Fiber Babble: April 2012

I Feel Like I'm Cheating

April 14, 2012

"Bye, Hunter," I said right back. "From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris ♦♦♦♦◊ Heh. Apparently I read this book not once, but twice in the space of 3 months. Both times I gave it a 4-star rating, neither time did I write a review. Odd, even for me.

I just wrote two posts over on "my" forums showing what I've done recently. The 'cheating' part is that I'm going to splat them here pretty much word-for-word, so a few people will see this as old news. Hopefully I'll redeem myself with the addition of something else at the end of this post.

Yesterday I actually sewed. I gotta tell you, it was frustrating for part of the time, and here's why (there will be pictures in a minute or two):

We have a thing called Block Challenge at the shop, where you purchase a pre-chosen, pre-cut pack of fabric, take it home, make one or two 12½" blocks from it, then bring the blocks back to be entered into a drawing for All The Blocks.

I took some time, figured out what I wanted to do, and pre-cut all of my pieces on the Studio cutter at the shop (the Janitor In A Drum size of a Go! Cutter). Piece of cake, right? Just sit down and commence ta' sewing, right?

Of course not. The Studio Cutter came about as a fabric cutting tool based upon the popularity of die cutters for paper in scrapbooking, etc. The problem is that in the early models (the dies themselves), the manufacturer either didn't know or didn't pay attention to the fact that quilters need exact ¼" seam allowances or exact 7/8" added to triangles or - hey, how about this? Exact SQUARES, not 'close enough for government work' squares.

Yes. This tool that was supposed to make my life a breeze meant sewing and ripping and sewing and ripping (ad nauseum) my 12 1/2" (now 12½" ISH) block took at least three hours. If I'd had more of the fabric at home, I would have just re-cut the %$!# things and been on my way.

By the time they got to the 'home version', as far as I know the company has gotten a clue (and I would hope with newer versions of the dies for the Big Mama version, too). But this was fah-russ-terr-ating.

But wait! There's more! (There's actually another Block Challenge block that's 2/3 done, but I'll save that)

I'm not sure if I've told you already, but I'm hosting a ROM (Row of the Month) at the shop. Each month we have one row (which works out to half the width of the quilt); rows are done in colors of the rainbow and may have stitchery or applique added to the pieced blocks.

I got most of the applique done for May's row yesterday. It just needs some stems and small leaves to wander over onto the Churn Dash blocks:

Here's the kick-off row from March.

April's done, too. I don't know why I don't have a picture of it yet. Though it was a fairly traumatic row to make...

In not-already-posted-somewhere-else news, I took a stab at creating a block pattern for the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. I love it (these aren't the assigned fabrics for the hop), but it's only 8½" and that makes part of this particular block too fiddly, even for me. I'm not going to abandon it, just re-size it and re-think its application.

And because it's Caturday...

"I know squinting will give me wrinkles, but this is the only sunbeam in the house!"

Labels: quilting

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Spring Slugfest 2012

April 02, 2012

"Joe came back." "Rough Country" by John Sandford ♦♦♦♦◊

Hmmm. This is the first time I've used Blogger's new "improved" interface. My Preview button doesn't give me what I want to see. If it looks funny when I publish, I'll try again. Sorry, if that's what ends up happening.

The Slugfest doesn't refer to a knock-down, drag-out fight, it refers to my mindset and physical activity!

I spent a couple of weeks during March being fairly manic. One day I was doing the double espresso one-armed paperhanger thing at work, the next day at home I was a slug in front of the puter or in my comfy chair. The busy days were a blast, I'm certainly not complaining - but the 'recovery' time made me feel a bit guilty. Fortunately things have gotten back to semi-normal, so while I'm still not flying through my UFO pile, I'm at least slowly getting back into the yarn/fabric projects that I want to do.

Let's see. The Poinsettia Starburst stalled when I took two days "off" (slugfest) before the deadline. I'd gotten to the point of having to piece the border and my sewing room was a scary place so I procrastinated. In my comfy chair.

I'm starting to think more positively about getting back to the project (in addition, it's really in my way in its current form!). Now that I can see my sewing table, I'm moving the project to my top 3.

I didn't feel all that terrible for missing the deadline for entry, since I had encouraged the gals from Rainy Daze Quilt Guild (Chehalis, WA) to enter this beauty in the show. It won both Judge's Choice and People's Choice! The prize for at least one of those awards was $100 credit at the warehouse. What a boon to the guild, and I feel a sense of responsibility for putting them on the path.

The guild is selling raffle tickets for the quilt as their year's fundraiser for supplies for next year's charity projects. The tickets are a dollar each, the drawing is in August some time. If you want to get in on the fun, you can email me & I'll hook you up with some tickets.

There's more to say, but I gotta get ready to go teach a couple of quilting classes and ring some bells.

But, hey, everyone! I'm still here!

Labels: quilting