I've been sewing like a crazy woman for the past 3 days. With Heather coming up next weekend, my goal is to have two quilts ready for her to take back to the machine quilting lady in her area. Considering that last weekend I had two sets of quilt blocks completed and that's it, I have accomplished tons. I might even make my goal.
Last week I concentrated on sewing Selim's quilt. When we went to Mom's I brought his squares, the white dragonfly fabric for the boarder, and the lattice and backing fabric for my quilt. While he was at the Halloween party with Jacob, I cut out his white fabric along with washing and ironing all the yardage for mine. On Sunday I sewed a few of his blocks together. By Tuesday, I had finished the top of his quilt.
Saturday, I made up the back.
Saturday afternoon, after I had defrosted the big freezer, I started cutting the lattice strips for my quilt. I've worked on this quilt off and on since I got back from London in 2011. I had bought a fat quarter piece of fabric at a fabric/needlework shop in Kew Gardens and that was the color inspiration and center square of each block. Online, I found a quilt shop in Salt Lake City that carried the pattern and I ordered more. I've been carrying around the fabric yardage, then all the pieces, followed by the blocks, in this pink storage tub for a long time. Finally, it is coming together.
As I was about to start sewing the lattice strips on to the blocks, I realized that the blocks were not squared up or uniform in size. I think the block was supposed to be 8.5 inches square. For some reason, some of the blocks were over that and others were just over 8 inches. I trimmed all of them to 8 inches. It makes the proportions a bit off, but it has paid off in terms of ease of sewing.
Yesterday I didn't dive right back into my project. I made doughnuts for breakfast. Yum. They were so good that Selim and I had a hard time stopping at two each.
We took our weekly pilgrimage to Michael's craft supply. Selim wanted more colors for his rainbow loom. He has joined the fad in making rubber bracelets with bands that remind me of the things we had to wear with our braces. I had forgotten to pick up a dark brown pearl cotton #5 for my needlework project. Both of us had success and were pleased with our purchases.
In the afternoon, all pretext of chores went out the window as I hunkered down with my blocks and lattice strips. I took the easy way out for dinner and got tacos on the table in 24 minutes. Then it was back to sewing. I stopped when Selim got in the bath. I was half way through the vertical lattice work. I had eleven rows of four blocks each, all sewed together.
Today I had off as my compressed day. I forced myself to don my running gear when I took Selim to the bus. The temperature had dipped to a record low in the area, and so I had to wear tights. Sigh.
I ran for 30 minutes and then walked another 15 to cool down. With the time change, the sun was up higher and felt good on my face. Having stuck to my exercise routine, I was then free until I had to get Selim in the afternoon. I had the sports shows on the TV and went back in forth from the living room to the library/sewing room all day. I finished more than I thought I could. By 3:15 I had completed all the vertical inside lattice work. I laid out the eleven strips of eight blocks on the living room floor and smiled.
Color explosion! I love it. I still have quite a lot left. But sewing the continuous horizontal strips plus the boarders should go much more quickly than the previous steps. Unfortunately, I have to work the rest of the week, find time to grocery shop, finish the laundry, and all the other housey stuff that I often neglect. But there is a chance that I can hand Heather two bundles this coming weekend.
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