BLOCK 44

 It's Tuesday!  And it's time for Cheryl Arkison's Quilters Playcation.

Today we made block number 44.

I'm sorry Cheryl.  My block isn't anything like what she was teaching.

ANOTHER SOLSTICE BLOCK

 Seems like about every other quilt I make has Solstice in it's name.  But, I didn't name this one, it's called the Solstice Sampler, a block of the week, by various artists.  And I couldn't resist it.

Here is this week's block:

BACK AGAIN

 I made the backing for the Equinox quilt today. I used up all the extra Drunkard's path pieces I had cut out, plus some. 

It's all ready for quilting now!

EQUINOX TOP DONE

 Finally, after waiting three weeks for the Jade Green fabric I needed to finish this quilt top, I was able to put it all together.

Yoohoo!  I love it.

BIGGER STILL

 I worked all morning on making this 21" to add to the Fibonacci Swirl in progress:

Then I worked on my Equinox quilt (some of the fabrics finally arrived, but still waiting on more).  Waiting on that Jade Green fabric.

GETTING BIGGER

 I added the 3":

Then a 5":

Then an 8":

Then a 13":

REALLY SMALL

 I paper pieced the smallest pieces for the Equinox, Fibonacci Spiral.  I drew it out on freezer paper, cut the fabrics and sewed them on.

And, no, it was not that simple.  There was some cussing and unsewing and re-doing involved.  But, it turned out really nice so I then made the two inch block in the same manner.

Here's a shot of the two inch - I couldn't do either without a lot of pins.

Now I'm excited to get onto the rest of them.

LET'S GET SMALL

 I am inspired to make a quilt with the Fibonacci Spiral. 

Using Jenny Haynes method of making skinny inset strips should make that possible.  The challenge will be making drunkard's path blocks that are 1" square - two of them.  The rest of the blocks will get progressively bigger and easier.

I cut some parts - from linen no less - and tried making several sizes.  But not the 1" yet.

The 2" gave me a few problems, but I think I can do it.  

A 3" and a 2" finished.

I think I'm going to try the 1"ers on a paper foundation method.  

MORE BUT NOT ALL

 I made what I could from the fabrics I have, but I ran out and had to stop working on the Equinox quilt.  I'm awaiting a couple of fabric shipments.  

MY PROJECT

 I worked on the quilting on Suspended a bit this morning, but became frustrated and quit.  I just don't see a plan.  I'm not sure how I want to quilt it.  

Instead, I began drawing a new design using Jenny Haynes technique for making skinny strips on drunkard's path blocks.  I riffed off her new pattern, Kenny and Dolly quilt,  and created something similar but different.

I started making a few blocks.  There was some unsewing and cussing involved.  I finally broke down and re-read her instructions.  That helped.  I think I'm going to need to make these skinny strips skinnier - so more unsewing (or remaking) will be involved.  I need to go order more of these fabrics.

Since it was started today, on the Spring Equinox, I'm naming it Equinox.  

It's also International Quilting Day.  I sometimes wish I had a place to display a quilt to share with the world.

SKINNY STRIP QUILT TOP

 I squared down the blocks and put together the little top made using the two Skinny Strip blocks I made from Jenny Haynes workshop.  It's about 35" by 42".

It is inviting me to do some interesting quilting on it.  

SEW MODERN CONNECTION

 I was invited to join a new group called Sew Modern Connection.  It is a group of folks meeting on the first Sunday of the month to discuss their work sewing Modern style quilts. We had show-n-tell and talked about Quiltcon.

I worked on my Skinny Inset Strip blocks from the workshop yesterday and got them up on the wall.  I still need to trim them and sew them together.  It will be a small quilt.

I also was finishing up the quilting for some pillow shams.  I had Eduard working on them in the background.

SKINNY INSET STRIPS

 I attended a zoom workshop with Jenny Haynes of PapperSaxSten today.  This one was about how to insert very skinny strips in the curve of a drunkard's path block.  It was a very informative workshop.  Not only is Jenny full of tips and information, but the attendees that you encounter in her workshops are also very talented.  You can glean a lot of ideas and inspiration from them.

BLACK FRIDAY SEWING DAY

 Not much happening on this Black Friday.  

I was sewing.  I worked on my Floating Stairs project from the workshop I took last weekend.

First I finished paper piecing the 'stairs'.

Then I worked on getting the background pieced into the middle - not as easy as she made it look! It's all one piece. I had to go back to the recording of the workshop and look for the part where she did this.  I took out my first attempt and tried it again with better results.  Not perfect, but better. 

I got the background sewn into all of the 'stair' parts, then started making the 'drunkard's path' squares.  Or should I say rectangles.

78/100

Tuesday!  I decided to start a new project!

I cut out a bunch of parts then realized I don't have enough of one of the fabrics.  Jeez.  I just ordered a bunch of Kona solids from Fabric.com and it's not one of the ones that are coming.  Of course.  Now, do I order just that fabric and spend just as much on shipping or order a whole bunch of fabric so I can get free shipping?  This is one of the more important decisions I have to make in my life.

I sewed some of the Drunkard's Path parts together...

It got hot up there, so I quickly sewed up a two blocks to keep my 100dayproject2020 going.

We ran some errands at lunch time and I stopped and picked up some more goldfish.  I wanted more Shubunkins, but they were out.  I bought five Ryukin goldfish.  They are so small, I'm worried that my big Shubunkin will eat some of these new little guys.  Hide Little Guys!

PI BLOCKS

I put together some of the squares to make the blocks for my Pi Quilt.

CHAIN PIECING

While watching the Bernina embroider all those patches the last few days, I kept busy gluing up some curved seams for my Pi quilt.  (I only need to make 1200 or so).

Well, today I sewed them, it took a couple of hours.

I still need to iron and trim...and make a bunch more.

GLUE FOR CURVES

I started using my new Drunkard Path templates, at least the 2-1/2" size.  

I have always pinned the two curved pieces together.  But with such small pieces it is more diffcult.  They need more pins than a large piece would need.  This is time consuming and frustrating to me.  I had recently heard about people using glue instead of pins and thought I'd give this a try.  It's working great so far!  I wonder about long term affect on the fabric though.  Will the glue discolor it?  I don't know.  I'm thinking, since it's water soluable glue, maybe I should just wash the quilt once I'm done.  I don't know, we'll see.

I put one pin in the center, then glue the rest.

Here's the first three, 314.

Only about 200 more to go...

BLOCKS AND MORE BLOCKS

 It poured down rain last night into early this morning, but it stopped just in time for Jelly and I to take a nice walk in the park.  It changed from dust to mud overnight, but the colors were spectacular.

Back home, I went back to my idea of making one block from each of my projects every day. 

First up was the Tape Measure quilt.  I accidently made the first cut through the stack of four squares before I realized that half of them were upside down.  Hmm, that means that two of them will be mirror images.  I'm thinking I might do the rest of the blocks similarly.  

 Then, it was the next letter in Lettered.

Then I got the pleasure of making number seven of Journey to Fall Paducah. [I've set aside number six, waiting for a certain color to come in.]

A couple of days ago, Bentley came up to the studio and took a nap on my six yards of Kona Premium Black fabric for above project.  He left cat hair and flotsom all over it.  Yuck.  I lucked out by putting it all into the dryer on low heat and it pretty much all came out.  That darn cat, he always finds the best spots.

For lunch, Darrell and I went to Coastline Burgers.  Then we walked down to the Farmer's Market and he took pictures for me of my quilt, Pub Path.

TEMPLATES AGAIN

I'm so fortunate.  Darrell made some templates for me out of hard board.  I thought he might be able to cut them out on his CNC, but since the hard board is less than a quarter inch thick, it would be problematic.  

I've started another project - Modern Fans with SuzyQuilts.  She's doing a quilt-along on Instagram.  

I've been wanting to improve my curve-sewing skills, so I decided to jump in.

I needed to order some fabrics to have enough yardage needed.

I started in today with the fabric I do have on hand.

I'm using a print from Valori Wells with birds on it.  I coordinated some solids to go with it - Sable, Lime, Zucchini, Taupe and Oyster.

Here I go, making another 'brown' quilt!

I sewed really, really slow and the curves turned out better than I had imagined.