CHANGED MY MIND

Well, of course I changed my mind - it was a crazy plan.

During a conversation with my mom, she asked why I didn't take it off the machine and un-pick it - wouldn't it be easier?  I said no at the time, but the more I thought about it the more I began to see that she was right.  It's really difficult to reach the underside when its on the machine.  Add that to the fact that the machine would be tied up for months, I changed my mind.

It's off the machine - I'm going to work on picking it out while I sit and watch TV.

Here are some pictures of the really poor tension on the back.

So, on to something else for now.

I finished up this little top and started thinking about the back.

I decided to dye some fabric.  Blue.

TWO HOURS

OMG, it took two hours to pick out one block.

Two hours.

Do I want to commit to this?

If I did one block a day (which I won't) it will take 49 days.

It will tie up my longarm for months.

But on the other hand - what else have I got to do?

LONGARMING LEXINGTON

I took out my Lexington quilt to finish quilting it.

I had done some straight-line stitch-in-the-ditch with my domestic Bernina and trimmed off all the  excess.

I had to sew some leaders on two ends so I could pin it up on the machine.

Oh my, I didn't realize it was 98" square - it just barely fits on the machine.

The quilting I had done with the Bernina was really bad, the tension on the back is particularly bad.

I struggled with what to do - I decided to pick it out and do some computerized work on it instead.

My think is I can pick out a block then re-quilt it - a block t a time.

LEXINGTON PINNED

Finally got around to pinning together the three layers of the Lexington quilt today.

The back taped to the floor with the batting on top.

The batting is smoothed over the back and the top is piled on top

The quilt top smoothed over the top of everything.

My jar of pins

Trimming the excess off after it's all quilted.  This is one of the few things I use my original pair of Ginghers for.

SETBACK ON THE BACKING

I thought I might take on the big project of pinning my Lexington quilt together today since the rains are coming (so they say).

I cleaned the floor in the studio and taped the back down.  I spread the huge kingsize batting down over it and smoothed it out.  Next, I started to put the top on and realized that the back was too small.

Aaargh!  I hate when that happens.

I stewed for a little while, then got out my box of leftovers from the quilt top and started cutting and piecing together little pieces.  This is so annoying because the rest of the back is made from large-sized pieces.  Adding these smaller pieces is going to look like exactly what it is:  trying to make it bigger because I didn't plan it very well.

Adding a pieced border to one side.

So, I added six inches to one side, laid it back down on the floor then put the top over it, just to be sure and it still wasn't big enough.  Actually I noticed that it was really close going the other direction, too.

I'm all out of usable fabrics leftover from the top...

So, the best thing to do is put a border all the way across both sides.  I didn't think I had any pieces big enough left of the solid greens I had hand dyed. So...

I looked through my stash and found a big piece of green print.  It's actually one of my favorite fabrics.  I've had it for a long time...now that I stop and think about it, I probably bought it in 1999 or 2000 and used a little bit for a project I remember making about that time.  This fabric is perfect.  The greens match great and the print is of small circular markings and that will mimic the pattern on the front of the quilt.

Cutting six inch strips to add to two of the sides.

I had to move Bentley off the ironing board onto my chair and then back again.

Ironing the newly added border.

Here it is with the two added borders - looks great.

FINISHED THE BACK

I finally finished the back for the Lexington quilt.  It's been months since I worked on it.

As you can see, it's too big for my design wall and curves down onto the floor.

Here's a close up of the theme fabric:

I only used the theme fabric on the back.

LEXINGTON LABEL

I actually worked a little bit more on the back for the Lexington quilt.

I made the label.

LEXINGTON QUILT TOP FINISHED!

Yea!  

Sewed the rows all together today.  It's officially a finished quilt top.

It's too big for my design wall, so it's draping down onto the floor and getting officially covered with sawdust.  [Sawdust wafts up to my studio from my husband's woodshop below.]
It is 7 blocks by 7 blocks, the blocks are 14" square - that makes it 98" square.

What was I thinking?  It's going to be a bear to quilt.

GOT ALL THE ROWS TOGETHER

DREARY DAY

It's a wet, drizzly dreary day - perfect for sewing.   And for the first time in a long time, I actually felt like working on the Lexington Quilt.  Maybe it was the coffee the husband bought for me this morning.  Anyway, I made great progress in the morning.  I was surprised how much I got done.

When we got back from our errands I went back upstairs and finished sewing the last of the curved seams.  Can I get a HALLELUJAH!!

No more curves, it's all just sewing the blocks together now!

THREE ROWS TOGETHER

THE FUN BEGINS

I have all of the parts of the blocks sewn together.

The idea was to have the blocks in more managable parts so I can move them around the design wall easier.

So, here we go...

The design wall

A beginning

Adding more

Trying to get the colors to flow

Looking for problems

Tweaking

Moving a few offensive parts

Okay, where do I stop?

Don't think I like that bright one in the center...

A few more adjustments

Are we getting close yet?

Here's where I stopped because I was satisfied.

Don't hold me to this plan....I could change it completely tomorrow!

But at least now I can start making the blocks....lots of curves yet to sew.

CAUGHT UP

I got the pieces all cut out and sewn together for the parts I was missing.

So, that should be all of the straight-line sewing I have for a while.  It's back to sewing curves, curves and more curves.

At, least I hope so....I didn't count them again.

It can be very pleasant up in the studio.  The weather lately has been very nice.  I have windows open on opposite sides, and sometimes I'll get a nice little breeze blowing through.  There's a bird feeder right outside one of the open windows and occasionally I will hear the chatter of little birds.   But what really makes it nice is the music.  My husband is a vintage stereo nut and he has set me up with a very nice system.  It's a Marantz 2270 with JBL monitor speakers.  It rocks.  I have my Zune hooked up to it and I set it to play randomly of all the music I've loaded onto it.  There is everything from Classical to Hard Rock, from Jazz to World Music, even some Zoe Keating, Tony Bennett, Mozart and Kronos Quartet.

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.

FRIDAY FUN

The done-pile is getting bigger than the not-done-pile.

ONE SET

Well, I missed working on the quilt on Monday because I ended up working later than I should have.  And I missed Tuesday.

And Wednesday I had a class after work...

So, here it is Thursday already, but I made it into the studio for a few minutes and got one set done.

(I'm using an old wool blanket over my ironing table, it works great, but it makes pictures confusing, doesn't it.)

PIECING CURVES

Wow, how long has it been since I worked on this quilt?

Too long.

I have lots of excuses, though.

But, I spent a good hour or two today, organizing and sorting and trying to remember where I left off, so I could actually do some piecing.

It's all curves for a while, I better get used to it.  

Hopefully, I'll get good at it.

I am going to come out to the studio and spend a half hour every night this week.

Watch me.

FINISHED THE ARCS

I finished up the arc part of the Lexington blocks today.  

I didn't count them but I hope there's at least 49 sets. 

I gave Bentley some catnip, he was content.

WORKING ON THE ARCS

Well, I finished up the center parts of the blocks for my Lexington quilt.  So, I moved on to piecing the arcs.

Not even half of them...

BEAUTIFUL DAY

You'd think that on such a beautiful pre-Spring day I'd could find something to do outside.  But, no, I ended up spending a couple of hours after lunch up in the studio sewing.

I must qualify that by saying that I spent several hours working in the yard yesterday, and I filled up the yard waste bin.  So, there's nowhere to put anymore weeds and the yard is looking pretty good.  Besides, I'm getting too old, I need a day to rest up after all that hard work.

I went for a nice walk this morning, so I didn't have any reason to keep me out of the studio.  Here are some pictures I took while out walking - what a beautiful day!

Blake Island with the Olympic Mountains in the background.

I actually worked on my Lexington quilt.  I made a bunch of center parts.  Still a long way to go.  I probably only have about five more center parts, then I can start on the arches and corners.  

Here are some of the center parts I made today:

And as a reminder, here's a few of the blocks: