The First Quarter!

My first 25 of  the hundred blocks of the Tula Pink City Sampler. Finished and posted on time on my Instagram....I've even figured out how to use it.

I started out trying to limit myself to greens and purples with some pinks and other accent colors so it wouldn't get too boring.  I still have lots of green fabrics left but they are mostly solids.  I'm digging deep in the bins to find more greens and purples.  It's a very good thing that most of these patterns will take very small pieces of fabrics.

We've moved on from crosses and blocks 16 through 35 feature rectangles.  Then on to triangles.


Linking with Busy Hands Quilts

Quilty 365 Progress

When I last posted, I had completed my August and September blocks.  I did get about 3/4 of the way through October before I quit.  I simply ran out of fabrics!  I would have had to duplicate existing circles or make the 4" circles out of two or three fabrics.  I do like that look and have several in my quilt but it wouldn't have worked for my planned layout.  For December, I had decided to do the entire month with Christmas fabrics plus some red and greens and make a wall hanging for that month alone.  Those are still pinned in a pile by my machine.  Next July, I promise!  I'm going to devote that month to finishing all the Christmas projects I've started for the past several years.

I have the quilt put together, except for the outer borders.  I'm working on those now....hoping that my vision will work out without too many problems. This will include all of my circles except for December. One immediate problem is that I've lost a month of circles!  I knew that I would....I just have to remember/find where I put them for safekeeping!  Here is what it looks like without the 6" wide borders.

On a sad note, my local sewing repair shop has gone out of business.  The Kent Super Sew and Vac was there for about 45 years and was extremely knowledgeable about vintage machines.  He hated my big box Brothers but when I walked in and asked for a belt for a Morse Super Dial, he went right to a drawer and pulled out the proper belt and asked what color machine I had found.  He also had a very large collection of Featherweights.  I shall miss that shop!

linking with busyhandsquilts for finish or not Friday and
Crazy Mom Quilts

Starting Over

Quite a few of my circles for the Quilty 365 project have come from charms and fat quarters which leave a small scrap too big to toss out.  In an effort to use these up and improve my skills, I surfed and found the Lazy Girl variation of the Single Girl quilt.  Perfect!  Practice in curves, uses lots of scraps and something a bit different since it was popular about six years ago...way before I started quilting.

I decided to make four squares...a complete circle to try it out.  In the process, I've learned several things.
1.  a quarter inch difference in matching the centers equals about 3/4 inch off in the sides.
2.  I'm going back to my apparel sewing technique of marking the wrong side of solid fabrics with
     blackboard chalk.
3.  Actually sewing the curve was not a problem...just like setting in a sleeve.
4.  I really, really need more accuracy in pattern drafting
5.  trying to figure out which way to slant a seam for an angle is really hard if you have no spatial            ability at all.

Back to the drafting table for another try!

The solid is Kona cotton Valentine.

Linking with Em's Scrabag