On to block two / Musical sewing machines

I cut out and marked the second block of my Civil War repro quilt yesterday, but also spent time playing musical sewing machines so I'd be all set to go when I completed the hand piecing part of this block.

I've been a sewing machine collector for many years, started when I bought my first Singer Featherweight and joined the online FWFanatics email digest, a group that made me think it was normal to own multiple sewing machines, but I eventually stopped counting just how many machines I own when it began to appall even me.

I don't use many of my old machines anymore, though, prefer to sew on my new (to me) machines, like my Pfaff 1473 for machine piecing, my Bernina 1230 for machine quilting, and my Bernina 170 for some machine sewing and also machine embroidery projects.

I like to leave my machines set up and ready to go when I am since I know I'd be less likely to sew if I had to take the time to get things ready when I wanted to start sewing, so I also own multiple sewing machine cabinets, but I put different machines in different cabinets depending on what type of sewing I am doing.

At the moment, I have my Pfaff set up in the living room (where it's nice and warm!) so I can piece my quilt blocks on that.

 I moved my Bernina 1230 up into my son's old room where I have lots of space to sew and can work on either a larger quilt or one of my clothes sewing projects (note the "vintage" computer in the background!).

I have my Bernina 170 set up with its embroidery unit attached on top of yet another cabinet in case I want to do machine embroidery, but since my embroidery software and reader/writer box no longer work with my new computer, I may not be using this machine for a while.

I have plenty of other projects to work on, though, esp. my Civil War repro BOM quilt, which is finally moving towards completion after waiting patiently in its box for so many years.

One block done!

After finishing the hand piecing on the half square triangles for my Civil War repro UFO, I used a sewing machine to complete the block since my hands are too old and sore to do that much hand work anymore.

Unfortunately, I ran into problems when working on the machine that I keep in a cabinet in my LR (the only room in our house that is warm at all this time of year), a Bernina 170 that I just never bonded with, and after yesterday's experience, I can see why, since the presser foot pushes the top layer so much that the blocks ended up 1/8" off at the end of each seam, however I didn't want to use a walking foot since it's hard to get an accurate 1/4" seam that way.

I decided to finish sewing the block on the Pfaff 1473 that I have set up in my son's old BR since I love its built in walking foot and that worked much better, but in moving the pieces upstairs halfway through the project, things got turned around and I had to not only rip out one row, but also the blocks in that row (photo taken after I'd done some unsewing).

I also discovered when using a seam ripper on those pieces that even though this fabric came from a quilt shop and is supposedly part of the Harriet Hargrave collection (at least the dark prints have that written on their seam allowances), the light fabric frayed so badly that I hardly have any seam allowance at all left in one area.

I finally managed to sew the block together properly, though, and it's now on my wall with the 7 other CWR (from now on my abbreviation for Civil War Repro) blocks that I made sometime in the past. 

Think the main thing I learned from this experience, other than to not use my Bernina 170 for piecing, is that I shouldn't wait so much time to complete a project in the future since I'd probably have sewn the pieces together properly if I'd kept on going back when I'd gotten into the rhythm of this block. Oh well, one new block down, 16 more to go...

Start of the DaGMT (even though it's not yet February!)

I often decide that really simple things "count" as doing something creative, but since I started keeping a journal, I have tried each day to do something to write about, even if it's only reading instructions or a book, watching a how to video, etc., but I guess that does make my sewing projects a bit easier when I finally tackle them since I have a better idea what I am doing.

I did actually do something on my old Civil War repro quilt project on Saturday, though, I cut out enough pieces to make one of the blocks and then marked sewing lines on those pieces since I plan to hand piece some of this block, same as I did the 7 blocks of the quilt that I already completed. Since I think I have 18 more of these blocks to go, I may end up machine sewing them together, esp. since I have other UFOs I want to tackle this year.

I also went through my quilt books this weekend, trying to find the Jinny Beyer book on hand piecing (a very well done book) that I thought I owned and finally found (Quiltmaking by Hand), and I also discovered that the free Jinny Beyer Craftsy Block of the Month for 2015 which I recently signed up for has a great video which shows just how she does her hand piecing, so I did a bit of that on my Civil War block yesterday.

Fabric choices

Think it's interesting that with all the modern fabrics out there today that I am still drawn to the Civil War repros in my old BOM kits, fabrics like the ones that I used for so many years making all those tiny little Dear Jane blocks, but I think I find these fabrics kind of calming while modern prints are anything but.

Guess there's a time and place for everything tho, and perhaps my next quilt project will be more modern since those fabrics and styles appeal to me too, just in a different way, and I kind of like the idea of alternating a UFO with a new quilt project this year. First have to finish ONE project though...

My DaGMT plan for February

Since my Civil War repro blocks are my favorite of my UFO projects, I think that is going to be the one I tackle in Feb.

I first have to cut out and then piece the rest of the fabric that I got when I started that project in 2011 (amazingly enough, my most recent UFO!) but I think the quilt's setting will be determined by how many blocks I end up with since I want a new quilt for my couch and have decided that a twin sized quilt works best because I need to be fully covered in my super cold house. 

I think I will make this quilt as a quilt as you go project since I have a lot of Civil War repro fabric left from my Dear Jane block days and think it would be neat if my quilt were reversible with a different repro fabric on the back of each block. I also find it very difficult to machine quilt a large quilt on my home machine, but don't want to pay someone to do my quilting for me. First things first, though...

It was overwhelming to see all the projects that I have to work on once I started digging things out of my boxes, but as I learned back in my FlyLady days, it's best to take baby steps and focus on one thing at a time, so that's what I am going to do, and working for 20 minutes a day as part of this challenge is a great way to do that!

Yet more BOMs...

I once made a calendar holder with a place for a quilt block on top from an old Quiltmaker's magazine, think maybe in the late 1990s, and as a result, I  made a block a month for a very long time so have a huge collection of unfinished blocks.

My last post focused on the smaller, older block sets, while the ones in this entry are more recent (in my world) and hopefully are big enough to turn into lap sized quilts that I might actually use.


The first blocks were part of another year long BOM class at a local quilt shop that is no longer in business, where I believe each month you received the pattern and fabric for a block for a minimal fee and also had a class on how to make each block. Don't have a record of when these blocks were made, though, as usual.

The larger batik blocks on my design wall were also made in a year long class at the old Flying Geese quilt shop, I believe in 2010, so it was very appropriate that all these blocks were made from various flying geese quilt patterns. The smaller batik blocks were from an exchange I did with friends who had once exchanged traditional Dear Jane blocks, using the same traditional patterns with very non traditional fabric. I think the sets of blocks work quite well together, though, and should make a nice lap quilt once I add some black sashing in between the blocks.

Below is another BOM from the Flying Geese quilt shop, I think in 2011, but this time you were given enough fabric each month to make two Civil War repro blocks using the same pattern each time. I think I have enough of that fabric left to make 18 more blocks, so this might even end up being a quilt that is big enough for a bed, esp. if I add borders. These blocks were hand pieced, though, and since I'd kind of like to keep doing that, it may be quite some time before this is ready to be put on a bed!

These blocks look much better in person than they do in this photo, all from a BOM book that I purchased at a local quilt show, in 2008 when I was started to get interested in less traditional quilt blocks, and each month you used a different technique to make a different block, so this project was a lot of fun. I actually made all 12 of these blocks in the book plus bought the fabric to go in between them, but think it was the end of the bolt so I didn't have quite enough fabric to set the blocks the way the book instructed, adn that is probably why they are still unfinished. Might try doing something different, though, to get these blocks out of a box and on a bed/couch.

Hard as it is to believe, I still have MORE calendar holder blocks in my stash, so may get them out eventually, too, but this is depressing enough already, makes me feel like it will be impossible to ever finish them, but hopefully if I stick to the 20 minute a day plan, I'll at least make SOME progress in Feb.2015, once I figure out what I want to work on first...         

UFOs continued...

 I put a bunch of my UFO blocks up on my design wall yesterday so I (and anyone else who read my blog!) could see what I was faced with, but I will divide those photos into two posts since I'm not sure how many I can add at one time, even four may be too much.

The first set were blocks that I hand appliqued in a year long Block of the Month class (only completed four month's worth) in 1992, in addition to the tulip block which I machine appliqued in a class with Harriet Hargrave much more recently.

I'm not sure when I pieced these crazy quilt blocks but since they each have an embroidery design in the center for the various months of the year, it must have been around 2005 since I think that's when I got my embroidery machine.

I don't recall where I got the patterns for these paper pieced crystal blocks, but paper piecing hasn't been popular for all that long, so perhaps these weren't made too long ago either. I do recall them being a ton of work, though, in fact, I should photograph the back of one with its paper still attached so you can see just how many pieces each block contains.

I think I have the magazine where I got the pattern for these stained glass paper pieced blocks in the box with the rest of the fabrics for this project, so I might be able to come up with a date for them, but they also were a lot of work, as are most paper pieced projects.

I am not sure I will do much with blocks like this that won't make anything larger than a wall hanging since I already have plenty of stuff to hang on my walls, but most of these blocks are too pretty to remain stuck in boxes, so hopefully I will put them up on the wall eventually, as actual quilts rather than just blocks put on my design wall for a photo.

The beginning of the DaGMT project...

Never done two posts in one day, was hard enough doing one a month for the 2014 Make a Garment a Month challenge, but since my first challenge for 2015, the DaGMT, only lasts for one month, I'll have to write here more than once in Feb.!

The first step I have to take in my attempt to finally complete some of my quilt UFOs is to go through my things and make a list of just what needs to be finished, so I brought one of the sweater boxes where I store some of my UFOs (once thought having them out in plain site would help, but that obviously did not work) downstairs from my sewing room and plan to look at it this evening.

From a quick glance, though, I can see that there is part of one of the Craftsy Block of the Month classes I started working on a while ago as well as the fabric and instructions for a repro Block of the Month class that I began in a local quilt shop that no longer exists, and I think there is more under that. Boy, do I ever have my work cut out for me...

Third Annual DaGMT event

"I, Sue Mc, owner of too many UFOs and/or more fabric than I can hope to use up in my lifetime, am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's third annual DaGMT event, and pledge to quilt for at least 20 minutes every day of the month of February, 2015. 

In doing so, I hope to complete some of the quilts (have lost track of how many, but that list is first thing on my agenda!) that have been languishing in boxes for far too long, and I think Beth Helfter is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join."

More info  http://www.evapaigequiltdesigns.blogspot.com/p/drop-and-give-me-twenty-2014-is-almost.html