Friday, March 22, 2013

Nails, Feet And Borders

Today there was a couple of firsts for me...
I got my nails done for the first time with acrylic...
and polish... and flowers and butterflies.
And
I had a pedicure for the first time.
Wow... how nice that was!


The manicurist put gel on my nails for a few weeks
to help keep them in one piece while they grew out a bit.
Never had nails to speak off.
This is a new thing for me.
What fun!

I'm 72 and I figured that it was about time
I took the time to be nice to myself.
I also had my hair done.

Well, back to the quilt top in progress...

I have been trying to cut borders for the quilt top
and keep running into problems.


The quilt strip I cut out first was a loss because
when I turned the fabric over the fabric had a hole in it
that I think happened when the fabric was made.
Not a nice surprise.

I finally got the first side borders cut out.
I'll sew them on and cut the rest of the borders tomorrow.

~:>
Smiles

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Broken Dishes Progress Report

Today I laid out the blocks and came up with this arrangement.
I ran out of the dark fabric on one of the red blocks
but the block still looks ok.
Morgan was very careful and didn't walk on the blocks.
This stack below of half square triangles waiting to be pressed
is my little trick.
I really don't like picking up each square, pressing the seam and
then opening and pressing each HST.
Too much stopping and starting.
Little stack of HST's.
So, I open all the HST's and lay them in a pile.
Then I pick up and hold each square by the darker color
and press the seam
then still holding the darker color open the square
lay it down and press it flat.

The process goes much faster for me that way.

Top right corner is the block I made when I ran out of the black fabric.
 The pattern I found online at the
Missouri Quilt Co on YouTube was for 20 blocks.


But that made a quilt that was a bit too large for me so
I decided to opt for 12 blocks.
Now I need to stitch these blocks together and
start thinking about choices for the sashing and borders.

I think I have been sewing for too long because
when I took Morgan out earlier today
I forgot to put on her muzzle
and didn't notice 
until
she ate something that she found under the leaves.
Yikes!

I hope she is not going to get sick again!

Smiles!

Monday, March 11, 2013

5 x 4 = 20 Squares Ready To Cut

All of these 20 squares are sewn together
and ready to cut into half square triangles.


Then I can cut them apart and start sewing the HST
into 
Broken Dishes Blocks.

~:>
Smiles

Saturday, March 09, 2013

More Than Half Way There


7 blocks!
5 more to go.
1 more of the green and then 4 chicken blocks.

The 4 gold blocks have stars.
The 2 pink blocks have stars and moons.
The green block has bookworms reading.

When the blocks are finished then the fun part starts,
when I can start sewing sashing and borders!


Sunny today!
The chickens were happy!

~:>
Smiles

Friday, March 08, 2013

Broken Dishes In Pieces


After all the photos I posted yesterday,
I thought just one would be enough for today.

Here are all the HST 5-1/2" squares ready to be stitched together,
then cut into half square triangles
and then sewn together again into blocks.

I didn't sew any blocks today
but I did get all the material cut for the blocks to be.

Gray old rainy day.
Good day for me to stay inside and sew.
The chickens liked being outside just fine.
They hide under the trees or the house.

I used some chicken print fabrics for the broken dishes blocks.
I have at least four blocks with chicken themed material.
The other fabrics are ones I like the color or pattern.
I like sewing on material that makes me smile.
Best to be a happy quilter.

~:>
Smiles

Thursday, March 07, 2013

HST Conquered - Easiest Way To Make Half Square Triangles

Well, this is the easiest way for me to make Half Square Triangles
since I am sewing them by hand.

I didn't realize how tedious it would be to make so many HST.
No drawing of cut lines like this...

Strips marked with cut and seam lines.
I will only be drawing 1/4 seam line on four sides.
Yay!

I didn't want to mess around with dealing with math


so I laid out 4 HST that I had cut from the earlier pattern
and measured... which made about a 5 1/2" square.


So, I cut out a 5 1/2" test square and made some HST.



And the half square triangles came out to be 3 1/2".
Yay!
Well, close enough for me.
I am not going to quibble about 1/16".
I'm not a perfectionist quilter and I don't count threads either.


My first 5 1/2" square made with quilt material.
One light, one dark, right sides together.


After sewing 1/4" around the four sides I cut the square on the diagonal.


Wow!
How easy is that!!! 


I am not an exact quilter so if my blocks come out within 1/2"
of the finished size
then I'm happy and the quilt goes together
and the fabric does a little adjusting and everything still looks great.


I think I have enough of the light material to use as sashing
around the blocks.
I'm aiming for 12 finished blocks.
Then I can start adding sashing around the blocks.
Well, back to sewing.
---
Update:
Click on link to see
Finished quilt.

P.S.
Morgan is fine... she is sleeping.

~:>
Smiles

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Two Broken Dishes

If I could end up with one block a day I would be happy.


Today I managed to cut out and sew together
another broken dishes block.
Two more blocks with these two fabrics to go.

Kristine said that instead of Broken Dishes
Tortilla Chips would be a good name for this block
since the triangles look like blue corn and regular tortilla chips.
A Tortilla Chip quilt is a great idea!

But this quilt is going to be made from scrap fabrics
and will have many colors.
A real barrel of broken dishes!


More rain and cold weather is due this week.
The late afternoon sun light was lighting up the tops
of these tall trees.
I can't see any tiny green buds yet.

On my google searches for different ways to make
half square triangles
I found 10 different methods
and there was mention of at least 16.

The method that appeals to me is the one where two squares
of fabric right side together are sewn together
around all four edges with a 1/4 seam
and the the square is cut apart from corner to corner.

That method seems it would be the easiest for hand sewing.
Less marking up of seams and no marking of cut lines.
I'll have to try it out but first I need to
figure out the size square I need to start with
to end up with four 3 1/2" half square triangles.

Quilting is such an adventure!

~:>
Smiles

Monday, March 04, 2013

Stew And Broken Dishes


The stew was something of an experiment because
when I added flour to coat the stew meat it turned out that I had
dumped in oatmeal instead of flour
and when I reached for the four and poured that on top of the oatmeal and
 meat what I was adding was pancake and waffle mix.

I finally found the flour and added that to the mix
and found that the concoction tasted rather good.
(all the packages look the same)

When the stew was almost done
I added a bunch of chopped kale on top
and popped on the lid for about 6 minutes.
Surprise!
All in all it made for a good dinner.



The broken dishes blocks are coming along slowly.
I'm piecing them by hand and marking the fourth inch seams
takes up more time than the sewing.

But I've got one block sewn together
and four more in the works.

These blocks are made using 31" x 3 7/8" strips.
Next I'm going to try the 8" square method to get 3 1/2" blocks.

I'm going to keep looking for other ways to cut/make 3 1/2" blocks.
Hopefully easier?

Gray rainy day today.
Watched Jeeves and Wooster while I worked on the blocks.

~:>
Smiles

Saturday, March 02, 2013

Catch Up!

Well, this is as caught up as I'm gonna get today,
which is really tomorrow already.

Here is Genevieve Rose with the little knitted rattle
that her Aunt Kristine sent from Australia,
which Genevieve lost at Disneyland.


But good news!
Disneyland found the rattle and mailed it home
Pretty neat!

Here is another photo of the kids on the porch.
So cute!


I'm working on a Broken Dishes quilt.
These are the first 16 blocks.
Now I need to sew them together.


I think I'm going to like making this quilt.
I have several other quilt tops to quilt.

Getting back into blogging again is going to take some effort.
Since it has been so cold I've been staying in the house
and not doing much.

Hope warmer weather will get me moving!

~:>
Smiles


Friday, March 01, 2013

Welcome March!

March came in like a lamb...
supposedly March 2013 is going to be cold and dry
if the forecasts can be believed... maybe?

I'll have to do a wrap up of February stuff tomorrow
but to tide things over here is a photo
of the
February snow.


I think I jumped the gun hanging that flag hoping for Spring weather.
But the flag is cheery and bright.

The snow is gone... well mostly.
Photos of the March sunshine tomorrow.
I hope!
And February photos I didn't post.
I need to catch up to March.

Smiles
~:>