Living on the edge

Not that I'm happy to see a month zip past, but I'm glad that April is over. There was a lot happening in April and now it's May. A much quieter month - thank goodness. I've got loads to catch up on and now that the weather is nice, it would be great to spend some time outdoors.

When I go to Monday sewing, I usually have a number of projects in my bag and half of them I never touch. So yesterday I went with two projects - my weekly 6 blocks for the 150 Canadian Women quilt and the Night Sky quilt. I did throw in some hand embroidery in the event that I ran out of stuff to do! This was great as the bag is significantly lighter and what's the point of keep throwing stuff in the bag if I don't get to it. This way, I'll be a bit more focused (I hope)!

So what got done yesterday? It was a pretty productive day.

Here are my six blocks that were sewn last week at the retreat. Only 36 blocks left to sew.

Six blocks that were sewn at the retreat

I did forget two pieces of fabric when I was cutting on Monday morning for the next set of blocks, but they are all sewn now.

Six blocks that were sewn at Monday sewing

That leaves 30 blocks left to sew. I'm super excited about that and I must say that these last couple of block sets have been way easier to sew than some of the sets have been. I was finished by 10:30! On some of the previous days, I wasn't finished until 1 PM so the time to sew is definitely less. The blocks are all contained in three of those plastic storage boxes. 50 in each of the bottom two and 20 in the top one. Waiting for the remaining 30 blocks. That's FIVE weeks.

120 blocks for the 150 Canadian Women project

I'm pretty happy with the progress and glad that I decided to set a weekly goal on this project. Otherwise, it would never have gotten completed. Now that that worked so well, I'm going to dig out another similar project and do the same thing. I think there are several with 6" blocks but slow and steady. Focus! That means one at a time!

Once all 150 blocks are completed, I'm going to design three quilts with the blocks. I have a couple of ideas in my head but I want to sort through the blocks and then lay them out on the design wall. I might even mess around with EQ8 to see what I come up with.

Then it was onto Night Sky. Here's the pattern again in case you've forgotten what the quilt looks like.

Night Sky by Jaybird Quilts

The blocks are quite fiddly to sew - well not fiddly, but time-consuming especially since I'm pressing the seams open and that takes way more time than pressing to one side. I almost completed five blocks at Monday sewing and I was able to finish them when I got home.

Five orange blocks put together

That leaves 7 more orange blocks. I thought I took a picture of the unfinished blocks as several of them are partially sewn together but I did not. They are all laid out at my sewing station in the studio so hopefully, I can work on some of them this week.

I threw caution to the wind when finishing the five blocks this morning. You know how they say you should work on the same sewing machine for one project. Well, I rarely do that but at least I use the same foot on the same brand of machines which is essentially the same thing as sewing on the same machine. This time, I finished those blocks on a completely different sewing machine BRAND. It'll all work out!

Finishing the orange blocks on the PFAFF

Then I got really ambitious and cut all the pieces for the blue blocks.

Blue pieces are cut for Night Sky

 I need more black in order to finish the orange blocks so I cut that as well. I'll probably need a bit more black, but this is what I cut for the moment.

Black is cut as well

I'm on a roll and I'm working on that project (s) (since I'll probably have enough for two quilts with all those blocks) and I'm going to get that thing finished if it kills me. Then to choose another one and get that done as well.

OH - speaking of the next project, here is the Bonnie Hunter mystery that is also on the UFO list. The first of three borders got sewn to the quilt during the Sit n Sew on the weekend.

The border on the Celtic Solstice

 The next border is pieced and ready to put on the quilt.

Second border for Celtic Solstice waiting to be sewn on the quilt

For anyone who made this quilt, you probably remember cutting off a lot of little green and yellow triangles and green and white triangles as you made some of the units.

Remember cutting off those little triangles???

 For some unknown reason, I decided to keep them and make half square triangles from them. I have a huge bag of them. They are all trimmed and I've been carrying the bag in the Monday sewing tote forever!

Teeny half square triangles

It's now time to do something about them. So as my new ender/leader project, I'm sewing them together in pinwheels.

Pinwheels as the new ender/leader project

 Yes - I've gone totally insane with this one. I must measure those little guys but they are tiny!

But it will be one more project completed and I'm OK with that.

I can't believe that I have NOTHING on the schedule for the entire week - well I do have two meetings in the evening and two classes on Saturday but that's it. That makes it a calm, quiet week. Thank goodness as I have a ton of e-mail to get through, patterns to write, quilts to design and a COMPUTER to learn on the long arm. Oh yes - it's going to be a busy week.

Have a super day!!!


Ciao!!!