Inspiration!!! And now a road-block :0(

The 2nd step (actually 3rd) of Life's a Stitch's Seven Shirts & Seven Steps was posted. I printed it off and headed downstairs all set on tackling it.......

but......I first needed to unpack everything (including the sewing machine) from last night's class. In the process, I set the 12 Diamond Strings blocks on the ironing board for the time-being. Just as I was getting ready to dive into the SS&SS, I had a moment of "ah-ha!," because in the back of my mind was what I was ultimately going to do with the DS blocks.......

For those of you who have been around my blog for awhile, you may remember these gems???? These are from May (2008); 10 of them have been completed. So.....I played........

I pulled some mauve/pink fabric; cut and sewed some sashing. I pulled a cute flowery (very GRANDMA-ish) black fabric; cut and sewed some corner-stones.......and 9 of my Scrappy Baskets are now a quilt center.....

And after sewing up 4 more complete Diamond String blocks..........

I HIT A ROAD BLOCK! I've been staring at the layout.....I've been sketching and drawing on paper.....and I just am at a loss on how to continue. This is why: the Basket blocks are 8.5" (8" finished).......BUT the Diamond strings are 9" (8.5" finished!).

If I continue with the same sashing fabric, the "lines" won't line up due to the uneven size of the outer blocks vs. the inner. So....maybe a different sashing fabric? Maybe the black that I used as the corners in the center section?

Do I sacrifice nice corners in the Diamond blocks and simply trim them down to 8.5" (8" finished)??? JUST to make it piece nicely?? (I think that's what I'm leaning towards......)

So...I needed to take a break anyway...I figured I'd post to see if anyone had any advice.

Do you?

In the meantime, I'm back off downstairs to actually work on the SS&SS quilt.......
Happy Tuesday!

Two finishes, so why not another NEW project???

I met my goal on Saturday by cutting through all the shirts and piecing the 24 9-blocks. DUH ME though---I didn't have my camera handy to get a pic. When I was done with that, I was fairly tuckered out after having such a late night Friday. I hung out with DH and the girls Saturday night, watching the HULK as a family, and puttered online perusing Bonnie's site. I was getting antsy for yet another NEW project. WHY??? I have no idea, but I went to peek......

Sunday morning brought anew energy, and I was downstairs by 8:30 am. I had been playing with the idea of creating a quilt label for each of the ladies in my Beginning Quilting class, so.....I DID! Now that they have been gifted (at tonight's 4th session class) I can freely blog them without giving away any surprise :0) At the same time, I created some labels for a few quilts that have been labelless for too long.

I needed to prepare the Quilting & BInding tutorial for tonight's class, so I pulled out the Class Act that was quilted Friday night and plugged away at completing the binding. Rather than hand-sewing the binding to the back, I carefully machine-stitched using a very small "seam allowance." There are a few small spots where the sewing lines show up along the border on the front, but....eh! Minor! This baby isn't gonna be hanging in any quilt show! :0)


So----binding done......slap on the label......Project #4 of the year complete!








NATURALLLLLLLY, with so many other projects laying around the sewing room, what is one to do but start yet another FUN project?!?!?! I kinda got excited when looking at Bonnie's Diamond Strings pattern. My bin of strings had almost reached the "I-can-no-longer-close" stage, so it was time to do something with them. Her method of piecing these babies was AMAZINGLY quick........in no time, I had 14 sheets completely sewn and ready for cutting.

After cutting and taking this lovely shot, I headed upstairs. The girls and I threw in KUNGFU PANDA and they all volunteered to help me tear off the paper backing. What sweathearts!
After the movie, dinner, and some baths, and once they were all tucked in bed, I headed back downstairs to see how far I could get on the blocks. How far did I get??? Finished up 48 corner pieces which would create 12 complete blocks once sewn together. But, it was 10:00, and I was ready for bed........(YES! I DO SLEEP!)

As mentioned, tonight was the 4th night of the Beginning Quilting class which got the ladies quilting & binding. Well.....no one got as far as binding, but I used this wall-hanging (that was created from their Session 1 practice squares) to show a demonstration of a complete binding. It was nice killing 2 birds with 1 stone here :0) My FIFTH finish of 2009!



Oooooooo, and look! Once all the ladies were comfortably quilting away tonight, I pieced the 12 blocks of the Diamond Strings. At this point, I don't think I'll make any more string blocks; rather I'll play around with some wide sashing OR alternate some plain blocks amongst these to make a twin size. ??? I'll play tomorrow night once the girls are in bed.





A few working shots of tonight's class.....