

Here are the two blocks I pieced today:

Cypress

Darting Birds

Hope you're enjoying your day.

-- Pat

Savvy Shopper

This morning after meeting with my Journaling Group, I headed over to Jo-Ann Fabrics.  My goal was to find just the right fabric for my One Monthly Goal (OMG) project.  After much auditioning, I found what I think is the perfect color.  While I was there I purchased an 18 x 24 inch cutting mat.  I had enough coupons so that the mat cost me only two dollars and the fabric was 30% off.  I'm quite the shopper, if I do say so myself!  And on top of that, the mat is the perfect size for the table I'm using for cutting.  I'm including a photo of my mat and a sneak peek at my OMG project.

Here's also a picture of Speckles 'watching' me sew yesterday.

I may not sew much today.  I think I overdid it yesterday and the day before.  By the time I sat down last night my back was pretty sore.  Today it's better, though a little tender.  But you know how it is when you get on a roll--it's hard to restrain yourself.

Hope you have a good day.

-- Pat

Where there's a will...

Some of you know I adopted a cat a few months ago from the Humane Society.  She is 1.5 years old and has had a litter of kittens.  She has also nursed 3 kittens in addition to her 4.  So I think since she's come to me, she's stepped out of her 'adult' role and is living her 'kitten' stage.  We've had some adjusting to do.  She's kept me on my toes.  One of the things we've had a problem with is chewing on cords.  Not so much the cords, but the connectors on the ends.  I've found a solution that appears to be working with regards to my iPad power cord.  My apartment doesn't have many outlets so I had purchased a longer power cord.  I decided to try to wrap it in some way since it didn't seem feasible to put it into some sort of channel.  I had some scraps with batting that I had cut off before binding a quilt so I stitched that all along the cord.  It appears that Speckles doesn't like the taste of batting.  I stitched it by hand and left the excess.  Because the cords tend to give out around the iPad connector end, I reinforced a portion of that end using a straw and cable ties.  Here's the result:

Earlier this week, I pieced another block from the 501 Rotary-Cut Quilt Blocks book by Judy Hopkins.

Cut The Corners

Yesterday, I spent most of the day working on my OMG - One Monthly Goal September project.  While I am using the original flimsy for the project, I've taken an entirely different path with it.  I'm not sure if I'll post photos along the way or just wait until the end.  The original flimsy was unloved and tucked away in the closet for many years.  Recently I added hexie flowers and was encouraged.  Monday, I shopped for fabric and hoped for inspiration but was unsuccessful.  After watching a ton of Youtube and Crafty videos, I chose a different direction.  So far, I'm delighted with it.  The idea was to turn the flimsy into a fun twin-sized bed quilt.

Hope you have a good day.

-- Pat

One Monthly Goal (OMG)

It's the first day of the month and I'm joining in with One Monthly Goal (OMG) hosted by Elm Street Quilts. Click the link for information on participation.

My goal for September is to take this previously unloved quilt top and continue to make it into a fun twin bed quilt.  I hope to finish it by the end of the month.

Click this link OMG September Goals to see the goals set by other participants.

Hope you have a good day.

-- Pat