Tilda Scrappy Celebration, New Sewing Chair + Pretty Things Blooming in Florida

Good morning and Happy Friday!  I finally got around to piecing my backing for the Deco quilt a few days ago, packed it up on a hanger with the quilt top, and put it in the Quilt Purgatory Closet to marinate (and atone for its sins) while it awaits its turn on the long arm for quilting.  Finishing the Deco backing means that I can turn my attention to other projects at LONG last, and I decided that piecing six more blocks for my Tilda Scrappy Celebration quilt would be a nice palette cleanser.  

Three Blocks with Solid Aqua

Three Blocks with Stash Substitution Fabric

I had one fat eighth of aqua Tilda Solid fabric, and that was only enough for three of the six blocks I wanted to make, so I dug around in my stash and found a scrap of a print fabric that looks just as nice.  To my eye, this kind of "make do" substitution adds interest to the finished quilt, so each block that goes into the quilt will feature six identical, or nearly identical blocks depending on how much I have of each fabric I want to use.  It always feels good to pull something out of the Deep Stash and put it into a quilt!

Ready to Piece Some Y-Seam Blocks!

Scrappy Celebration was a 2023 QAL (Quilt-Along) designed by Lissa Alexander and published in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  The pattern is available for sale here on the APQ Shop web site, but I don't have the pattern -- I just went off the photos I saw online and did my own thing in EQ8 software as usual, and for this particular block I decided I preferred to piece the block with two chisel shapes and a Y-seam in the aqua fabric instead of with a rectangle and a square.  I printed a template onto green card stock paper from EQ8 and that's what I used to cut my aqua patches.  So there are my blocks (above photo), ready to be sewn!  

Cutting Out Chisel Patches with my Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors

Four More Blocks for My Retro '80s Building Blocks Quilt + Layout Options for FrankenWhiggish Rose Blocks

Happy Week End, everyone, and happy Month End as well!  One of the goals I'd set for myself at the start of January was to make some more blocks for my Retro '80s Building Blocks sampler quilt, and I finally did that yesterday.  Four more happy little 5" blocks are completed, only one of which was in the original Moda Modern Building Blocks design.  The other three blocks were among the many that I swapped out when I was redrafting the quilt in EQ8 Quilt Design Software (affiliate link) to suit my purposes.

Four More 5 Inch Blocks for Retro '80s Building Blocks

Gotta admit, I am still not 100% thrilled with the center of the little Lemoyne Star but it took me a LONG time to piece that one with all of its little Y-Seams, and I decided it's Good Enough.  Or at least, it's the best I could do that day.

Here they are, my completed blocks back up on the design wall, with the new ones added into the mix:

Back on the Design Wall: 38 Blocks Finished, 15 Remaining to be Made

For those of you who haven't seen any of my earlier posts about this quilt, here's a quick recap.  I started out with the idea that I wanted to make the Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt that was a popular BOM (Block of the Month) about eight years ago.  But I wanted mine to finish a different size to fit a particular bed, and I did not have the kit or the pattern anyway, so I set about redrafting the quilt in EQ8 from pictures of...  But instead of sizing my blocks as ruler-friendly multiples of 6", my blocks were multiples of 5" in order to get the finished quilt size I wanted with the borders I added.  The whole idea behind the "building blocks" sampler was for it to be a skill builder, so I eliminated all of the unecessary seams that Moda had added to simplify the piecing, adding back Y-seam construction because that's a skill I wanted to focus on.  I also swapped out 40% of the blocks in the original quilt for different ones in order to get that retro 1980s vibe I wanted and/or to include blocks that were more interesting (to me) or more challenging.  And I added rainbow borders that were inspired by the suspenders Robin Williams' character wore on the television show Mork & Mindy.  

Four More Blocks This Week for my Retro '80s Building Blocks Quilt

 Progress, y'all!!!  I've made four more blocks for my Retro Building Blocks sampler quilt this week.  New blocks are circled and numbered below.

16 Blocks Finished, 32 Yet To Be Made

I'm almost out of my Kona Ocean fabric until my order from Missouri Star shows up, so the most recent 5" blocks were selected because they could make use of the itty-bitty scraps I have on hand.  I'm at least partially using foundation paper piecing techniques for most of these blocks, but a few of the blocks I chose to mix require good old fashioned template cutting and fussy-fiddly piecing.  The orange and blue one numbered 4 in the photo above was one such block.

Design Wall Monday: In Which Tenacity Triumphs Over Tricky Triangles... And Rebecca Sings With Kristin Chenoweth!

Although I've been more consumed with Italian opera choruses than sewing over the past week (more on that later), I did continue working on my Tabby Mountain quilt in fits and snatches.  I have finally come up with a method for matching up those 30 degree triangles that gives me reasonably good precision on the first try, without slowing me down to a crawl.  My OMG (One Monthly Goal) is to get this one on the frame and QUILTED.  The month is nearly half over and I have some upcoming travel at the end of this week so I'm trying to keep my eye on the prize and resist my the temptation to get bogged down in pursuit of perfection.  

As of Sunday Afternoon

I have the whole quilt laid out on my design wall.  Despite the pattern directions to press all seams open, I'm pressing each row to the side in opposite directions.  I discovered early on that I have better visibility at points if I'm able to press each completed seam allowance AWAY from the next seam to be sewn.  So I'm working from right to left on rows 1, 3, 5 and 7, and I'm working from left to right on rows 2, 4, 6 and 8.  Those triangles that you see flipped upside down on the wall are the next triangles to be sewn in each row, so I've only sewn about 25% of the triangles together so far.  I flip the next triangle over onto the pieced section to which it needs to be attached and then take the whole thing to the sewing machine like that, to keep from getting confused about which triangle goes where.  It is NO FUN to sew a perfect seam, press it open, and realize that you sewed the wrong pieces together!

I've modified the marking template that I showed you last time.  Marking the ends of all three seams on each triangle corner was taking too long, breaking the tips off my mechanical chalk pencil over and over again, and was also fussy and fiddly, trying to stick pins through little dots to line the two triangles up for stitching.  Then I remembered the little notches on my isosceles triangle die for my Accuquilt GO! cutter, the same kind of notches that you find on garment patterns.  So I printed out the last page of the Tabby Mountain quilt pattern again at 100%, the page with the optional cutting template for those who don't want to rotary cut their triangles.  That template includes a blue dashed stitching line that I could see through my paper.  Holding the paper up to the window so I could see through it, I carefully folded each seamline in half so the points matched up, creating a perpendicular crease at the exact midpoint of each side seam.  

I've Marked the Seam Intersections in Green

In order for this to work, you need to be matching the seam intersections together when you fold the paper template in half -- NOT matching the points at the cut edges of the triangle.  I've marked the points I'm matching together in green on the photo above.  After creating that perpendicular fold line at the exact center of each side seam, I went over the fold line with pencil and then transferred those markings to my plastic triangle template as you see above.  The little dot at the end of my Sharpie-marked midlines on my plastic template represents the exact midpoint of each quarter inch side seam.

Skinny Channels Cut With Pattern Notcher

Then I remembered this nifty little pattern notching tool that I had bought for dressmaking patterns a long time ago (and have never used).  It's like a hole puncher except, instead of punching a hole, it punches a narrow 1/4" long channel, just wide enough for a chalk pencil point to draw a line.

See How the Chalk Line Completely Fills the Channel?

Now, instead of trying to draw and match up three tiny dots on each triangle, I'm just making one little alignment mark on each side seam.  To make it super easy to line them up, I mark my dash on the WRONG side of the top triangle, and I mark the line on the RIGHT side of the bottom triangle so I can see both sides at once when I'm matching them up.  It's much easier to line up two little ticks at the raw edges of the fabric than it is to try to line up three little dots that are inset from each triangle point!

Straight Edges Perfectly Aligned, Triangle Point 1/4" Away from Raw Edges

So here's how I lay these pieces out for stitching.  I've just taken this partially stitched row down from my design row and I'm about to add the Disco Kitty triangle with the blue background, so that piece is upside down (right sides together with the pieced strip):

I want to sew this with the new triangle I'm adding on the BOTTOM, though, next to my feed dogs -- otherwise I won't be able to see that seam intersection that creates the triangle point, and I really want to see that to make sure the seams are transecting at 1/4" from the raw edge.  So I flip the whole thing over, like this:

I've shifted the triangles slightly apart so I can see both of them at once.  Then I lay my plastic triangle template over my green triangle and make a little chalk mark in the seam allowance on the WRONG side of the fabric that is facing me.

See That Little Blue Chalk Mark?

And then I flip my template around 180 degrees and line it up with the exposed side of the kitty print triangle underneath:

Marking the Bottom Triangle On the RIGHT Side of the Fabric

See how I'm keeping both triangles facing the way they'll be sewn together the whole time they're off my design wall?  That way I can be sure I'm sewing the right pieces together, each one facing the right direction, without having to use sticky notes to keep track of what goes where.  I've got three different chalk pencils that I'm using -- pink, yellow, and blue, so I have a chalk that I can see clearly on any color fabric.

Pink Line Matched to Blue Line

Now I slide the marked edges back together, matching up those two chalk lines the same way I match the center of a quilt top to the center mark on the canvas of my quilting frame (don't you love how everything is connected to everything else?).

This works because I'm matching up the center point of the SEAM line, not the center of my fabric edge.  With the midpoint of one triangle aligned with the midpoint of the other triangle, the edges of those fabric pieces automatically get "jogged apart" by exactly the right amount every time.  

Pinned for Stitching

The other thing I wanted to show you is how I'm pinning these pieces together prior to stitching them.  I always pin quilt pieces with the points facing the raw fabric edges and the glass heads pointing to the left.  That's so I can use my 97D 1/4" patchwork foot with the foolproof screw-down seam guide that butts up against the right toe of the presser foot.  The first pint goes in right at the marked center point, and then I carefully smooth the two fabrics until the raw edges are aligned to the left and right of center.  I mark the two ends of the seam next, fill in with an extra pin at approximately halfway between the first pins, and then add an extra pin through just a pinch of fabric at the very tip of the intersecting triangle seams that I'm about to stitch, to keep them from wiggling apart before they reach the needle.  

Meet My Best Friend, Spray Starch

With the addition of these alignment marks, this quilt project becomes easy enough for a beginner.  The only thing to watch out for is that the long bias sides of these triangles are very easy to stretch out of shape, which is why I'm handling the triangles as little as possible.  I have no water in my iron, pressing the seams to one side without any distorting steam, and then I'm starching each seam immediately after pressing it, before putting the pieced unit back on my design wall.

MEANWHILE...  The only other sewing I accomplished over the past week was that I finished the reverse applique centers of all of the tulips for my eight remaining Frankenwhiggish Rose applique blocks.  I've been doing Old School applique for this project so far, needle turning the edges of each piece as I stitch them down, but I think I might switch to prepared edge with freezer paper, to hopefully speed things along. There are so many things I want to do, and so few hours in the day to do them!  I would love to show you my first finished block for my Queen's Garden applique BOM. Heck, I'd love to show you even a partially begun first block for that quilt, since Block 2 is due to be released any day now.  I'd love to show you a finished pineapple block, or something nifty on my quilt frame...

But instead, I'll just have to show you this picture of ME with Kristin Chenoweth, right before we sang together onstage in front of thousands of cheering fans on Friday night:

Oh, YES, That's Kristin Chenoweth!  I'm the Smiley Blonde on the Far Right

Okay, it's not QUITE so glamorous as that.  It's not as if she and I were singing duets or anything (I wish!).  Some of us VOX singers were asked to join Opera Carolina Chorus in singing with Andrea Bocelli at his concert at the Spectrum Coliseum -- hence my remark at the beginning of this post about working on Italian opera choruses all week.  Kristin is currently on tour with Andrea Bocelli as a Very Special Guest performer (that's how she's billed in the program) and we got to sing backup on one of her songs, too.  

My View From Onstage

Look at all those PEOPLE!!  I couldn't resist snapping this photo at the end of the concert (I would not dare to take a photo DURING the concert!)  The chorus was at the back of the stage throughout the entire sold-out performance.  I'm tall, so I was in the center of the back row of chorus in the Soprano section.  The orchestra is in front of us (those two gentlemen in the picture are percussionists) and then the featured artists (Bocelli, Soprano Nadine Sierra, Chenoweth, and violinist Caroline Campbell) were down in front.  

I just have to tell you all how beautifully gracious Kristin Chenoweth is.  At rehearsal, the other featured artists practiced their pieces facing the empty coliseum, just like they would do for the performance, getting used to the space, the sounds and lights, etc.  But when Kristin came onstage to rehearse with us, she turned around and faced the orchestra and choir.  She serenaded us with our own private performance, and posed for a few pictures as well.  She even thanked US for singing with her -- like SHE was the lucky one to be onstage with us instead of the other way around.  Isn't it wonderful to find out that someone as brilliantly talented as Kristin Chenoweth has a heart as amazing as her voice?

48 hours later and I'm still giddy!  Okay.  I'm off to accomplish less exciting things, like laundry and grocery shopping.  I'll be linking up with:

• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• WIPs on Wednesday at Esther's Quilt Blog
• ·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/

OMG, It's February! Tabby Mountains is My One Monthly Goal

I have resisted joining this One Monthly Goal (OMG) thing for a LONG time, but I'm gonna give it a go this month.  OMG is a monthly linky party hosted by Patty over at Elm Street Quilts.  The idea is to set one REASONABLE goal that you share at the beginning of the month and then do a follow up post at the end of the month.  It's about Motivation and Accountability and Blah Blah Whatever.  There are even sponsors and prizes, if you're into that kind of thing.  Intrigued?  You can see others' goals for February and find out about this month's prizes over at Elm Street Quilts here.  

Anyway, I generally have multiple lists of goals and priorities for each project, each list having so many sublists, subgoals, footnotes and side trips that I can barely keep track of the lists, let alone accomplish any of the things ON the lists.  And that's just for my sewing and quilting projects -- there are other lists and sublists for my interior design business, for all of the music I'm responsible for learning for various choirs, for household tasks and for all of the responsibilities that come with being the administrative assistant mom of two teenage boys...  It can take me an hour and a half just to go through all of my lists and decide what to tackle first!  So for February, just for a lark, I'm going to try this OMG thing and see whether picking just ONE sewing goal for the month helps me to spend more of my sewing time SEWING instead of planning what to sew next.

I was musing aloud about this One Monthly Goal thing yesterday, wondering what my goal should be for February, and my darling husband piped up with a suggestion.  He thinks my goal should be "that your husband doesn't catch you buying more fabric."  Notice he didn't say my goal should be NOT BUYING fabric; just that he shouldn't "CATCH" me buying fabric.  Isn't that cute?  He wants to play that game where I buy fabric and smuggle it into the house at the bottom of grocery bags and carry it upstairs, buried within stacks of laundry...  Okay, Sweetie.  Game on!  But that's not a quilting goal, that's one falls under Things We Do To Keep Our Marriage Exciting.

And so: ONE goal for February, challenging enough to feel good about attaining, yet reasonable enough that I'm not setting myself up for defeat as soon as Life happens (as Life has a habit of doing).  I want my OMG to support my overall goal for the year of becoming proficient with my longarm quilting machine.  My One Monthly Goal for February has got to be piecing AND longarm quilting my Tabby Mountain quilt.  

My February OMG: Piece AND Quilt Tabby Mountain

The triangles are all cut out and laid out on the design wall, and I actually started piecing the first couple of rows over the weekend.  As anticipated, since these are NOT equilateral triangles, the piecing did not go smoothly.  The seam ripper was called into play repeatedly.

Sew, Rip, Sew, Rip; Repeat ad infinitum

This Is the WRONG Way to Line Up the Triangles!!

Look at the above photo, where I've drawn the seam line on the pink triangle 1/4" in from the raw edge.  That was my first idea about how to sew these triangles together, and that idea was WRONG!  In order to line these up correctly, the beginning of the chalk line at the bottom of the pink triangle needs to be touching the raw edge of the Cat Treats triangle beneath it.  When these two triangles are properly matched up for sewing, the lower right corner of that pink triangle will be sticking past the raw edge of the Cat Treats triangle.

I probably sewed, ripped, and resewed that one seam three or four times and it still wasn't right.  At this point, after so much handling, my raw edges were beginning to fray and the bias edges of my triangles were showing signs of distortion.  Clearly this idea of "jogging the edges slightly" as recommended by my pattern instructions wasn't going to cut it!  So I thought about traditional hand piecing, where you actually mark and align stitching lines on each piece, or at least mark dots at the beginning and end of each seam intersection.  So, using gridded template plastic and an X-Acto cutter along with the 30 degree triangle ruler I used to cut my fabric, I cut out a template the same size as my triangle units, including the seam allowances.  Then, laying my see-through template on top of my triangle ruler, I marked a small dot with an extra-fine point Sharpie marker where the quarter inch seam lines should intersect at each corner.  I punched a tiny hole exactly through each black dot with a 1/16" hole puncher, and now I can use this template to mark those crucial intersections with a Sewline mechanical chalk pencil on each triangle as I line them up for piecing. If I poke a pin straight through the dot on one triangle and straight through the dot on the other triangle, that should guarantee that my alignment is correct the FIRST time I sew that seam, right?

Marking Seam Intersections With My Piecing Template

Miraculously, even before I had the idea of making a template, some of my seams DID come out okay.  If they're not perfect, then at least they're close enough for me to fudge when I join the rows together.  I'm done ripping because my goal is to get this project QUILTED this month -- eye on the prize, right?

The Ones I Can Live With

I am disregarding the pattern instructions to press seams open because I tried doing that on the first couple of seams and nearly melted my fingerprints off with my iron.  So now I'm pressing the seams to the sides, alternating from left to right with each row.  Much easier to get a nice, crisply pressed open seam that way, at least in my experience.

Tentative Quilting Plan for Tabby Mountain

Meanwhile, I was well enough to sing at two church services on Sunday morning, and I came up with this preliminary quilting plan on my iPad during the sermons.  I'm fidgety, so I find that I actually pay better attention to what the pastor is saying when I'm doodling, so don't judge me...  It's not just the four year olds who benefit from coloring pages during worship!  So.  The above plan includes some ruler work and little circles on the solid colored diamonds (two adjacent rows of solid triangles) and some easy free motion fills on the print fabrics.  At least, these were free motion fills that I was able to execute fairly well on my practice pieces, so I'm looking forward to trying them out on a real quilt next.

And now that my "Math Is Beautiful" quilt is finished and delivered and I'm not as intimidated by my longarm machine, the thought of QUILTING this Tabby Mountain quilt is my motivation to persist through the piecing.  Yay!  

As I mentioned initially, I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts today, as well as:

·       Let’s Bee Social at www.sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/

·       Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/

·       WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

·       WIPs With Friends at www.mamaspark.blogspot.com 

·       Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/  

·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com

·       Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/