JANE BLOCK FOR THE DAY

 When I started making Dear Jane blocks in 1996 I started at the beginning and was making blocks in order.  But, I apparently skipped a few.  Probably because they look difficult.  Today I decided to go back and do those blocks.

And, yes, this one was a difficult block.  Making it involved applique, curved seams and Y-seams.  

ROOTED #2

 I put the last few embroidery stitches into the Month Two block for Rooted by Sue Spargo.  It's finally done.  It took a while.

However, I just received Month Seven.  So, I'm a bit behind.

APPLIQUEING CIRCLES

 Since my B770 sewing machine is not working right (aaaarrrrgh!) I'm left with doing something else.  So, I'm appliqueing the circles onto the petals - which is a good thing!  This needs to get done eventually, so now is a good time.  

I've made a bunch of cardboard circles and am in the process of wrapping them with the fabrics.  I'll have to press them before I remove the cardboard and applique them down.

Christmas Day:  We were planning on going to Mandarin Gardens for lunch today and getting take out.  But, they are closed!  This is the first time in years that they haven't been opened on Christmas.  Bummer.  We picked another restaurant that was open and ordered lunch to go from them, Ho Ho Seafood.  It was no where near as good as Mandarin Gardens - it was a disappointment, to say the least.  

The cold and the snow begins.  Winter is here.

SALSA CENTER

 The Seattle Modern Quilt Guild is doing a medallion type quilt for this year's Block of the Month.  The first few months we made borders, February was lines of your choice - I thought I'd use the adding machine tape strips made of scraps from Seasons.

March was about making triangles in any fashion you choose. I first made some triangles from scraps, but I didn't like them - they were too big next to the small borders of 'lines' and the colors were wrong. So, I got out some multi-colored hand dyed by Judy Robertson from 2001 and made some spikey triangles. 

This month is about making the center block.  The center block of a medallion quilt is usually something special.  I thought I'd make a Celtic Knot type block.   I cut up some more 20 year old Judy Robertson hand-dyed that I've been hoarding and used some light blue-ish solids for the background. 

I'm not too sure I like it.  I haven't sewed it down yet, it's just pinned and it doesn't really look like what I had in mind.  Maybe I'll let it stew for a while before I commit to it.

MAKING CIRCLES

I got the little circles ready to applique onto my Abstract Flower block.

MORE APPLIQUE

It's another Splendid Sampler 2 applique block this week.

I was busy doing other things, but I did get the parts and pieces prepared for this block.

It rained last night.  Our morning walk was clear and dry, but the colors in the park were spectacular.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

First things first is to take this box with the Wallflower quilt in it to the Post Office and get it started on it's journey to Virginia, it's new home.

So cool [my first sale!!].

The dogs had to wait in the car and then we went for our walk.

I finished up sewing the 'red' circles into the middle of the wedge circles, then squared down the blocks and sewed them all together.  The top is done.

I like it.

He made a bookshelf for me to store all of the Kona Solids I've been collecting.  I put a coat of primer on it in the driveway and was attacked by mosquitos. 

Here I am, doing the wrong kind of painting again.

BLOOD DONATION 92

I'm determined to donate 100 pints of blood and get my name on a plaque at the donation  center.  Today was number 92.  I've never taken a selfie while donating, so I thought, why not?  I'm not putting it on my FB though.  This is the only place you'll see it.  Grossed out?

I woke up this morning to an email from Etsy announcing the sale of my Wallflower quilt.  I was excited and also nervous.  I spent some time getting it ready to go [I thought it was ready, but it wasn't].

In the afternoon I sewed the 'red' circles onto more of the wedge circles.  I have two rows done.

RED CIRCLES

I've been calling them red, but now that I'm working with the fabric, it isn't really red.  It's more of a tomato color - orangish red.  Whatever it is, I made the circles that will be appliqued into the center of each wedge circle.

I cut out the proper sized circle from heat-resistant template plastic, traced it onto the back of the tomato fabric and cut out nine circles with a generous seam allowance.

I then hand stitch a basting stitch around the outside, keeping the stitches as close together as possible [it makes the circle smoother].  With the template plastic on the inside, I drew the basting thread tight causing the seam allowance to fold over onto the back.  Then iron it, and remove the plastic circle.

Easy-peasy.

After lunch at Coastline Burgers in the Junction I made a few more blocks of the Putty and Mortar quilt and cut out the rest of the pieces.  [Sorry, I didn't take pictures].

Then I made a few more City Sampler Blocks - 46 and 47.  The Challenge has begun on Instagram, today was Day 2.   So far I've been keeping up!

APPLIQUE PREP

This week's Splendid Sampler 2 block is applique block of a cute little elephant.

I got it prepped today.

As you can probably see, I didn't notice that I should have reversed it - and didn't.  Oh, well.

I worked on some more of the wedges...

And it as a rare day that the dogs shared a bed.  Hmmm.

Jax and Jelly sitting in a tree....

PINCUSHION LOVE

Pincushion Love is the name of this little 6" block, designed by Pat Sloan for the Splendid Sampler Quilt-along.  I'm using just paisleys for mine.

Got this one done today (at work...shhhh).

I love this block!

LIFE HAPPENS

Everyone makes it seem so homey having a cat hanging around in the studio.

But they don't mention the problems...

Bentley recently got into a scrap with, I assume, another neighborhood cat and came home with some serious wounds, which entailed an expensive trip to the vet, daily dosings of antibiotics and applications of topical ointments, most of which he didn't mind.  His back toe was the worst, and it doesn't seem to be getting better.

So, I recently came out to the studio to find that Bentley had spent the night on the quilt I had folded and set aside to work on later.  A little cat hair I can deal with, but not blood spots.

It looks like his toe was bleeding while he was encamped on the quilt and he left several little stains, one of them on the light yellow fabric of the label.  Arggh!

Before

I was able to clean up the spots on the cheap background fabric, but, of course, it wouldn't come completely off the label.

After cleaning 

What to do, what to do.  

I could remake the label, take the back partially apart and re-piece the new label into it...that would be at least a half a day's work. The quilt was already pinned.   Man, oh man, oh man.

I set it aside for a few days, talked to my Mom about it (Mom's are great problem solvers and listeners), she suggested Oxyclean, she'd heard it was good at removing blood.  Cat blood?  I'd have to go to the store to get some.

A few more days later, Darrell came by as I was sitting there staring at it, thinking about how much work it would be to replace the label.  He said, "Cover it up."  Duh!  Of course!

And then it hit me...the fabric with the animals I used on the front...I could applique an animal over the spot.

Less than a half hour later, the problem was solved.

When I get it all quilted and completed, I'll wash it, maybe even with Oxyclean.  

You and I will be the only ones that know.

ASHTRAY - DAY THREE

Seam allowances!  What was I thinking?!

My plan was to appliqué by hand...too much...too impatient...too many pins!

So, I took all the papers off the backs of the pieces and re-pinned and started machine appliquéing the pieces down.  It's a learning experience.  It was hot in the studio, I was frustrated and feeling incompetent.  I'm wishing I hadn't made it so big.  I thought about tossing this one and starting over without seam allowances.  But, I'm out of one of the fabrics, or at least I don't have enough, I think.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.