Teaser

I have managed a week-day off with the house to myself.  I have most of the chores done and I pulled out those HST I posted about last week.

I used some thumb tacks to put a piece of flannel up on the wall so I actually have a piece of "design wall" instead of "design floor".   It's about 4" too narrow for this project...but still...

This is a variation of the layout that I used for my Citrus Squares quilt which was in turn a variation of Jackie's at Canton Quilt Work. 

And I am still quilting away on the Hearts Infatuation.

Progress is easier to see on the back side.


Unfortunately, I feel a cold coming on.... may not have any progress to brag about this weekend.

HST

I know that I said I was working on finishing up UFOs.  But my brother is coming to my house for Christmas.  He's one of those people that you can't buy anything for because he just buys what he wants when he wants to.

I cut strips 3" wide in yellow and misc white on white fabrics.  I marked them with 3" squares and one diagonal line.

Then I sewed 1/4" on either side of the line.

My dad used to always point out that you figure out the best way to do a project just as you are finishing up.  I was pretty pleased with myself when I figured out  about a quarter of the way in that I could line up several strips at a time and sew across all of them.

I found that it worked best to work on 2 sets at a time so I didn't have any thread tails (left one set on the machine while I positioned the other).  It would probably work even better if all the strips were the same length, but I was using stash fabrics.

I know that there are people who like getting into a rhythm with piecing.  I'm not one of them.  I hate piecing.

One thing I have learned, however is how critically important pressing is.  Time spent pressing at every stage of the sewing process saves me hours of angst and disappointment later.

I am also a trimmer.  My lack of patience at the machine can be fixed with a rotary cutter.   The formula for HST is 7/8" larger than your desired finished size.  For example, if you want a 2" finished square, you would start with a strip 2 7/8".  I add 1" and make my diagonal line stitching at a scant 1/4" so I have wiggle room for trimming to 2.5".

It's a little more waste, but worth my sanity.

I'm about half way finished with the trimming.

Here's a hint about what the finished product will look like.

Citrus Squares Really Finished

I am finally really finished with this quilt.  It's bound and washed and quite nice if I do say so myself.

I realized that people who comment on my posts get a reply, but the rest of you don't get to know the answers to the inquiries.  Let me share some Q & A from the previous post...with a mix of the real replies and sassy answers that I chose not to say at the time.

Q: Why don't you use scraps for the binding?
A: Because I used them all on the back

A: Because the little bits and pieces I have left in these colors are no bigger than 4".  It would take 6 hours to piece together enough for a binding.

A: Because for $3.50 I bought this fabric which was perfect.

A:  Because I would have missed having the the following conversation:
Phone call with husband: Me: I'm leaving work now but need to stop at JoAnn's for some fabric. Blair: Oh Good! I was worried we were about to run out.


Q: Why don't you use beige to match the writing for the binding?
A: Beige is not a color.
A: No one in their right mind would think that I have beige fabric anywhere in my house.

Q: …and we just love that wrinkle don’t we?
A: Yes, it coordinates with those wrinkles under my eyes. 

Q: Why don't you use a thread stand?
A: Because it didn't come with my machine.
A: Because I can't see buying a gadget when there's only one thread that gives me trouble.
A:  Why don't you buy me one?

Looks like it's going to be a lovely weekend, which means time outside instead of inside sewing.   Will catch up with y'all much later.

Citrus Squares

Am I the only quilter who completely misjudges the length of time that it's going to take to finish a project?  I worked on this all weekend and still need to bind it.

I think that's going to mean a fabric purchase as I only have scraps in these colors.

This was a stash clean-out project.  Earlier this spring, I decided to pull out some orange fabric to make room for my growing batik stash.  I had an assortment of fabrics that I'd received as a gift that are printed with batik looking designs.  I had purchased the fabric with fruit names written all over it about a year ago (on clearance) thinking I would use it for a quilt back.  That inspired me to add the yellow and lime to the mix.  My only regret is that one of the greens I used is too light.  Oh well.

Jackie at Canton Villiage Quilt Works had posted this work in progress from her design wall back in February.  I had planned on making HST triangles into squares, but fell in love with how she arranged them in different sizes.

Thanks to Jackie both for the inspiration and permission to re-post her photos.

This is her finished quilt.  You really need to head to her post on this quilt to see the other pictures!  The close ups of the zig-zag quilting are great.

I was pondering how I was going to quilt it when Deborah at The Blue Hare posted this picture.
Isn't that texture amazing?

But could I really make myself quilt that much?

Answer:  No way!

But I do like the varying widths and decided to try something similar. (Thanks also to Deborah for inspiration and photo permission).

I used 3 colors (green, gold & orange) of Aurifill thread and quilted straight lines 1/4 to 1 inch apart.  This is the second project that I've done with Aurifill.  Sadly, my machine does not like this thread.  I tried everything to make her think otherwise.  I used a new needle (size 75 quilting), adjusted the tension, but the thread insisted on breaking every time that I sewed at full speed.

Interestingly, I had less breakage once the thread cones were down to about 1/2.  I had a similar problem with a different brands large cones which makes me suspect it has to do with the vertical spool position where so many of the machines now have a horizontal feed.

Citrus Squares

After a month of evenings sewing half-square triangles, I finally had a stack of about 350 sewn, pressed and trimmed by Sunday afternoon.

Here's my long awaited Citrus Squares quilt.  The inspiration for this layout was a quilt that I saw on Jackie's Blog: Canton Village Quilt Works. (Hurray! I finally remembered who's blog I saw it on)   The inspiration was smaller, and I'm quite proud of myself for not over-thinking things and I just randomly added on to the original pattern with small, med, or larger squares.

I have 4 rows stitched together and hope to have the top finished by the weekend.