CUTTING ORANGE PEELS

 I spent the morning cutting the 'orange peel' shapes from the black with white 2-patches for the Crushing It quilt.  It was slow and monotonous work and I had to pay attention to the accuracy of my cutting, too.  I'm glad that's over with.

Today was a meeting of the Brave Patch Finish It Friday group.  I worked a bit on my DWTW2 that's been on the design wall all week.  I did make one block and got some great ideas.  But, I had to take it all down because tomorrow I'll need the wall for a workshop.

BLACK AND WHITE SQUARES

 I spent yesterday going through my stash, choosing black with white fabrics and white with black fabrics for an upcoming project.

I cut a strip from each, then cut them down into 5" squares.  I need at least 240 squares of each.  

I put a good dent in my stash.

ALMOST SQUARE

 I bought a bigger cutting mat (30" by 60") in the hopes it would make it easier to square up the edges of a quilt top.  I tried it out - it made it a bit easier, but it's still a pain and not accurate.

I squared the top and one side and then worked off each edge to square the next side.  It didn't work.  The top is longer on one side than the other.  Good grief.  I'll figure this out later.

In the meantime, I got to work on the backing anyway.  I found a big chunk of fabric, a two yard piece of a Kaffe Fassett design with flowers that had been fussy-cut and had holes here and there.  I cut out pieces between the holes and this is what I ended up with:

The plan is to sash these pieces together with leftovers from the front, or something.

After cutting it all out there was a lot of little pieces left on the floor -

- too small to use.

SHATTERED

 I've got dozens of projects in progress, so what do I do?  I start another one, of course.

Kona just published this pattern, Shattered, which was included with my monthly shipment of Kona cuts with the Aurifil threads, the last of the year.  I received a group of half yard pieces of greys.  It didn't include all of the greys needed, but I have the rest in my stash.

I cut up the parts needed today.

LONE STAR FLOWER

Yesterday I started on making the Lone Star Flower block. 

I cut out all of the triangles and sewed together half of the first part of the block and then realized I had cut the diamonds out the wrong size.  Aaaargh.

So, today I re-cut out the parts in the right size.

I got half of one part sewed together.

CUTTING AND CUTTING

I pulled out a lot of fabrics in an analogous range according to the Ultimate 3 in 1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom ( my new favorite thing ).  I pared them down to just a small big pile and cut five rectangles from each color.  I now have a bunch.

It took me most of the day.  

It was a beautiful morning for a dog walk in Lincoln Park.

MORE CUTTING

I spent my time, yesterday and today, cutting up the rest of the fabrics for United Squares of America.  And I'm still not done.  

One more hour and I should be done with the cutting and I can start sewing.  The gal that sold this kit to me said the top could be sewed together in six hours, once all the fabrics were cut and ready to go.   Ha!  We'll see.

CUTTING AND SORTING

I spent a few hours cutting the fabrics for United Squares of America into little squares.

The pattern strongly suggests cutting all of the fabrics before beginning to piece them together.

There are a lot of one inch squares!

I didn't get very far.  I got A through D done - it goes to P.

BIG STAR

I started making Victoria Findlay Wolfe's pattern Star Storm.

I cut out the strips today and then sorted them.  Each one gets a different number and letter. 

Then I moved them to Eduard because I'll need that table to trim the big sections and sewed up a couple of the sections.

4th OF JULY

Today is the 4th of July, one of the days I just dread.  Jax hates loud booms, he barks and gets scared.  He wants to get right next to me, inside of me. 

The booming has been going on for a few days, but not much of it.  It's ramped up.  It was bad last night.  We got Jax a little stoned last night and he slept through a lot of it.  It was nice.

But today, the booming has started early.  I gave him a dose after lunch, but it only works when he decides to go to sleep.  It helps him stay asleep instead of waking up at every boom.

I took the dogs up into my studio after lunch, closed the windows and turned up the music.  He managed to settle in and sleep for most of the time.  I started a new project...

I gave him another dose after dinner.  It took him a while to go to sleep. He doesn't usually relax until after we've all settled in for the night.  But the booming has been increasing, until it's almost constant at 6:00pm.  He is asleep right now and not barking.  I hope he can stay asleep after it gets dark and the noise becomes incessant.  Poor guy.

JELLY ROLL MESS

Oh my!  I think this is the first time I've worked with a Jelly Roll of fabrics.  My , my, they are messy.  There is just an abundance of little fibers from the edges that have been pinked.  It's everywhere!  

So, I bought this quilt kit a while ago and have been working on it lately.  The Jelly Roll strips need to be sewn into groups of four; I need 18 strip sets.

I had to run out to Pacific Fabrics yesterday to buy template material.  I needed some that I could iron for the circles that will go in the middle of the blocks, and just some regular, thick template for the wedges.

Once the strip sets are sewn together, they had to be ironed.  Then using the wedge template I made, I cut out six wedges from each strip set.

After I got the wedges all cut out, I quit for the day so I could go pick up the husband at the airport.

NEW PROJECT

Yes, I might be a little nutty. 

But - I am starting a new project.

Got the background cut out today.

CUTTING FABRIC

I got all of the 40 fabrics for Fancy Forest cut and sorted into bags this morning.

I worked outside on the picnic table.  It was really nice and cool this morning.

Unfortunately, I broke my favorite ruler, my Omnigrid 6" by 12", and I dropped the rotary cutter with a brand new blade on the concrete, which caused a nick in the blade, which leaves a thread or two uncut every pass.  I hate that!

After lunch I got a few more rows of the pantograph done on the Molly quilt.  It's coming along nicely.

LAST DAY

Tomorrow morning I'm having carpel-tunnel surgery on my right hand (I'm right handed).  I'm trying to prepare for being incapacitated for a week.

I know I won't be able to cut fabric, but I might be able to sew.  So I've been cutting fabric like crazy.

Saturday, at work, I trimmed some half-square triangle squares, making that project all ready to sew together.

Today I finished sewing the rows together on my Wallflower quilt (kit).  I folded it up and put it away - I still need to make a back for it.

After walking the dogs in Lincoln Park and lunch out with the DH I started cutting up fabric for the Dandy Flowers quilt that I discovered online.  It was a quilt-along, but I didn't participate at the time.  I've been gathering fabrics and thinking about it.

I bought the fabrics for the stems and leaves at Missouri Star Quilts in Missouri last week.  Still thinking about what color to make the butterflies.

I had to sew one of the flowers together.

The stack of fabrics, all sorted, for the flowers.

All the fabrics, including the background, ready to go.

Here are the fabrics I used.

CUTTING IT ALL OUT

I bought another kit from Craftsy!  I can't help myself, they are all on sale.

This one is called "Molly".  I like the colors and the pattern looks quick and easy.

I took all the fabric to work and got it all cut out during the slow times.

I have to make the half-square triangle squares yet.

I can probably bring those to work and trim them down, too.

[an efficient use of time]

I was pretty upset, because there were supposed to be 20 fat quarters, and I only had 19.  And, the larger piece for the binding was advertised as being red - I got brown.

Luckily, before I sent of a complaint, I found the missing fat quarter at home, hiding.

I went online to order the red for the binding, and it was out of stock.  So, I ordered a different red that should work.

CUTTING FABRIC

I had to work a half day this morning.  I got home just in time to go out to lunch with the DH to a new sandwich shop down by Endolyne Joe's called Wildwood Market where they make sandwiches and have gluten free bread on request.
After lunch I cleaned the green stuff off the back deck and deck furniture and got the picnic table ready to use.

Then I went upstairs and started cutting fabric for the Wallflower quilt (kit).  So far, they seem to be pretty generous with the fabric.  Yea!

BACKING UP

Oops.

I just discovered I don't have enough parts for all the blocks I need.

Have you ever made a quilt?  Well, if you have, you know you are always counting the parts.  At least, I am.

I count the pieces as I cut them.  

I count the parts as I sew them together.

I count the blocks, and the sashings and the borders and anything else you might need.

After counting everything - twice.  I discovered that I was short some parts.  And, I discovered I was short those parts because I was out of any 'light' fabric.  That's probably why they didn't get cut out.  I had purchased some really cool fabric that went with all of my other Lexington fabrics at Pacific Fabrics last fall.  I remember thinking I should go get more of it before it was all gone, but apparently I didn't.  It's a sure bet there isn't any of it there anymore.  So, before heading to the fabric store, I checked out my massive stash.  Whoa!  the perfect fabric was in there this whole time.  It appears as though I was holding onto it for just this project.  And, there is more than enough!

So, it was a step backwards.  I cut out the missing pieces and now I'm back to sewing corner pieces together.  Just a short side trip.

But...more bad news.

While I was counting all those pieces, I discovered I haven't cut out enough of the center X's.  They are the biggest pieces and use up the most fabric.  I'm short 13 pieces.  Hmmmm.

Good thing I bought lots of fabric.  I'm pretty sure I will have more than enough for those (they aren't the 'lights', they are cut from everything else).

Then, I'll have to count everything again.

TRIMMING THE BLOCKS

I pieced all 700-something of these blocks over-sized so that I could re-cut the blocks so that the center slash through them would be on an angle.  (It would have been way too difficult to cut and piece all those weird angles - this way used more fabric, but probably doesn't take any longer, even figuring in all the trimming, and at this point I'm all about using as much fabric as possible).

I did this at work on the weekend, when it's really slow, in my spare time - but don't tell my boss.

I went out and specially bought this little rotating cutting mat.  I opted for the least expensive one, because I figured I'd only need it rarely.  The Olfa mat was like $40, and had ball-bearings, I think.  This one, I won't say what brand, just rotates on another mat below it.  Doesn't work very well at all.  In fact, I didn't use the rotating feature.  I needed to cut all the way around this 4" ruler, so I just stood up over the table and was able to cut all the way around without moving the mat or ruler (wasted money on the mat).

I ended up having a really difficult time cutting because of the seams in the middle of the block.  The ruler wanted to rock, and it shifted easily.  I had to be very careful.

When I got home Saturday night, my husband Darrell gave me some sticky-backed sandpaper and I put some little squares on each corner and it was a lot easier on Sunday.  Sunday, the weather was bad - it was snowing here and there and we got very little business.  Most everyone was sitting around doing nothing (in my office).

I got all of the lights, and most of the mediums cut out over the weekend.

January 14 - 3.00 hours total

January 15 - 4 00 hours total (in little fits and spurts)

Total hours up to now - 53.75 hours

KEEPING TRACK OF HOURS

Cutting fabric and sewing on my Connecticut Winter Quilt and keeping track of the hours...

April 16 - cutting 5.5 hours

April 22 - sewing 1 hour

April 25 - sorting and cutting 1.5 hours

April 26 - piecing 1.5 hours

Total all together so far - 16 hours