Oh, I Could Do It This Way!

How many times has a task

felt insurmountable.  

Just the idea of getting from here to there.

What if you just let your mind dance on air.

Possibly you'd find a

new idea that would work. 

That's just what I did when it 

came to tackling the next border 

of Di Ford's Sutton Grange pattern.

Can you believe this is the only photo I took of Di's quilt

when I saw it in person!!!

Oh, well.  (sigh)

Remember, I had those 320 tiny drunkard path blocks to make.

I couldn't get past the idea of prepping and then 

appliqueing each one individually.

I started thinking of each little block

as a quarter of a circle that was appliqued on a square.

I did some experimenting.

I had to figure out the size of the squares and circles 

including the extra seam allowances.

I finally did it and

it was going to work!

So rather than prepping 320 quarter circles

it was down to 80 full circles.

I decided to go with the freezer paper method

and was so happy how quickly it went especially

using Missie's Fingertip Stiletto

from Traditional Primitive from Missie Carpenter.

It works as a fingertip stylus allowing you to get

very close the iron to gently fold the seam allowance into place. 

Next I had to decide how to

applique 80 circles in a reasonable amount of time.

I recalled Angie, whose blog is

Quilting on the Crescent,

reviewed some different threads for machine appliqueing

and it reminded me of Wonderfil's Invisafil thread.

I even had a spool and gave it a try.

It's a 100 ply poly thread that is soft, comes in lots of colors

and has a matte finish.

I think I had my solution.

I ordered a few spools from 

Red Rock Threads.

They had a good prices and also had the smaller spools.

I was in business.

I used the overlock stitch flipped and crunched way down.

It's hard to even see the stitches!

Once the 80 circles were appliqued, I quartered them, 

and finally, sewed them into blocks.

I was pretty pleased.  The edges matched up

as well as if I had done it by hand.

Plus it was done in record time.

My nanny Nana duties are resuming this week

for these two Lovelies, as my daughter heads back to the classroom.

So, my sewing time will be spent in

a different way.

Finding some time efficient methods

 is essential.

Keep in mind, the

next time you're stuck on a project,

let your mind do an air dance 

and see what you come up with.

Until Next Time-

Kyle