I haven’t done too much sewing this week. I did manage to sew all but one of the A block rows on my black, white and pink Interweave quilt. Tonight I hit my sewing room and sewed together the first row of the B blocks and got it all pressed.
Then I got ready to sew this row to the A row that comes next to it in the quilt top.
So the first two rows of the quilt are now done. I think there is a total of nine rows.
I love it when blocks come together. They are always a little chaotic on the design wall. But when they are sewn together they start to sing!
And you know, I’m not someone who really enjoys quilting with a lot of pieces that require significant precision. But I do like it when my corners match nicely!
Here’s the Interweave pattern I’m using, since a few people have asked me for it. You can find it with a google search.
That’s it for sewing tonight. But before I called it quits I wound five bobbins for my Featherweight.
I always wind a few bobbins at a time. i like being able to just drop in a new bobbin and keep sewing. These will keep me sewing for quite a while.
I’m down to 20 days to go until I’m retired. I can’t believe it’s finally here! I’m so glad I will be retired when Christmas rolls around this week. My birthday is Tuesday, and that will be the big milestone that makes retirement a reality!
I’m going to spend Thanksgiving with a group of friends that I’ve had Thanksgiving with for the last ten years or so. I’m always responsible for mashed potatoes and cranberries, and then I make the gravy once the turkey comes out of the oven. I make really good turkey gravy!
I’m playing pickleball after work tomorrow night and will stop and do my grocery shopping on the way home. It’s a short list!
I finally had some time yesterday to run out and pick up my Bernina from the service shop. They replaced the tension mechanism and put in a new bobbin case. They happily told me that all the tension issues they were concerned about when I had it in a couple weeks ago have been alleviated. That news makes me happy.
However, it didn’t arrive home until it was too late to finish my bag for a party on Friday afternoon. So I thought about what I could do instead and thought… if anyone in the world deserves a quilt as a gift it’s my co-worker who has now left. I hired her nearly 13 years ago and we’ve worked together that entire time.
So I dug into my closet and selected a quilt to give to her. I was a little worried because, as you know, the stuff I make can be pretty bold. But I took a chance and selected a really bold one for her.
I will still finish the bag and gift it to her, but now I don’t have to be in an insane hurry.
With that pressure off, I spent some time a couple evenings last week and started cutting the fabrics for my black and white Interweave quilt. I managed to get all the main fabrics cut on Friday night.
Yesterday I dug into my white on white fabric bins and seleced the only piece that was big enough, but I would have selected it anyway even if I had more choices. It’s white on white with a lovely delicate leaf and vine pattern.
I’m not a huge fan of stark white background fabric in quilts. The color of this is certainly white, but the white on white design gives it some interest and texture. That makes me like it better.
Several years ago I did some small project where I used some white on white as a background, and thought I would do a lot more of that project so went online and bought 10 or so one yard pieces of different white on white fabrics. I’m not sure I’ve every used any of it beyond that first project! This is the story of my life!
I managed to make the strip sets that are needed for the blocks and got them all sub cut after breakfast. (I was supposed to play pickleball this morning but it was quite rainy so hunkered down at home all day instead.).
After lunch I dove in and started putting all the pieces up on my design wall. There are basically two types of blocks in this quilt, and each type makes up one of two horizontal rows that make up the quilt. But it’s important to me to have it all up on the design wall before I start sewing it all together because I want to make sure I have all the fabrics in the right order and everything in the right place.
I have seen a few of these quilts online that have mistakes in them that mess up the weave pattern. It would make me nuts if I had a mistake in this quilt top!
I had all my different pieces organized on the ironing board and cutting table, and with pattern instructions handy…
… I did get it all up on the design wall in two different sessions.
Of course, it’s always fun to get a little closer look at the fabrics.
And even closer!
I’ll start doing some sewing on this if I have some time this week.
Back to work tomorrow. I now officially have less than a month to go! It’s so hard to believe I’m this close!
I finished the Australian Aboriginal fabric string blocks last week. I had them all up on my portable design wall just to see what they looked like.
the main part of the quilt top will be six blocks 7 blocks. then I’ll add a couple of borders to get it up to size. I tried a few fabrics and landed on this combo… a smaller inner border of the yellow that is used in the center of each block with this purplish fabric that is one of my absolute favorites.
Love the way it plays with the yellow center strips! It feels pretty perfect!
I felt the urge to start something new and didn’t want to force myself to finish the strings top first. So I pulled all the locks off the wall and packed them up with the border fabrics and I’ll deal with it all later.
A co-worker of mine, a woman I hired almost 13 years ago and has been in the trenches with me all that time, is leaving the organization for an amazing job. It really makes me sad that she’s leaving, but I’m really happy for her and this opportunity for such a large and well known organization.
I wanted to make her a Frankenbag as a going away gift. I selected a group of fabrics that are similar to one of my favorite bags I’ve ever made.
I got cutting and had a plan in mind. I was nearly done with the first panel and started having all kinds of tension issues with my Bernini. I changed my needle. I retreaded the machine several times. I took the bobbin out and put it back in the case several times.
I got my machine back a week or so ago. I hadn’t sewn on it until this weekend. the tech told me that he was seeing some tension issues in the stitch and said it might be necessary to replace th tension assembly and the bobbin case. So I called him and had the machine back in the shop in a couple hours. He called me today to let me know that with the new parts the machine is making gorgeous stitches with absolutely no tension issues.
So that meant that my plans to finish up this bag this weekend were scuttled. I did finish both panels on my Featherweight yesterday.
then this afternoon I made the quilt sandwiches for the panels so they are ready to quilt once I have my machine back.
I also cut all the lining, pocket and zipper placket pieces and got them fused to the interfacing.
Not sure when I’m going to have time to go and pick up my machine. I have to deal with some traffic to get there and back.
Since I had a bit of an urge to do something in my sewing room I decided on the accent fabrics I’m going to use for my Interweave quilt with all the black and white fabrics and got them all pressed and cut today.
I still need to press and cut all the black and white fabrics and I need to dig into my stash decide on a white background fabric.
I took Thursday and Friday off work since I still have some vacation days that I’ve decided to use up before retirement on December 12. Holy cow!!! As of Wednesday, that’s just a month away!!! I can hardly believe it.
I played a lot of pickleball while I’ve been off. Had some really good sessions and it was a great way to spend some days off.
I finally got my butt out and bought a new car almost a month ago. It’s just a newer version of the car I had. I really like it so far but I’m not quite used to it yet.
If it was just me I wouldn’t ned this much car. But with the dogs I need a sufficient cargo space. My old car worked really well for me and I’m sure this one will too.
It’s been a really beautiful fall her in Portland. The colors have been fantastic! Here’s my yard a couple weeks ago.
And my favorite little October Glory red maple has nearly lost all its leaves.
These little Japanese maple leaves are so gorgeous! I have two of these trees in pots on my patio. I picked them up a few summers ago in front of a neighbor’s house. I’m planning on planting them in the spring.
the dogs are doing well. Rico had a sheep herding lesson on Saturday. the first he’s had in over a month. He was so happy to be out there again!
Bender is getting harder and harder to wake up and to come in from the yard. His sight has gotten bad and he can’t hear much. But he’s still out there and still wants to go for our walks. And his appetite is intact.
He did manage to get himself completely stuck in a barstool while I was playing pickleball today. He was in this position when I got home. I have not idea how long he was like this.
I’m having to lift him onto the bed every night. It’s been a month or so since he could jump up there himself. But he usually sleeps nicely trough the night.
These boys are usually good about leaving me enough space on the bed. Rico rarely sleeps on the bed at night. He gets up for a snuggle every morning.
I’m getting more and more antsy about retiring! It’s so hard to believe that it’s so close!
agilejack 