Stars All Around

Back in 2013, I picked up 14 quilting rulers at an antique mall. You can read about it in Shopping Trip: Shoes, Fabric, Books and 14 Quilting Rulers! I'm not sure why they were at an antique mall. They certainly aren't antiques. I suppose they might be considered collectables to us quilters. 😉 But I'm not complaining - I got them for very good prices!
Since then I have determined to use each ruler in at least one quilt. To this end, I have searched for books, or at least instructions, for using each of these rulers. 
This is the book I found for using with the BiRangle ruler: It's got some beautiful patterns. I chose to use Stars All Around to create a quilt for one of my newest great nephews. The original pattern was a square, so I enlarged it to make it a more appropriate size. I had picked up a fabric bundle in blues at a Creative Stitches Show, but ended up switching up some of the fabrics. 
The instructions in the book have you cut bias strips, according to the angle on the ruler, stitching the strips together, alternating fabrics, 

then cutting these into strips, 

and finally cutting these strips into individual rectangles using the BiRangle ruler. 

It's a bit of a fiddley quilt, and that's probably why I put it aside to work on other projects, 

Work in progress on my design wall

but it's finally finished, now that Aiden's a year old.

Here's the backing fabric I used: 

It's a Boy Scout fabric from Timeless Treasures. 

I used a pantograph called Shooting Stars for the quilting and did it at my LQS with a variegated red, cream and blue King Tut thread. Unfortunately, the only machine there that can accomodate pantographs is an older Handi Quilter that is not stitch-regulated. Even though I increased the stitching speed to 100%, I still ended up with BIG stitches.

And the machine tends to drift, so the quilting is not as neat. I'm not sure what's causing that. I know how to quilt on a longarm, but I don't know all of the different adjustments that can be made, so I don't know how to fix this. But it does need to be fixed somehow. I don't think I'll quilt there again unless I plan on doing free motion on the Tin Lizzie. 

And the bad news is it's snowing again today. 

Really??? Where is spring?

Making Progress

When this past week's quilt block for the Solstice Challenge was published, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do it. It's an applique basket and I didn't feel that it was consistent with the fabric I'm using and the look I am aiming for. But I decided to do it anyway. However, I first had to tidy up the basket. Sorry, Pat Sloan, but it was too sloppy for my liking. I folded the pattern in half to make sure both sides matched. used a ruler to make all of the straight lines straight, used a round object (my paper clip holder) to round off the handle and made the pattern all one piece, rather than the basket and handle separate. And I still didn't like it. It's just not right for this fabric.

When I posted it to Instagram, I noticed that other quilters had customized their blocks and decided I would, too. I had been looking for an opportunity to use a fussy cut of the deer in this fabric, so decided this was the occasion, and made the deer the centre of a square in a square. 

And I love it! See the finished block below.                             

It's gotten a LOT of likes on facebook as well (over 400 last time I checked), 

Here are the two blocks side by side. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the original block. I would have liked it better leaving the centre without the applique. Maybe I'll remove the basket. 

I've also been plodding along on Damian's train cardian. It definitely needs blocking, but I'm pretty happy with my first (and maybe my only) attempt at intarsia knitting. It's a size 4 and he's already 4 years old, but fortunately not big for his age. I need to get this done while it will still fit him. Hmm, is that sleeve supposed to be that big? One more sleeve to go, then the button & buttonhold bands and neckband. 

And today I'm very happy to have finally finished the Stars All Around quilt top for my great nephew Aiden. I think that gives me 4 quilt tops that I need to find time to spend at the longarm studio in order to finish them.  

My X-Day

Friday the 13th was my "X" day, which is the nickname we give to our scheduled day off. According to our union contract, we get one 3-day weekend (unpaid) every 4 weeks, and mine was a good day. It partially made up for the fact that I was sick over Christmas and while I had time off, I was too sick to do much of anything with the time. Anyway, the weather had finally improved to the point where frostbite was not an imminent danger and I felt comfortable going into the city to get some errands run.
I was notified by my cell phone service provider that they would no longer be able to support the technology for my old flip phone as of January 31. So, that was my first order of business - I had to get a new cell phone. Believe it or not, I had to buy it at a grocery store. My provider started out running grocery stores, then turned to banking and finally to cell phone service. I had already tried to replace my phone on a previous visit to the city last month, but the store I went to only had flip phones. Seriously? Even though they might have more modern technology than my old flip phone, I was trying to get away from that. So the store I went in yesterday initially said they didn't have any phones. Then they started rummaging in a storage room as one of the clerks thought she remembered seeing some somewhere. Then they rummaged in some drawers and cupboards and they managed to find 3 cell phones. One was not for my provider (apparently they sell phones for other providers, as well). Of the other two, one was some generic brand that I didn't recognize and the other was a Motorola. I went with the Motorola. Now I can text people without having to punch the same button 3 or 4 times. And I can access the internet, do Instagram, read my email... Fun!
Next I went to Lori's Country Cottage. I had purchased something in their Stuff Your Stocking event, but had totally forgotten about it. I'm sure it was the Lord that reminded me about it, as one morning before getting up it suddenly came to my mind. But I couldn't remember what it was. Somehow I thought it was a quilting ruler - a rather expensive one, as I seemed to recall. Sure enough, it was the Stripology ruler, plus a Stripology book and a quilt pattern that I hadn't remembered at all.

Plus I picked up some clearance fat quarters. I'm hoping the green will go with my Solstice Challenge blocks in case I need some fabric for finishing - sashing or whatever. And the good thing is, there's room on my pegboard for this huge ruler!
After finishing at Lori's, I decided to make what I thought would be a quick stop at a thrift store (Value Village). I was hoping to pick up a Fondue set as I want to try some of the fondue recipes from this cookbook:
I found one alright, but then decided to check out the book and craft departments. For whatever reason, there seems to be a scarcity of quilting books in the thrift stores lately. Maybe because I've bought them all already, so I didn't find anything on the bookshelves. However, the craft department was another matter. I just had to rescue this from the thrift store:

I think a crafter must have died or moved into a nursing home as, in addition to this unfinished afghan, I found another (uglier) one that was a bunch of granny squares made up but not sewn together and a bit of yarn - it was hard to tell as it was in a sealed bag. There was a smaller bag with finer white yarn and what might have been some granny squares as well. I was able to pass those by, but this red and cream one was calling to me. It's Canada's 150th "birthday" this year and I figured the colours were about right for a sesquicentennial afghan. And I decided to finish it in honour of the anonymous crafter who had to give up her craft. However, it's kind of curious. The final row completed seems to have ended in the middle of the row.

You can see the loop at the top where the row ended, but it appears to be a complete row, so how the yarn ended in the middle is beyond me. The yarn in the bag is a Sears Sayelle. And the bag itself has a Sears sticker on it The yarn label has French as well as English, so I know it came from Canada. Because it's "Sears" and not "Simpsons Sears," this afghan kit would have likely originated after 1978, when they dropped the "Simpsons." If anyone knows this pattern, I would appreciate hearing about it. It certainly would save me trying to figure out the pattern on my own.

Also in the craft department were a bunch of older knitting and crocheting books, which I figure had also belonged to the anonymous crafter. Most of them were too dated to bother with, unless I wanted to sell them as antiques. If I had a craft store, I would buy them for a display case. I do love vintage stuff, but one can only accumulate so much before it becomes a clutter burden. I did pick up a few of the books.

One of them is specifically Canadian knits, so that will make for good projects for this "Sesqui" year. The pillow forms in the back I intend to use for pillow projects from the 50 Country Quilting Projects book.

You might recall that I took a quilt embellishment workshop in September.

I was able to pick up quite a few beads to use to embellish my quilts. Not sure how realistic that idea was, however. I'm lucky to get time to get the quilts quilted, let alone sewing beads on them...

A couple of little sewing kits caught my eye because of all the notions in them, plus a "vintage" sewing basket that I intend to keep in my travel trailer - if I don't sell it in the meantime. The trailer, that is. I'm not a big fan of towing and I'm not sure if I'm prepared to invest in paying for a seasonal site for it. Plus, if I sell it, I could put the money towards a Longarm! Something to consider.

In the front of the above picture is this weird thing:

It was in the bag with one of the sewing kits. If anyone knows what it is, please tell me. I have no idea. At first I thought it was some kind of throat plate, but the upper left part is a cutting blade.

Amazing what you come up with when all you were planning on buying was a fondue set. And the fondue set that I did end up buying didn't come with fondue forks, so now I'll have to look for them.

My next stop was Costco, where I was just going to buy a couple of bags of walnuts. I also thought my membership was up for renewal, but they didn't mention anything about it when I checked out. Which was a good thing. Those two bags of walnuts ended up costing me over $140. Interesting how that happens at Costco (yes, I need that, too, and I think I'll try that, and...). Unfortunately, the Moroccan Style Chickpea soup that I bought a case of didn't turn out to be delicious. I wish Costco would sell sample cans so that you can first determine if you like it well enough to buy a case of 8. Hopefully, the lentil soup will be better.

My final stop was the mall where I had lunch. I had neglected to take my water bottles along, even though I had them by the door when I left, so was very thirsty by the time I got to the mall. I got 2 - 591 ml water bottles with my lunch. That's 1182 ml or over 5 cups. And I had it all gone by the time I was finished lunch. My dehydrated body must have just soaked it right up because I didn't even stop for a potty break on my way home. LOL!

June's Blocks

Here are the 2012 BOM blocks for June:

 These are both variations of the 9-patch block. After the wildly vibrant wonky log cabin for May, these two are pretty sedate, almost boring by comparison. Both are very simple blocks.
Somehow I had gotten the impression that the 2012 BOM quilt was going to end up being big enough for a twin-sized bed. I think it was because the materials list said to use a twin-sized batting. However, the actual finished size of the quilt is only 55" by 68.5" - nowhere near big enough for the twin-sized bed for which I intended it. I don't want just a throw size. I want it to cover the whole bed. So, I did some calculations and figured that I will need 35 blocks to make it the size I want, not just the 20 blocks that this project calls for. So, I'll either be doing many more blocks per month or else will take much longer than originally planned. And that's okay. It's not like I had planned it for a special occasion and had a deadline for which I needed to complete it. 
So, what are my plans for the extra 15 blocks? I am also enrolled in Craftsy's Quick Strip Paper Piecing course, and 4 of the blocks from that course are 12" blocks, so I can use them without having to alter the patterns at all. Also, in one of the previous lessons in the 2012 BOM, we were taught how to draft quilt blocks. And I have Jinny Beyer's book, The Quilter's Album of Blocks and Borders, so I expect I will be drafting some of my blocks from this book. In my newest book, Quilting Shortcuts, are some block ideas that I can use. So, eventually, my 2012 BOM quilt will grow up to be a twin-sized quilt with quite a few blocks that were not in the original course. Now I just need to buy some more fabric...
And here is the June block for the 2013 BOM:

 This is the LeMoyne Star and involved Y-seam construction. The Y-seams, however, really weren't too much of a problem. No, it was getting my diamonds to look like diamonds that was the problem. We started out by cutting 2.5" strips from the two fabrics and sewing them together in pairs. Then we were to cut them into diamond pairs, using the 45-degree marking on our rectangular rulers. Well, if you read my blog on the spool blocks, you will recall that I accidentally used the 60-degree marking on one of my triangles and so I decided to just use my 45-degree triangle ruler to avoid any further mistakes. And so I chose to use my triangle ruler for cutting the strips for this block. But something was wrong. I was being careful to measure the 2.5" length on the ruler for each diamond pair I cut, but my diamonds were turning out wonky and really weren't diamonds at all. Well, I really can't explain what I was doing wrong because I'm not totally sure what it was and I did it to everyone of my diamond pairs. I hoped that once I got them sewn together, they would turn out alright. But they didn't. The next step in the process was to sew the pairs into quads, bigger diamonds that were also wonky. By this stage in the game, I knew I had to make a decision. I could try to sew them altogether and produce what would be a really wonky star, if I could even manage that. I could start over, but I would have to use different fabrics, because I didn't think I had enough left of the ones I had already used. And then what would I do with my wonky diamonds? I hate to waste fabric. 
By this time, I had figured out what I had done wrong - sort of. I was measuring the 2.5" linearly on the strip with my triangular ruler. If I used the rectangular ruler, the 2.5" actually was measured on a different angle. As I said, I really can't explain it. It's been too many years since I took geometry. But I will add that a few of the other quilters in my class also ended up with wonky diamonds - and they used their rectangular rulers! Hmm, I really think the instructor for this class should have demonstrated this aspect more carefully and thoroughly. I don't recall the camera zooming in on the actual cutting, so that we could know exactly how it was done. And I'm still a little uncertain about it.
What did I decide to do? I decided to use my wonky diamonds, trimming them down so that they actually looked like diamonds. Believe it or not, I basically did it by "eyeballing" the pieces, measuring how much needed to be cut off and applying that measurement to all of the pieces. So eight wonky 4-part diamonds became 8 normal-looking diamonds. Not perfect, but much better than previously. If you enlarge the picture, and look carefully, you can see that my seams didn't match up in the centre. I'm not sure how this happened, and I found it rather amusing as all the other seams matched up. The centre is the best place for the seams to not match since all the pieces are the same colour and it's not noticeable unless you look carefully.
Since I made my diamonds smaller, I knew that the block would end up too small and I would have to add borders to make it fit into the quilt properly. So I did. The finished block was supposed to have measured 19.5". Mine finished out at slightly over 16. So, I added 3.5" ON ALL SIDES. While I was sewing the borders on, I remembered that I hadn't allowed for the 1/4" seam. It wasn't until I finished the block that I realized that I should have divided that 3.5 in half, plus seam allowances, to get the actual width of the border. <sigh> I now have a block that finished out around 22.5". LOL Definitely having a blonde moment when I worked on this block.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the extra border width - whether I'll trim it off or add some extra sashing elsewhere in the quilt to make it fit. Overall, in spite of my many mistakes, I'm actually quite pleased with this block.

All's Well That Ends Well

The bad news is I never made it to the Edmonton Festival of Quilts today. Well... I suppose I should start by telling you that I drive a pickup truck, which will come as no surprise to those of you who have been reading my blog for sometime. And not just a little pickup truck. This is a full-sized, extended cab, standard box, 4x4 pickup truck with a V8 engine. Not only that, but it's not just a beat-up old farm truck. It's a 2011 Chevy Silverado in laser blue metallic, a gorgeous purply-blue colour. You know how some men feel about their cars? Or if you live in the west, about their pickup trucks? Well, that's pretty much how I feel about my pickup truck. I even like the way the engine sounds. The only drawback is that, being a rather large vehicle, it's not very easy to park (and it gets terrible gas mileage). And being as I'm rather particular about my truck not getting scatched or dented, I avoid parking in crowded areas.

I arrived at the site where the Festival of Quilts was being held. And the parking lots were full. And the streets were full. Cars parked on both sides of not very wide streets. I swear if I'd had the towing mirrors on the truck, it would have almost touched the vehicles parked on both sides of the street as I drove through. Not enough room for two vehicles to pass each other. And I drove on through looking for a place to park and finally came to a section of the street where I could park the truck, quite far from the site. But then I thought that, with all that traffic and so many vehicles parked on the street and not much room to get through, someone might hit my truck. And I decided to park at the nearest mall instead and walk to the quilt show, which was probably not much longer a walk than from where I could have parked on the street anyway. On the way to the mall, I got to wondering what I would do if I bought stuff - lots of stuff, heavy stuff - at the quilt show and had to lug it all the way back to the mall. And what about the crowds? As my best guy pal, Phil, who was with me said, we would have been shoulder to shoulder. There were an awful lot of cars for the size of that hall. I really don't do crowds. So, all things considered, I decided not to go to the Festival of Quilts. I'm disappointed, but feel I made the best decision for me under the circumstances.
Phil had never intended to go to the quilt show. He was just going to go to the mall. Instead, we both went to a thrift store, where I found the book Quilting Shortcuts by Maggie Malone. I might already have this book (still have some books in boxes in the garage) or maybe I borrowed it from the library, because it looks familiar. But it also looks good, and as Phil pointed out, it would cost me a lot more than the $8 the book cost to drive back to buy it. You can see the book in the lower right of the picture below.

We then went to Fabricland, where I bought the 4 pieces of fabric in the picture. On the upper right is a panel for a pink John Deere barbecue apron. I intend to make this up for my niece's birthday. I will probably back, batt and quilt it. In my opinion, the fabric's not thick enough for a decent apron otherwise. On the upper left is a pillow panel that I couldn't resist, being the cat lover that I am. The fabrics in the foreground don't show up very well. The one on the left is a poppy print and the one on the right is a rosebud print, both for future quilting projects. On top of the fabric in the middle is a package of clear fabric grabbers to put on the backs of my quilting rulers. I've had too many "slips" ending in uneven cuts, and sometimes useless strips of fabric.
I also hit a Staples to buy toner for my printer. It was almost out - kept taking it out and shaking it up to get a little more life out of it- and I need to be able to copy patterns for my Quick-Strip Paper Piecing Class.
The good news, at least quilting-wise, is what's in those 4 orange packets sitting on the fabric. After I had dropped Phil off and was on my way out of the city, I stopped at a big WalMart (at least bigger than the one in my small town) just off the highway to see what they had in quilting supplies. I was quite disappointed. I believe there was less fabric than in our WalMart and no quilting rulers, where our WalMart has a reasonable selection of different quilting rulers. It was kind of puzzling to me. Then I looked on their clearance shelf in the craft section and found 5-packs of Fiskars rotary cutting blades for only $10 each. That's only $2 per blade. Here in Canada, those 5-packs are normally over $20. Yippee! So I bought all four packs that were there.
Yes, disappointed that I didn't get to the Edmonton Festival of Quilts, but happy with my purchases, especially those blades. That should do me for awhile...
By the way, I'm constantly meeting new quilting friends on Google+ and getting new ideas from their blogs. Come and join the link party at