A little piecing -

 

 

Today I decided to play with - 

 

My Basic Math - Little Sir Little Miss - 

 

 

I've had the pieces cut since May - 

 

And I sorted them a couple of weeks ago - 

 

So it was just waiting its turn - LOL - 

 

Today I sewed the two groups of rectangles - the two top piles - 

And the 4-patches - the bottom middle pile - 

 

And pressed them all nice and neat - 

 

Then I moved the sewing machine - 

That I use for my Free-Motion quilting - 

To the "short wall" -

Now that the cutting table is out of the way - 

To give me better access to the design wall -  

I think I'm going to like it there - 

It sticks out in the doorway about a foot - 

But the doorway is 5-feet wide - so that's OK - 

I still have plenty of room to get around it - 

And the "business end" is still up against the wall - 

So any quilt won't fall off the edge - 

If I need support on the left side - 

I can always move the ironing board over and use that -

 

Anyway - I put the 4-patches up on the design wall - 

 

And now I can step back to get a better view -

 

This "angled" design wall is not as big as the ones in the hallway - 

 

But it will give me a nice "preview" of smaller sections - 

 

Now I want to share another "oopsie" -

 

I am SO used to batiks not having a "right/wrong" side - 

 

That I just sewed the pieces together as I came to them - 

 

And then I realized that THIS batch of batiks - 

 

DOES have a "right/wrong" side - 

 

The "number" fabrics are similar to "one-way" designs - 

 

This one is "backwards" because they are on the "wrong" side - 

 

I need to sew this set with the "other" side facing up - LOL - 

I first noticed it on the 4-patches - and have already fixed them - 

So I'll be fixing the rectangles tomorrow - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

Batting is pieced -

 

 

For the panel on the wall - 

 

And when I spread it out on the wall  -

 

On top of the backing from yesterday - 

 

It looked a little short at the bottom - 

 

 

So I trimmed the top of the batting - to straighten it - 

 

Then took the top and batting and back - 

 

To the kitchen island - 

 

And laid them all out like I would normally do - 

 

And I have more than enough "extra" on both the batting and the backing - 

 

So it should be just fine - 

 

Then I folded it all up - 

And added it to the pile "to be quilted" - 

While I wait for my new machine and frame - 

So now I'm looking for my "next project" - 

Not that I have any UFOs just lying around - LOL - ;))

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

Backing done -

 

 

I fixed the messed up section - 

 

And sewed both sections together -  

 

For the backing for the panel on the wall - 

 

Then I put it up on the design wall - 

But I didn't put it up very high - 

Because it's hard to reach - 

 

 

But I folded back one corner - 

 

So you can see that it is more than long enough - 

 

To give me a backing that is "larger" than the top - 

 

I wanted to make a "test" backing - 

Only a little wider than the top - 

To see how well the side leader cloths will work - 

And with both a long horizontal seam - 

And a long vertical seam - 

To see if I want to avoid one or the other - 

When I make "future" backings - 

 

I think it will be a "non-issue" -

 

Because the frame is a "hoop" style and not a 3-rail system - 

 

But you never know -  

Now I need to piece together the batting -

 

While I wait impatiently for my new machine and frame - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

Oops! -

 

 

Nothing major - 

 

But still - 

 

I was going along just great - 

 

Yesterday I sewed this big section for the backing - 

 

For the panel on the wall - 

 

And today I planned to insert a bit of the WHITE/BLUE - 

 

Between the RED fat quarters for the bottom section - 

 

And I did that - 

 

I decided to make the BLUE stripes go width-wise - 

 

And inserted the piece - 

 

 

Then I decided to reverse the sections - 

 

Top and bottom - 

  

And put the larger RED portion on the bottom right side -

 

So I laid it out -

 

Right sides together - 

 

To sew it together -

 

And it's good on this end - 

BUT - 

Oops! - 

It's short on this end - LOL -

 

I'm just keeping it real, folks - 

 

I messed up - 

 

I obviously measured wrong somewhere along the way - 

 

And that might have involved - 

 

NOT paying attention - LOL -

 

I know that I trimmed up the RED fat quarters - 

 

To straighten them - 

 

But I didn't think I trimmed them THAT much! - 

 

So - anyway - 

 

Guess what I want/need to fix tomorrow - 

 

Before I can say that I "finished" sewing the backing - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

Some more sewing today -

 

 

Today I played with making the backing - 

 

For the panel on the wall - 

 

The RED/WHITE piece is about the same size as the panel - 

 

But it needs to be wider and longer - 

 

 

The fat quarters at the bottom should be enough to lengthen it -  

 And the BLUE piece at the left should be enough to widen it a little - 

 

I inserted the BLUE piece a little off-center - 

 

And it will be good practice in lining up the backing - 

 

Using the leader cloths - 

 

When I get my machine and frame - 

 

Tomorrow I'll play with adding the fat quarters on the bottom - 

 

Now that I know how wide it's going to be - 

 

I can insert a section of the WHITE/BLUE between the RED ones - 

 

To make it the same width - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

A little sewing today -

 

 

But not much - 

 

I watched a whole lot of videos - 

 

And found one about using a "Frame Weight" - HERE - 

It sounded like a good idea - 

And something worth trying - 

When I get my new machine and frame - 

So I decided to make one - 

I found a piece of WHITE batik that I will probably never use - 

And got this - 

 

 

I didn't have a large mouth funnel - 

 

But a folded paper plate did the same job - LOL - 

 

One thing that I did differently than the video - 

 

Is that I used a couple of pins to "corral" the rice - 

 

It worked well for the first folded over seam - 

 

But it was a little tight on the next one - 

 

It's not my best work - 

 

But it will keep the rice from coming out - LOL - 

 

Tomorrow I want to tackle this pile of batting scraps - 

 

 

And sew together some of the same size - 

 

To make larger batting pieces for some practice panels - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

More time out -

 

 

I got ZERO sewing done today -

 

I watched more videos - 

 

And since some of my friends made VERY helpful comments yesterday - 

 

I dug out some muslin and a solid color - 

 

To make a "test" quilt sandwich - 

 

This is basically "junk" fabric - 

And I should be able to see my "practice" stitches better on it - 

 

Why waste a perfectly good panel? - 

I can save that panel - 

And other panels in my stash - 

For "later" - 

 

When I get better at making circles look like circles - 

 

And straight lines - straight - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

 

Time out -

 

 

Or - I should say - Time OFF - 

 

From my major rearrangement - 

 

Was on the agenda for today - 

 

I planned to play with making the backing for the panel on the wall - 

 

That I want to use for my "test" piece when my machine/frame comes - 

 

 

I have a piece of fabric that matches the WHITE on RED border strip - 

 

But - it isn't big enough - 

 

So I found some RED fat quarters - 

 

Left over from another project - 

 

And a 1/4 yard cut of some BLUE - 

 

That I can use to make the backing larger - 

 

But I only got as far as pressing them - 

 

And I found another BLUE on WHITE stripe fat quarter - 

 

To add to the mix - 

 

But - as you can see - it's smaller than the RED ones - 

So - rather than mess with it today - 

I watched a bunch of videos on my new machine and frame - 

And I'll mess with the backing tomorrow - 

Unless I find more videos to watch - LOL - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

Phase VI -

 

 

Of my major rearrangement is done - 

 

Today I sorted through more stuff - 

 

And got it down to some empty boxes - 

 

 

The stuff in the bottom box on the right needs to be shredded - 

 

So I can do that whenever - 

 

The photo boxes are stacked neatly on the bookcase/shelving unit - 

 

And the stuff on the cutting table can be sorted through later - 

 

At least for now - it is out of the way - 

 

 

The stuff in the gatorade boxes on this machine - 

 

Is FMQ stuff specific to this machine - 

 

And can stay there until I deal with it - LOL - 

 

Tomorrow I'm going to take a break - 

 

And make the backing for the panel on the wall -

 

And then maybe I'll sort through some more stuff - 

 

Or maybe not - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

 

Phase V -

 

 

Of my major rearrangement is done - 

 

Today I sorted thread -

 

I like to store my thread in photo boxes - 

Because they have lids - 

And I can keep them dust-free - 

But I have a tendency to just toss them in a box sometimes - 

So occasionally I have to sort through them - 

 

I designated a couple of boxes to my Madeira Rayon threads - 

 

And put some of the odd-ball ones in baggies - 

With index card labels - 

And - for the eagle eyes out there - 

I misspelled Madeira on a couple of the baggies - 

And my CDO has already fixed that - LOL - 

 

I still have other stuff to sort through - 

 

So tomorrow will be more of the same - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew - 

Phase IV -

 

 

Of my major rearrangement is done - 

 

The two things on the agenda for today - 

Were to add baggies for recent projects to this box of odds and ends - 

 

And to sort through it - 

And put them in a drawer under the dining room table -

 

Where I can get to them to finish up a project - 

 

My CDO* kicked in - 

And I put all of the baggies in alphabetical order -

In two gatorade "sorter" boxes - 

 

But only one box fit in the drawer - 

 

So I had to empty another drawer - 

And put that stuff in a drawer in the back closet - 

 

To make room for the stuff in this box - 

 

Then I emptied all of the thread/photo boxes - 

That were on the dining room table - 

Into more gatorade "sorter" boxes - 

 

I can sort through these threads tomorrow - 

 

But in the meantime - 

The dining room table is cleared of all of the extra stuff - 

 

I know that it's still cluttered - 

But that's the way it usually looks - LOL - 

 

In other news - 

 

Buja has learned to climb the fence - 

 

And got into this jasmine bush just outside of the kitchen window - 

 

Sorry the photo is blurry - 

 

But my daughter managed to grab her before she could fall - 

 

Silly cat! - 

Tomorrow - 

I plan to sort through the thread - 

And try to clear more of the clutter - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

 

 

*CDO -

It's like OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order - 

like they're supposed to be - LOL - ;))