Cheers to Progress!

This is my glass right now, freshly refilled so I can drink while I sit and write this post. As I've been simplifying my kitchen, I opted to get rid of all of my regular glasses, and use these instead. These are actually beer glasses from Ikea, and they hold more liquid than my regular drinking glasses did. I bought 60 matching glasses like this when we had DS the Younger's wedding in our backyard.  We aren't big drinkers around here, so I wanted nice glasses for the wedding, but a decent size for lemonade and iced tea, and these were perfect. I decided to keep about two dozen of these glasses, and I donated the rest and all the other misc. glasses I had in the house. I'm really liking the change, I find these glasses easier to hold, no sweat rings since they are stemware, and I get to use a pretty glass instead of a plain one. Wondering if I have a wine problem? Nope, I fill the glass with water and top it off with about 2 tablespoons of apple juice. Sometimes I get tired of just water and that's enough juice to flavor the water without adding a bunch of calories or cost. A jug of apple juice lasts me a couple weeks. 

I donated all the plates I had bought for the wedding (which all came from thrift stores in the first place). I think DH has made three trips to the donation center in the last two weeks! To be fair, we got a lot more use out of the plates and glasses than I expected. We ended up having two weddings in our backyard, and I've lost count of all the showers I've thrown, both baby and bridal. Now that all my kids are married and done having kids, I feel like I can get rid of that fancy stuff. For family getting togethers I tend to use paper plates! 

DH tackled the dining area this week, and took out all the built in seating we had added years ago. Now that it's mostly just the two of us, we don't need that much seating, and usually when we have a houseful we eat outside. The weather is usually perfect for eating outside at Thanksgiving! 

We had used cabinets to make the built in seating, and when I decided I wanted to pull out the seating, I also decided to repurpose the cabinets. We had two great big corner cabinets in the dining area that we gave to a friend to use as a pantry, but all the rest we are using.  We had five cabinets to work with, in three different sizes. I wanted DH to make me a freestanding piece of furniture from three of the cabinets to put under some that were mounted on the wall. I did have three of the same size, but they were the smallest size, and when I auditioned them, I just didn't like it, they were too narrow compared to the ones mounted on the wall. I decided to try three different width cabinets pyramid style, and I liked the visual interest. 

The three cabinets are fastened to each other, and DH added feet to keep them off the floor. 

Now our dining area is much simpler, and I took the leaf out of the table so now we have a round table instead of oval. 

I had room in the corner for the china hutch that used to be in the living room with DH's scooter figurine collection in it. The collection is now in his office, in the other cabinets we took out of the living room.

Now the china hutch has my grandmother's china, and a few pieces of milk glass from my other grandmother. I had quite a bit of milk glass, and when I had two built in corner cabinets I had plenty of room to store it. DD#3 wanted my milk glass collection, so I packed it up for her, and I got rid of lots of misc. pieces of glassware, until I could easily fit what remained in the top of this china hutch. The bottom has kids craft supplies for the grandkids! 

I used to have a LOT of kitchen antiques, and I've whittled it down considerably. I kept some stuff that's been handed down, and a few key items so I still have some antiques present, but I cut down on the volume. I think it gives a similar feel, but less clutter. 

Built-in seating was definitely the way to go when we had a houseful, but I was ready for a change, and for the price of four furniture feet, I have a new storage piece, a completely revamped dining area, and DH can even repurpose the boards we had covered to make cushioned seating.  

My week hasn't been all purging and household stuff. I finished the top of the giraffe quilt, pieced the backing, basted it and the two doll quilts I had made, and I'm almost finished quilting the giraffe quilt!

I did snap a photo of the quilt top before I basted it. I thinks it's really cute! Yup, there's a mistake in it, and if you find it, good eye! I had to fix several mistakes in this quilt that really looked wrong, but the last one didn't bother me enough to fix it. I can tell I'm don't usually follow patterns, because I had to do a lot of unsewing on this quilt! 

I got this baby quilt all assembled too. It's a good size as it is, so I won't be adding a border. 

We don't have any other imminent house changes planned, DH is anxious to get his wood shop set up. Electricity gets run to the shed next week, then the work for DH really starts! He's got tools to buy, he plans on building a workbench and tool storage himself, so that will be an ongoing project. 

I have designed an island for my fabric room, that he'll be making me when he gets the chance. I'm anxious to get it, but I can wait until he has more time. I've got LOTS to keep me busy in the meantime!

What Goes Up! Must Come Down

What a week! Last weekend we had our youngest grandson for the weekend, and we had a blast!

His favorite activities of the weekend was either going back forth between Nana and Pappy or this...

He figured out he could turn my lamp on and off and he thought it was quite magical.

I did indeed take a rest day after he left, and my week has been pretty busy with non-sewing stuff. DH is off this week, and although he was busy, just him being home throws me off schedule. Don't get me wrong, I love him being around, it's just hard for me to do the things I normally do when he's at work. It's not because he prevents me, but I just can't get my act together. 

This is the quilt I was working on last week. I've got it into columns now, but haven't sewn those together. 

I'm working on the giraffe quilt, but I made a mistake on all four heads, so there was some murmuring and gnashing of teeth while I unsewed and fixed that. The head is correct in this photo. I have parts of the body done, but it's not sewn into a chunk yet. Hopefully I'll get to work on that tomorrow.

Today I had a BIG distraction! The shed DH ordered to be his woodworking shop arrived. It's a beast, it came fully assembled, and because of where the power lines run, they had to use a crane and lift it over our house!

The truck with the shed and the crane.

The crane setting up in our driveway.

Going up!

Starting over the house.

Please don't hit the chimney!

Right where DH wanted it in the back corner of the yard! The shed is 12x16 ft, so it's a good size, but since it will be workshop, anything smaller wasn't really going to work. We don't have a garage and have no way to add one. 

Our backyard is quite large by Tucson standards, and we still have plenty of backyard space. We need to set up all my metal flowers again in new locations, but not today. It was 106 degrees when they delivered the shed, and DH and I had to keep putting ice packs on our phones just to be able to take photos. The phones were overheating, and honestly, so was I. When the weather finally cools off, and we aren't setting record high temps, Then I'll get the patio cleaned up and get my metal flowers all situated in their new places. 

We plan to put a barn quilt on the side of the shed. Since it will be a woodshop, we've decided a Carpenter's Star will be perfect! That's a project for cooler weather as well. 

DD#1 took this photo on their homestead a couple hours away from here. I thought it was an amazing photo, and really wanted to share it with you! Nothing like being able to see exactly where it's raining!

Infinite New Starts

My plan this year has been to work on UFO's, bust scraps, and make deadline quilts (gifts for occasions). I'm using UFO's for my deadline quilts when I can, and when I can't, I'm allowing those new starts, trying to use stash but even buying new if I need anything.  Other that that, new starts must be scrap based to get my fabric stash where I want it to be. 

I have spent a good portion of 2019 and 2020 working on busting my scraps. My scraps have gone down considerably, but not gone by any means. The thing is, everything I make makes more scraps, so I've realized that  by concentrating on using scraps, I actually have the possibility of infinite new starts! Maybe if I hadn't fallen way behind on using scraps, I wouldn't be here, but I bet a lot of quilters are in the same place. I haven't tackled my strings at all, I still have three sizes of strips to use, and I have ongoing leader/ender projects with smaller squares. 

My biggest current project is making quilts from my late sister's clothes, and I'm saving the scraps for right now in case I miscounted. When I'm done I'll be tossing all the clothing scraps, so at least that won't add to my scrap stash. Well, if I have any denim left I'll probably add it to my denim stash, so maybe a small addition...

In this pic I have the pieces for two rag quilt from her shirts, which I haven't started sewing at all. I finished all the pieced blocks for her husbands quilt, and that's the pile in front. I'll be getting that onto the design wall as soon as I have a chance. 

The last quilt that was on the design wall is now a completed top, and it's hanging in the quilt closet. I love it when I get to make a quilt that is all scraps, with no yardage used at all. 

I made a couple doll quilt tops this week too. The HST's in the bright colored top were bonus HST's from a quilt I made about 8 years ago! For some reason they didn't get put where I normally put bonus HST's, so when I found them earlier this week, I whipped them up into a doll quilt. Christmas will be here before I know it, and I have a couple granddaughters that could use a doll quilt. The green/purple/white doll quilt came about because when I was cutting my big scrap squares that were languishing into smaller squares I use on a regular basis, I realized I had a lot of squares in those two fabrics. They matched pretty well, so I took them to my studio cutter, used the QST die, and cut these blocks in nothing flat. 

I had a bunch of black larger squares as well, and I combined them with a couple charm packs I had hanging around, and I'll get a baby quilt out of it. I've already got that quilt into rows, but I'll put up a pic when I've got the top done. 

I was supposed to be working on the giraffe baby quilt this week, which I didn't work on at all! The mess in my sewing room hit critical mass for me, and I couldn't stand it anymore. I had too much stuff out, so I put several projects away. I sewed up what I could, which resulted in the above quilt tops, plus the one I didn't show that's in rows. The giraffe baby quilt has all the pieces on a nice tray now, and the quilts from my sister's clothes are still out but at least they are piled more neatly now. Once I get the baby quilt finished those quilts are my next priority.

I can only stand so much mess before it completely derails my progress. I always work on multiple quilts at once, so I'm used to that, but I probably had 15 projects in view, and some of those I likely won't work on again until 2021. It was time for a clean up. My favorite way to clean my sewing room is to finish projects, or at least get them to quilt top stage and hang them in the walk in closet. With Christmas ideas in the back of my head, I knew so much of what was out wouldn't realistically get worked on anytime soon, so I feel better having put some projects away, even knowing they'll be UFO's. 

It was a good time for a clean up, because I won't be sewing the next few days. Tomorrow morning I need to go get a new cell phone. Mine is four years old and can't hold a charge. I even tried a new battery, but it's not much better. It's just time to bite the bullet and get a new one. I already ordered it, I just have to go pick it up and have the data transferred. 

Tomorrow afternoon I'll get one of my grandsons, who is 1, and a granddog for the whole weekend! I'll be having fun playing Nana all weekend, but won't be sewing, and my guess is I'll need Monday to recuperate, so I doubt I'll be back in the sewing room until Tuesday. I have a few little things I could do upstairs after the little one is in bed, IF I have the energy to do any of that. I'm not going to pressure myself, I'd rather just enjoy my weekend with the little guy! 

Fudging It

 I know I'm not the only one who does some fudging while quilting. It may be easing in a block that's a smidge too big, or swapping thread colors in the middle of FMQ because you were sure you had enough of that color, but you didn't. 

This weeks round of fudging was a bit different. 

I knew I was cutting it close on whether this piece of fleece was large enough for the back of this quilt. Turns out it wasn't quite large enough, and when I basted it I had the top a little crooked compared to the back, so it accentuated the problem on opposite corners. I had hoped the 1/2" binding I normally use would cover any selvage that showed, but since I went crooked, that wasn't going to work. The worst sections were still under an inch of selvage showing, but 1/2" wasn't enough. I had no more of this fleece, that's why I cut it so close to begin with. I have other red fleece, but it's not the same color, nor quite the same weight, and honestly, I just didn't want to piece another bit of fleece on and have a thick seam right near the binding. 

What would you have done? I opted for 1" binding, even knowing I hadn't put a border on the quilt, so it would cover up some of the piecing. 

Here's that same section after I machine sewed the binding on. No selvage showing, but what about the front?

Even with 1" binding, I feel like there is enough color around the edges that the blocks look fine. Someone with a higher perfection quotient than I have may not agree, and that's OK. 

When I am trying to decide whether to genuinely fix something on a quilt, or whether to fudge it, I take several things into account. 

1) What stage am I at? 

If I put in a unit oriented incorrectly, and I'm at block stage, I'm going to get out the seam ripper and fix it every time. 

If I've got the top together, and I notice a mistake, I ask myself a few more questions before I decide. Where in the top is the mistake? If it's at the edge and easily fixable, I'll fix it. If it's in the center and will be a pain to fix, I try to decide how noticeable the mistake is. Most of the time, I will fix it at this point, unless it's simply not that noticeable. I've learned you don't have to disassemble the whole quilt to fix one section. 

Once the quilt is basted, then it has to be a pretty big deal for me to fix it. If I basted in a fold, that I'll fix, but if one four patch is oriented incorrectly??? If it's a small quilt I might fix it, but a freshly basted king sized quilt??? It depends on several things. The rest of the questions apply to a quilt I am currently quilting as well. The further I am along in the process, the more likely I am to fudge something instead of redoing it. 

2) Does my mistake affect the structural integrity of the quilt? If I have a seam coming open, I'll be fixing that. If I notice a hole in a piece of fabric, I will either replace the piece, or applique another piece over the top of the damaged piece. If my backing was short and I have batting showing, I'll be adding onto the backing. In the quilt above, the selvage covered the batting just fine, there was no structural issue. It was just an aesthetic issue. 

3) What is the purpose of the quilt? I don't enter quilt shows so that's a never a consideration. I do, however, give a lot of quilts as gifts. If it's a baby quilt and not that noticeable, babies don't care and I'm not as likely to fix it. A wedding quilt for someone's bed? That will tilt me towards fixing it correctly. I once sewed pieced borders onto a quilt incorrectly TWICE in a row! I took them off, and fixed it, because the pieced borders finished the design in the center of the quilt. I do have some exceptions to fixing mistakes in important quilts. I don't know how many times I've noticed while quilting WOW fabrics that I put in the fabric upside down. I figure if I couldn't tell it was upside down while I was piecing and pressing, the new owner will likely never notice. The quilt above is a scrap utility type quilt. Whoever end up with it will likely use it while watching tv, they'll spill snacks on it, their pets will be all over it, yeah, using wider binding is not something I'm going to lose any sleep over for that quilt. 

I'm always quite up front about my "Finished Is Better Than Perfect" attitude. If I had decided that this quilt had to be correctly repaired, when I didn't realize the backing was crooked until after I was largely finished the quilting, chances are, this quilt would never have been finished. I didn't have any more of the backing fleece, there was no way I would have ripped out all the quilting, so I would have stuck it in the back of a closet somewhere, unfinished, until someday I either tossed it or finally decided wide binding wasn't a shameful thing after all. I feel better knowing it's finished now, instead of being on a to do list and taking up head space for ages.

 Now I'll tell you what went right with this quilt! It was my first time doing walking foot quilting on my M7, and it went great! The M7 has an even feed system that you can engage, and after I figured out how to do that, it was fantastic! I decided to do a simple 60 degree crosshatch on this quilt. 

I had that fleece backing, and a mid loft poly batting, I had NO puckers or gathering, even when crossing previous quilting lines. 

I like crosshatching a quilt occasionally. It always looks nice, I only have to mark the first diagonal line in each direction (which I use painter's tape to mark) and I just use the guide on the foot to sew all the other lines. 

In this photo you can see the quilting better. When I first started quilting anything besides SITD, this was my go to quilting design. It's a classic look, and easy for beginners. Walking foot quilting is something I've been more interested in lately too, because when my arm is sore, it's easier for me to use a walking foot and not stress my arm as much. 

Per usual, I have several other projects going on.

These are some of the first blocks for my BIL's quilt made from my late sister's clothes. The inner squares are from her shirts, the frames around those from her pants. I have about 1/4 of the blocks made for his quilt. 

I cut out the baby quilt I've been needing to work on. I've got the giraffe necks and legs pieced, now to work on the heads and bodies. 

In my ongoing effort to simply my scrap system, I pulled out all the 4.5" and 6.5" squares I had that were not novelty fabrics, and I'm cutting them down into 2" squares. I routinely use 4.5" and 6.5" squares in I Spy quilts, but I realized I wasn't really using anything but the novelty squares in those sizes.   I have several patterns using smaller squares I piece on a regular basis, so I think my focus is going to be on 2" and 2.5" squares for scrap cutting for a while. I decided on 2" squares for these because then I only have 1/2" waste from each larger square. 

Now that the only size of flannel scraps I'm keeping is 4.5" squares, I think I'll use those more effectively, and I can put them in the drawer I had been keeping the regular quilting cotton 4.5" squares. I've been cutting burp rags recently, and throwing away any scrap I can't get a 4.5" square out of is both freeing and terrifying. I am so used to trying to use every bit of fabric, that it feels weird to toss it, but at the same time, I know I'm not likely to use it any time soon either, so it's just taking up space. I don't use flannel in string quilts or crumb blocks, and I've been giving all my crumbs to my craft loving sister anyway. I don't think she'd use crumbs of flannel either, so I'm trying to get used to my new simplified scraps, which I'm hoping will take up far less space! I have lots of fabric, and although I love my scraps, and making scrap quilts, I'm not going to live forever, so it's good time to refresh my thinking about what I actually use.