What Day Is It?

Hmmm, Friday again.  I think I'll fore-go my usual "Fina-Lee Friday" for awhile.

I did manage to go to quilt guild last night.  This was quite the accomplishment since I haven't been going much of any where for weeks and weeks other than driving Nick to and from school and a stop at Walmart on Tuesday.  The guest speaker was ok, just not my style and color choices for the most part, but she was still interesting.  I do like to see what interests others.  I always enjoy hearing the stories of how different guest speakers first came to the world of quilting.  They can be quite funny!

Some of my reasons for going were to see if it was possible to sit for an extended time in less than comfortable chairs which helped me determine that I will probably only attend one service at church on Sunday rather than two (one is our fellowship group and they have hard plastic, very uncomfortable chairs), and January is when we pay our annual dues so I had to write my check for that, and I think in all of 2012 I only managed to get to guild once or twice, so am trying to do a little better this year.  We shall see.

 I need to stop at the fabric/craft store (not Jo-Ann's) today to look for a minimum of 1/2 yard of a light gold-tone, preferably not a solid and something that will fit with paisley.  Also need to look for a darker gold that will read solid for an inner border for the same project.  For that, I need about a yard.  If I can't find it today, I'll have to take a longer drive to a quilt store about 15 miles away tomorrow.  The center of this project is made from 8 FQs and 1/2 y. background fabric (the light gold-tone).  I bought the FQs as a coordinated pack a few years ago.  Now, with working on it, I finally read the instructions and realize that there is absolutely NO room for cutting errors or mangling a piece in sewing, because you use pretty much every - single - bit of those FQs.  I have been known to not take that sage advice of "measure twice - cut once"  and with at least two of these FQs, even a single 1/4" wide wrong cut would have been disastrous - try finding that same fabric after several years! Thankfully, all has been cut and sewn into blocks except for where I need that background and I plan to buy MORE than the 1/2 yard!  So it's about time to head out the door.  

Stitch it up!

Easy Street Brakes On

I suppose I should have been finishing up Easy Street, but I decided I'd put the brakes on, pin a few more blocks onto the design wall, take a picture for the blog & Quiltville's link up (which was yesterday! if you haven't already, check out the beauties there), then take it down and work on it when I can get the living room cleaned up enough, and vacuumed, so that I can lay it out on the floor.   I could just close my eyes and sew the blocks together, and it would probably work, but I suppose I'm just anal enough that I want to make sure I don't have too many of the same fabrics in one area and not in another.  That said, here's another photo, just willy-nilly pinned to the design wall...it will get sewn together, just not right now.

Easy Street - partial

I am really loving this quilt!

Oh My Stars! or Oh My, Stars!

Gotta love the English language and our grammar and punctuation, or lack thereof.  In this case, it's Stars! and lots of them, as in Sawtooth Stars.  

I missed getting my post ready for Monday, so I'm linking it up today, at Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.  I'm glad she leaves the link open for several days.  The Sawtooth Stars are for my January NewFO project, and I'll provide more detail on that on January 31st when I link up to Cat Patches.  There are 40 of these stars.  Note the star on the right, 8 of them have one solid square instead of the HSTs. 

Sawtooth Stars

Stash Report - Week 2, 2013

We're nearly at the middle of January already; before we know it, it'll be week 52!

I had to add a little to my stash this week because I needed some additional fabric for a project I was working on.  I needed a light background fabric and fabric for the inner border.  I won't say that I'm 100% pleased with what I was able to find, but they 'will work' and I think the end product will be just fine!

Used This Week: 0 yards
Used Year to Date: 0 yards
Added This Week: 2 yards
Added Year to Date: 2 yards
Net Used for 2013: -2 yards

light and dark golds added

Added were the whole yard pieces that I have here on my ironing board with the blocks and partial blocks laid out on them.  The LQS (if you call local about 10-15 miles away) has a huge store with lots of fabric, but the particular oriental-Kashmir style I was looking for in just the right golds was not there and this is the closest I could get after rejecting six or seven others.  The next closest store is yet another few miles further away, and I know they tend to be heavier on other styles of fabric, so didn't head out there.  I think I really do like the background fabric, it's in the tone I was looking for.  I'm slightly less pleased with the darker gold which will be the inner border, as it should really be either the same or darker than the dark gold squares.  What makes it look lighter is the heavy gold paint, which will probably gradually lessen with future washings.  Now, in the blocks in the center where the light background is, there are those gold half-square triangles.  Well, somehow when I was laying out my fat quarters and choosing which to put where, I missed that they needed to be the same darkness (in this case black and not gold) as the dark squares in the 4-Ps.  And while they play well, it changes the look and though they've been cut already, I dug through my stash and found a perfect black with gold scroll filigree, seen in the photo below with the gold blocks.

black & gold from stash

What I learned from this project, if you buy a pre-selected grouping of FQs for a specific project, read the directions, and determine if you need additional fabrics of any of those FQs, and/or fabrics for borders, because if you wait several years, you may not find just the right co-ordinating fabrics or the same fabrics as the FQs (should you make a mistake) at that later time.  I should  have remembered this from another project I worked on where I wanted a rich, dark brown for the binding...I went to several stores and quilt shows and still settled for something 'close' but not really what I'd hoped for, and I didn't want to wait until that color may reappear in fabric shops because it could have been years!

Jump on over to Patchwork Times for other reports of input/output this past week.

Do U EQ?

In my geographic part of the world, EQ is an acronym for Earth Quake!  And they still take my breath away because they're SNEAKY!  I know another big one will hit one day and I don't relish that thought, but really, that's not what this post is about.

I would like to know, do you use Electric Quilt?  I guess the latest version is 7, and according to their website, it is compatible with Windows 8, yeah, I know, but it's what came on my new computer and I'm finding my way around it.  I was still in the dark ages of XP.  Back to EQ7.  If you use it, do you really, really find yourself making the quilts you design?  It's a pretty pricy piece of software to just sit and make pretty picture-quilts out of, lol. 

I was telling Marty about it and he was headed to a computer store for a new graphics card for his own computer so he'll check and see if they have it and said he'd get it if I wanted it, but I thought I'd ask y'all first.  I told him I needed to do some research.

Looking forward to any and all comments pro/con about this software especially if you have EQ7 and use it with Win8; is it truly compatible?

Tootling Down Easy Street

I just can't contain my excitement about how much I'm liking how my Easy Street Mystery quilt is looking.  I.am.loving.it!  I'm happy with the colors I chose, I'm happy with the pattern, I.am.very.pleased!  And here's a pic of what would be one corner.  This corner consists of 3 block "A", 1 block "B", a corner triangle block and 2 setting triangle blocks.  Overall, there are 16 block "A"s, 9 block "B"s, - all set on point - 4 corner triangles (stating the obvious right?), and 12 setting triangles - it will measure 84" square before borders (optional).  I still need to finish the last two seams on the "B" blocks and then I can assemble the top.

If you tilt your head to the right so that the block corner becomes the bottom left corner you'll have the correct orientation of the setting.

I'm pretty well pooped out tonight so will sew those seams tomorrow after I get home from my MRI.  Painkillers have really only taken the edge off the pain.  Sitting is somewhat comfortable up to a point, then I have to get up and move around, but moving around, standing, bending and laying down, all hurt, so I'm sure hoping that whatever is found in the MRI can be dealt with and eventually free me from pain.  Pain or no pain, chores need to be done so beyond sewing, I did a few loads of laundry, the dishes, and fixed supper today and that's why I'm pooped and am going to go watch the rest of Oregon vs. Kansas....GO DUCKS!

Getting It Done

I'm a couple of days late in getting this listed as it should have been posted on 31 December 2012.  Judy has changed from her UFO Challenge of recent years to a monthly list of four items to get done in given month.  These don't have to be complete projects from start to finish, but elements of any given project in an effort to make progress towards getting 'it' done.  I can do that, I think.  After all, that's pretty much all I managed to do with my UFO Challenge progress anyway.  How does one eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  And with that, here's my list of four items to accomplish in January:

• Finish Easy Street to the flimsy stage
• Quilt #031 Valentine Quilt (see my 2012 UFO list)
• Start Bella Luce: prep and cut fabric
• Finish the Dresden Plate block on #23 Rooster Quilt (see my 2012 UFO list)

And there it is, my very first list for 2013.