Beading is Fun

I finished beading this needle case last night. Since there is an uneven design I had to watch my pattern closely and I ended up marking each row before I started it to help me keep on track. The fun thing about this needle case is that the pattern for the lid is just a continuation of the bottom so if it is closed tightly you can't tell where it is.

Posted this photo above in case some of you were not familiar with these beads or the size of the needle cases.

I can do this beading while watching TV as I have a lap board, clip on magnifying glasses and a bright light. I have found beading is pretty addictive, just like quilting, although I save it for evenings when I want to sit in my chair in the family room and relax and watch TV.

Don't know about the rest of you but I can not just sit and watch TV. I have to have something in my hands to do, especially during commercials. If I don't feel like doing any kind of needlework I will work on a Sudoko puzzle or have the laptop computer on my lap. Do any of you have to keep your hands busy when watching TV like I do?

One of our daughters and our two granddaughters are coming today - Yay, fun times! Since school is in fall break they all get the day off. Probably will not get any sewing done until next week now.

If it dries off we sure want to get out to the field to finish harvesting. Still have several weeks left to do, but thank goodness we have the soybeans finished and only have the corn left. It is making all the farmers worried as the season is getting late and we have had some snow already. The corn is still standing but a big snow storm could lay it flat. It isn't raining today but still overcast and damp out. We got about 1 1/2" of rain the last couple of days so just having the fields muddy will be a problem for a while unless we get some sun and warmer temp.

Usually our fall weather is dry with maybe an occasional shower and nothing like this year. Most years the crops dry down on their own so harvest can move right along with out drying in the bin. Most years we are about finishing up around now so you can see we are just not used to these delays.

Wow, just read what I wrote, I am getting as bad as the farmers around here - need to stop worrying and discussing it so much. It will get done eventually and you are all probably tired of my whining about it.

Happy, Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Seams......Which Way?

This is the block from the Scrapaholic class that I have been making over and over - not the exact same block but more blocks like this one. (Not sure what happened when I took this photo but this block really is square and isn't as wonky as it looks in the photo.)

I changed the pressing a little from the suggested method to make the seams on the outside all swirl around the block. Makes setting the blocks together much easier if you can butt the seams. Bonnie's method for doing this works too but I just like my method a little better.

I needed to make the seams all point clockwise around the block. As you can see from the back of the block below part of the one long seam needs to go the opposite direction as the rest of it.
The three intersections on the left need to be pressed up and the one on the right needs to be pressed down. If I pressed it flat like that, there would be a fold that would create a large lump where changed directions as it folded over.
My solution was to pop the seam, peeling back the seam allowance of the tan triangle and with the point of an iron pressing the intersection open. The rest of the fabric at that intersection should stay pressed up to keep that point on that half square triangle unit staying sharp.
Move the tip of the iron to the right, narrowing the top seam allowance as you get close to the outside point. The seam allowance stays flat with just a thin fold on the one side and with no large lumps to deal with. The points of the half square triangles are all pressed the direction they want to go too.
When seam allowances of points get folded back over themselves they tend to be less than sharp and make a large lump in the block that is almost impossible to press flat. Pressing my way keeps the all the points sharp. Does this make sense? It is hard to explain but hope the photos help you understand how I am pressing those seams.
Today was another day of no harvest for me. We had heavy fog this morning and John had a meeting so it was after lunch before John was ready to start. Big problem - the combine had a breakdown and he had to drive 1 1/2 hr. one way to get parts, drive home the 1 1/2 hr. and put the combine all back together again. By then it was after 4:30 pm. Our part time help was here by then and they finally got started. It is now almost 10 pm and they are still out in the field and I would imagine that they will stay as long as they can as we are supposed to get rain again tomorrow. This harvest is really getting long with so many weather delays and delays in the corn moisture drying down. At this rate we will still be harvesting at Thanksgiving.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Scrapaholic

What a wonderful time I had last Thursday through Saturday! Thursday night was our monthly quilt guild meeting and our guest speaker was Bonnie Kucera from Hickman, NE. She had a trunk show of scrap quilts, most of which were hand quilted. Wonderful designs and execution!

Bonnie came home with me after the meeting and stayed at my house until Saturday when we went to the workshop she gave for the guild. Bonnie and I have known each other for 40 years first meeting when we were in college when we lived in the same dorm. She was assigned to me as a "little sis" those many years ago. We re-connected through the Nebraska State Quilt Guild quite a few years ago.

While she was here I didn't have to go to the field so we talked, talked and talked. She got in on moving the guys to another field and even got to ride in the combine with John. The time went so fast it seemed.

The photo below is of the workshop project - Srapaholic. This is a larger version and the photo below is of Bonnie and a lap quilt size of the project. This was a great project to use up scraps and we traded fabrics with others in the class to increase the scrappy-ness of the blocks. The blocks are made six at a time with 6 fabrics. Each of the blocks has the fabric used in a different position as you can see from the set below. Bonnie had all kinds of little tricks to help make the block and to remember where and how the half square triangle blocks are positioned in each block.

To put the quilt together you need to have more of the sets done than I have but this is how the larger block will look when 4 are set together. Two of my blocks are from the same 6 fabrics.
These blocks are the same size as my Split 9 Patch blocks so wonder if they could be used together.....Hmmmm? Will try it out on my EQ6 program when I have a chance but right now I want to get back to stitching since I have the morning off.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

More Split 9 Patch Blocks

The few times I got a chance to sew last week I finished more of the split 9 patch blocks. I now have 60 done but think I need to have at least that many more to make a bed sized quilt. It is slow going with me being out in the field so much but I do enjoy the time I do get to sew these days.

Lynn