Flying Geese

^{I’ve been making flying geese (FG) every chance I get. I thought I had enough and starting sewing them together for the sashing on my 4” stars. With Jo Morton’s method you get four of the same FG unit with each set of squares. She suggested separating them into four piles and using a pile of FG for each quadrant of the quilt. It’s an easy way to vary your geese. I finished sewing together one pile of FG and counted to see if I had enough. No. I redid my math and realized I need 192 more geese! It's back to the cutting mat.}

^{I’ve been hand quilting in the afternoons. It is amazing to me how quickly it goes just by doing a little each day. I’m about a quarter of the way done with this quilt. You may not remember I took out some of the hand quilting because the back was puckering. It started to happen again and I was determined not to have to pick out any more stitching. I super basted that one section using bits of leftover thread on the needles in my needle case, hand quilted it and I’m happy with the result. I also found the direction I quilted in made a big difference. Next time I have a hand quilting project I will do a better job of basting.}

^{Many of us on the east coast of the U.S. are expecting a wicked storm early next week. The pantry is stocked, gutters will be cleared and things on the porch contained today. Let’s hope it packs less of a punch than expected.}

^{Here are a few dog pics. You can tell I'd rather be stitching than doing yard work.}

^Len

 Duke

^Penny

^{Penny just turned 15 years old. If you are holding a camera, she will NOT look at you. I think it is because she doesn't like the flash.}

WIPs

I really appreciate all your encouraging words and suggestions on my challenge quilt. I hope to get back to it soon, but in the meantime I decided to keep working on this quilt.

I started it in a Jo Morton class last spring. When I put it away because of other projects I hoped I’d have time in the fall to pull it out again. I just love these 4” stars and I like the method Jo showed us to make the flying geese. You can see her method here.

It’s been a while since I showed my hexagons. I stitched a lot on these over the summer.

I found this on the Herring Run Quilter’s Guild website-

Fun Quilting Abbreviations:

NESY: not even started yet

FQ: fat quarter

LQS: local quilt shop

FART: fabric acquisition road trip

FIU: finish it up

HSY: haven’t started yet

OBW: one block wonder

PIGS: projects in grocery sacks

PIPS: projects in process

SABLE: stash accumulation beyond life expectancy

SEX: stash enhancement expedition

UFO: unfinished object

USO: unstarted object

VIP: very important project

WHIMM: works hidden in my mind

WIP: work in progress

WIWMI: wish it would make itself

WOMBAT: waste of money, batting and time

WWIT: what was I thinking

WISP: work in slow progress

WIVSP: work in very slow progress

A few weeks ago I bought this African violet at Home Depot. I haven’t had houseplants in ages. These blooms have faded and new ones seem to be sprouting even though I haven’t gotten the African violet food the label says it needs. I hope I can keep this little guy alive. So far it seems to like the filtered light in my living room.

I'm off to go work on a WIP.

Challenged

Thanks so much to all of you who commented on my last post. I replaced the sand in the pincushions with crushed walnuts and they are working out fine. I didn't find my wool batt scraps until later so I plan to try them in the future and will keep an eye out for wool roving.

This red and white challenge is..well..challenging me. This was an exchange among last years quilt show committee. When we did the final exchange we were challenged to make a quilt for the show next year. Each side is limited to 40 inches. The blocks are 6 1/2 inces. I"ve never really done a challenge like this. I've done chapter challenges, but there wasn't the same pressure. If I didn't get it done in time for the big reveal at the end of the year it was no big deal. There are 18 participants and 18 blocks so there "should" be 18 quilts in the show.

My idea was an ocean waves setting. I'm glad I realized fairly early on the problem with the red fabric making up part of the side of a block which is the case for 6 of the blocks. The basket on the top left looks okay, but the bowtie to the right and below looks off. I actually wanted the bowtie horizontal, but made a piecing error. It doesn't matter because I don't like the red in the sashing touching so much red in the block. I realized this toward the end of the evening last night so I just started playing around with the hsts. They flying geese sashing on the left is too busy and I don't much care for the hst border to the right of the maple leaf. Then I just started playing with the hsts making little quilts on the right. No sewing just playing. Today I looked through some quilt books for inspiration. Nothing inspired. This evening I decided to put a 1 inch strip around a block to see if that would work. See the bottom right pinwheel block. What do you think? At first I didn't like it. I think my problem is all the different blocks. I was thinking, too, that I could just sew the blocks together without any sashing and do a big zigzag border. I'm going to put this aside for a while and play with another project. Being challenged like this brought to mind a comment my friend Judy made as she shared her challenge quilt last year. "I find life challenging enough".