Lots done!

I now have the two halves of the current herringbone quilt sewn together. Tonight I will sew the partial seams to join the two halves, trim the top, and then get it ready for quilting.

Now if you are wondering what those three partial pieces of fabric at the top of the quilt are for, let me explain. I pinned up a tape measure so you can see approximately where I will be trimming the top side of the quilt.

If I didn't have those three pieces which represent my 12th row, I would have to cut where the lower row of measuring tape is shown in this picture. Cutting at the lower point would mean I would lose 4" in length.

As you can see I didn't need to have a full sized piece since most of the fabric would be cut off when I trimmed. This is something I learned over the last two weeks. I ended up salvaging the three odd shaped pieces from the points I had cut off the previous two herringbone quilts.

Cutting and scraps

After the floor refinishing guy left - he came to look at my floors and set up a date to do the work - I got down in the studio and started cutting more fabric for the next herringbone quilt. I cut fabric for 2 hours! I did find two pieces of this light pink fabric with brown circle. I sewed the two together and was able to get two 4.5" x 16.5" pieces.

Here is the pink scrap pile, well at least part of it. I was combing thru it to find pieces I could use for the latest herringbone quilt. I like to use as many different fabrics as possible and my choices are starting to dwindle.

Here is the pile at the end of the night. I found some 3.5" strips, there are lots of triangles, and patches that I used for zig zag quilts. Good stuff!

I found enough fabrics for the striped herringbone quilt and got started on sewing together the left column. So here is what it looks like now

Cleaning, designing, and cookies - Oh my!

I have a fellow coming tonight to look at my wood floors that have needed refinished every since I bought the house. The house was built in the early 60's and the floors have never been refinished. I spent lunchtime yesterday and last evening cleaning up and clearing out stuff in the living room and two bedrooms that need to be done. I will work at lunchtime again today and then it is what it is.

I did make some bar cookies last night to give to the custodians and secretaries at the school. They have all been so nice since I moved into the high school. I got the recipe from Dessert for Two. They are a Twix type cookie bar. The caramel was quite hard after they had sat in the refrigerator all night so they were hard to cut, but they are rich and tasted good. Since I cut them while they were still cold - I let them set out for about an hour, but that was not long enough for them to come to room temp - so they kind of fell apart a bit. Lesson learned.

I was up early and just had to start designing the next herringbone quilt. I already had a bunch of pieces cut out, but I needed to trim the length and here is why. The first quilt I made the pieces were cut 4 1/2" x 18 1/2". The width of the quilt after I just trimmed off the pointed sides was 48". Way to wide for regular width fabric for the backing. I ended up trimming off 4" on each side.

The next quilt, the ombre one I just posted yesterday, I cut the pieces 4 1/2" x 17 1/2". Once I trimmed the triangles off the sides the width of the quilt was 45". I ended up piecing the back.

For this third quilt I am trimming off the pieces I already have cut to 4 1/2" x 16 1/2". The width ought to end up after trimming off the triangles about 42" which is perfect for using regular quilting fabric for the back. I found that 12 rows gives me a length of 53" after trimming. So here is the third and hopefully the perfect size. My thought for this one is to have a dark row, a medium row, a dark row, a light row, a dark row, a medium row, etc.

I am going to have to cut out more pieces. Now that I know what the perfect size is I will probably cut enough for two or three more quilts. I have this one pink fabric that almost looks brownish when I put it with the other pinks. It is the 6th piece down on the right

18th finish for 2017 and how to do the partial seam

Here it is - another finish. It turned out 44" x 53".

I used three colors of quilting thread

Isn't interesting how these two quilts look so different even though they were made the same way?

Here is how to sew the partial seam. Here is the quilt top before. You start sewing it together from the top.

Once you sew the first seam the rest just falls in place. I marked my first seam to sew with tape for you.

Here it is sewn

The next piece to sew is that lattice looking fabric

When I lined the fabric up - I always sew from the seam to the raw edge - the lattice fabric was a bit longer. No problem, I will just trim that off after I sew the seam

Next piece to sew is the thin striped fabric. I just put wrong sides together and sewed

I do press as I sew each seam. The next seam is the circle stain fabric. As you can see each seam just falls into place.

Looking so much better!

I spent 3 hours working in the garage again and I feel like I am finally starting to make a dent in the mess! I worked on the left side and it looks so much better! Here is the before

And here is the after. Again I tried to be brutal and get rid of stuff either trashing it or putting in the donate pile. The bin on the right is empty with four other boxes that are now empty!

Two things I found that I want to know if there is someone out there is interested in. I have the ruler and book for the Square in a Square method of piecing - never used! I would be glad to pass it on for the cost of shipping.

The other thing I have is a vintage beaded purse. Some of the beads are falling off the strap, but otherwise it is in good condition. Maybe someone could repair it. Again for the cost of shipping I would be glad to pass this on to someone. I remember bringing this home when I helped my parent clean out my Dad's mother's house. I have no knowledge of its history.

I did work on the herringbone quilt this morning before work. I have a couple more tips for you in case you might be interested in making one of these. It gets to be a challenge to move the row back and forth to the sewing machine once it starts getting longer so I folded up and pinned the sewn rows. This makes it much easier to move.

See the small piece at the top of the left column?

I wanted to make sure the quilt was long enough and so I added this small piece. If I had added a full sized piece, most of it would be cut off when I trimmed the quilt and I only had a couple of 4.5" squares of this fabric which I sewed together to make it big enough. To figure out where to sew the small piece I measure the off set of the previous row

Then I off set the small piece that distance

Here is the left column all sewn together. I pinned up a measuring tape so you could see how and why I added this small piece. Doing this I realize I need to do the same thing to the top of the far right row.

Look at the size of this leaf I found in my yard from the neighbor's tree! Glen, you need to print with a leaf this size LOL!!!!

I have a lot I want to get done this weekend; a list longer than humanly possible, but I will give it my best shot! Have a great weekend!

Progess on several fronts

I took a little bit of time off work yesterday to do some things around the house. Number one on the list was the straighten out the garage. I had took home a lot of stuff from the trailer so I would have it for the next job I get assigned to, but since I had been sick with that cold I just dumped it in the garage. I could hardly get my car in so it was time to spend the time to clean it up. I got it about half done which I thought was pretty good. I tossed out some stuff and did a lot of reorganizing. I have wire shelving on the back wall of the garage and the top row contained boxes and boxes of my son's baseball cards. I didn't want to be one of those Mothers that threw out her kids cards so I have been hanging on to them, but now my son will be moving into a house and it is time to hand them over. I took all the boxes down and then put all the boxes of offices supplies in their place. Here is the right side of the garage before and after. It was hard to get a good before picture with the sun shining in. I think this side looks much better!

The other side of the garage is still quite a mess. I did get some things move out, but there are boxes of stuff that I have for the Habitat Resale store. I did have to move some stuff so I could get the mower out.

after/in progress

I had started all of this at 2:10 and by 5 it was starting to get dark and I wanted to get the front mowed. After mowing and talking to my new neighbor I finally went inside at 5:45. I will attempt to get the rest of the garage cleaned up in the next two days so I can call the Habitat truck to come and pick up my donations.

I did get a few more pieces added to the herringbone quilt.

A bit of progress on the next prototype

After gathering up the recycling and trash for pick up today, I got to work putting labels on two quilts for the fellow that I made the feed sack quilt. He just had a baby grandson so I said he needed a quilt for him and his 4 year old sister. These are the ones they are getting

I was up early this morning. I slept terrible last night and I woke up at 4:40, but I didn't get out of bed until 5:15. I was laying there thinking of all the stuff I should be doing. When I did finally get up I washed dishes (by hand), took a shower, then I got five pieces sewn together on the next prototype herringbone quilt. See the ones on the lower left?