Bitty Block Rows, Complete!

I'm thinking about a 3" border and maybe the checkerboard border QM suggests in one layout.... Or maybe just the white 3" border.  sigh.  If my rows weren't slightly wonky I wouldn't do one, but I want it to finish up square in the end.

I really love how it came together.  Also, I started this quilt on my (new to me) Featherweight back in January and tonight I finished the final row on my Featherweight.  I love that machine (I'm sure I've said that many times already!).

Now to get this finished up, but likely that won't happen until 2016.

A little bit of this and that

 Today I spent most of the day cleaning up my closet.  It has become a place to stuff fabrics and other things.  It got to the point where I couldn't see what I had on hand, which is very frustrating.  This is one of those projects that I really have to work up to before diving in.  Today was the day.  It started when I wanted to gather up fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's mystery that starts at the end of the month.  I knew I had the reds, but I couldn't get to them... And now I am 90% organized and I have my fabrics for the mystery ready to go.  I haven't decided yet which gray to use.  I think the lighter version will be too light and will blend with the background too much.


I'm all caught up with my Bitty Blocks, now I wait for December to roll out.  I was first planning to make the tree blocks by regular piecing... well either I have lost a triangle ruler or I never had one that size, but I could not get the angle correct.  I bit the bullet and paper pieced the 20 trees today.  I don't mind paper piecing, but I don't enjoy it as much.  For the log cabins I finished last week, I just pieced them as normal vs paper piecing.  It was a little tricky being sure I had the right size and seam allowance, but they turned out great.


And altogether now..... :)


After cleaning out my closet today, I decided that I cannot make any new fabric purchases.  Or maybe I'll change that to whim purchases.  I have so much fabric and I doubt I'd use it all up in my lifetime, I need to use it!  I'd like to start making more charity quilts, but I haven't lit that fire yet.  I need to start looking around for various requirements for the different charities.  I think I'd like to look for something that focuses on foster kids or something with children in general.  We'll see what 2016 brings.

Bitty Blocks

I am almost caught up with my Bitty Blocks.  I have October left to do and I have already started cutting for it.  Maybe tomorrow I will have all available 11 months complete.  For the picture I put them in order (except for November, I didn't want to leave a placeholder space for October).  I like how they look together--reminds me a little of a Nordic sweater. 3 and 4" blocks:


BTW, yes, I did purposely turn around some blocks... I was irritated after reading about a friend who was publicly called out for missing a point on a block, and this is my way of saying--who cares? Enjoy the process because if you don't then the joy is missing.  Quilting then becomes a chore and that's really the last thing I want to do in my creative endeavors.

And because I cannot get enough of this goofball...











Loki is now a year old, and one huge cat!  His size right now is very close to what the mama cat's size was.  He still likes to lay on his stomach in a "superman" pose with his back legs out, and when he collapses into a laying position he lets out a chirpy "oof" sound :)  Lately he's decided that he wants to be an outdoor cat and will race out the front door if given a slight window of opportunity.  Because the neighborhood coyotes are becoming more open about showing themselves, Loki will remain an indoor cat.

However, I did have a good laugh when I saw this coyote vest.  I wonder if I could make up something for Loki? LOL!

QM Bitty Blocks--Catch Up

The last two days I've been actually sewing. I gave my Juki a break and pulled out the featherweight... I sure love that little machine!  I haven't been doing a lot of sewing lately, but at this point I am now only four months behind in making my Bitty Blocks.  That's progress.  I also sewed my finished blocks into strips so little by little it's getting closer to being a quilt top.


This layout is in order as each monthly pattern came out.


And the blocks all sewn together, moving around the strips.

For the layout that QM suggests for this size, it requires 14 rows of blocks. I don't think I'm going to do that. I have already made up the flying geese as suggested (3 rows of 60), and I think I've decided I'm going to add 2" strips of white between each row to add to the length and some white space.  I'm not sure what I am going to do for the outside border, but QM suggested a checkerboard border.

QM April Bitty Blocks

I'm trying so hard to get my sewing mojo back, it has been difficult to do.  Ever since our last kiddo came into our family, my brain has been fried.  Finding the moments where I feel like creating have been fleeting, and I try and grab them whenever they come.  I'm not quite sure what is going on with me but I'm trying to rectify it.

The last two days I have been working on QM's Bitty Blocks for April.  I have 16 finished (just worked out that way when I was cutting), so for that extra block I may add it to other extra blocks for the quilt top.  Though the fabrics I am choosing are blue and white, I am thinking that for the flying geese rows (for the larger size quilts) I will make those blocks in a different color--maybe red or orange.






I did order backing fabric for an engagement/wedding quilt for our oldest son... one step closer to quilting it up!  I started it a year ago :)   I am seriously considering sending it out to a longarm quilter, but I haven't decided yet.  After I get the backing fabric, I will then decide.

Oh!  I forgot to write in my last blog post about finally using up all the bobbin thread that came with my featherweight.  That last bobbin had 6 different kinds of thread on it!  Just when I thought I finally used it all up, bam!  Another color of thread was wound on it.  So now at this point I am finally using the same top/bobbin thread.

And one more update:  Even though my sewing mojo is lacking, I have been sewing on the hexagons.  I only have five more flower garden blocks left before I start on the background.  I think I have that part figured out, but we'll see what I commit to.

WORLDWIDE Quilting Day

edit:  I had to change the title to worldwide instead of national. Oops! :)
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And I actually did some quilting!  I'm on a roll with sewing for three days in a row this week.

Today I worked on March's QM Bitty Blocks.  I'm really glad it was a simple block after the basket blocks, I was able to finish them within a couple of hours.  Before working on them, I went back to double check the various suggested layouts.  I think I am going to go with the 66x75" suggested size which means now I know for certain how many blocks to make.  At this point I have five extra basket blocks, but maybe I can work them in somewhere.


All ready to sew. I decided to do the no-waste method for flying geese. I think I prefer to do that on my Juki because I have an extended table, the blocks to be sewn can then lay flat while I am sewing. I'm glad to not have lost any placement squares in the process, they stuck pretty well.





I love the open toe 1/4" foot. I don't really like the regular 1/4" feet because I would have to change it more often when sewing pieces like the flying geese above (since the outside part of the foot hangs down). I just received the foot yesterday from April1930's, I have been looking forward to trying this foot for over a month but they were out of stock until this week.  (btw, yes, I did match up the edges after taking the picture :) ).  I am also planning to polish up the featherweight to get a nice shine.  Kevin laughs at me when I talk about it, I think it seems silly too, but the polished up machines look so nice :)


Finished. I should probably trim the dog ears...

Finally, last night I hemmed a couple of pairs of pants for Kevin. I knew the featherweight came with an adjustable hemmer, but I decided it would be best to practice first on something other than his pants. I hemmed them my normal two-step way on my Juki (rolled hem and then pinned and measured for the correct length to sew again). If I could figure out the adjustable hemmer, I could eliminate having to do a rolled hem first since it does it all together.

I had to pull up youtube to try to figure it out. The manual was ok with the instructions, but I am a visual learner. I couldn't get the edge to continue with the rolled hem, that tiny hook was pretty hit and miss. I took the foot off to see exactly how it looks when it is working as it should, which if I put it back on the machine with that slight start, I could keep it going for the most part. I think the rolled hook part should be longer or more pronounced in order for it to work better. I finally gave up after many attempts with strips of fabric. I'm really glad I didn't practice on Kevin's pants! Now, if I didn't mind an unfinished edge, it did make a nice and even hem. I think I am going to stick with my tried and true method with the Juki's foot.

I also pulled out the binding foot.  I think you are suppose to use pre-made bias binding, I had a hard time keeping it even with my strips.

Between the hemmer and the binding feet, I thought about the episode of the The Great British Sewing Bee when the contestants had to sew on featherweights.  I think only one of the contestants used the adjustable hemmer.  Kudos to him!  If the video doesn't show up on the blog post, here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN3BOkfHixs  I'm not sure why the video is so small in the screen.  I wonder if it can be watched at the BBC site.

That's about it for today.  Next up is to watch a movie and sew another flower garden block.  I am down to only 11 more to go.  So close to my 75 GFG goal for this quilt!

February QM Bitty Blocks

Wow!  It's been a while.  Between life in general and a recurrence of illness, the last thing I have really wanted to do was.... anything.  It's been rough!  And I know a lot of people have had this same thing.  I think I am almost done shaking off the coughing and sinus infection, but now we are rounding into allergy season so telling the difference between the two isn't so easy--but I am feeling much better.  Hot water with lemon and honey is so soothing!  I am still drinking it daily but I need to cut back on it and just do straight water.  But it really helps when that tickle in the throat occurs.

Today I played catch up on my Bitty Blocks.  I already had all my half square triangles made, I just hadn't sewn any full blocks yet.  Today I decided to give the featherweight a go....




and now I have ten blocks finished (still had two on the machine as I was taking pics):



The little 4" blocks are very cute I will admit.  Now I wonder if I can get March's blocks finished before the 31st.  Since that one is an easier one, I may, plus now that I am feeling much better I have the desire to do something other than nothing :)

QM Bitty Blocks

I found out that Quiltmaker is doing a Bitty Blocks block of the month this year (January).  I decided this would be a great way to get comfortable with my featherweight.  This morning I whipped up the 16 blocks needed, bow ties.  I am thinking that this quilt is going to be a blue and white quilt, but I may change my mind as I go.  They will measure 3" when finished.



Playing with a couple of designs that are possible with the bow tie block...


I'm pretty sure that these need to be sewn into one row, but I'll wait to figure out which way I want them to go.

I think I decided that my FW should be named Josephine.  After all, her name is already on the case :)