Design Wall Monday - 3/28/16

DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
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On my wall today -

The "extra" hourglass units -
From making my FMQ class practice blocks - ;))

I didn't realize that it has been three weeks since my last post -

But - you really haven't missed much - ;))

For the last three weeks -

There has been NOTHING on my design wall -

Because I have been TRYING to get this dang thing together -

And I only got as far as getting the rows together -

And putting on the two side borders - ;))

The FMQ practice blocks were layered to be quilted "as you go" -
But - of course - I didn't space them the same distance apart -
On the backing fabric - ;))

If I HAD - I could have skipped the part about cutting the blocks apart -
And then putting them all back together again WITH sashing between them -

I could have just sewn the sashing on the top -

And then sewn the rows together and been done with it -

But - NOOOOOO - I had to do it the hard way - ;))

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NOTE TO SELF -
Think ahead next time and include the sashing between the blocks on the rows - ;))
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Then the blocks themselves came out all different sizes -

Some of the quilting pushed the fabric "out" on some blocks -
And made the block "bigger" than planned -
If that makes sense -

So I cut them all down to close to the same size - ;))

I thought that I could maybe offset them to minimize the differences -
But I didn't like the look - ;))

I don't want to bore you with all of the fun I had -
With the back strips not coming out right -
Either too wide or too narrow to make the batting join without a gap or overlap -

Or the "air sewing" with no bobbin thread -

Or the "bird's nest" bobbin messes on the back for no apparent reason -

Or the fun I had trying to use the Bias Tape Maker -
That's a post for another time - ;))

So I'll just show you photos of some of the blocks -

And the yellow sashing that I used between the rows - ;))

I like the yellow sashing with the yellow thread that I used to quilt the blocks -

BUT -

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NOTE TO SELF -
Use a darker sashing next time so the block fabrics don't show through - ;))
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And some of the sashing cut off some of the quilting -

But - oh, well -

Done is better than perfect - right? - ;))

I still have to add the top and bottom borders -

But it's looking a little tall and skinny -

So I think that I want/need to add some more to the sides -
To widen it out a bit -
Maybe I could use those "extra" hourglass blocks - ;))

All in all -

I'm REALLY getting tired of messing with it -

But it is so close to being DONE -

That I don't dare stop now -

Or it will be another UFO -

And the whole point of this FMQ class -

Was to make a dent in that pile -

Not to ADD to it - ;))

But I would really rather get back to practicing my FMQ -

Which is WAAAAAAY more FUN than QAYG - ;))

I made a quilt using this technique over 20 years ago -

And I remember now why I haven't made another one since then - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -