Mrs. Lebo's Legacy VI

Blocks 8 and 9 of my checkered Dresden are finished!

Last night we had no internet access, and that made it a perfect time to give 100% of my concentration to applique.  Although I was very tired, I appliqued block 8.  It's true that without the distraction of laundry, a movie, or music, I managed an entire block in just under an hour.

Tonight I decided to forego distractions and applique the last block.

They are such happy blocks.  They remind me of the colors in the Dick, Jane, and Sally readers.  Since I really wanted to learn to read, I really loved those books.  Some of that carries over into my response to Sandy Klop's fabrics.  Most of these prints are from Moda's Bread'n'Butter by American Jane [Sandy Klop].  Now that these are done, I'm sorry that I resisted quilting with these colors for so long.  My excuse was that they don't go with my house.  However, I'm getting old, so I'm tossing that excuse out the window!

I'm not sure when this quilt will be finished.  I can probably get the blocks set together this weekend, but I'm going to have to order more border fabric.  I've decided I might as well go all out and use a red print!

The message our ISP posted on their phone system was that most of their New Mexico customers were without service, and they didn't know when it would be restored.  When I finally reached a tech support person later that night, she said the outage might be connected to our wind storms, but she really couldn't say for sure.  At the moment our service is slower than when we were on dial-up, so I hope they get it fixed soon, preferably before the next round of wind and storms arrives. We're currently at 0.04 Mbps.  So, now we have more recent experience with what internet service was like in the  "old days." Something like this certainly makes us grateful for the technological advances of the last few years.

Happy quiltmaking,...

Mrs. Lebo's Legacy IV - Progress

We had major weather overnight, making this a perfect day to work on my Dresden plate quilt.

 I did decide to use the yellow print for the center of the plates.  This gave me the chance to revert to my old ways of applique.  I cut the circles from card stock, and got out an ancient piece of beeswax, and my treasured thimble that was a gift from an elderly lady in Cleveland, Tennessee when my grandmother's thimble, complete with a monogram D, disappeared.

 This sterling thimble with nice, deep serviceable dimples is lovely, and a great consolation for the loss of my paternal grandmother's sterling and gold thimble.

 I gathered the circles around the cardstock and then pressed them well.  Handwork is slow stuff, but the circles needed to be circles.

 The interfacing method didn't work well at all, despite careful stitching and turning and pressing.

 The applique is being done with a tiny zigzag on my vintage Necchi treadle.  I sought out the Necchi years ago because I wanted to treadle a machine that could zigzag.

 I quickly realized I needed an open toed foot for better visibility, so I pulled out these two.  Necchi BUs are high shank machines.  I'm not at all sure of the intended purpose of these feet.  The one on the right is working just fine, so I didn't try the one on the left.

 The one on the left is covered with this textured plastic/silicone(?) piece.  I'd love to know its intended use. (Edited to add: Gypsy Quilter says it's for sewing on buttons--so the foot will hold them in position and not damage them.  See her comment below.)

 Here's the first block completed.  I did begin and end the zigzag with long thread tails that I pulled to the back and knotted for security.

Although it feels like the applique takes forever, it is nearly invisible and is taking a lot less time than hand applique.  Hopefully, Dolly Shreve Scheer, who did incredible hand applique, and whose partially finished applique inspired me over 40 years ago, would approve.

Since this will be machined quilted, I'm not trimming away the background as I did with the first Dresden plates I created long ago.

I awoke several times last night with the roof being pelted with ice.  When I braved five degrees this morning to do minimal shoveling and wheel the garbage out to the street, the snow was quite powdery above the layers of snow pellets. When I was a kid, all the adults said that if the temperature reached 10-degrees, it was too cold to snow.  Clearly not the case today east of the Sandia mountains in New Mexico. I'm not sure it reached twenty today. Despite ample sunshine, nothing melted. We cancelled our appointments, stayed in and, aside from cooking, I worked on my quilt.  The College girl watched Poirot, napped, and texted friends.  (She learned this week that her acceptance to graduate school is sitting on the desk of the Dean of Students, who will be back on campus on Wednesday.  I'm delighted with how hard she has worked and of the success she is building for her future.)

As these storms move east across the U.S., I hope everyone stays warm and happily busy.

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, etc.,

Mrs. Lebo's Legacy - Today's Progress

A bit more done on the checkered Dresden plates:

Two boxes of blades sewn. (Very happy that I managed to do all this sewing, on a treadle, at that, without my knee hurting. I'm thinking the P.T.s had it taped wrong because it's so much better now!)

The next step will be to flip the points and press them.

When I was a child the days leading up to New Year's Day were filled with cleaning, laundry, and any other work my parents could think of.  That was because mom's mother was very superstitious and said that whatever people had to do on New Year's Day, they'd have to do every day of the year.  I'm not superstitious, but in addition to attending church and Sunday school and, later, baking the lasagna, I'm hoping to do some knitting, quiltmaking, and reading.  That sounds like a great start to 2017.

Happy New Year!--

Which Flying Geese Method Is Faster?

Because I decided to add flying geese to the fishing panel, I was curious about which of my usual three methods was faster.

I did not try the "four at a time" method, because I didn't think I wanted four of each fabric.

I have Eleanor Burns Flying Geese 3x6/1.5x3 ruler, so I tried that method.  Here are the steps in photos:

 Eleanor's method is extremely accurate and starts with two squares of different sizes.

 Stitching 1/4" on each side of the drawn pencil line.

 Cutting on the pencil line.

 To my small homemade pressing board, which is why there are lavender stripes.

 Pressing seams toward the background fabric.

 Laying them edge to edge and drawing diagonal pencil line.

 Pin and sew 1/4" on each side of line.

 Cut on pencil line.

 Note space between flying geese.

 Align ruler with flying goose and trim.

 Do the same for other goose.  The rotating mat was quite helpful.

The other method I tried was to cut goose fabric into rectangles and background fabric into squares.

 Strips of background.

 Sub-cut strips into squares.

 Align tape with needle.  Ruler helps be sure the tape is perfectly aligned.  (My Jansjo light from Ikea is reflected in the ruler.  Sorry about that, but it gives me a chance to mention how much I love using those lamps; much better than the lights on most sewing machines; of course, there are no lights on my treadles.)

 Place background square on goose rectangle and sew diagonally across square.

 Keep corner of square aligned with the edge of the tape.

 Oops!  Be sure to insert sewing machine needle in the correct place and do not try to just chain feed without lifting presser foot.

 Ripping/frog stitching tip.  Place the red ball of the seam ripper on the underneath side and keep the longer tip on the top of the fabric.  Much faster to rip, and since I don't use dull seam rippers, I don't have to worry about cutting fabric instead of thread. (If you've not tried this, do.  You'll love it!)

Trim seam allowance and sew the second square on. Check against Eleanor's ruler.

Verdict:  The second method saved over five minutes per pair of geese.  The second method also gave me four more half square triangle blocks for some other project.  I make that seam before I press and trim off the excess.

I did sew together too many flying geese units on one side, so I used my ripping technique again.  I think most people have been taught to keep the red ball of the ripper on top, but ripping with it on the underside saves sooooo much time.

The other two methods of making geese are perfectly fine, but now I know which method is faster.

I have the fishing panel with its flying geese borders finished, and am waiting for batting and backing to arrive. While I was hopeful that my college girl would hold it so I could get a photo while she was home for Thanksgiving, that didn't happen, but we had a joyful Thanksgiving.
I need to figure out a way to create a wall for taking photos of my quilts somewhere in this small house.  I've photographed a lot of quilt tops and quilts outside, but with winds up to 55 mph today, the outside is definitely not a choice. (Driving to and from church was a bit unpleasant today; we're experiencing the first of three consecutive storm systems.  Hopefully, they'll be through here by Thursday or so!)

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, sewing, and crafting,

Quick Snapshots of Christmas Quilt

I do need a wall that's big enough and free of other things so I can do quilt photos.
This is a Christmas quilt--despite the fact that over 35 years ago I said I'd never make a Christmas quilt! Too much time required to make one for too little time to use it, I reasoned.

I changed my mind two years ago when I found these pre-printed panels, mostly because I knew from previous "Bob Warr" quilts that the piecing would go quickly..

 I added two borders to each block.  Except for the red triangles, the fabrics are from my treasured fabrics from the late 1980s.

 Then I added a border of a wintry gray fabric from the 1990s. (No, I did not choose the best spot to photograph, but the fact that I didn't notice, says something about how forgiving the fabric is.)  I was not especially pleased with the gray quilting, so I tried something different in the other three borders.

 There I used a pale blue thread that just lit up the gray border fabric.

 For the quilted areas around the blocks I used swirlies that go quickly and are ever so much fun to do.

For the binding I cut the red fabric 1.75 inches wide and the green fabric 1.5 inches wide.  After seaming them together, I pressed the seam allowance toward the red and then pressed the edges together--which created faux piping about 1/8th inch wide.

I used Glide quilting threads.

Binding on at last--after the quilt languished for about two years! Now that it's bound and ready for snuggling, I'm thinking there's a good possibility that I'll make another Christmas quilt--or at least a winter themed quilt.

So, I'm quite happy to have a Christmas quilt with colors that will make it useful well into January. I'm just as happy to have a binding on it that required no hand stitching!  (Back when I did hand piecing and hand quilting, I think I was in denial about my own mortality and didn't realize that the ideas will always come much more quickly than the time to execute them!)

Thanksgiving weekend is flying by!  I spent yesterday baking several batches of rolls before we joined friends for Thanksgiving dinner with our twenty-something children, friends, and loved ones.
This morning the college girl and I were at Busy Bee Quilts shortly after seven for the only Black Friday sale that interested me and then went to East Mountain Grill for a little breakfast.  She studied for a while and then went off to see the latest Harry Potter movie with friends while I worked on quilt binding. I'm hopeful that in three weeks when winter break begins I'll have plenty of energy for more quiltmaking.

I hope you all experience a very blessed weekend as well!

Happy quiltmaking, knitting, and creating,

Summer Romance I: Quilting Update

I've been quilting and taking a few photos to make the rest of the quilting easier.  I love quilting and using lots of variations to add interest to the quilt.

 I have no idea how all the variations would be received in a quilt show.

 However, through all my years of quilting prayer quilts, I developed a practice of stitching a variety of variations because it seems to me that when someone is too sick to do much of anything, he or she might find the variations somewhat like a puzzle.

 That idea now carries over into all my quilts.

 It's also true that doing exactly the same thing over and over again would not keep me as well engaged when I'm quilting.

 I'm tying and burying knots, but only in the white.

 The stops and starts, fortunately, are not at all obvious except in the white.

Not to the halfway point yet, so probably lots of photos ahead.

Happy Quiltmaking and Knitting,......