Starting on the Backlog

I've finally started sewing on a wedding quilt! I am SOOOO far behind on wedding quilts! Five to make and four of those couples already married! No matter how much I want to sew, getting back in the habit of sewing long hours is hard. Interruptions are still a regular occurrence too, life hasn't calmed down as much as I thought it would.

At any rate, I've gotten some units for the first wedding quilt done!

I have so many different colorways of units to make, I'm actually using my leader/ender project to keep the different colorways separate. When I am doing flip and sew corners, I like to use a flip and sew corner leader/ender project. One of my new scrap projects needs Flying Geese units in sets of eight, so I'm using those as my leader/enders right now.

Since I need sets of eight for the Flying Geese, I'm actually using an entire set as my leader/ender. See the chain of Flying Geese at the end of my chain piecing? I'm double sewing all of my flip and sew corners, so I'll have plenty of bonus HST's to play with.

Here are my bonus HST's so far. I'm keeping the sizes separate, and I will press them at a later date. Right now I am sewing as much as I can before I have to press, then my goal is to keep my iron on as little time as possible. Temps have been in the 110's, and anything that heats the house is not welcome.

Here is my progress on the next colorway.  Notice that double sewing so I can just cut between the lines of sewing and my bonus HST's are ready.

My Flying Geese are starting to pile up too! I'll sew these into blocks when I get to the nine patch portion of this quilt.

I LOVE bonus HST's, and I will do flip and sew corners just to get them, even if it's just as easy to use a ruler and use less fabric. Bonus HST's are just so much fun to play with, and when I sew them like this, it feels like I get an extra quilt from nothing. I know in my head it's just as much sewing, but it FEELS like less.

I always have so many ideas running through my head for bonus HST's, and for this wedding quilt, I am debating using all the bonus HST's from the front on the back to make a double sided quilt. I based my color choices on some fabrics that likely won't be used on the front, because of the pattern I chose. I could use all those fabrics on the backing, and with some creative thinking make a really cool backing. The bonus HST's could work in there just fine.

I'm not sure I've ever shown it here, but because I do flip and sew corners so often, and most of my quilts are scrappy, I usually have my clipboard case full of neutral or blacks squares ready to draw lines on. Here is my case

I usually have a piece of paper clipped onto it so I don't draw all over it while drawing lines. I use mechanical pencils so I don't have to worry about sharpening on the go (or white or silver markers if I'm marking black fabric) I keep this little ruler in the case, along with an assortment of Bonus buddies cut to various sizes. I use template plastic for my bonus buddies, cut them into different sized squares, then cut them diagonally. I get two bonus buddies from each square of template plastic. When I'm working with 2.5 inch squares, I like to use my 1.75 inch bonus buddy, so I draw the first line diagonally on each square with the ruler, then I fit my bonus buddy into one corner, and draw the second sewing line. I know some people use a 2" bonus buddy on 2.5 inch squares, but I don't like cutting the seam short. I often do 16 patches with the bonus HST's, which finish into a 5" square when using 1.75" HST's.

Here is my case open. When I finish marking all these squares, I'll cut another batch, not necessarily the same size or colors, and then start marking those. This case goes with me on long car trips, hotels, or anyplace I'm going to have down time and need something to do. When I wanted to do a Flying Geese leader/ender project, I didn't have to mark anything, because I had already marked enough squares for the project ahead of time. I'm usually thinking a dozen or more quilts ahead, and being able to do some of the tedious stuff ahead of time makes the time seem to go faster when I actually start the project.

There will be no sewing for me the next three days at least. My schedule is completely full of family events. I may get a few more units sewn up tonight, but I'm pretty sore from sewing all day. I may just put on a movie and draw diagonal lines on the last of the squares that need them for this quilt. If I have time, I'll draw lines on some the squares in my case.