Courtesy of Kim's blog.

One word for . . .

1. Yourself: quilter
2. Your partner: quiet
3. Your hair: fine
4. Your Mother: smart
5. Your Father: silent
6. Your favorite item: quilts.
7. Your dream last night: none
8. Your favorite drink: tea
9. Your dream home: cottage
10. The room you are in: office
11. Your pleasure: quilting
12. Your fear: heights
13. Where you want to be in ten years: retired
14. Who you hung out with last night: Harry Potter
15. What you're not: patient
16. Your best friends: quilters
17. One of your wish list items: peace
18. Your gender: female
19. The last thing you did: email
20. What you are wearing: casual
21. Your favorite weather: snowy
22. Your favorite book: mystery
23. Last thing you ate: hashbrowns
24. Your life: wonderful
25. Your mood: good
26. The last person you talked to on the phone: neighbor
27. Who you are thinking about right now: daughter

This wasn't so hard!

Finally done!

Would you believe it? It took me all day today to cut those large squares into usable small pieces and file them away. Here I thought I could finish by noon! Can't believe it took so long. But it's done - and what a good feeling! Now my uncut scraps are reduced to only 3-4 boxes and totes. I must have enough cut strips, squares, bricks and triangle squares for at least 20 full size quilts if not more!

I thought I posted that I was taking up the fabric challenge - but I guess I just put it in a comment on Vicki's blog. I just bought everything I've planned on buying for some time. I'll even be good at the Seattle quilt show - at least that's my plan. Cutting and sorting and washing and pressing and generally playing with my fabric is a sobering experience - it makes me realize over and over just how much I have and how I don't need anything else. At least not now. Maybe backgrounds and borders eventually - but certainly not for awhile.

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Gratitudes:

1. An empty scrap tote
2. Books on CD
3. My Mariners won their third series in a row
4. Kids got back from their Mt. Rainier trip safely
5. Payday tomorrow!

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Oodles of Scraps

Cher from Marathon Quilter and I had a great scrap cutting session yesterday. She got half the scraps in her large tote cut up and sorted into baggies. I cut up the scraps left over from cutting 12 1/2" squares for the Broken Dishes quilt back, plus most of the scraps in a small tote. I don't know how many more totes of scraps Cher has, but I know I have several that are much bigger than the one I tackled yesterday. It was really great to get so much accomplished, and much more fun doing it together than by ourselves. We decided we need to have a scrap cutting session at least every 2-3 months until we get all the scraps under control. We took a short break for tuna sandwiches and chips for lunch, then a bit later headed to Starbucks for coffee and a visit to the closest quilt shop - one that Cher hadn't ever been to. I'm happy to report that I bought nothing! Before you send too many pats on the back, however, I'll confess that I hardly ever go to this quilt shop because she doesn't carry fabrics that I like. Her prices are really high also. She does a booming business with most of the quilters in town, so I don't feel so bad that I don't spend money there.

Here I planned to get Dishes on the longarm today, but instead I find myself still cutting scraps. The tote I tackled had dozens and dozens of large squares - 8" I think - that I'm cutting into smaller, usable sizes. Takes a lot of time! So I have the ball game on the radio and I'm cutting today.

Our neighbor ran a garage sale yesterday and he had an exercise bike in very good shape for $25. We brought it over so I could try it out for a week or so. I've felt so very guilty about not getting exercise. I rode 20 minutes at the start of the ball game today. If I can do that once a day - or even 3 or 4 times a week - I should start getting into better shape. I'll try it for the week and probably buy it. If I watch Simply Quilts while I ride it I should be able to exercise without totally giving up the time for quilting!

Pressing details

Melanie from Covered Porches and Screen doors wanted me to talk about pressing and how I got my tops so flat. When I downloaded the photos from the camera this morning I discovered the one of the wrong side of the quilt wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Granted it's very light, but it still shows what I want it to show.

One thing to keep in mind while you are reading - I use some speed piecing methods when it seems appropriate, but usually I feel that speed isn't all that important. I enjoy the process of piecing a lot, and don't mind when it doesn't result in a finished top in a day. So the techniques I use may seem time consuming and finicky to some, but they work for me.

I have one rule that I never break - and I mean never. I never sew another seam across an existing seam until the first seam is pressed. I use lots of steam when I press. I know many people don't use steam because they think it can distort the block. It's not the steam that distorts the block - it's the way people press. Pressing means an "up and down" motion with the iron. That's "up" above the block, then "down" onto the block. It's the side to side motion of "ironing" that will distort the block. Especially bias edges. I never use the back and forth and side to side motion of ironing until the entire top is completed.

Another thing I like to do is press the bias triangle seams before the piece is cut to the final size. Several posts ago I showed how I make a lot of bias squares by stitching long bias strips together, pressing the seams to the side and then cutting the squares. If I'm doing a few then I cut the triangles extra large, press the seams, then trim them to size. Yes that takes quite a bit longer - but I can trim while I watch TV. The perfectly sized bias squares sew together as easy as can be - much more quickly than they would if the edges bowed a little as they often can from pressing after stitching

Still another thing I do is "pop" seams open. I learned this trick in a class taught by Linda Ballard. You can see the popped seams in the picture above at the center of each Broken Dishes block. After stitching the 4 half-square triangle squares together I hold them where all the corners meet and give the seam a little twist with my fingers. This pops the stitching in the first two seams apart. This way I can press the dark to the dark on each side of the block, and what looks like a tiny 4-patch is pressed open at the center of the block. This distributes the bulk beautifully.

I also press seams open whenever necessary to reduce bulk. When stitching triangles together that result in a bias square of 1 1/2" unfinished size or smaller I always press those seams open. Marsha McCloskey recommends this in her Feathered Star book, and I find it works well. I also press long seams open when pressing to one side would create a lot of bulk. As you can see above, in the Broken Dishes quilt that means all the long seams are pressed open, as well as the seams where the blocks are joined together to make a row. I use lots and lots of steam, so they stay open well. I never have a problem with the seams popping on a finished quilt - the reason some "experts" say not to press seams open - because I put lots and lots of quilting in my quilts.

Another thing I do is to clip the seam allowance on a block so I can change the direction the seam is pressed to the side. I very rarely quilt in the ditch, so I don't worry that the "ditch" zigzags along a seam when the pressing changes direction. To me the most important thing is doing whatever is necessary to reduce the bulk so the pieced top will lay flat. I learned this little trick in a class with Jo Morton. She shows this in all her books.

Lastly, if I've pieced a complicated block with lots and lots of separate pieces, I usually block it before I sew it to other blocks. I've drawn a set of concentric squares on my ironing board pad (with a permanent Sharpie) that are the unfinished sizes of most all the blocks I make. To "block" a block I will pin the block wrong side up in the appropriate size square, using lots of pins along each edge to stretch it (or shrink it) to exactly the right size. I put the pins as parallel to the board surface as I can so they don't get in the way of the iron. Then I spray the pinned block with water and press it with my iron on the highest setting. This is most definitely a "set the iron down, wait a moment, lift it up and set it down again" process - NO sliding the iron back and forth. I press it until it's dry, then let it cool before I take the pins out. Blocks that are a little bit on the small or large size can be blocked so they are of a uniform size and exactly the size they are supposed to be. Makes stitching them together into the top really easy.

I hopes this helps Melanie. There are certainly many ways to do things, and none of them are "right" or "wrong". This is just the way I do it, and it works well for me.

Now that I've written this I see where more pictures would have been really helpful. But since I'm writing this while I take a break at work more pictures will have to wait.

Finished!

I managed to sew on the last two border strips before I went to my medallion class last night. I love how this turned out! Made mostly from pieces so small that lots of people throw them away. This is like getting an entire quilt top for free. I've decided to piece the back ala Bonnie also, using 10" squares of fabrics that I'm not in love with any more. I hope to get it quilted this weekend, but I many find time to piece the back and nothing else. Too many other things that need to be done also.

I need two holders to get a good shot of the entire top, so this is the best I can do. When the quilt is finished I'll get a good picture with two quilt holders.

I also included pictures of my plastic shoe boxes I'd emptied by doing this quilt. They hold 1 1/2", 2 1/2", and 3 1/2" squares and half-square triangle squares. They are already full again - I've added more since I took this picture - and I've barely begun to cut up my scraps. Lots more "free" quilt tops in my future I guess!

Have to scoot and get ready for work, so this is it for now.

Thank goodness for Bloglines!

I see the links to the rings are still acting up. I am so glad I subscribed to Bloglines and registered all the sites on the rings before this happened. I know I'd be going through severe withdrawal if I couldn't see the updates all my blogger friends have been posting.

Still not quite done with the Broken Dishes quilt. The heat has delayed me a bit because I didn't want to add to it by turning on the iron in the sewing room. Last night I did get the body of the quilt put together and the first set of borders cut, but then had to go to quilt group. Tonight there should be no stopping me. I'm really looking forward to posting a picture of the finished top.

Melanie from Covered Porches asked me how I got a top with so many little triangles to look so flat, even and symmetrical. I thought it might be a good idea to do a little tutorial on pressing so this morning I tried to take a couple pictures of the back of Broken Dishes. Every picture I took came out way too light with the flash, so I'll try again when I have the top finished and can hold it up. I'd like to have some pictures for illustration. It that doesn't work I'll just stitch more triangles together and choose darker fabrics - I certainly have enough!

Here I said I would be good and put another payment on my longarm with my sale proceeds. Well, when I patted myself on the back this weekend I guess I was premature. I fell off the buying wagon - just a bit. I've been eyeing the Rocky Mountain Collection at Z&S fabrics for several months now, so I decided to indulge myself. I've also been waiting for what seems like forever for them to post Jo Morton's new Lexington collection. I promised myself several months ago that I'd let myself buy this one for use in all my Jo's Little Women's Club quilts. That collection was finally put up on the website this morning, so I ordered it. I also couldn't pass up Jo's Oxford Blues as I have a hard time finding good dark blues these days. I rounded it out by ordering a couple books I've been wanting for awhile from Quilt Books USA where they have good discounts. Now that I've written it all down I'd say I fell off the buying wagon more than a little bit. I guess I'd have to say I took a flying leap off the wagon and landed in the mud! I guess the only excuse I can use is that I've been looking at all these things for at least 2-3 months, so they weren't impulsive spur-of-the moment purchases. And I did clear enough space on the shelves for all of it. I also earned enough between my sale proceeds and my customer quilts to pay for all of it, so no money left the family checkbook. But now I must call it done for several months now - and I must make very good progress using up stash and scraps and finishing UFO's. If I can do that then I won't feel so badly about falling in the mud!

Sale results

I forgot to take my camera to the sale so I have no pictures to post. I really meant to take it, and was so disappointed when I remembered about 10 minutes after we got there. The back lawn was covered with tables, some of which were covered with portable covers - the kind people take camping. We had a table by the south fence partially under a tree, where they had rigged blue tarps to form a large awning over the entire row of tables. Good thing, as it rained a little bit off and on during set up and the first couple hours of the sale. Didn't help the temperature at all - in fact it made it worse because the humidity got much worse. I think the humidity and the 100 degree heat probably affected the number of people attending. It wasn't bad in the morning, but there was almost no one from 1:00 on, so we shut down at 2:30.

I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, but better than I might have done. It was really odd what people bought. I guess it varies from year to year. Other than one woman who picked out almost $50 of fabric, most people picked here and there and spent $2 or $3. I did get rid of a lot of the odds and ends I took for which I was grateful - rolls of triangle paper that I tried and didn't like, a box of Shar Jorgensen templates, packages of template plastic, and other stuff like that. I sold a total of $87.25 - which is certainly better than nothing. My friend who shared the table with me did better - $201.75. This included a box of 53 books that she sold to a woman for $1 each, which will probably go for sale on E-bay within the week. The really good thing is that this allowed me to clean things out. I put some of the fabrics back on my shelves and left about 2/3 of them in the box. My friend Kim wanted none of hers back so I picked 5-6 pieces of hers and added them, including an almost 10 yard piece that will be a good quilt back. The remaining 2/3 of mine plus all of hers will be up for grabs at quilt group tomorrow night, and then whatever isn't taken will go to the guild charity committee. That brought my total sales to over $200, because a quilter at work bought $119 of fabric from me last week that never got to the sale.

I was a good girl too - which was hard. The shop owner had wonderful bargains on her outside tables - big bundles of flannel and more. And everything in the shop was 20% off. All I bought was 6 yards of a Jo Morton red that I'd asked her last spring to save for me when it came in, plus the new Vintage Quilts magazine. I was so proud of myself!

I didn't finish the triangle quilt top yesterday as I had a baby quilt to quilt - a rush job from a customer - so I did that while it was cool. By the time I was ready to do my own sewing it was just too hot to turn on the iron. So I did a lot more scrap cutting until about 1:00, when we took refuge from the heat at our daughter's house.

Back to work today - thank goodness it's supposed to be getting cooler!

Look at this!

Very quick post this morning, as I'm running late. I wanted to show you two pictures. Take a look at the boxes! These are all completely full of things to sell tomorrow. I hope I bring very little of it back home. The second picture is of my empty shelves. Aren't they great! Here's hoping they stay empty. I've also shortened the stacks of fabrics in the stacking basket - I just didn't take a picture of that.

Hotsy totsy here as my mother would have said. Supposed to be 104 today, 101 tomorrow and Sunday. I'm amazed how much just having my iron on in the sewing room heats up the room.

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Gratitudes:

1. Fridays
2. Luna bars
3. Empty shelves
4. Bacon and tomato sandwiches for dinner

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Good things

I'm taking a short break here at work so I thought I'd write a quick post. My friend Sue was very happy with how the wedding quilt turned out. This morning she is adding embroidered names of the bride and groom to the center heart - the one with the rings - and binding the quilt. Many of her family members are coming to town from Minnesota and North Dakota on Friday, including the niece and her husband who are the lucky recipients of the quilt.

Last night at quilt group we celebrated the retirement of our friend Kathi. She's been a surgical nurse at a local hospital for over 30 years. Very little surgery was done there in the last few years as most of it was moved to the other hospital in town, so their group focused on eye surgery. She wasn't quite ready to retire, but all the docs are closing that surgery and opening their own eye clinic. They will use techs instead of surgical nurses, so there was nothing for Kathi. Anyway, we had a surprise celebration at Sue's. We sat on her deck surrounded by her wonderful plantings and with a superb view of Vancouver Lake, sipping the best margaritas I've ever tasted. (A very different recipe - I have the link at home and can post it later if anyone is interested.) Then we had taco salads - made with the freshest ingredients and some great homemade salsa and guacamole. They were so good we all had seconds. We finished it off with homemade poundcake and Sue's homemade fresh peach ice cream. What a treat! We were all absolutely stuffed. I have certainly learned to eat well in the years these ladies have been my best friends!

I'm also happy to report that I found the missing row of the Broken Dishes quilt! I was glad to learn that my math wasn't faulty after all. And for one time Murphy's Law wasn't working - I found it before I'd made a replacement! Somehow it had fallen onto the floor behind my machine. I know I looked on the floor several times, but it was jammed back against the wall. The only reason I found it is because I decided to move the little rolling cart storing my machine supplies from the left of the machine to the right of the machine. I pulled out the cart, moved the machine and table to the left, and there was the row of quilt blocks. I am so happy to have found that!

Still working on pricing things for the yard sale on Saturday. The weather report says it's going to be 105 degrees - which will certainly set a record for us. That type of heat is very rare here. Thank goodness the sale tables are on the west side of the little house where the quilt shop "lives", and that it starts at 8:00 a.m. I told my DH that I was leaving as soon as the sun got around to the west side and started hitting us. I don't care how much I have left to sell - there is no shade in the back and the afternoon will be miserable out there. I figure the serious shoppers will be there in the morning anyway to get the best selection - at least I hope so. It's going to be really miserable outside.