Back to the Split 9 Patch

Last fall I made many 6" split 9 patch blocks from my stash fabric, some of it I have had since the 1980s. You can read about making them here and here. I got got busy helping with harvest and then took the Scrapaholic class and put the blocks aside for a while. Today I got them out and laid them on my living room floor. What to do, make more or just finish it? I decided I didn't want to make any more of the blocks so now am stitching the 63 blocks together in a 7 block by 9 block formation.

I did have a problem though....look at the two blocks below. The design I chose has the blocks coming together like this. See the problem?

When I made the blocks I pressed the half square triangles open then pressed the block seams the way I thought they should go since at that time I didn't know how I was going to put them together. The problem now is that I have sets of seams that will not nest together like is the optimum way of piecing.

I sure didn't want to try seaming them and having a lump where every seam is as they tend to get pushed along by the presser foot and then the intersections don't meet. I sure wasn't going to rip every block and re-press them either so decided to go ahead and piece them together the best I could.

I did come up with a solution that seems to be working for me though. First I line up the two blocks to be stitched together. Where the two seems meet and go the same direction I flip the top one back and nestle the seams together as if they were pressed in opposite directions. See example below.

I next pined the bottom seam and the top block together as if the seams were pressed in opposite directions. I let the top seam stay un-pinned.

This is what it looks like after it is pinned - notice the top seam is not pinned to anything.

Here is one set of blocks pinned together ready for stitching.

The next step is stitching. I stitched the seams together like I normally do and when I came to the un-pinned flapping seam allowance I just held it down with my stilletto and stitched over it the way it had been pressed. I am not sure why this is working but I have not had any problem with the seams creeping and sliding apart as you can see from this closeup photo of some of the seams. I am wondering if it is working because the pin is holding the two blocks together and there is not a huge lump caused by pinning all the layers together like I normally do.

The seams do press down just fine after stitching too. I just know I am so grateful it is working! If you ever get in a jam like this sometime give this a try and see if it works for you.

I have had a wonderful day of sewing without any interruptions today. John had to be gone all day to a meeting so I took advantage of the quiet and big block of time to sew. I didn't have to have the TV turned on blasting a news show or cowboy movie and I didn't have to cook. (During the winter John spends a lot of time in the office/sewing room catching up on paper work and flips on the TV in the room.) I like to listen to audio books or listen to the quiet as I sew. We are still trying to work out a compromise when we are both working.

When we lived in the house we moved from 5 years ago we shared an office and sewing room - no problem - so we decided to do the same here. The difference is this....at the old house John would leave to do his farming thing over here where his parents lived and would come home at noon and then again in the evening. Now that we live here on the "home place" he is always here and pops in and out of the house all the time. I am still trying to get used to that as I was used to blocks of time with no one coming and going before. This isn't a huge problem but days when I have no interruptions like today are like a mini retreat.

Until Later,
Lynn

Around the Twist Finished

I am calling this quilt done! Not my finest work but with a UFO this old I am just glad it is finished. I measured and measured the excess backing fabric I had and came up short about 8" no matter how I figured so could not cut it off to make the binding from it. I have never just folded the backing over to the front for a binding before and don't think I will ever do it again. I found it to be too stretchy and hard to get even. It is done now, thank goodness but was a big pain in the neck. The outside is a little wobbly but after working with it for a while I decided I had better quit as it was getting worse.

I did miter the corners of the binding so it sort of looks like regular binding. Was tricky to get the miter - had to trim out extra bulk to make the folds and fiddle with it quite a bit on each corner. I did machine stitch the folded edge with a small blanket stitch.

I have been asked what I used for batting (Hobbs cotton ) and what quilting thread I used (Bottom line on the top and bobbin). You might ask why I used these products....to give you the simple answer they are what I had here on hand at home. I wanted to start quilting on this piece right away so just pulled my thread stash out and picked out what I thought was the best choice.

As far as the batting goes when I basted this piece I was again not going shopping and thank goodness I found a piece of batting that was large enough so used it. Seems like I am never planning ahead to get my thread and/or batting and when you live an hour away from the closest quilt shop sometimes it is a little inconvenient to say the least.

OK, now what am I going to do with this quilt? I don't have a clue! It is too small for a lap quilt unless a nursing home might want it for a person in a wheel chair. It really doesn't go with the decor in my house either. All I can say tonight is thank goodness IT IS DONE!!!

Until Later,
Lynn

Sun Dogs

I had intended to post these photos of the Sun Dogs the day I photographed them but got distracted and now it is 3 1/2 weeks later and I am finally showing them to you. We were having blowing of some new snow the morning of Jan 7th. The sun was out and the snow crystals in the atmosphere caused the partial circle of the Sun Dog.

As the sun climbed higher in the morning the circle was more complete and we could see it until almost noon. The colors were so pretty, just like a rainbow. I would look at it with my thumb over the actual sun so I wouldn't ruin my eyesight to see the colored circle as I've been told to never look directly at the sun because it can damage your eyesight. Is this true or an old wives tail?

There were photos in the newspaper that other people took and most of the time they positioned something over the area where the sun was. One photo had a statue located at a local college surrounded by the pretty Sun Dog. I didn't want to bundle up and find something here on the farm to obscure the sun so I just stepped out on my front porch to snap my photos - sun and all.

Until later,
Lynn

Around the Twist - Quilting Done

38"x 46 1/2"

Finished the quilting on this Around the Twist UFO and now am trying to figure out what to bind it with. Have not found any of the fabrics used on the front and so far have not found any of the backing. I am considering/figuring out if I have enough of the backing on the outside of my quilt to cut off and make binding or if I will just have to fold it over from the back to make the binding. I guess I just need to measure the length of strips I can get after cutting them off and carefully measure how much length I will need to go around the quilt to see which method I will choose.

I quilted an undulating feather design in the navy border and kind of a hook like feathered shape for the corners. The photos of this quilt really don't capture the colors of the fabrics very well. The orange looking fabric is really kind of a burgundy color and the outside blue/navy is really a dark blue that almost looks black. Have tried all kinds of settings on my camera and in Photoshop Elements to get the color correct and it just isn't happening.

Lynn