Blue On Blue Borders

The pile of extra blocks are ready to be lined up for the borders.

The blocks all laid out for the borders on the quilt.

Whoops, I have one extra block.  I thought I had made 296 but must have miscounted.

Border blocks all stitched but now I need to buy some fabric for the 5” spacer strip and an outside border.  What color should I look for?  Actually this beige carpet doesn’t look too bad does it?  I think if I go with another blue it could look pretty muddy.  Let me know what you think?  What color, what value?

Until later,

Lynn

Second Half Just Like The First

Keeping Blocks In Order VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The second half of the center section of my Blue On Blue quilt went together just fine.  The seams matched up and I kept the blocks in order thank goodness.  Now I hope that I don’t find two identical fabrics close together after it is all done.  It seems like you can look and look at the blocks and then find some identical fabrics right next to each other after things are sewn together despite trying your best to look it over first.  How can the eyes miss things like that when you have studied it so often?

Borders are next.

Lynn

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing Blocks Together

That design snafu got solved and it was time to start stitching the rest of the blocks together.  I am not a fast stitcher and take lots of breaks because sitting for long stretches makes my ankle get puffy and stiff and I pay for it the rest of the day.  I stop and walk around the house (should be cleaning but that doesn’t seem to happen.)  I do my ankle exercises fairly often as that helps plus I have been wearing the ever lovely TED stockings to help with the swelling.  You should see me…Oh no, you should not see me in my white TED hose, shorts and a T-shirt.  I am a vision of fashion. 

(For those that don’t know what TED hose are this is what Wikipedia says…Compression stockings and socks are specialized hosiery items designed to increase blood circulation. Their main theraputic purpose is to provide graduated pressure on the lower leg and foot and, in some cases, the thigh, to alleviate circulatory problems such as edema, phlebitis and thrombosis. Unlike traditional dress or athletic stockings and socks, compression stockings use stronger elastics to create significant pressure on the legs, ankles and feet. Compression stockings are tightest at the ankles, gradually become less constrictive towards the knees and thighs. By compressing the surface veins, arteries and muscles, the circulating blood is forced through narrower circulatory channels. As a result, the arterial pressure is increased which causes more blood to return to the heart and less blood to pool in the feet. )

Actually they feel pretty good on but when I am outside in the summer time they are really, really hot so I don’t wear them much.  They also don’t look so good with crop pants or shorts.  I do have some black and tan ones that look good with long pants and wear them a lot of the time when it is cooler.    Enough of that…Back to the Blue On Blue quilt progress.

As you can see I got two sections done and ready to stitch together.  Remember I had to take the outside row on the right and put it on the left side to make the design come out so that is why the one section is so much bigger than the other.  I was not going to rip all those rows I had done out.  I paid close attention to the pressing of my seams so that they would all nest in opposite directions when I stitched the parts together.



But what is that in the upper left side of the photo….two pair of shoes.  They are the same kind but one pair is much newer than the other and this type of shoe is very comfortable with my fatter ankle.  But why do you leave them sitting there you may ask?  At one time there were these two pair of white shoes plus a pair of flip flops all laying in the same area so there can me more shoes gathered in this same spot.  This is what happens….I have the shoes on my feet when I first start working on the quilt and come in to pick up more blocks and put the location pins in them.  I sit down on the floor and off come the shoes as I can’t sit on the floor with my shoes on as it bends my ankle too much.  I continue going back and forth from the floor to the sewing machine without my shoes until I need to do something else.  I am in another part of the house by then I end up putting on another pair and wearing them to do what ever I was going to do and when I come back to sew off they come.  I should remember where I put my shoes as I have them dropped in several parts of the house.  I think I am worse than a kid with shoes all over and periodically have to gather them all up and take them back to my closet.  Anybody else do that besides me?

The top half of the center section is finished now so on to the bottom half.  Blue On Blue is definitely growing seam by seam.

Until later,
Lynn

Blue On Blue…Stitching It Together

Ready, Set….GO!  I started sewing the laid out Blue On Blue blocks together and it was going great…for a while anyway.

I knew I needed to orient the blocks the correct way so the seams would nest together. That was no problem, I flipped them all over so I could see the seams and every other row would be oriented either up or down.  I labeled the rows with pins very simply…one pin in the first block of row one, two pins in the second block of row one…etc. until about half of row one and two were stitched together then I moved on to row 3 and row 4 doing the same thing.





The piecing was coming along fine until I looked at the finished section.  The plan was to look like this.
 
The partial pieced center that I had just pieced looked like the photo below.  Can you spot the difference?

Well, if you don’t see the mistake on my pieced rows look at this diagram and notice how the corners are like an X instead of a box.  This diagram is one I considered as a plan for this quilt but didn’t like the way the lattice looking thin strips looked in the corners so chose the design above to use instead.

How did that happen as I had the blocks all laid out upside down to look like they did when they were right side up?  Not sure but my first theory is that I laid the first two blocks together and stitched them together on the opposite side and I thought I was being so methodical with how I picked them up to take them into the sewing room to stitch.  Of course I wanted to be consistent so I wouldn’t make any mistakes and kept up the same technique with all the rest of the portion I happily stitched together.  In actuality the problem was I was picking up the blocks back side up and when I was stitching them together I flipped them over to lay them right side up with the rest of the blocks already stitched.  Going from back side to front side they needed to be flipped to line up correctly ... alas the problem.

PS
(Just looked at the part I stitched again...the first pairs were put together with the backsides up then I would flip them over to the right sides to put them in rows.  Since I had marked them with pins I knew which was the first, second, etc. I just lined them up accordingly.  So the blocks would be put together with the wrong vertical sides together.  If I would have kept sewing them together with the wrong side up I would have been fine.  Confusing....right?)

In the afternoon when I was going to join more blocks together I was standing admiring my work from the day before and realized they just didn’t look right.  I tried to convince myself it was OK and would leave it that way but after looking at the diagram I had made in that configuration I just didn’t like it, especially the way it looked with the border blocks.

What to do, what to do?  I hate ripping and didn’t want to rip that many blocks apart so decided to take the outside row from the right side of the quilt and move them to the left side of the quilt and added those blocks to get the design to be “correct”.  I again had to look them over and make sure there were no identical blocks too close together and moved a few around but I am never sure I have them all separated as I keep seeing blocks that need to be moved but am satisfied it is good enough now.

I stitched on the new blocks then had a couple of phone calls and friends stop in this afternoon so that is where it sits for now.  I am or was trying to stitch the blocks into 4 chunks that will be joined after they “chunks” are stitched rather than long rows as I don’t want to sew that many long rows together.  This top section will be a little larger than I had originally planned but it will be fine now that it looks like it is supposed to.

Still like the plan and turning the blocks seam side up on the floor was a good idea a friend suggested.  She made the same quilt and had problems with the seams and getting them to “nest”.  I also still like the idea of marking rows with pins but will definitely be more careful with how I pick up the blocks and may put one pin in the seams that are to be stitched  to remember which side to stitch from now on.  I am carrying several sets of blocks from my living room to the sewing room and back after they are pressed another idea that is working.

Well…maybe I will have more progress to show you later.
Lynn

Blocks are Made

All the blocks are made now for the Scrappidy-Do-Dah quilt I am making.  I have named my version “Blue On Blue” and the final block count is 296.  If I would have known I was going to be making that many blocks at the beginning, to be honest, I am not sure I would have even started this quilt.  Here they are laid out on my living room carpet.
It helped that I went through the blue fabrics in my stash and cut 2 squares and two strips of each fabric before I even went to the workshop….I have a lot of blue fabric.  The squares and strips were stacked in a box so when I felt like sewing after the workshop was over all I had to do was pick up the pieces and start.  I could sew a few or more depending on how much time I had.   I did have to make about twelve more blocks from some of those same blues to get up to the 296.

Next on to stitching the blocks together.

Lynn

Leaning Tower of Blue Blocks

I sit down to sew when ever I have a chance and the pile of finished blocks is growing but by looking at how it is leaning I had better make two piles so I don’t have to pick them up off the floor.  There is satisfaction is seeing that stack grow little by little.

What is your guess….how many blocks finished now?  OK, I won’t make you wait just look at the photo below.

Yup, I have 250 done now! The pile of cut squares and strips is going down fast in my box.  I wonder if I will have enough to make a big quilt?  Still have not done any figuring yet, just enjoying the stitching, pressing and trimming.

Until Later,
Lynn

The Growing Stack of Blue Blocks

My stack of blue blocks is growing little by little even with not much time to sew.  I have been sewing them in groups of 10, then I press and trim the 10 before I move onto more sewing.

In case you can’t tell how many blocks I have finished just look at this close up photo.  Each time I have a new set of blocks finished and on the stack I cross out the old total number and write the new one so I don’t have to keep recounting.  I still don’t know how many I need or want to make but want to know so I can plug the numbers into the EQ7 program.

Lynn

Scrappity-Do-Dah

These are really easy blocks to make – cut a 6” square, cut it in half diagonally, sew a 1 1/2” x 8 1/2” wide strip between and square up.  I did make a goof when I cut my small strips as I cut them at 8” instead of 8 1/2” though but it wasn’t a problem I just squared my blocks a little smaller than some of the others did.  Follow the photos below to see how I made the blocks.

		Make a Block VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

One thing I don’t understand from the pattern is that the instructions say to trim the blocks down to 5”.  What a lot of fabric to trim off – a big waste I think.  I cut my center strip too short and still could trim mine down to 5 1/2”.  Others that made the correct size center strip trimmed their blocks to 6” and I did a little figuring and if you cut the center strip 9” long you could square up the block at 6 1/4”.  I can’t see wasting as much fabric as the pattern has you trim off.  If you want to a 5”  block the beginning square should be cut smaller than 6”.

I pressed my seams all one direction so hopefully when I put them together I should be able place the blocks about anywhere by just flipping it if the seams don’t work together.  That is the plan but will have to wait until I start putting them together to know if that will work or not.

I have 90 blocks done and don’t really know how many I will make – guess when I run out of blues maybe.  Looking at my box of blue fabric I don’t think I want to make that many, even though I would love to make a bigger dent in all those fabrics.

I am not rushing to get this quilt finished and think it will be a fun project to pick up and sew when I have just a few minutes as the blocks are so simple to make.

Lynn