Springtime on Easy Street - A Sneak Peek!

I went ahead and put a couple of the rows together tonight.  I just couldn't figure out what it was going to look like!  Even though I've seen pictures of lots of other people's completed Easy Street quilts, I've just been so curious to see how my color choices would "play" together, and how the on-point assembly would go together.  I've never done a quilt on-point before, it's not nearly as difficult as I was afraid it would be.  As long as I double check everything...  I'm very happy with this so far!  Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to finish putting it all together.


Yes, that's my husband laying there, playing his video games!  His recovery is - finally - going well.  The orange flannel quilt he's laying under is one I made him for his birthday.

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 8, Block A

Whoohooo!!!  I finished all 16 blocks!  They're not perfect - seams don't always match up, and points sometimes got cut off, but every component of this quilt is DONE!  And once it's finished, it will be beautiful!  I can't wait to get it all assembled!!  (Too many exclamation points? Never!!)

First off, the central 9-patch blocks:

Next, with the left and right wings:

And last, but not least, top and bottom rows added to make the completed block:

On to assembly!

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 8, Block B

I finally decided what I wanted to do with bordering this top (when it's finished...), so Saturday morning I double-checked the fabric I had remaining, and went to Hancock Fabrics.  I'm going with a purple 1" finished inner border, and a 3" finished outer border and the binding in grey.  I didn't have enough of a purple for the inner border, and was a little short of the grey as well.  Once I got to the store, I discovered that they were having a sale - 50% off notions!  Most of the cotton fabrics were marked down as well, so I ended up spending more than I had planned, but got more needles for my machine, more pins, lots of thread, a circle template, both border fabrics, and backing for the quilt.  I found a steel grey fabric with white, cream, and lighter grey swirls running through it, a nice medium-sized print with plenty of movement that coordinates with the binding and won't show my quilting too obviously.

After I got home, I cut and sewed and pressed the border strips and the binding, so they'll be all ready to go when I finish the top.  Then I started in on the block B units.  I decided that, since I only needed to make 9 of them, I would get them finished first, and save the block A units for last (since there are 16 of those).  I started with the center 9-patch:

Then I moved on and added the right and left "wings":

At that point, it was after midnight, so I went to bed.  The next day, however, I was able to sit down for an hour or so and add the top and bottom rows, finishing out the B blocks:

I don't think I've ever made blocks this large!  Mine usually finish at 9.5" or 12.5".  I'm not entirely sure how to best square them up...  I think I've gotten spoiled by my 12.5" square.


 I'm really, really excited about the progress I've made this past week, and I'm really looking forward to finishing the piecing on this top.  I've got the quilting pattern all picked out, and I'm ready to be snuggled up under this quit in the very near future!

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 7!

Today I worked on Part 7, and was so excited to get to begin putting all of the pieces together and see how my quilt would turn out.  I've seen lots of completed tops made by other people, but I haven't come across one with my color choices, so I've had trouble visualizing exactly how it will look.

Before I could start working on the corner and setting triangles, though, I added the remaining bricks to the leftover cream/purple flying geese.

 Then, it was on to the really fun stuff!  First, the four corner triangles.

Then, the 12 setting triangles!

It feels like an awful lot of green right now, so I'm really looking forward to making the center blocks and assembling the top.  I'm also considering my options for a border.  First, do I want one?  I think that I do.  For one thing, it will make the quilting easier.  For another, I'm not sure I want it to be so green around the edges...  I'm thinking of a narrow inner border (maybe finished at 1"?) with a purple batik, and a larger (~3") outer border of the grey, if I have enough of it to do that, and still bind the quilt...  At least I have plenty of time to decide.  For now, though, I'm just excited that the end is in sight!

Springtime on Easy Street - Parts 4-6

I've finally begun working on my quilt again!  My husband is recovering from surgery, and is pretty much confined to the bed or the recliner for several days.  In order to keep him from going crazy, he's playing video games or sleeping through MythBusters on Netflix.  So not only is the tv tied up, but he's crashed in my favorite chair!  And with my favorite quilt...  I decided that I needed a "me" project.  I've made some great progress on gift projects and don't feel guilty about taking some time out to work on a UFO of my own.

So yesterday I pulled out the box with my Springtime on Easy Street quilt in it, and organized everything.  I had put all of the steps - completed and in progress - into individual ziplock bags, but I hadn't labelled anything.  After a half hour or so of counting units, reading back through the clues, labeling the bags, I realized that I had a lot more done than I remembered!  And after a power-sewing marathon yesterday, I had completely finished steps 4 through 6!

For Part 4, I had finished about 1/3 of the pink and purple flying geese, and had already cut the green squares.  I completed the geese and sewed them to the cream/purple geese and was done with this step.

Part 5 was even easier - all of my "Sitting Turkey" blocks were done!

I hadn't begun any of Part 6, so I made the green half square triangles...

...and assembled the brick blocks. I couldn't believe how much progress I made in just one day!  I'm so glad that I pulled this out again.

Oh, and here's a look at my box with all of the parts in individual (labelled!) bags -

A Surprise for Mom!

 Over a year ago, I absconded with scraps left over from a quilt top Mom had pieced.  I didn't exactly sneak them out of the house - she gave them to me, but I didn't tell her what they were for.  I had found a stunning pattern for a throw pillow that I though would be perfect for her, to accent the quilt.  It was a paper-piecing pattern - the Star Flower Pillow from Moda's Bake Shop - and I started in on it right away.

I hadn't done any paper piecing for a long time, but convinced myself that, since everyone was doing it, it couldn't be too difficult...  After fighting with it and struggling over it for about four days (it literally had blood, sweat and tears in it!) and completing less than half of the 20" pillow top, I dubbed it the "pillow from hell" and relegated it to a UFO bin.  I almost threw it out, it was so frustrating.

I have felt guilty, off and on, about that pillow.  It's called to me, mocked me, and insulted me over the past year.  I would see it, every now and then, while getting fabric for other things, or digging for scraps.  I kept telling myself that I'm an intelligent, adult woman who should not be defeated by a pile of fabric and paper!  And yet, I just couldn't bring myself to try it again.

Then, while working on my Craftsy 2012 block of the month sampler quilt (yes, I'm way behind!), I watched Amy Butler's video for her paper pieced blocks.  A light bulb came on.  After using her techniques to make the sampler quilt blocks, I couldn't believe how simple and error-proof the paper piecing was.  I finally felt like I would be able to master the pillow for Mom.  I pulled the pillow out of my UFO bin, and in one afternoon had completed the entire thing.  No kidding.  One calm, relaxed, no-stress afternoon.  No blood, no sweat, no tears.

I actually enjoyed it.  I did have to take apart a little bit of what I had already done, but not much.  The next day I quilted it and finished the pillow, using this tutorial from Sew4Home to make an envelope-style back, so the cover is removable and washable.  This ended up being such a fun, successful project.  I have finally conquered paper-piecing, and completed a project that I thought would never be right.  The finished product is gorgeous.  I almost didn't want to give it away...  But I already have plans to make another one!

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 6

Here we are already -- the final steps completed, the finished quilt revealed. Was anyone else surprised at how complex-looking Easy Street is? I was expecting a much simpler arrangement of the pieces. Instead we get an intricate and fascinating design. I'm pleased; I hope everyone else it, too. I'm so glad Betsy kept pushing me to do this with her.

I'll admit I made some mistakes, especially mis-cutting fabrics, along the way, and they caused me to run short of some colors. Then when I saw the final layout I realized I'd want to control the arrangement of my blue fabrics, since I had so few of them, rather than try to make them appear random, so I've done a little tweaking of fabric layout. But those choices that a quilter makes as they go along are part of the fun, aren't they?

I'm using one blue for all the Block B squares.

It's been too long since math in school; I don't remember how to calculate how many wrong ways there are to piece 25 squares into one block. But I assure you I almost found out the first time I tried to put Block A together! I had it all laid out next to my machine, carefully picked up and matched two squares, then stitched them one after another. Then I clipped them, put them back in their place, and began again, sewing the rows together. Should have been pretty fool proof, right? Well, I think the problem was I didn't have a firm picture in my head of how the block worked. I got the rows pieced without too much trouble, but then I tried to put the first row together. First I stitched the wrong ends of the row. After I took that long seam out, I joined the other seam, only to discover I'd turned one piece the wrong direction. All in all I sewed that seam four times before I had it right.

My first block.

The rest of the seams weren't a lot better. It took me 2 and 1/2 hours to sew one block! That was enough for that day, I took a break and did some knitting. Struggling so much with one block left me feeling a little stupid, but turning the heel on a sock always seems like magic and I felt quite clever again. :)


After the first block fiasco I rethought my strategy. It seemed to me I'd do better joining the inner nine squares first, then attaching the strips on the sides, finishing with the top and bottom rows. It's easier for me to visualize and I made fewer mistakes, so I've been doing it that way since. I'm now down to about 30 minutes of sewing per block, if I'm really focused and accurate. Some of them still take up to 2 hours, though. I've also been laying out several of one block ahead of time on anything big and sturdy enough to hold them, so I don't have to stop sewing to figure out the layout each time I'm ready for a new square.

Once I had my squares up on the design wall in my sewing room I realized there were some mistakes, so I spent part of one evening taking out and resewing seams.

 I may leave one of my incorrect blocks as is though, in honor of the tradition of deliberately including an error, to show you know you're not perfect, like God. To tell the truth I've never felt even close to perfect, and I'm pretty sure God's never worried that I'm approaching His record too closely, either. But I'll have to take out a lot of seams to fix that particular mistake, and I'm not sure it's worth it.

Proof that I'm not perfect.

I love the way my fabrics are looking together. Spreading them out on the sofa so I can admire them keeps me motivated to sew more. My goal is to make one a day. Some days I get on a roll and make more, but as long as I do one I'll be finished in less than a month - which I think is pretty good for such a big, complicated, top. This is by far the most complex large quilt I've ever made. It's one thing to know intellectually that any design can be broken into small pieces and finished step by step. It's another thing to actually do it that way. I feel somehow empowered to take on more complex projects, thanks to Bonnie and this mystery quilt.

Easy Street on my Design wall as of Jan. 13.
I can't seem to get the greens to show up in the photo, but they do in person.

I've learned some things about myself while making Easy Street. I've learned that I don't really enjoy some of the faster quilting methods that others use. I don't like cutting out dozens of strips of one fabric, making perhaps hundreds of one shape and then another, efficient though it may be. I seem to have trouble staying focused and after a while I make sloppy, silly mistakes. What I do enjoy is cutting a few pieces, assembling them and then checking their accuracy before cutting and sewing more. I make fewer mistakes and I like visualizing the process and knowing that every piece is correct.  Since I don't have the pressure of needing to finish a quilt quickly, I've decided that next time I won't let myself feel rushed by those early finishers, but will try to take the time I need to make sure I'm being more accurate and really having fun with it. I did, however, appreciate the freedom from "over planning" a quilt. Every fabric doesn't have to be perfect, carefully selected and visualized, to have lovely results. And sharing the process with Betsy, and so many others, made it very special. All in all it was a great experience.  I think it's too bad we have to wait an entire year to do it again, don't you?

I'll be machine quilting my finished top -- another first for me, as I've only machine quilted a few small things before. But I can't afford to pay someone to finish this, and Betsy has one of her own to do, so this will be an opportunity for me to learn something new. Feel free to come back to this blog for more looks at the final product. Just click on the Easy Street tab above.

Look at over 200 fascinating versions of this Mystery Quilt here : Easy Street's Final Link-Up

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 2

I'd mentioned to Betsy that I was looking forward to working with some color this week, so I could see how my fabrics would look cut apart and sewn with the others. It turns out this week's color is... Purple! My color choices are quite different from Bonnie's, but her purple is my plum, so that makes this step extra clear. I only have one fabric for this color, which I think officially makes it a "Controlled Scrap" quilt. I would have been happy to use more fabrics, but between our two fabric stores and my stash I couldn't come up with another piece that matched enough for me, so it's all plum, all the way. That's OK, I really like this one, which is a companion piece from the same line as my inspiration fabric. (I didn't necessarily plan on having an inspiration fabric. I just saw it, fell in love, and said, "I want a quilt that looks like that." Voile, an inspiration fabric is born!)

Inspiration Fabric on Left, Fabric Used in Quilt on Right

If my calculations are correct I need 11-13 plum WOF strips 2" wide, depending on the actual WOF. (Ended up needing 10.) And I need just a tad over 26 24" strips of background, since most of these pieces are fat quarters. Will check with Betsy to see if her math agrees with mine. Since I don't have a cutting surface tall enough to cut fabric really comfortably I'll be splitting that step up. Otherwise, back trouble will plague me all day.

Got the strips cut with no problem. I appreciated Bonnie's heads-up for next week so we could at least cut the background strips while we had the fabrics out. It saved time, and I find there's often a bit of waste every time I have to pull a fabric out and prepare to cut from it again. I'm a bit nervous because I'm almost out of my white-on-whites now. If we need them again I may have to go shopping for a few more. (That would be a tragedy, wouldn't it? LOL) I haven't used these rulers before, but her video tutorial was clear and straightforward so I don't anticipate problems. I may have them, but at least I don't anticipate them.

After cutting out the plum triangles I realized my first mistake -- I'd made one and a half as many of those strips as I needed, and twice as many background strips, because I forgot to allow for the overlap you get when you use the triangle rulers to cut your shapes. It's a basic visualization mistake that I'm no too happy about. I'm afraid all those background strips will be wasted, and I'll definitely need more white-on-white fabric. Can't help wishing the directions came with an estimate of how much length you need to cut of the strips -- but it's my fault for not thinking clearly. At any rate, an hour with Jessica Fletcher and "Murder She Wrote" got almost all the triangles cut out.

A call from Betsy warned me to keep track of the smaller triangles so that a pair that is cut together is stitched into the same unit. Seems that makes the sewing more precise. I'll do my best to keep the sets organized and in order as I chain stitch them. I've never had great success getting flying geese sections into a quilt with all their points exactly right. I'm being as careful as I can, but I'm also trying to embrace the idea that quilts don't have to be perfect to be worth making. And I do like the way the plum fabric looks with the white-on-white background.

This post is part of Bonnie Hunter's Week Two linky: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html.

Sewing Room - Mom

My Sewing Room is a work in progress. Formerly the Master Bed Room, it's located just off the Living Room downstairs. After DH died I moved to one of the upstairs bedrooms, and I'm very happy there. So I recently decided to make better use of the MBR by turning it into a sewing room. I kept the soft sage green paint on the walls. The flooring is laminate tiles, ideal for sweeping up stray threads or finding dropped pins. We had added cabinets along one wall years ago, and they're perfect for storing quilting and sewing stuff.

The blocks hanging on the cabinet doors are part of an on-going series of sampler squares, where I try out new techniques or different features on my machine. Some day they may be a quilt. Right now I just love looking at them. Behind the doors on the left are my large pieces of fabric, some quilt books, and odds and ends that don't fit elsewhere. The drawers hold fabrics for particular quilts I haven't started yet, notions, hand sewing and embroidery needs, etc. The painting was done by my Grandmother, Vera Grutter, and is me as a child. The antique clock on the shelf was also hers, and the quilts piled below it were made by her and my other Grandmother, Louise Quiggle. So they are always with me when I sew, and that makes me very happy. The jars hold small scraps sorted by color. I love just looking at them and thinking about how I could use the colors. The storage on the right is ready to be rearranged to accommodate the yarns I've recently acquired for knitting and weaving.

Swinging left from the above picture you would see a tall, narrow window that isn't in the photo, and the new daybed. The door in the photo goes to the back deck, and the area in front of it is kind of my dumping ground for things I need to keep handy but haven't found a good place for yet.

The plastic bins store most of my fabric stash, lots of fat quarters. I cut on top of them. It's really too low, so I don't cut for long at one time, but I haven't decided how to arrange this part of the room better. I do like being able to move around three sides of my cutting table.

The daybed is new. One of my goals is to make a quilt and pillows for it this spring. Right now one end holds fabric and pieces for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, while Christmas presents are collecting on the other. I plan on mounting rods on the walls for quilts and weavings in the near future.

Opposite the daybed I have my design area -- wall-mounted flannel that I can stick fabrics and squares to. Hanging there now is my "Little House on the Prairie" Triangle quilt. It's waiting to for me to make the back, then sandwich, tie and finish it with prairie points. Or do I put the prairie points on next? I'm not sure, I'll have to think about this...

I made the chair cover out of fabric from my stash. I love the sky blue color with the green walls, it makes me feel like I'm sewing in my garden! Betsy made the sewing machine cover some years ago. When she loaned me her machine, it came along for the ride. I love having three generations of family in my room. The sewing machine table backs up to the ironing board, so as I sew I look toward my pretty shelves, Grandmothers' quilts and jars of fabric scraps.

Some people have their spaces arranged so they never have to leave their chairs. It works very well for them, but I really like being forced to walk around the room as my sewing progresses. It keeps me from getting too stiff. I also find good lighting is more important as I get older, and I have a floor lamp with a goose neck attachment behind my sewing chair.

So that's my Sewing Room so far. It's lovely to have the space, and I plan to continue to enjoy it. But I'll be honest -- if I could chose I'd rather have the house full of people and be sewing on the tiny folding table I used for years. Still, we don't always get to chose the path our lives take, we can only do the best with what we have, and my sewing room is one way I'm trying to do that.

A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 1

A couple of phone calls with Betsy the morning the first step was released established that we needed to cut twenty Width-of-Fabric strips in our mutual gray. Then, since most of our background fabrics are in fat quarters, we could cut the longer gray strips in half and match them with the lighter fabrics to piece. Clear as mud, right? My background fabrics are all white on white, Betsy's are cream. Both look great with the gray. I had two white-on-white fabrics that were 1/2 yard cuts. So I used them full length and for half of the strips. One is the stripe you can clearly see in the above picture upper right, the other is a more mottled and seen center square, lower left end. The rest of my strips came from my assorted fat quarters.
I'm not the world's most accurate quilter, so I took my time and carefully cut my fabrics strips. After sewing them together I pressed the seams flat, as I've read that helps to set them. I then proceeded to cut the strips into 2" pieces. After cutting 200, I suddenly realized I'd forgotten to go back and press the seams to one side. So I spent almost an hour ironing those little pieces open, seams pressed toward the gray end. :(
Despite that setback, I finished all my squares on Sunday. The corners meet nicely in the center, and on the back they swirl very prettily. 400 four-patches now reside, labelled, in a large baggie, waiting for the next big reveal. In the meantime, I think I'll go knit some socks...

This post is linked to Easy Street Monday Link-Up #1!

Springtime On Easy Street - Part 1

Even though this week's Easy Street step was pretty simple - 4 patches  - I actually learned a new technique!  I've heard about spinning seams, but had never attempted it before.  If I have a lot of bulk at intersecting seams, I usually just iron them open.  On Friday, though, I decided that this would be as good a time as any to see if I could manage to figure how to get the seams to spin.  To my surprise, it really wasn't that difficult, and it didn't take any more time than pressing all of the seams open would have.  All of my centers match up beautifully, and the backs of my units look great, too!

The "spun seams":

My 200 4 patches:

Now I'm off to work on Christmas presents!

This post has been linked to the Easy Street Monday Link-Up #1!

A Sophisticate on Easy Street -- Fabric Selections

This is my first time making one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts, so the entire process is a bit of a mystery to me. My daughter has been urging me to join her for several years, but I never felt organized enough, or de-stressed enough, to tackle it. Earlier this year she practically FORCED me to start sewing again, and it felt good. So I agreed to join the challenge, and here I am.
After brainstorming possible color combinations, we finally went fabric shopping. My only clear plan was to use fabrics from my stash. First we chose our fabric-in-common, a lovely gray that we both agreed we wouldn't normally pick. Then my stash busting plan took a left turn when I fell in love with a deep plum, teal and cream print. Dramatic and sophisticated, it required colors I couldn't be sure I had at home. So I bought fabric -- the all over inspiration print and a coordinating plum to start. The hunt began for suitable teals, which proved elusive. (Turns out I did have a few at home to mix in.)
Those of you making the quilt will realize that I needed a fourth color. Olive green seemed a good choice, and it was hard to find, too. I bought a large amount of one batik print, and added a couple of others from my stash. For the background we decided white-on-white prints were necessary to provide the proper pop of color.
In the end I had one gray for the constant, one plum, four teal and three olive fabrics. Not exactly the scrappy explosion I'd expected, but I'm quite happy with my colors and it will be fun to see how they interact as the quilt unfolds. Just to make things more confusing, I'm using my blues for Bonnie's greens and my greens for her blues -- got that? (I labelled them all and am counting on Betsy to keep me straight.)

Springtime on Easy Street - Fabric Selections

If you haven't already checked out Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt Easy Street, you really should!  I was undecided about my color choices for quite awhile.  While I love the purples and grey that Bonnie's using, I wasn't as convinced about the lime greens and aqua/turquoises, nor the black on white prints.  For awhile, I planned on using a slight variation on her colors - apple greens and sky blues, with my neutrals to be determined later.  But I really felt that it needed some rose, too.  I debated switching out the purples for a deep rose, but purple is one of my favorite colors, and I've never used it in a quilt!  It wasn't until the morning that Mom and I were going to the fabric stores (an hour away!) that I finally settled on colors, and a theme.

Between the greens, blues, and purples the fabrics felt like spring - something that will be rather elusive here for awhile.  Everything is so brown and grey until mid-March or early April.  The bright colors made me happy, but it still didn't feel quite right.  I realized that my real hangup was the blue, and I still really wanted rose.  It's not that I don't like blue, it just wasn't inspiring me for this project.

What I finally settled on was spring greens, rosy pinks, and dark purples - along with the grey fabric that Mom and I are both utilizing.  I also chose cream-on-cream prints rather than black on white, as the creams felt calmer to me.  My fabrics feel like a spring garden now, and they make me smile just to look at them! 

I'm going to call my quilt "Springtime on Easy Street".  It's a little obvious, I know, but it just fits.  I don't have much of a fabric stash, so I did buy the majority of the fabric.  I got quarter-yard cuts and made sure that I had a nice range of tones and shades within each color - Mom was a big help there!  I did have a purple, a couple of pinks, and a few neutrals in my stash that I pulled in, too.  I am so pleased with my fabric choices.  I think that working with them this winter will be so much fun!