2 Be Square - Part 2

After all the hard work I had put into this quilt. All I could think of when I was looking at was "it looks like a Halloween quilt".


Not the look I was looking for at all. What was I to do? My heart started to beat faster and I was getting knots in my stomach. Really, getting worked up over nothing after I thought about it. I thought I would return to my local quilt shop tomorrow and tell them I had a quilting emergency and need help stat! I wanted this problem fixed sooner than that. I sat down to the computer and started to play with EQ6. It turned out not to be not much help because I did not know what I wanted to do. Then I got to thinking, do I want to throw more money at the problem? Easy answer, no. Then I started to think, how do I make this work. I remembered that Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilts loves to make scrappy borders. Just having gotten one of her patterns I took a look at it and there was my answer. Thank you Carrie! A scrappy rectangle border. Just like the one I used on my Whirlygiggle quilt. Problem solved. So off to bed I went.

Funny side note, because of all this work up. I had a dream during the night and I don't recall what all that happened , but for some reason I was pissed at my BH in the dream. When I woke up I yelled out "NO" and punched my BH and fell back to sleep. When I woke up he asked me why I hit him during the night. Then I told him what I remembered about the dream and about the OP tragedy and how I solved it. You see doing these kinds of things are normal for me. Sometime I will scream or yell out female names in my sleep and never know why I do it.

I set out to cutting and sewing my scrappy border and I must say it looks darn good. Ya! After my ordeal I can toot my own horn on this one.

This is where I am on my OP quilt. As you can see the road has been rocky along the way, but I have over come it and am pushing on. Keep checking here or my facebook page for more updates on the OP quilt and one day soon we will see a finished quilt top. Whoot!

Charlie

2 Be Square - Part 1

Caution: this post is long and therefore needed to be broken into 2 parts.

Did you see Pat's blog post today about her OP Quilt? If not, check it out.

Wow, what a weekend the OP was. I was on a natural high the whole weekend. I picked out fabric from my stash and played with them. I knew right from the start this was going to be a great stash quilt and I wanted it to be scrappy. Laid my fabrics out in 7 groups of 3. To make a total of 21 blocks. Only needed/wanted 20, but the extra could be used on the back. No problem. Everything is working out great. Seams for the most part all lined up. Only had to resew 3 or so. Not bad. They all came out 12". Wow, that's a first for me. Knew I did not want to sew them side by side because of all the seams. Sashing with corner stones was a must. I did not have any fabric for that. I only buy FQ's. Went to my local quilt store and showed the owner what I was doing and 45 minutes later we had fabric and thread picked for my OP quilt.

Black was the only fabric that would work with all the blocks. Everything else just did not look right. Found a nice orange for the corner stones that would not fight with all the other oranges in the quilt. I thought I would do a 4 patch border on the quilt. It would add a little something. I get tired of just plain fabric for the borders. I come home and start working on cutting and sewing everything together. Yesterday, as I am sewing my sashing to the blocks I notice the center sashing is not lining up with their neighbor. It's off 1/4". I email Pat to see if she had this same problem and what I might do to solve it. Long story short I did not square up my blocks before I cut them into 4th and any little issue is magnified. I should have known this, but I HATE TO SQUARE UP. Call it a lesson learned. ALWAYS SQUARE UP YOUR BLOCKS. I did find ways to make my blocks work so they did not look off, but some of them will just be off, like me.
Here is Pat's answer to my question: "well this is not about matching blocks... so if anyone asks you just say you were doing a Pat Sloan creativity workshop and this is the way they are supposed to be as that is the truth!!"

I got two groups of four all sewn with the sashing and was getting antsy to see what the 4 patch border would look like I tried it next to the sewn blocks. This is when HORROR sets in for me.

Tune in tomorrow to find out about my horror.

Charlie

Best Weekend Ever!!!

Wow! What a ride it was over the weekend. Did anyone else join in on Pat's virtual retreat? I know a few of you did. Did you feel the rush and have it carry over into Monday? Mine sure did! I even took some blocks to work to sew.

Make sure you check out Pat's Blog for everything OP.

Click on picture for larger view

The lone block was the first OP block I did and posted on facebook. My block choices are done in groups of three. I will have three blocks from each color group of three. I plan on mixing up all my lights and darks. I will not keep them in groups of three like the picture. There is even a hint as to how I might set the quilt.

Did any of you see that I was the winner of two OP giveaways this weekend? I was going to wait til the items came in to tell you about this, but I could not wait that long!

From Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. I am getting the following.

From Carrie - "A few of my favorite things ~ many of them are orange. Chocolate orange sticks, tangerine jelly beans, one of my favorite teas ~ in an orange box, a Schnibbles quilt kit... and, yes, the wire basket is included. The fabric in the kit is Sandy Gervais' Fresh Squeezed. It is everything you'll need to make the Gazebo Schnibbles pattern included in the kit."

As soon as I saw it was fabric from Sandy Gervais I knew I had to have it. Here is my comment:

"I missed Pat when she was in KC only found out after the fact. :-( Oh well. I love the fresh Squeezed fabric. I think I need to have it. Hell, I HAVE to have it."

I am also getting some FQ's from Jan over at a Quilty Pleasure she is sending me some of her orange stash along with some orange PEEPS. Don't you just love peeps? Look at all those luscious colors. They would make one heck of a quilt.

Jan was kind enough to send me a picture of the FQ's she is sending. Apparently, I am blind as a bat, there was a picture right there on her blog. Thanks for the picture Jan.

I will have to do another orange post later in the week once I get the giveaways and have more blocks done. I do post quilt pictures on my facebook page. Find out what I am doing in real time and become my friend on facebook (link on the right). See you there.

I need to go and get the corners sewn on the OP blocks.

Charlie

Saw Along - The OP

Wanted to post a quick update on my OP. I will give you more info once the weekend is over. Now onto the pictures.

My first OP block. Reminds me of Halloween

My next two OP blocks along with the first.

My block choices done in groups of three. I will have three blocks from each color group of three.

Check out my face book page for up to the minute info on the OP. Face book link on the right.

Charlie

Doing My Part

As many of you may already know Pat Sloan is hosting a virtual retreat this weekend. If you have never been to one they are a lot of fun! So grab all your orange fabrics from your stash and then check out Pat's blog for more information. The OP stands for Orange Pile . I just love the things Pat comes up with. She is so cleaver. I am not sure how much of the retreat I will get to join in on as I have to work this weekend. If nothing else I will be there in spirit.

Did you know that Joann's has thier FQ's on sale this week? They're only $1.00 and as a quilter, I can not pass up a sale and at the same time help out the economy. I had told myself more than once I was not going to buy any more fabric till I use up what I have. Like I would ever stick to that. I work in a fabric store for Goodness sake. I hear it calling to me everyday. I must say I have cut way back on my fabric buying. I only buy when it is on sale. I find that there is always a sale and I do not need a reason to buy fabric other than it being on sale. Hell, just because will work in pinch. Just wait till you see what I got coming to me from Hancock's of Paducah. Yumm Yumm!!

I must say that Joann's has improved thier fabric from what they once had. I just love some of the new stuff they are getting in. It is right up there with the quilt shop fabric now, but I will continue to support my local quilt shop. Where else can a person walk into a store and say "Rita I am making this quilt" hand her a picture and ask her to pick out the fabric? Only in a local quilt store. Try saying that in Joann's and see the reaction you get. I bet you get a 17 year old not knowing a thing about fabric looking at you like a deer in the headlights.

11 FQ's and there is even some orange in there. I have no idea what I am going to do with them yet. Maybe I could use them this weekend. Might need to go stash hunting to add a few more.

On a side note - A guest came in to Joann's and was looking for some jelly rolls. Looked all around the store, but could not find any. She stopped at the cutting counter to ask one of the girls if she might know where they would be. The young girl just looked at her and said you might want to try a bakery as Joann does not carry food items. Another team member was able to help the guest and sent her to a local quilt shop so she might get her jelly rolls. When I heard this story I was rolling on the floor from laughter.

No update yet on the Whirlygiggle or the Midwest Modern quilt. Maybe here soon. I have just not been in the mood to work on them.

I am a quilter and I have 1,658 unfinished projects, but whats one more. See you over at Pats for the virtual retreat.

Charlie

Happy Valentine's Day!

Charlie

On the Brightside...

The quilting is coming along great on the Whirlygiggles quilt. In fact when I am done with this post I am going to go and quilt some more on it. As I work on this quilt, I am loving it more and more, therefore making it that much harder to give away. That going to be lucky child.


I wish I could say that the piecing on the Midwest Modern quilt is going just as great :-( It seems that I was wrong when I did the cutting of the pieces, I cut them just a bit to short. As in the words of Project Runway "make it work". I'm going to make each block a little bit smaller and add another border to the quilt to end up close to the same size. The pattern has me cutting the border long ways, therefore I will have enough fabric for my other border. Woot! The extra was to be the backing fabric, but I can get more. Like I need a reason to go fabric shopping.


I did some cleaning of my quilting room yesterday and I just wanted to share a before and after of my fat quarters. I still have little more cleaning to do, but I am on the right track. It will be nice to have a clean room again. It's not been cleaned in days, months, years.

BEFORE

AFTER

I will show you more of the room once it is all done. We'll do a grand unveiling.

Charlie

Wishing It Was Spring

If you're like me and have a lot of fat quarters then why not join this little swap hosted by Darci. This would be a great way to meet new people and get some great fabric.

I was cleaning up my fat quarters yesterday and found some I forget I had.

See you at the swap.

Charlie

P.S. Get this e-mail for Pat Sloan:

Just had to share this... I like a LOT of things.. and many things that are 'art' are done for the pure joy of making... like the 'creations' at this site... where.. yes.. I SEE ORANGE!
http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm

Check it out it a hoot!

Pinks, Yellows, Limes, Oranges and Aquas

What do you get when you place pinks, yellows, limes, oranges and aquas together? You get the next quilt that I'm working on! Here it is all cut out and ready to sew. I've had this fabric for awhile now. I know I still have the Whirlygiggles quilt to finish, but I have to be in the mood to quilt it. This quilt called for the use of templates, I have always shied away from using them. Maybe it is because they looked harder to cut out. I still like to use acrylic over paper. If I had them to cut over again I would have used thin cardboard. I found that I cut a hair off the paper templates. We will see how well they go together. The fabrics are from Amy Butler. The fabric and pattern is Midwest Modern.

Charlie

How Sweet it is...

Here is my Whirlygiggles without the sashing and all clamped down, ready for basting. I hope to have it basted in the next couple of days. I can not wait to start quilting it, as it looks to be a lot of fun.





Look what my BH surprised me with on Saturday for our four year anniversary. How sweet is he?


Charlie