INTO MINNESOTA

 After our lunch in Fargo we drove a mile or so across the North River into Moorhead Minnesota to the Hjemkomst Center.  There we saw a Viking ship and toured a Stave Church replica.

We waited a few minutes for our docent to show up to take us outside to the Stave Church which had been constructed on site as a replica of the churches in Norway.

When we left there we made a quick stop at the famous Dairy Queen in Moorhead.  It is one of the oldest Dairy Queen franchises.  Despite the cold some of us indulged in their treats.  Then we headed back to Hankinson.  It was a wonderful outing.

TRIP TO FARGO

 We all piled into two cars and set out for Fargo, an hour drive north of Hankinson.

Our first stop was at the Plains Art Museum which had a display of 42 quilts curated by Nancy Crow called  Color Improvisations 3.

We a bit surprised to see the museum was filled with workers installing tables and displays for an upcoming event.  There were light fixtures on the floor to manuever around and things being constructed.  We were thankful they let us in to see the show.

The next stop was lunch at Rosewild restaurant.  Excellent food!  Just across and down the street from the restaurant was the famous Fargo Theatre where the Fargo movie was premiered.

QUILT DISPLAY

 Once we were all set up in the Conference Rooms this year, we put out the things we had brought for a display of our work.  It was set up in the big Auditorium where we had been last year.  This year that area was filled up with the regulars and so they had decided to give us our own area upstairs.   There were so many wonderful things to see.

I brought my Out of Africa quilt.

FLY TO MINNEAPOLIS

 I left very early this morning for a 6am flight to Minneapolis on my way to the 2nd Annual BP Monday Sewcial Retreat in Hankinson, ND.

When I landed in Minneapolis I met up with Mary H and Lori who rode with me on the 3-1/2 hour trip to the Retreat.

ALL THE PAGES SO FAR

 I laid out the pages I have for the 100 Day Stitch Book project.  I realized I needed one more to make it all work out.  And I need to finish the others I had planned.  Lots of work to do yet.

SECOND LETTER

 Here is my some of my process of making the next letter in this project.  As in the first letter, I'm using the original freezer paper pattern.  I divided this letter up into parts and made the individual parts and then sewed them all together.  Here I show just my process for just one part.

I take the pattern of the part I'm making from tracing paper and use tailor's chalk to mark the sewing lines onto the fabrics.

Then add a 1/4" seam allowance and cut the pieces out.

I pin the beginning corners together to line them up exactly.

I use an awl to keep the edges of the fabrics lined up.

With this method I can get pretty close to the pattern.

Then I cut the curve on the opposite side.

This curve wasn't laying flat.  I pressed it to show how it should have lined up, then re-sew in the crease. This will make it flat.

I pin the pattern and then trim. Starting with oversized pieces allows for some adjustments before trimming.

I didn't get the curve sewn perfectly on the line.  However it isn't that important in this project.  What is important is that the black is the correct width where it will line up with the section next to it so the line will look like one continuous line.

All of this oversized parts sewn together that now need to be trimmed.

I pressed the original freezer paper pattern onto it, lining up the important lines.

Then I trimmed a 1/4" seam allowance on the two sides.  I'll still leave the top and bottom until the whole piece is together.

PIECING A WORD

 Here is how I'm going to piece a word for an upcoming project.  There are lots of ways to go about this.  You may have a way that suits you better.  This is only one method.

My instructions are to piece the word into an 18" square.  I started with freezer paper, mine is only 17-3/4" wide.  I cut an 18" length and drew a red line on one side of the short side to remind myself to add a quarter inch.

My word is 5 letters so I divided 18 by 5 to get the width of each letter - 3.6".  I then divided the paper up with pencil lines and drew each letter within it's area.

I cut the G from the square and then drew blue lines where there would be seams.  I hope you can see them.

I realized later I probably should have shaded the parts that would be the letter.

Then I went about making each section.  The width of each line could vary or they could all be the same, dealer's choice.  I started with the top of the G which contains two curves.  I tried several methods to make those, then decided to just make staight lines to indicate the curves instead.  I start with fabric pieces a lot bigger than I need.  I made a tracing paper template from my original drawing.  I cut out how the yellow fabric should be shaped and cut away the angle of the 'curve' and sewed black into it's place.

I added the black to the right.

I added the upper part.

I measured the next piece on the pattern and added a quarter inch to each side.

I made the next little section on the pattern and added seam allowance and sewed it all together.

For the next section I measured each piece from the pattern, cut out the pieces with seam allowances, first the yellow needed the corners to be black, I used the flip and sew method.  I cut two black squares, lined them up on the bottom corners of the yellow, and sewed diagonally down each, flipped the corner over to make triangles.  Then I added the side black section and the bottom black section.

Once I had the whole section together I added a long strip of black to the left side of the whole G.  I made that piece a bit wider than it needed to be, just in case.  It's always easier to trim it away than to add to it later if needed.

But I still had to make the bottom of the G have curved corners.

Then the same at the top, to give the G a rounded top.

I drew chalk lines where the 18" top should be and how I wanted the corner angles to be.

Using an oversized piece of yellow I set it on the corner.

Then I folded it over to match the angle line (somewhat) and finger pressed it.  Then took it to the machine and sewed down the pressed line.  Once it's sewn I cut away the undersides, leaving a quarter inch seam allowance and then cut away any excess on the top part.

And it's a G!  As you can see, there is a bit of extra at the top and bottom, and the left side.

I have four more letters to make and then I will sew them all together and make sure when that is done that they come out to an 18" square.

FLANNEL QUILT TOP

 I got the Babe In The Woods charm pack sewn together for a baby quilt.  This is all flannel.  I don't like sewing flannel.  I don't know how I came into possession of this charm pack.  The top is 36" by 36".

TWO MORE BAGS

 I made two more bags for Sew Powerful.  These were both made from a discarded pair of jeans and used some fun fabrics on the inside lining.