Super Sewing Sunday 06-27-11

Wow, I did miles of sewing today. First thing I did, was fix that screw up on the lil twister.

 Then I found my lil goose that disappeared a month or so ago, so I finished that block from the BAP QAL.

Yesterday (Saturday)I cut out all my fabric for the Kaleidoscope QAL. What else am I suppose to do at 5am on my day off. During the week I can't get up at 8am with the alarm, so why is it when I can sleep in, I don't???
So now that all that fabric is cut and sometimes I am an impatient person, I started sewing my King size quilt top together, it is almost finished already. So much for the QAL part huh? The actual piecing part of the QAL isn't until the 30th of June.

This is my day.......... here are my stacked fabrics ready to roll..............

 The assembly line sewing together pairs of primary fabrics with alternates, and primary fabrics with backgrounds.

 All of them sewed together now, and pressed ( I think there is only one set in this picture)

This is what that set looks like laid out........

here are the pairs of the pink/red fabrics sewed together and awaiting the iron, again!

 All the primarys/background pieces lined up........onto the design board we go.....

 Tried to figure out how these would look the best, color wise, this is what I came up with........

 The table rearranged in order according to the design board so I don't screw it up. 25 different primary fabrics, don't want to get any of them out of order.

At this point I had the 4 corner blocks done, and the 16 partial blocks for the edges. Working on the 16 secondary blocks.  Can you see the mistake with this one????

 What about now????  I left it just like that too!!!

 Filling in the design board. This quilt will be HUGE when it is done, and my lil design board is only lap quilt size, so every thing is overlapping, a LOT!

 Almost there..............

 Had to take a 5 minute break and wind me up 10 more bobbins........ready to go now, at least for a little while.

 When piecing I flipped this piece over, and seen this wad of thread, What the heck,,,,,,,,how did this happen in the middle of the seam?? Oh well keep on stitchin...

 Last two blocks........the table is cleared.......whoo hoooooo!

 Full board of the secondary blocks ONLY!

 Now when most people make a kaleidoscope quilt this is what it looks like with 4 1/4 squares in the middle to fill it in............see the 4 pink points in the middle................well I am not like most people............

 This is what I am putting in the middle of mine!!! The squarish shape next to the black ones will have 4- 1/4 squares in them of the gray background fabric once I get those corners sewed to the blocks.

 Now I am finish piecing the 25 primary blocks and pinning them to the board..........did you know design boards only hold the first layer of fabric, I have like 4 layers now........HAHAHA. Plus my daughter has a psycho cat that likes to stand up and race like she is in the Nascar race on my design board, and make all the pieces fall off. If one stays on, she will jump up and hit the board till every block is on the floor. SOOOOO this quilt, is all pinned on the board, because of Ely Mae, the psychoo cat!!!!

 Neat little surprise with this block, didn't realize it was a directional fabric, looks kinda cool!

 Here are all the primary blocks in there place..............with all the secondary blocks behind them.

 Now all I have left to do is cut this stack in half, and then sew all 208 pieces onto the corners of the hexagons, to make them all square, then stitch all the pieces together.

Here is what the SQUARE block will look like once I get the corners sewn on, they aren't sewn in this picture. But that will have to wait till Monday afternoon, or Tuesday. Having outpatient surgery first thing Monday morning, in fact as I write this I have to be up and in the shower in 4 hours! so wish me luck, and hopefully I won't be too doped up to finish this top later today, since it is already Monday by now.

What did YOU do today???

Whew..........I have been busy!

First off before I forget, if your interested in another QAL, Angela over at Cut to Pieces is having one called A zig A zag. Haven't decided if I will participate or not in that one. Got a lot going on as usual, I bet that is a surprise huh? LOL!

Remember those bright beauties I had cut out, and sewn them into that itty bitty twister thing. Well I cut and sewed 3 more sets of those together this week. (well only had to cut one more set, and all the white squares) Need to sew the borders on them, and then start twister cutting them out, and sew them back together again. Then I will sash the 4 itty bitty ones, to have a lap size quilt. When this is done and over with, I won't be doing another twister for a looooooooooooong time!

One hanging on the board, one draped over the chair, and the 3rd one on the table. The finished twister hanging over the top of the board.



Let's see I have less than 10 string blocks left for RRCB, I was trying to finish them today, and Jethro and Ely Mae, would not get off and stay off my string pile, so I gave up on those and cleared the entire table instead.

See how tall that pile is getting, that is 50.......I have one or two others done sitting waiting to get to 10 to be added to this pile.......I will be soooo happy when these are done. Never again!

Now that I cleared the table.......I finished quilting, and got the binding on my Christmas table runner, washed it and dried it too!!!! Woo Hoo!! That is one off of my PhD list as well!!!

Then I dug out my snowman one since I was on a winter holiday in my head, got it all ironed, threads snip, pinned together to start quilting that one, and I only had one little spool of really really dark blue Navy thread. Dang that isn't going to be enough, so I had to put that one aside for now, will have to get some thread this week to get that one done too. It is also on my PhD list.


Then as I was blogging or reading blogs the other day I had seen a picture of a quilt I liked, sooooo I went stripping, 2 inch strips that is. Went a little nuts, haven't a clue if I have enough, or way too many cut. But I cut out 100 white strips (wof) and 200 turquoise/teal ones from fat quarters. I have 4 massive chain rows to do, then I can start cutting and piecing to see what I have in my head. Here is half of them 2 sets of turquoise and one set of white,

 Got row one of the massive chain rows done today as well. I am loving Super Sewing Sundays!!!! Here is that bunch 2 sets of white and one set of turquoise.

 Well it is late, and I do have to get up and go to work this week, YUK, and Boy does my back hurt! Kinda sucks I cancelled my Chiro appts for this week......till next time.

Is it really June already?

Wait, didn't May just start? Wow time is flying by waaaay to fast, wish I knew how to slow it down. It has been 12 days since my last post, really? Let me try and think, what have I been doing for the past 12 days?

I have sewn a few more blocks for the raven stars quilt I am making.

 I have been stringy along like crazy....

don't like string blocks at all! I make myself do some of those almost daily before I begin something else I might want to do, or on days when I ask myself, what am I going to work on today? and I don't quite have an answer, I string. I want them done more than anything else I have going on, because I hate doing string blocks with a passion! These are for the RRCB, when I get these done, I need 600 HST, don't remember how many of those I have done, not too many that is for sure. I have found a few ways I am going to try to do them up quickly, will see which way I like the most, and then give everyone my feedback on those different ways of doing them. Then when I get this whole quilt top finished, I might do one out of all HST!!!

Remember the bright beauties? Well this is what they look like now.

50 of those along with 49 white 5 inch squares, and a small border. Looks really cool, except it is little!!! Very disappointed in how much this technique shrinks. Plus it hurts my hand something awful to cute around the Twister template too. It is a thick template, plus there is little rubber feet to help it from sliding, and holds it above the crisscrossing seams, but it is so thick that you can't cut the left side (right-handed) pushing away, it is too thick to let the blade go up against it, you have to come from the top down, or go all the way around..........well I couldn't walk around that table, I could go on two sides, but man it tweaked my hand something awful. So since this isn't even big enough for a crib size....I am going to make 3 more of these (torture) and hook the 4 together to make a lap quilt. I already have the bright beauties cut for 2 more sets, so I need to cut 50 more of those and then 150-  5 inch white squares, good thing I bought an entire bolt of  that nice white fabric some years ago when I seen it on clearance someplace, nice and thick (not that see thru crap) and I think I only paid $1.00 a yard for it too!!!

I have 1/4 of my Christmas table runner quilted......

.it is on my PhD list, and that list needs to be cleared by the end of June!!! Whoa.......I had 6 months to do this short list, and now I only have 28 days left!!! My O' My! I will finish my 3, I will finish my 3, I will I tell ya, I will!!! I also have Turtle Bay pinned and ready to roll it out next,

Then the Black white & Red one is sitting and waiting to be pinned as well, along with the Monochromatic yellow one

even though that one wasn't on my PhD list, it isn't going to go on a list except the start to finished in 2011 list!!

Other things I have in the works....still need to make a back for the Red & White one.

.....still need to make a back for my Layer Cake Quilt Along one, I had a piece of fabric I was going to use, but now that the top is done, I don't like that piece of fabric for the back anymore..........has that ever happened to you before????

......I know there is still at least 2 BAP blocks I haven't finished, but I did buy the center fabric, and got 3 of the 6 GO! dies I need to finish the center,

so until I get the other 3 (birthday coming up in August) I am in no hurry to finish the other two blocks, what is the point if you can't finish the whole top, right???

Oh and then there is this little bucket I started cutting out 2 inch diamonds, purple and white ones for a scrappy quilt ......more to come on that one later.

 Want to take any wild guess what I might be making with all these, I am sure I will need more, lots more. These were but from one strip of each of the purple fat quarters I have, and all the white ones came from my scrap bin only!

I have another idea in my head for the other nine scrap bins for a really cool scrappy quilt I don't see many of, but I need a lot of white to go with it, and since I don't have much of that left (don't want to use that thicker stuff), I just need to buy a bolt....looking for a coupon and a good sale first though, no hurry since it isn't started.
Then I have this pile calling my name........

I had flipped it, don't know why it flipped back, sorry......but I haven't found "THE" pattern yet to use this wonderful pile of fabrics, got any suggestions, send me a pic via email, or post me a link to a picture, that is all I need to make a flimsy, a photo and I am good to go. Turquoise and chocolate!
My computer is still broke, hubby says it is in a thousand pieces out in the travel trailer........safest place to work on it, so all the pieces will still be there to put it back together. no cats, and no dogs out there :D  Just got his computer back up and running yesterday, finally, and this one I am using at this time had to be rebuilt too.  Looked at buying a new one, an IMac, but didn't want to spend the $2000-$3000 on a new computer right now, too many other things needing to be done. Garage doors, A/C fixed in my truck for starters! Breaking heat records again this year already, and I don't do heat well at all, so I am making an appointment to get the A/C in the truck fixed ASAP, and the garage door guy is looking for a place that stocks 1/2 doors ( only 4 feet wide ones)

Wow this post got long, I need to stop by more often and fill you all in, but I think without having my own computer is what is messing everything up, especially when I didn't have "A" computer at all for a little while, and this one only has one shift key that works when it wants too, drives me bonkers. Well I started this post at 3am and  it is now 5am, I am going to attempt going back to sleep now that my leg quit cramping and flexing all over the place, maybe I will be able to get some sleep before that alarm goes off in 3 hours. Wish me luck, I might need it.

Oh and I just remembered, sit n stitch is tonight too. Took about 10 minutes just now to locate my tin with my project in it..........my purple project from back in February when my husband was in the hospital.

Finally got the other notion I needed to finish that project, so I am going to shoot to finish half of what I have left tonight.