Le Petite Challenge - George

Now that I am finished with all of my jobs this summer, well almost - still have to fill out all the paperwork for the externship, but I am waiting on the owner of the restaurant to find some time.  Hopefully on Wednesday this week.  Anyway, now that I have nowhere I have to be, I don't want to do anything.  I am not in the mood to quilt.  It may be that I really wanted to have this quilt top finished and quilted by now, but I just couldn't make myself get in there and baste it so I could quilt it.  Here is my "George" quilt from the Le Petite Challenge.  Featuring "Portugal" by April Cornell for Moda with a blue Kona background.  I don't know which blue though.  I did find some time to work on this in the month of July.  I really like this quilt top.  It's small - Le Petite - but it makes a big statement.  I really need to crop this picture so you don't see the "table runner" next to it. 

That "table runner" was started over a year ago - maybe even two - and since I really don't like to make table runners, I was going to make it into a full size quilt.  However, I only did a bit and got bogged down in stitching all the stars on the squares - I even reduced the number of stars by half - and I never got back to it. When I was pulling batik scraps from off my cutting table and the surrounding area, I found the box that this was in.  It still has all the fabrics pulled and in the box with this top.  I used some of the scraps from this box to add to my block of the month challenge and saw why I haven't worked on it in awhile.  The blocks I have finished are the exact same fabrics that are already in the quilt!  I need to make more stars, add in more batiks and . . . finish this quilt top.  But first, I need to cut 6 inch squares for our Bee Friend's scrap swap.  I need 145 light squares and 145 medium/dark squares.  I know it won't take long to kick those out,  but my cutting table is over run with stuff.  So, I am going to have to cut on my small table - which is okay - but it also has fabric on it from at least two different projects plus leftover bits of George!  Gotta go clean that off.

Nighttime sewing - Challenge block gone awry.

 I got out of work early last night and found some time to sit and sew.  I decided to make the newest block of the month from 15 minutes play.  I read through all the directions and started in to sewing.  Cut out some reds/pinks/oranges/purples for my flower portion and rummaged through the scraps to see what I could use for the leaves.  There were some greens and blues, but not in big enough strips so I just sewed them all together to make that 7 inch square that was needed.  I cut out my background - going with the darkest gray on this one.  Got the leaf elements done, made the stem and now it is time to square up and put this puppy together.  Decided that it would be easier to make my squares with a 6 1/2" square ruler so I got it out, cut all the squares the same size, sewed it together and it went together like a dream.  One of the easiest blocks to make.

  

I was happy with the look - even though the stripes on the leaves are going differently than what I wanted, it was still okay. I put it on the wall with the other blocks and . . .


 

It's a lot smaller than the other blocks.  What could have gone wrong?  I did everything right so something was off.  Maybe the sizes.  No, 6 1/2 and 6 1/2 sewn together is 12 1/2 so that was correct.  What could be wrong.  WELL, let me tell you.  That 6 1/2" square ruler that I thought was 6 1/2" square?  It is only a 6 inch square ruler!!!!!  Why would I have one like that in my stack of rulers?  I know it's an old one and I even thought last night while I was cutting that I needed to get a new one since this one was looking all ratty tatty and the edges were a bit sliced, but still, you would think I would know better than to make that big of a mistake.  I was too tired to do anything about it last night and after sleeping on it I may just leave it smaller.  I am going to "sash" this quilt together anyway, so the "sashing" around this block just needs to be a bit larger.  Who knows, I may just have one or two more mess-up-small-size blocks to go with it. 

You may be asking yourself why I put "sash" in quotations like that and it is because even though I know this quilt will need some separation between the blocks that sashing provides, it may not be a typical sashing.  So, I put the word sash in quotes to show that it probably won't be a single strip of fabric and the blocks may not be set in straight rows/columns.  I don't have an idea in my head how to put this quilt top together because we haven't done all the blocks.  Who knows what else is in the works for this block challenge.  It has been fun making all the blocks though. 

Sewing Time Again

I finally found some time to sit and sew!!  I planned on doing more this summer, but I have been really, really busy as those of you that know me can attest to.  I have this entire weekend off so I sewed and watched videos yesterday, put them in the mail this morning so I can get some more in the series - True Blood, season 3 from Netflix, I only saw the first disc yesterday.  I can't wait to get the next ones. 

Sew, back to sewing - I worked on the blocks of the month challenge from 15 minutes play and made the three newest blocks.  This first one is called, Beacon Lights.  I wasn't too sure about it when I first saw it on the blog, but it has grown on me.  I was worried about my center block with the large patch of purple left of center, but in the picture, even though it stands out some, it doesn't look as bad as I thought.  And, with all the blocks together - see end of post - it might just blend in with the blocks, especially if I use a large chunk of that fabric in a later block.  I am not changing it like I wanted to at first.  After making each section of this block I started piecing it together and it just wasnt' working.  I thought I had cut things wrong; the directions were off,  I didn't know what was going on.  Then I realized that I needed to square up the quarter square triangle blocks to 3 1/2" and it was amazing how easy the block was to put together then.  some of the blocks were as much as 1/2" off and when you put two of them together it just didn't fit!


I made this Cactus Flower block first and had to find a green that I wasn't going to use a scrap piece in the made fabric.  When I squared up the stem/flower body part, I didn't really center the stem and it is a little bit off, but if I hadn't pointed it out to you, you might not have even noticed.  Here again, I wasn't going to go back and fix the problem.  I am letting everything stay as is for now. 

The last block I put together last night was this courthouse steps.  I knew when I saw the block on the blog that I wanted a red center.  That is what the old log cabin blocks used for most of their centers.  However, I didn't plan on reversing the made fabric and the background until I realized that I was going to have to make some more fabric if I wanted to make it the original way since I didn't have enough for 2 - 12 1/2" strips.  Here is where I had to piece the background fabric in the 6 1/2" strips to get enough fabric to work.  Thank goodness this background fabric has a little print to it or it would have stood out and been very noticeable if I had used the first gray fabric.  I can't even see where the seams are in the picture.  Each of the two side pieces are pieced 2 times.  One of the solid squares from one of the two blocks above is also pieced, but just on one of the corners. 

Here are all 5 of the blocks on the wall together.  I was worried about not having the same background fabrics on my blocks, but with just these two fabrics it is not too bad.  I have several more background fabrics selected that I am going to use for the next blocks.  I think the one I used last night was probably the lightest gray I got.  It will be fun to see them altogether at the end of the year - I think we are doing this for a year, I am not sure, though.  I will have to take their picture somewhere else since my bulb burned out on my halogen and I only have 300 bulbs left and not the 500 that was previously in there.  (I bought a bunch of bulbs on clearance several years ago and am down to some of the lower wattage bulbs.  I could go to the store and purchase some new ones, but why?  That would mean braving the crowds this holiday weekend and I just don't want to do that.  I would rather sew which is where I am heading soon after I go back downstairs and check on the dogs)

15 minute monthly blocks - May and June



I finally decided to make the block of the month for 15 Minute Play blog.  The above block is the one for May.  First you have to make enough fabric (about 9" X 15").  Then you cut it into the parts you need, cut your background, then piece it all together.  It is a really stunning block.  I wasn't going to make one, but every time someone finished one and posted it to the blog, I loved it.  I had a handful of batik scraps laying around that I have wanted to play with for a couple of weeks, but just haven't done anything with them so I thought to myself, okay, this quilt is going to be from batiks.  The background will be pastels/lights and the made fabric from scraps and bits and pieces of my batiks.  Now that I have a semi plan in my head, I wrote down what size blocks and a brief description of how to put this block together and started in last night.  I pulled a darker gray out of my stash for the background, but didn't like it as well - okay, it hadn't made it into the drawer yet, it was laying out waiting to go into the drawer and I saw it and picked it up.  There wasn't enough contrast so I knew it wouldn't work.  I opened the batik lights drawer and wow I have a lot of pale yellow batiks.  That is all I could see when I first opened the drawer.  I rooted around and found this gray.  I love it.  The star just jumps out from the background.  My camera was downstairs, so I knew I would wait to post it until today.  This morning I got on the blogs to just read through and noticed that June's block tutorial had already been posted.  How did I miss that?  I don't know, but I did.  Maybe I didn't think of it as being the June block and thought of it as just something another person posted.  I don't know.  Anyway, I copied down the directions for this one, gathered all the bits and pieces I didn't use from the May block, added some more fabric so I had just enough to cut out my squares for the made fabric section. 

The triangles of the background was simple, just squares cut in half diagonally.  I cut strips for the other ones and followed the directions, but the first pieces didn't turn out right.  I measured and measured and it still didn't turn out right.  So, with the second strip  I decided not to cut it first.  I would sew on the made fabric triangle and then trim the background at the right angle needed.  That worked great, except for two of my triangles I sewed them on the wrong way.  Thank goodness this batik doesn't have a definite right or wrong side.  I simply unsewed, flipped the background piece and sewed it back on the correct way.  That was a simple solution, but it took leaving the house and going to get a coke for my mind to think clearly enough to figure it out.  The frustration and the fact that I don't have cokes here at my house is what sent me out on a Sunday afternoon for a coke at my Dairy Queen.  I really don't like getting drinks on the weekend from there.  Don't get me wrong, it is my favorite place to get a drink - especially during happy hour which is one of the only times I go - but on the weekend is when all the new people start working and some of them don't have a clue!  I try and be patient and I know they probably don't like the people at the window telling them that what they are doing isn't correct, but come on!  I know how much my drink is at happy hour - I buy one almost every weekday.  So, don't tell me it's ____ when I know it's ____.  At least this one today after giving me the same price twice and I kept saying no, that's not right, had the decency to say, well, let me see.  She finally figured out what was wrong - her helper that took the order didn't put the discount in the computer.  Poor thing, she even had to re-make my drink because she didn't do it right the first time.  That happens all the time with the new people.  They don't listen to you tell them what you want.  They just hear part of it and then move on to making what they thought they heard.   Okay, climbing off my soap box and getting back to my quilt blocks.  This second one, the pinwheel hasn't been squared and trimmed.  Below is both blocks next to each other on my wall.  Looking good.  This will be an outstanding quilt when all the blocks are made.