Trying Out the 2015 Finish Along

I've never linked up before, but at the end of last year when I was thinking about how overwhelmed all my should-be-doing thoughts and projects were making me feel I decided to approach this year in a larger-scale format. I broke it down into quarters and popped two or three quilts to work on or finish into each quarter. If I actually follow the plan then I'll triple my output compared to last year (just 2.5 quilts). But I'm still not sure how good my attention span actually is, so we'll all see together!

On my short-term temporary design wall, that's been up for 7 months.

I wasn't sure if I'd hold myself up against a to-do list on the blog. But my compromise is that it's a short to-do list, and it's totally on me whether or not I get berated for sticking to it or floating off down a separate alley of making. I make this fun, or not :) Then Adrianne at On the Windy Side was hosting the FAL 2015 and it all seemed providential!

So here they are, my quilts in progress this quarter:

The Texas Quilt.

This has one final block needed before I can finish the top. The big problem will be the back of the quilt which is supposed to be a lonestar, but that already went wrong, so it's going to be a recovered lonestar. I have all the pieces, I just have to get through the unpicking and perfecting of the 60° piecing!

Neon Quilt

This quilt is currently a pile of fabric that I specifically bought for a self-drafted pattern more than a year ago. This will be my first applique quilt, something I'm planning on being a bit of a theme this year. I want to level up my applique skills and learn what I can. This is the start - I'm hoping it will be the most straightforward of the quilts I have planned in this vein.

The top shouldn't take that long to put together, but I'm still not sure if I'll manage to get beyond top stage this quarter. So I'll be happy to get that far, and anything more is pure bonus!

Staring at me from my sewing table

Now, there should have been another picture post from the IQF 2014 yesterday but there wasn't. It's partly written and the pictures are ready. I've just been flattened this week by some sort of cold/flu thing (I'm currently thanking the flu shot that I haven't been completely knocked sideways). Hopefully I'll have the post up so we can ogle the pretties by the end of weekend! Have a good one, x

Instruction Reading Fail

I had a splendiferous idea last week. I'd make a two-sided quilt to represent the places we've lived in America so far. Obviously, having just moved to Texas, the Lonestar was the first choice.

I already had a tutorial pinned. Janice at Better Off Thread has also set out tables for making 8 different sizes  of Lonestar (with 9-piece or 36-piece panels) depending on your current level of insanity!

I am going to point out upfront that her tutorials and measurements are all excellent, well written, well-pictured (not a phrase, I know), and just generally spiffing. My attention span is the exact opposite of all of those things.

I got enthused when I realised I had those WOF Amy Butler strips lying around, and that there were more than nine of them so I could totally make the easier Lonestar. Yay! There were pretty pictures, motivation to stay up after waking ridiculously early on a Sunday morning, just to start cutting and sewing. I hate cutting. Basically, I was quite excited.

Early morning instagramming...

Everything went swimmingly, right up until I had to cut my groups of three fabric strips (now sewn together). They needed to be cut at a 45° angle and with a spacing equal to the original width of the strips (3"). Sounds straight forward, right!?

That's what I thought. I dutifully went along and marked every 3" on either side of my strips. I lined my ruler up with the marks, and the 45° ruler line with the seams. I cut merrily, until I had 8 from each group, 28 lovely strips for me to admire.

I had already figured out how I wanted the fabrics to rotate when sewn together, so I could have just ploughed ahead at this point, sewing three strips together to make the 9-diamond panels. But I thought I should lay it out, just to make sure I got everything the right way around, and a picture to refer to should it all get hairy during the sewing.

I spent the next two hours, alternating between sitting on the floor looking at the strips, scratching my head, and reminding myself of a toddler trying to fit a round block into the square hole. I'd take a break. Watch some telly, think 'oh, maybe if I rotate it this way' - no, no that didn't work. Back to the internet - maybe the tutorial's wrong or it left something out (it didn't, but I looked at other tutorials to make sure). 'Ooh, maybe if I place them in horizontal rows instead of vertical' - nope.

Uhhhhh.........

'Ok, sit down and read each line of the tutorial and look at ALL the pictures'. Oh shit. Yep, that's the one, right there. At that point, two hours in, pieces all over the floor, sitting beside them, I nearly cried. Somehow, I didn't. I'm not sure why not, but instead the spirit of selfish sewing, and 'sure, you might as well find some way to put them together, they're still pretty' came over me.

They're still on the floor, but now they look like this.

Not right, but pretty!

I should point out, that I noticed last night while I explained to Paul all the ways it was broken that the panels on either side of East are wrong. All fixed now, but no picture yet.

Anyway, yeah, there aren't supposed to be those offsets between each point and the next panel. I kind of like it, in that there's a sort of pinwheel-esque movement (reaching, I know).

After coming up with a couple of different potential fixes, I have found my Make It Work fix. I will be cutting 8 more slimmer pieces from the leftover strips, in order to fill those gaps. It's going to make this look a little crazy, but I think that maybe the busy-ness of the fabrics will pull it all together. Then I shall proceed as per the tutorial, consulted properly and multiple times in future, to sash it in a solid, before surrounding it in a cream (I think).

Hopefully, the upcoming DC side of this won't be as torturous. Still though, I'll never forget how to piece a Lonestar :)

PS something was clearly wrong with our karma yesterday, after I did the above, I then made a sleeve for my phone that would be more suited to being a purse (massively huge), and then we somehow ruined our Shrove Tuesday pancakes...

But it's ok, we're going for Pancakes Mark II tonight!