SPOOLS, CONFETTI, AND CATS

I have been eking out a bit here and there trying to accomplish getting some Spinning Spool blocks and also Confetti blocks done.  The spools have me less than thrilled with the project, but the Confetti blocks are fun to work with all the scrap fabrics I have all over the sewing room.  It looks like a bomb went off in there.

Spool wedges are under major construction.  This particular product I am using is Quilters Select Print & Piece Fuse Lite. 

I like the project because I was able to tape the wedge pattern on to a piece of paper then copy it on to the product.  Made things go really fast, rather than tracing them.

Then it was a simple task of folding over the edge with a bit of glue and the iron.  However, I am not a huge fan of the project.  It is rather stiff, and was hard to remove once sewn on to the spools.  They say it softens with water, but all in all it seemed like a lot of fussing.

Well I have 8 of the 20 done and this is the layout.  I actually am pretty happy with the background.  I did not want to buy any fabric for this project so finding 2 yards of a background was a bit of an issue, but this is pretty interesting.

This is what the project should look like in the end.  I think once the appliquéd flowers are on it using some of the fabrics in the spools it will be a fun finish. 

On a happier note I have managed these Confetti blocks.  Row one is done and these have me headed to rows two and three of the eight I will need in the end.  

This is a basket of cuteness.  Along with our daughter's chickens, ducks, and peacocks she has 5 cats.  These 3 found a nice cozy spot in the morning sun coming through the bedroom window.

DESIGN WALL MONDAY

MID WEEK MAKERS

CONFESSIONS OF A FABRIC ADDICT

THINGS I'VE LEARNED ABOUT PAPER PIECING AND THE GIFT

I have been working for a couple weeks now on my Confetti quilt.  The blocks are paper pieced.  I had done a little paper piecing, but never this much.  I have had an interesting learning curve on this project and thought to share a bit of it.  While paper piecing isn't rocket science these few little tips have made things so much easier.

In the beginning when I folded over the paper to trim my seams to a quarter inch I found that it was difficult to stay on the line.  I remembered a tip given in one of my on line classes to use a post card that is just a bit thicker than normal paper.  Folds were very accurate to do perfect trimming of the seams.

In the beginning I was using glue sticks.  Unfortunately I found they are used up fast and they were costly.  I have had this Roxanne Glue in my stash of tools for ages, but never used it.  I decided it might be time to give it a try.  

This was just the greatest thing ever invented.  You can apply it within the seam allowance so no excess smears of glue.

I also found that just a bit of a press before going to the sewing machine dries the glue so no slipping or sliding on the area.

This particular pattern has some pieces joined before paper piecing them.  A bit of a different system than I every dealt with before.

It works really great, and while other patterns might not use this method I thought it certainly could be used in similar situations.  

I did find that my patterns did not include the seam allowances.  I decided that the best plan was on the original patterns I would draw them in and also indicate where seams should extend beyond the seam lines.  Plus I even made a note of the one or two seams that should be folded and pressed in a different direction to join the two block parts.  Once all that information was on the original pattern pieces it was easier to not get confused when doing multiple blocks.  There are 64 blocks in the quilt top and each block has two parts.  So, having that information when make 128 block pieces made things easier.  

I spent some time doing some heavy duty housework these past few weeks.  We have travel a good deal over the last 4 or 5 years and one of the drawers in our guest bathroom was loaded with various travel size shampoo, lotion, bar soaps, as well as toothpaste, floss, and toothbrushes our dentist gives us at each visit.  I did a major clean out and our daughter took them to a couple that does a good deal of assistance for the homeless in our area.  As I was doing all that clean out I also found several old quilts and blankets in our linen closet that I added to the donation pile for that couple.  I was sent this photo of one of the quilts I donated for their cause.  They told me that they wanted it to go to someone special.  This photo was taken when the woman received  it.  It was nice to pass on to someone happy to get it.  It was one of the very first mystery quilts I ever made. 

DESIGN WALL MONDAY 

MID WEEK MAKERS

CONFESSIONS OF A FABRIC ADDICT

PLAY TIME YES, SEWING TIME MAYBE

 I would love to say that I have managed to accomplish a lot this past week in the sewing room.  Well, that just has not happened.  We have been hit by a hurricane of energy wrapped up in a 3 pound puppy.  Play time and cuddles have completely taken over most of our days.

I did manage to cut a good supply of strips to hopefully complete the ten additional spool blocks needed.

Half are done only ten more to go.  I am lucky to manage one a day.

I did get the first of eight blocks complete for the Confetti quilt.  These are fun to do and I am enjoying this project.  Although I must admit that my sewing room looks like a bomb went off with little scraps of fabric all over the place.  

This is the cause of all the commotion at our home.  A whirlwind of energy that beckins you to play with her.  Throw my toys across the room and I will run after them and bring them back to do again, and again, well you get the picture.  I am relegated to franticly try to make a block or two while Zoey catches a nap after playtime.

DESIGN WALL MONDAY  

MID WEEK MAKERS

CONFESSIONS OF A FABRIC ADDICT

  

SPINNING SPOOLS & ZOEY

 I have been watching Alex Anderson on her weekly shows since the beginning of Covid.  She has offered some fun quilt along projects.  I took part in the first one, but have just enjoyed watching her with the last 2 or 3 since early 2020.  This last week she started a new project called Spinning Spools.  At first I didn't think I would bother to get involved with this one, but after a while though that it would be fun.  I am using my own fabric.  Alex was making available a fabric pack on The Quilt Show shopping store, but I have way too much fabric to be buying more until I use up some of what I do have.  I have the first 5 blocks out of 20 done.  They are sewn onto a fusible interfacing using the flip and sew method.  Lots of fun doing this scrappy new project.    

As many of you know our little Yorkie Ginger passed away a couple weeks ago.  My husband was pretty upset, Ginger was his pal and we both loved her very much.  Well our house is just not a home without a dog it appears.  Our daughter was able to find a breeder of Yorkshire Terriers just a couple hours from our home.  She just had a litter of 5 ready to go to their new homes.  She was able to show us the 2 little females and my husband immediately fell in love with this little girl.  He has named her Zoey, she is just 2 months old. A smart little girl, easily trained to a potty pad and crate trained.  We have had her to our vet just this week and she is in tip top shape. 

DESIGN WALL MONDAY

MID WEEK MAKERS

CONFESSIONS OF A FABRIC ADDICT

  

CONFETTI

 I have spent most of last week planning and starting a new scrap quilt. After finishing my Drummer Boy I spied a new pattern on Stitched in Color called Confetti.  It is a bit addictive.  

It is primary paper pieced.  I have done paper piecing now and again.  It seems at least for me it has a learning curve for the first couple of hours when I have been away from this process.  

This is my first block.  It was accomplished after two complete failures after the first one or two pieces started.  I cut off the piece instead of the doing the seam allowance.  I finally got the hang of it and finished the original block.  I forgot to cut outside the finished lines 1/4 inch, and as this is two parts sewn together to make the block that didn't work.  The block was 7 1/2 inches instead of 81/2 inches.  Finally I got the hang of it and things began to come together.  One would think that after 30 years of this craft I could manage better than that.  

However, there is finally success.  Only 60 more blocks to go.  I have enjoyed deciding what fabric to put in each block.  There are bits and pieces all over the room.  We are talking very small scraps.  Some as small as 1 1/2 square up to no bigger than 3 1/2 inches long or square.  That little itty bitty blue square one is 1 inch finished.  

While digging around in my closet for scraps I found this paper pieced pattern.  For a lark I tried it out as well.  I'm two down for the count, time to read the book and try to figure out what is going wrong.  That angle is giving me fits.  I just can't seem to get it right.

Some of you might remember Houdini my daughters way ward  chicken.  She is an escape artist and is in and out of her fenced in chicken yard while all the other hens stay put.  My daughter kept watching her in and out of their burn pile and decided to find out what she was up to.  

Seems she has been laying all her eggs in this nice little nest she has made for herself.  While all her chicken family politely lay their eggs in their nice cozy coop boxes, where my daughter collects them for the family's use and all the neighbor too.  Houdini has gone renegade, of course they had to be tossed and my daughter surly doesn't need any more chickens hatched either.  Fact is she wasn't sitting on them either, she is much too busy for that sort of nonsense.

DESIGN WALL MONDAY

MID WEEK MAKERS

CONFESSIONS OF A FABRIC ADDICT