Thursday, January 20, 2011

Strange noises and proof I'm not a math major

There's been a strange noise in my house.  Did you hear that?  It's kind of a humming.  It goes on for a little bit then stops, then starts hums for a bit then stops.  What the heck is it?  Its just my poor, neglected for the last 9 months sewing machine.  Its happily humming along feeling useful once again :cD 
I'm making nice progress on this star quilt.  The top has been done for probably a couple years, patiently waiting for me to baste and quilt it.  It was a $5 quilt block a month my LQS did ages ago.

I finished up the blocks then sent them away for a swap I did with an Internet group I belonged to before my divorce where my partner set them and turned them into a completed top then mailed it back to me.


It then waited for me to go through what I did.  Then the happy day came when I was gifted with almost a whole bolt of cotton fabric I could use for backing.  I got it basted earlier this month and now am quilting away :cD

I am hoping to have at least the quilting on this one done by month's end.  I will probably gift or sell this one.  I love it, but there is no way I can keep all of the quilts I love since I end up falling in love with almost every one I make :cP

Now it has been a while since I have quilted and I do remember the basics, but I have to share this little story...hope you get a giggle out of it.

I joined a challenge posted by an on-line group I belong to where we are going to do a "row by row" quilt.  The first block was posted (they are doing 12 inch blocks) but one of my all time favorite quilts uses 6 inch blocks, so I decided that I wanted to do that size instead.  Looking at the block it is a 4x4 block so I figured "OK, 1 1/2 inch squared instead of 3 inches."  So I cut out the pieces for 3 of the blocks in my first row, then set about sewing the first one together tonight.   I ended up with a pretty nice little square....

Yeah, a 2 inches too small little square!!  Not thinking that 1 1/2 inches was the finished  size I cut my squares at 1 1/2 inches for the solid blocks and 1 7/8 inches for the HSTs....DUH, there's that thing called a seam allowance I didn't think of :cP  Now be it either temporarily crappy math skills, haste, or just plain being an airhead I just couldn't believe I did that.  I did sit down and figure out the correct size squares I needed to cut and am going to go raid the scrap bin again and give it another go :cD   The quilting is giving me something to do while I'm patiently waiting for February's CAL blocks to be announced and while I am looking for a book of squares so I can get started with another CAL that I joined on Ravelry.   Not that I'm not knitting either....I actually knitted through one whole skein of yarn for my sweater in about 2 days.  I'm really enjoying that project so far.

Well that pretty much sums up most of what's going on here.  We did get the furnace fixed and are all nice and cozy again which is awesome considering we're getting more snow.  Call me crazy, but I do love it.  All white and clean :cD  I'm also doing pretty well on the fitness front.  Nothing wild and crazy, but doing my best to stick with it.  I'm gonna get on my way, and maybe try to get a few more rows done on that sweater :cD  Hope you all have a great one.  Warmest country wishes!!!

Country Mouse

2 comments:

Deb A said...

A very pretty quilt and well worth the wait! Love blue and yellow quilts, they are so relaxing and calming to me. Sorry about the furnice troubles... we had boiler issues yesterday but never lost the heat, thank goodness.
Oh - love that little block and no, you are not the first or last to make that mistake (I've done it twice in the last year and I was really good with math and science in school!).

julieQ said...

I just love your yellow and blue...gorgeous!!