Christmas Star - Top Done

Sometimes I stop projects at the strangest places, convinced that I'm up against a massive step I don't want to face -- only to eventually realize that this step was nothing scary at all! That was completely the case for my Christmas Star quilt top. I had worked up adding a border in my mind until it seemed like it would be terribly challenging. When I finally set out to force myself to do it because I'm flat out running out of time if this doesn't work, it turns out that was incredibly easy. Hardly took any time -- and not an issue in sight.

Well -- not with attaching the border anyway...

Obviously the issue I see isn't that big a deal, since I didn't realize it until I was editing these photos today. And obviously, I am not going to fix it -- I do not want to spend that much time with a seam ripper for something so relatively unnoticeable. Do you see it?

I swapped the two sections in the bottom left! It should always be 3 points before the same color again, but there are only two points between the reds (or four, if you're going the long way). It does unbalance the quilt a little bit to have a red heavy side, especially since the red is so much stronger than the mixed piece it was swapped with -- but I am not going to fix it now. If I'd noticed before the border went on, I might have been able to talk myself into it, but at this point, I think it's that way to stay.

Mistakes small and large aside, I love the way this top has turned out. It's lovely - and I think it's going to be perfect. I had hoped to back this with something fun, a minky or other texture, but nothing seemed right when I was walking the store -- so I came home with another Christmas-y print that I think will work out for the backing. I do also have several more charm size pieces which I might use in the backing as well. If not, I'm toying with a table runner to coordinate with it... We'll see.

Now the challenge will be clearing enough room somewhere so I can baste it! I haven't basted something this large in a long time and I'm not sure I have this much floor space left in the house anymore. I may have to borrow someone else's floor!

12 Blocks Down

If you've been here before, you might have caught on to the fact that I'm wonky star obsessed, so, finding a stopping point on this block making adventure has been a challenge. But I kind of like the number 12 -- at least for a top. I might still have to make a couple more for the back...

Layout wise this is not the greatest way to display them, but I was too excited to try to work out a better pattern tonight. That's tomorrow evening's project. 

Right column top to bottom: scrappy center, log cabin ish center, featured center, frame center. 

Center column top to bottom: star in a star, fussy cut center, empty center, something I don't have a name for and don't think I've ever seen wonky style before. 

Left column top to bottom: pink scrappy solid, blue scrappy solid, wonky snowball center, pinwheel center. 

The star in a star is so tiny. I think I was working with 1 inch square pieces for the initial nine patch. I don't think I could do much smaller - especially not while using a decent seam allowance! 

I did attempt a twinkle block (see link for the tutorial) but I was not happy with the outcome. That block is in hiding, possibly going to be chopped into pieces (or ripped apart), possibly I'll get over my animosity towards it and put it on the back. Possibly. 

Next up is developing a layout that spreads the blocks around better -- putting some space between the frame and featured, the pinwheel and unknown, the log cabin ish and scrappy, and spreading the four smaller stars around the top somewhat. I hope to have the blocks assembled into a top in a couple days, then I'll begin seriously debating if I should add a border of some kind (scrappy log cabins with the left overs? rectangular bricks with a white final frame?) or if it'll be enough as is. I have Pinterest inspiration of several different scrappy/wonky star quilts, some with borders, some without, and every single one makes me think 'I'd like to make that.' Which makes it difficult to decide on a final course of action. Fortunately, there's lots of time. 

Pinterest Challenge: Reuben Roll-Ups

After such a high stress, high work couple of months, I can't even remember the last time I was the one who cooked. Greg has been absolutely spoiling me, handling just about every meal we've had at home recently. So, when it came time to whip something up for the family reunion picnic dinner, I was completely out of ideas -- and practice.

Fortunately, I had good old Pinterest to turn to. Seriously, what did I ever do before Pinterest?

I had pinned some Reuben Roll-Ups and restumbled upon the idea while scrolling back through my Food board. When I saw how easy the recipe looked, few ingredients and not a lot of work time required, I knew I'd found the right thing to make this year.

The pin lead me to the recipe for Reuben Roll-Ups at Taste of Home.

I followed the directions -- though I forgot to half the corned beef slices, so I guess each roll up had about double meat compared to the recipe -- and in 20 minutes, 30 if you count draining the sauerkraut, I had delicious looking roll ups just begging to be eaten. For the sake of testing, we had to try one before we took it.

The result? So good. Honestly, when we got there and there wasn't enough room on the table for our food, I was not going to complain. Eventually, I did share, but I had a couple other people spot them and ask me to hold some aside for them - and they came back for more after that too. For people who like the flavors of a Reuben sandwich, I think this recipe is a real winner. Kind of a pig-in-a-blanket kind of take on a Reuben.

I think this was a total 10 out of 10, will absolutely make again kind of recipe. Hurrah!



On a personal note, we're obviously still adjusting to the new-to-us electric oven instead of the gas one we've had for the last 4 years. I'm still happy with the change, but the rolls aren't quite as pretty as I think they would have been in our other oven. But looks don't matter when something is this yummy.

Post-Auditions

I'm fully aware that I'm working hard on these scrappy quilts because I don't want to spend another 10 hours working on straight lines and ironing over and over to finish up my husband's quilt top. Which probably makes me a pretty selfish wife - since his current comforter is rather ripped up now (thank you Momo). I know, maybe I'll start using these scrappy quilts as a reward. A few minutes of work on his, a few minutes on something a little more immediately creative. Hmm...

I did pick up a few yards of white fabric then immediately got to work cutting into the stacks of fabric I've had set aside for a someday project. I have the beginnings of a plan, and I don't want to rest and forget it!

Above is my first attempt, a scrappy log cabin inspired block as the center of a scrappy, wonky star. I've been wanting to do a wonky star 'sampler' for a long time, and I think these fabrics are going to be perfect for it.

I managed to finish four in the first night's work -- that's pretty good progress for me. I love the high contrast colors, and after over a year of looking at these fabrics but being afraid to touch them, this is thrilling to see -- something finally coming out of that stashed and secreted away pile!

I don't know how many blocks I'm going to make, though I have a list of various styles I'd like to try, but I am having a blast. My sewing table has never been so covered in scraps and pieces of thread though. I figure I'll let the mess grow until I'm finished (or until it's overtaking the room). Why clean up every night just to haul out the same piles of scraps the next morning?!

Auditioning

I know I have enough on my plate at the moment, but my fingers are itching to start a new project. 

It needs a lot of white background added in, but here's the pile of fabric I've had sitting aside for a few months. I've been window shopping different patterns and ideas for what I'd like to begin working on next, and I'm finally thinking that it might be the right time to use this stack.

It's been a very long time since I've started a quilt by pulling fabrics completely on my own, instead of relying on a charm pack or other pre-cut set. I've stumbled into a few things from combining blocks, matched up two of three fabrics, but it's been ages since I really sat down with a pile of fabrics and debated without anything already started. I'm enjoying the process a great deal more this time around than the last time I started off this way. Pulling pieces from my stash to build a quilt has been much more fun than trying to buy all new fabrics -- probably because I'm such an introvert!

So far I like this stack very much, but I'm worried about the light to dark ratio. There's a lot of color, but so much of it seems to be on the lighter end of the spectrum with only the darkest pink/red, that little scrap of green in the center, and maybe the two other pinks counting as really 'dark' comparatively. Would it look more balanced if I had one more, darker/bolder blue print to balance the three deeper/bolder pinks -- or am I over thinking things?

Time to stop overthinking and start cutting.

Quilt #24 : S'more Love Quilt

As expected, my snack size (37 x 25) S'more Love quilt came through the wash with absolutely no issues. No shrinking. No problems with the binding pulling off. Nothing. After my bad luck recently, that was a relief.

Technically speaking, this was an incredibly simple quilt to make, but that doesn't make me love the outcome any less. The fabrics are adorable -- something I wanted to work with from the moment I saw it -- and once I had them in hand, I wanted to go with something that really let the pieces shine instead of chopping them into smaller pieces. This was an easy way to do that - and I think the little pieces of white solid area  good contrast to all the bold, kind of retro colors in the fabric line.

Quilting wise, I went with my favorite chevron inspired quilting. I hadn't wanted to quilt it too heavily, but now that it's been washed, I think I could have done about twice as much. It doesn't need it - it's quite securely quilted - but I certainly could have done more without distracting from the fabrics.

Backing material and binding material both came from stash - one truly from the depths of my stash, the other purchased for another quilt I worked on at the same time. Happily, both fabrics seem just about perfect and really work with the rest of the quilt.

I think it's just about perfect, which might be part of why I've got such a long list of families I am considering sending it to upon the arrival of a new baby. I hope to have a decision on that soon, but I'm also in no rush to part with it. I don't mind staring at it for a few months while I wait and decide!

Cue the Sad Music

Thank goodness the Xs and Os quilt is a homeless just for fun kind of quilt, or I'd be in so much trouble!

Three binding problems that require unpicking and restitching.

Several spots where the neutral fabric just came apart at a stitch -- and one spot where the other fabric came apart at a seam line.

Conclusion: I probably was not as careful with my seam allowances as I should  have been.

Going forward, I'm going to remember to stop and check my seam allowances as I work - because fixing some of these issues is going to be a major issue, and probably a major change in the appearance of the quilt...

The binding issues aren't fun, but they're fixable. The raveled (unraveled?) spots on the quilt top are probably going to require some applique and/or a lot of heavy quilting to cover them up. Having finally decided to go light on the quilting for this, I'm not pleased with the idea of doing much, much more.

The one good thing? The batting was right - 6.5 inches between quilting lines was fine.

Binding Day Part 2

After managing to bind my Xs and Os quilt, and get a few photos, I scurried back inside to see if I could finish binding one more quilt before the sun went down. I didn't quite make it, but I went for the photos anyway. Unlike Xs and Os, which is a test on batting and quilting, I'm fairly certain that this little quilt isn't going to be doing much shrinking or anything else too strange in the wash.

Although the leftover binding from Xs and Os is slightly darker than the browns of the S'more Love line, I think they worked well enough together -- probably as well as anything I could have picked out shopping specifically for this one.

I also think the darker brown binding does a little bit to tone down that bold backing. Don't get me wrong, I love a bold back - most of the time - but I know I'm a little fonder of orange and geometric prints than most, so I figure taking it down a notch isn't all bad.

I think this quilt is a little on the scant side, but I've been told I tend to make them a little too large to be useful right away. So, instead of thinking of it as small, I'm trying to think of it as beginner size. Or, since it's so yummy, perhaps 'snack size' is a better term.

I'm completely in love with this one -- and wouldn't mind keeping it -- but I have a growing short list of babies this one would be a great beginning to a Welcome Package for. So, unless I suddenly become terribly selfish, I think this one has several potential homes lined up and I'm just waiting to see which one seems the perfect fit.

I'll be back in a couple days with the post washing photos on this one, though I expect no issues at all. I think I'll still throw in a color catcher, just to be safe.

Binding Day Part 1

Over my last afternoon off, I turned a huge piece of fabric into way more bias tape than I needed -- good news, I seem to use brown a lot in quilts, so I'm not worried about the overstock getting used -- and bound two quilts!

The first was of course Xs and Os, which has been holding up all kind of progress around here.

I used the same fabric for the binding and backing, which gives the back a very continuous look. I also like bringing the backing fabric around to the front -- since the backing fabric is in no way represented in the top. It could have felt a little dull compared to the bold prints of the charm squares, but I think it actually works nicely.

I'm still worried the quilting is going to prove too sparse to actually work after washing. The only way to know is to send it through the wash. So, out of nerves that it'll never look this good again, I took photos all over the place. Okay, some of the photo over doing might be because it was already sunset -- at 7 pm? in August? What is happening? I swear August is still summer. Autumn, you need to wait a few more days until September. Seriously. -- and getting proper lighting anywhere was a challenge.

I know the rules of cropping and photography say that I ought to have worked harder to miss all the gardening junk in the background, but something about it made me feel nostalgic for my great-grandmother's gardens, so I wanted to leave in those two wheel barrows. Some day, I hope seeing this picture in my scrap book still makes me nostalgic and brings back all the memories of family gardens that were.

Difficult lighting aside, it was surprising how many things around the farm I could find that kind of color matched with the quilt. This rusty old olive green pick up was a surprising match, though here it doesn't quite look it.

And I now know about what color the barn is.

But in the end, I returned to one of my favorite new places to take photos - and I think I got the winner of the day here.

I hope it looks half this good tomorrow after a run through the washer and dryer. I never thought I would fall for this quilt -- I mean, I picked up the charm packs because I felt kind of bad for them (okay, and I did love four of the prints/cuts). But once I saw these blocks in a test layout, they've really won me over. I know this is another one I made to join the 'waiting for a baby' pile - but this is going to have to go to a very special kid, or I'm afraid it'll become another that never leaves my house -- which would make my husband happy. This has been one of his favorites from the beginning.

September Goals

September Goals

Personal: 

Read 5+ Books
Average 15000+ steps per week day (with Saturdays at 10,000-13,000)

New Projects / Pinterest Challenge: 

1+ new recipe

My Projects:

Finish 2 quilt tops: Random Reflections 2 of 2, Christmas quilt
Baste 1 quilt
Finish at least 6 blocks for new quilt
Finish at least 2 blocks for scrappy x plus block
Attend High School Reunion
Begin finalizing holiday plans

Grown Up Junk:

Schedule next cat/vet appointment
Replacement windshield for the car
Call health care company re: bill
Order boots for Greg

House Stuff: 

Continue sweeping every other day, cleaning bathrooms once a week
Finish rearranging art in office

August Wrap Up

August Goals

Personal: 

Read 5+ Books

• "Trickster's Choice" Tamora Pierce
• "Trickster's Queen" Tamora Pierce
• "Trapped at the Altar" Jane Feather
• "Modern Patchwork" Elizabeth Hartman
• "Quilting Modern" Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson

Average 15000+ steps per week day (with Saturdays at 10,000-13,000)
1 trip  

New Projects / Pinterest Challenge: 

1+ new recipe

My Projects:

Mail the Unbirthday package
Birthday present for the Nephew (by the 15th)
Deliver Welcome Baby W package
Finish 2 quilt tops: Random Reflections 2 of 2, Christmas quilt
Baste 1 quilt
Finish quilting 1 quilt: the xo charm pack quilt
Bind 1 quilt: smores love blocks

Grown Up Junk:

Schedule next cat/vet appointment
Replacement windshield for the car

House Stuff: 

Dining space update: shop for chairs or stools postponed. As long as we've got the newly larger pantry cabinet and the litter box in the kitchen, there just isn't also room for an eating surface. Except over the top of the litter box. Doesn't sound very appetizing. Maybe later, after vet's appointments and the like are over and Momo is back to being his regular, happy to use the box self. 
Replace black baker's rack in office with something more suited to the space
Continue sweeping every other day, cleaning bathrooms once a week
Mouse traps under the house
Make a plan for the 'ugly wall' in the master bedroom
Begin rearranging art in office


Was it just me, or did August fly by? I guess working 14 hour days will do that to a person... and the weather is significantly cooler on my morning walks these days, but I just want to freeze time for a few days. It seems like this year is vanishing so quickly and I just want a day or two to savor it.