Catching Up!

Here are my City Sampler blocks 1-36 all together!  Frankly, I didn't think that I would last this long but they have all been done and posted on the correct days.  Block 44 will be posted to my Instagram today!  I wanted to get them all so that I could check my colors and get an idea of how they would all look together since  I'm not planning on using sashing in the finished quilt. Some blocks are better than others and some really highlight my inability to sew a straight line.  I've had some help in that direction from my sewing machine..I've been noticing that the feed dogs are grabbing the end of the fabric and jerking it out of alignment. Wednesday I'm getting with Amazon for a new one...nothing really expensive but an upgrade from what I've got now.

I'm still working on my Anthology quilt and I'll be making stars for my Sweet Land of Liberty quilt today.  Hopefully more pictures and progress will be posted later this week.  It's been so hot here that it has been a real effort to do anything.  I know everyone else has also been dealing with the heat but we are so unused to it here.  I had to laugh at a recent article in the Seattle Times newspaper...Seattle is the most un-airconditioned city in the US.

Linking with Em's Scrapbag

Slow Progress

One of the joys of doing a sew along after it has finished is that you can do the blocks in the order that you want, so this is actually the first block of the Anthologie quilt but the fifth for me.  I should have left it for last...some blocks just don't want to get made!  I had no problems with the center nine patch then found that the side panels just wouldn't work.  One was about a quarter inch off but the other was over a half inch off.   The other two, not sewn yet, were about the same.  I took pieces apart, remeasured, retrimmed and was about to recut the blue panels when I decided to let it rest for a while.  That did work!  After redoing several of the HST because I put them on backwards, three of the panels went on with no problems.  The fourth side has a small half inch seam allowance.  I still have no idea of where I went wrong.

These are my flying geese panels.  No problems with them and the vine panel is waiting for me to get matching thread for the applique.  So far, all the fabrics used have been from my stash...nothing bought specifically for this quilt.

Linking with Moving it forward Monday and Monday Making

Anthologie Quilt

Several months ago, while browsing blogs, I ran across a sew along from BariJ of Art Gallery Fabrics and Melissa of Southern Charm Quilts.  It featured what they are calling a Boho style sampler quilt.  It seemed to require a lot of fabrics and the sew along was almost finished.  I saved all the downloads and listed it as something I'd like to try in the future.  When I moved, I did find fabrics that I thought might be suitable and set them aside.  The blocks include different techniques such as applique and dresden plates as well as straight piecing.

One of the techniques is fabric collage.  About 2004, I bought Rosemary Eichorn's book The Art of Fabric Collage and made two vests using her techniques...probably the most fun I've had sewing!  So that discovery moved the quilt up on my do to list.

The posts and patterns are still available here, at Southern Charm Quilts.

I started at the top with the Dresden Plate section.  Instead of plain fabrics, two of my blocks are from a vintage card table cloth that was so stained at the folds that it was unusable but I really liked the dogwood pattern.  It still needs more Dresdens and the ones there are pinned on. Shown is half the fabric collage section with a pinned doily  and flower along with an embroidered piece.  I'm planning on adding more from dish towels and other embroidered pieces but I want to wait until I've done some of the piecing and see what colors I want to pick up.

I see that I may have to take off the top right block and send it through the washing machine!  Those creases aren't apparent IRL and it has been steamed and ironed!  Sorry about the shadows.

I've run across a problem with some fabric and I don't know how to deal with it.  I bought a jelly roll of fabrics and they are fraying very badly.  Even though I trimmed the threads before I sewed threads kept coming off.  They wrapped around the presser foot and now are inside my featherweight's bobbin assembly and I need to dismantle and clean since the machine has jammed.  I hate to toss them all out since I sew on a budget but that's probably cheaper than machine repair bills!  Any suggestions on dealing with them?  Here's a picture if you can see them....more come off as they are handled...I think it's excessive or am I wrong?

Linking with Oh Scrap
Monday Making