Belle Quilts: April 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Stash Report Week 16

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
FabricAdded Year to Date: 75 yards
FabricUsed this Week: 5 4 /8 yards
FabricUsed Year to Date: 37 1 /8 yards

Fabric used this week was for the bears in the farmhouse backing, for some one who doesn't like stripes, I sure had plenty! or maybe it kept cloning itself while in storage. Regardless of how it came to be, I want this particular fabric GONE! so I used it to piece the backing. The centered block was an aftermath of my playing with the 9 patch from last week, I had already cut the background triangles, but they did not work, but they do here.

Since this was spring break for our local school district we didn't have our Saturday morning class this Saturday. I invited myself to a friend's (Hi Ann!) house for a day of sewing and pretended we were in class. Ann just came back from a week long retreat up north in Turlock, CA and had two bags full of scraps. We spilled the contents on the floor and spent the entire morning sorting the scraps and having tons of fun. After a lunch break, we started on ironing, cutting and some sewing on scrappy blocks (forgot my camera for a picture). It was a great therapeutic quilting day.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Stash Report Week 15

NOTHING. Did not use any fabric from stash at all. But, I do have some productive sewing activity to report.

The fabrics from the Bears in the Farm house project were bigger than needed and I had some pieces left. I've seen this material for so many weeks now that I do not want them back in the stash and continued to work with them. I didn't have a particular pattern on mind so I settled on nine patches. They came out cute but looked too simple, What to do?

Maybe they would be happy if I box them in a square-in-a-aquare setting, alternating red and green fabric for an hour glass effect. Unfortunately, (of course) it was late at night and didn't go well. The formula I found for this block said to cut the squares the finished size plus 5/8", well being tired and all (I claim temporary math ammesia), I figure the eighths mesurament was not worth the trouble and upped it to the next increment,I added 3/8" not 1/8" and now the nine patches are floating. trimming them to the correct size was not gonna work and they are staying at 9 1/2" unfinished.

Still not happy, they seems to dark. Where do I go from here? I took my blocks to class and put them up on the design wall.. 95% of the class suggested a cream lattice to tame them down, I think that is a good idea. I'll work on it this week.

While still at class, I pin basted the double delight top and it is now ready for machine quilting. I don't have much experience with machine quilting, but I plan to practice on this top. I am thinking a curvy or meandering pattern, but will probably end up being stiched in the ditch.

I have all week to work on these two projects since the babysitting job is on spring break until the 20th. Making happy blocks is my goal for this week.