Please, No More Half Square Triangles!

Since the beginning of the month

I have done nothing but work

on the Oh, Say Can You Sew, 

mystery quilt along

from Lisa Bongean.

Holy Moley

HST's !!!

 
This months clue was to make 

1152 - 1 inch half square triangle (finished)

and sewing them into 128 

nine patch blocks

I've been working on them pretty much exclusively,

nonstop.

Thankfully, I had some Triangles on a Roll

and Thangles papers in the correct size.

I hadn't used either of these for a long time.

But having to:

 make so many,

make them scrappy and

make them accurately,

it was the best solution.

There seems to be so many steps.

Cutting fabrics,

pinning fabrics and paper,

sewing on the lines,

cutting apart

and finally tearing away all of the paper.

The good part is that each hst is the correct size.

No trimming after each one was pressed.

Time wise, it probably all comes out the same.

There were just so many to make!!!!

A quilt friend asked if I were going to cut off 

the dog ears on each piece.

"No, way!" I said.

But then....

Despite my hand cramping up,

I cut off each and every one.

This is as far as I have gotten.

I've sewn 3 blocks,

125 - 3" blocks to go.

I needed to see if they would all turn out right.

I think they're going to look good

with the wide variety of fabrics.

Of course, being a mystery...

I have no idea if they'll look good!

So, as I sit at my machine

feeding it 

these little individual triangular nibblets,

I was wondering how differently

each of us might approach a 

repetitive process like this.

Do you do each step to completion?

Or 

do you do small batches from start to finish?

As you can tell,

I push myself to finish each step,

even if it means sacrificing the

function of my hands.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Back Burner Update

It seems like the past week

has flown by.

I had committed myself to

only working on those stalled projects

that needed to be taken off the back burner.

I'm afraid, as always,

I tried to bite off more than I could chew.

But that doesn't mean that 

I didn't have a successful week.

I sauteed some small pieces into

2 inch four patches and pinwheels.  

and those were combined into 41-six inch blocks.

That's not all....

They were whipped together with 40 other six inch blocks

that were from an earlier

mystery quilt designed by Thimble Creek Quilts. 

I had used all scraps and "leftovers".

 There are still borders to figure out,

but I guess I'll move it back to the back burner

for just awhile longer to simmer.

It was fun to get out my kitchen aide mixer

 and mix up some new fabric combos

for the last four full size hexagons
I need for "Route 66" designed by Di Ford.

 I hung up the last

set that I just finished.

I'm getting closer.

One more tasty treat.

Look what finally popped out of the oven.
It had baked long enough.

Snow Happens

by Bird Brain Designs.

This has been my traveling "snack food" since

the start of the year.

It was ready to be done and enjoyed

with the red geraniums of summer.

There's still plenty lingering on those

crowded back burners,

but I'm feeling quite happy with

 

this week's baking.

Until Next Time-
Kyle

We're Both Designers

Despite all the rain drops 

and cold temps, it's May.

We're suppose to be outside doing

 spring yard work.

Well, Running Man has.

He's been designing and digging and 

 has outdone himself this year.

He's dug
up a huge section

of the front yard,

hauled in big rocks,

planted 125 assorted shrubs and ground covers,

created a dry creek bed,

 and

hauled more rock.

Me, on the other hand,
have been using these rainy days
for designing as well.

Although, in a much different way.

 Fussy cutting designs from my
coveted Dutch Chintz fabric pieces,

and coordinating all the design elements

for part 2 of Petra Prin's mystery quilt

from Quiltmania. 

Part 3 arrived last week so either

I need to work faster or

 

hope for more rainy days.
 

Until Next Time-

The Prep Before the Meal

Anyone who has prepared a 

holiday meal for family and friends,

 knows that it just doesn't magically appear

on the table.

When everyone is licking their lips

and oooing and ahhhing 

 over the deliciousness

of the meal

there is a kitchen like this in the background.

It takes a lot of work to 

finally get to this point. 

The same thing happens when making a quilt.

I've been working on 

the ThimbleCreek Quilt Shop's

Halloween mystery quilt

since July.

I've had Halloween fabrics in piles

for months.

We got the final clue last week.

Yay!

Now there are literally

500- 2" four patches to make

for the lattice.

 Of course,

there's pressing involved

 and lots more sewing.

Eventually,

 the blocks and lattice strips

will come together.

And then the big reveal

ooooo, ahhhh.....

Delicious!

But not yet.

I'm still cooking
and making a mess.

Until then

have a wonderful Thanksgiving

counting your many blessings.

 Until Next Time-

Softly Tootin' My Own Horn and Some Other Things

 My mom always told me

never to "toot your own horn".

It was bragging and, besides,

others would see your good work and take notice.

But today

I'm breaking that rule, but 

  I hope I'm not tooting too loudly.

I have completely finished

 

 Dutch Chintz Medallion

2014- 2015

63" x 63"

It's taken a year and a half,

6 installments of Quiltmania magazine,

a fabulous design by Di Ford,

and perseverance.

It was fabulous to work with the Dutch Chintz

 from DEN HAAN & WAGENMAKERS

I had never done Broderie Perse applique before

or English Paper pieced hexagons.

The design brought forth new challenges and skills.

I didn't like how these football shapes didn't touch.

So I added some tiny circles to connect

them altogether.

And mitering borders

is always a challenge for me.

Then there was the decision on how to quilt it.

I combined both machine quilting in the ditch and

 hand quilting the open areas.

Today it's done

 and the label sewn on.

Tah Tah Dah!

*****

Winners:

Last Saturday Running Man drew three names

to win the three fabric baskets I had made 

in conjunction with my birthday celebration 

and my year of fun.

Here are the winners:

Basket #1 - Cathy of Quilting on Main Street

Basket #2 - Sandy L.  

( I still need to hear back from you, Sandy.)

Basket #3 - Julie of JulieKQuilts

Thanks  to everyone who took the time to 

leave a sweet comment.  I appreciate all of you.

***

The Fourth of July holiday is 

just around the corner here in the States.

Have a wonderful celebration.

Until Next Time-

It Was Like Wrestling A Giant Squid

This week has been quite the

sewing week.

In fact, I've felt a bit

like Captain Nemo,

of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,

 wrestling a giant squid

on top of a submarine.

The reason is

because I've been adding the final border

to the Mountmellick quilt.

Don't let anyone kid you

that adding borders is the easiest part.

I created my final border

by sewing two border prints together.

Of course, the idea is to make it look 

like it's not pieced.

It took quite a few unsews, repositionings,

and seam allowance adjustments

 to get it right.

Then the quilt turned into a menacing squid.

 The extra long border pieces needed

for mitered corners,

 turned into tentacles.

They seemed to be dangling and

 tangling everywhere.

It really did take awhile to 

get the corners sewn.

They're not perfect, but

it's the best I could do

while on top of that submarine.

1-2 threads off

 can make a disjointed mitered corner.

I still have the last bit of corner applique

to finish and

 then it's on to the quilting.

Hopefully, 

my squid wrestling days are over.

Until Next Time-

Kyle