Never say never!

You know how it is - you read something, or hear something and you think what a stupid idea!  So that happened to me. Matter of fact, I've told several people how stupid this idea was.  I'll get back to that thought in a minute.

Remember from yesterday that I was taking those little orange scraps and was going to make something out of them? I had 48 little bits - basically 24 pairs that were left over from trimming something else.  I started by swing the scraps in pairs like this.  Each had to be matched to its' mate and I had to make sure they were sewn together correctly as one side was straight and the other side had an angle.

Two bits sewn together 

Then each wedge was trimmed so they were all the same size.

Yes - I threw this away ( pet mat filler)

Then those 24 wedges were laid out so they looked like this.

Lay out the wedges ready to sew together

 Next up was to sew the wedges in pairs so I now had 12 bigger wedges.

12 wedges

 Keep in mind, this was my enders and leaders project for the afternoon while I was sewing my urgent quilt.

Then in  pairs once again and I now have 6 pieces.

6 larger wedges

 Then sewed them in threes this time to get two halves.

Two halves

 Now if you've noticed, there is going to be a problem. See how those two center seams are NOT straight.  But I sewed them together anyway.

Hmmmm - hard to see in the photo, but there is a bit of a volcano in the center. OK - it was fairly significant. Can it be flattened?

Circle with a bit of a volcano in the middle

 What to do? What to do?  I did give it a good press with the iron and that took some of the bubble out, but it was still a bit off.

Now this is where I went back into my memory bank and remembered some advice that I read in someone's blog about pressing.  They said they used a heavy object to flatten their blocks. Now I had visions of many books set out in the studio, each with a block underneath. Like the urgent quilt I'm making - there are 63 blocks and seriously - why would I put a heavy book on those blocks to "press" them?  BUT this situation is quite different and I thought I'd give the heavy object pressing technique a try.

Guess what?   Yep - it worked.

Pretty much flat!!!!!

While I do not think the heavy object pressing technique is appropriate for everyday pressing, it is quite appropriate for an emergency situation with a bubble in the middle of the circle block!

However, after I did sew that circle together and trust me, the bulk at the center is a bit of a nightmare, I thought about how I could do this differently.  First off, after the wedges were sewn into the 12 pieces, I should have checked them for size (the angle at the center - easy with a 30 degree ruler which I have).  The problem is that some of the seams in the center were a tad smaller than the scant 1/4" and that caused the bubble.   I'm very glad that I played with those scraps - I learned something that will help me assemble what the scraps came from, I learned a new technique and I problem solved an issue which makes me a better sewist.  All in all - a very good lesson FROM SCRAPS!!!!   Now what to do with that cool circle block?


Elaine stopped by with a license plate.  I've added it to my collection. Not sure how many I have in total now - I should lay them out for a picture.  I know of two that I can easily get in my neighbourhood and I need to visit both of those stores so not going out of my way.    Thanks Elaine!!!

License plate for Row by Row

 It was because of a license plate that Elaine picked up for me in 2014 that the "Once Upon a Row by Row" quilt was created.  Hmmm - will I have the same inspiration for this year?

Yesterday was a day of errands.  I ran around in the morning and dropped off things to be repaired, picked up things I needed and back home for lunch.  Then a new set of errands in the afternoon where I picked up a couple of cool things which I will share with you when the time is right.

I made good progress on the urgent quilt.  The first pass was almost completed when I went to bed.  The top has to be done by tonight as I want to do some cool quilting on it and well - I don`t have a lot of time!

My biggest problem - damn books!  I've been a book worm my entire life.  I love to read and read tons when I was a kid. TONS!  And where I lived, we did not have a public library.  I think my parents bought me books.  Anyway, I finished reading my first e-book and I was barely done, when I had downloaded another. I`ll say the library strike is 'forcing'me to go that way.  However as I got started reading, I realized that I've read this book before!   Checked my reading list and yep - 2010!!!  I can`t remember how it ends and it`s part of a series which is weird since I never read book one and that isn't like me. Nor had I read anything else in the series - also not like me. No matter - but I think I`m going to have to hide the tablet as I need to be doing other stuff today! NOT reading!!!

On that note, I think Lexi has something to say this morning.  It`s all about HER!  Have you noticed?

Anyway - have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!