4 hours - 2 finishes (RRCB & RS)

Roll Roll Cottonboll
Resting at its new location - my bed

Raven Stars
In time for the Awards ceremony on Tuesday.

Life is still living...

First...to all of you who shared motivational and inspirational comments over my past two weeks of quietness, I very much appreciate you all!

Two weeks ago, Cassie's DI (Destination Imagination) team travelled to their State Competition. Although they did not advance to the Global competition in Tennessee, they still did their leader and parents proud by placing 10th of 17 (4th in their Instant Challenge).
There was a LOT of "down-time" during the day, so we spent quite a bit of time in the Museum of Natural History. The girls LOVED this huge Moose mount!

After the museum, we also spent an hour in a Planetarium and learned about some constellations and what "Bad Astronomy" looks like. After a night in a hotel with 16 youth in grades 4 and 5, we didn't hold anything against the team's coach who enjoyed a little shut-eye during the presentation. :0)

Last week for Easter, we visited the farm for the first time since Christmas! It was VERY nice to just get away and curl up guilt-free on the couch and catch up on some Harry Potter reading. I have read my way to book #6, "The Half-Blood Prince".

Grandma and Grandpa (DH's parents) were also at the farm; the girls really do love their grandparents and enjoy Grandpa's bed in the early snuggly morning hours of Easter morning.

With Memorial Day six weeks away (as of last week), we set up our indoor mini-greenhouse. Three trays have been planted with four different varieties of tomatoes and three (or four?) varieties of peppers. After 7 days, some of the seeds have already germinated and broken ground. These will continue to grow in the refuge of the indoor greenhouse until the 2nd week of June.

So finally, after two weeks of simply "living," I have made my way back downstairs to do some quilting. Raven's Stars had been waiting on my frame; is now finished and awaiting binding.

PILES and piles of laundry await; dishes await; and more quilting awaits. However, I will be picking up my book momentarily to continue book #6.

Raven Stars Quilt along - participant updates?

Ellen at Little Jewel Quilts participated in the Raven Stars quilt along, using green instead of purple. Her rendition has been named Lucky Stars (lovely appropriate name for those greens) :0)













Ann Marie at 16 Muddy Feet is working away on hers too. Thanks ANN!








Any other participants willing to share your results or updates on your progress? Leave a comment :0)

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 5: Blocks -n- Borders

The final step

Layout all units and piece into rows. A good amount of chain-piecing occurred with this step once I stacked all the units together and zooooomed away.

Press the top/bottom rows towards the white squares and press the center unit away from the nine-patch center.

Piece the rows together to finish the block, pressing seams in the same direction.

Quilt center
Using all 42 blocks, piece into 7 rows of 6 blocks each.

Borders
Recall that I had not included fabric requirements for any border treatments. I elected to add three nested borders to finish off this quilt. I've included the fabric requirements now in the event you choose to finish off this quilt the same.
Black: 17.5" -- Cut (7) 2.5" strips.
White: 10.5" -- Cut (7) 1.5" strips.
Purple: 21" -- Cut (7) 3" strips.

When I piece borders, I no longer measure and cut to a specific length. For many of my first quilts, I did this....and since I hadn't perfected the 1/4" seam yet.....my quilt centers and border strips RARELY matched up. I also no longer do the "just sew along without pinning and cut off the excess once I get to the end" method. I now realize the error I made for so many years which lead to the "wavy border syndrome." NOR do I do the "measure through the center/measure each end and find the average" method. BLAH! I'm all for math ((duh! Math teacher here)) but.....that's just a bit overkill for me.

NOW, I follow Bonnie Hunter's border tips-n-tricks completely! For those of you who have never questioned the importance of having square borders, here's one deelio to think about...

If your edges have ANY (or MANY depending on your quilt center) seams, those seams can and will stretch. The edges of your quilt are not a good guide to know how long to cut your borders because of this stretch.

Therefore, I now sew all of my border strips together in one continuous strip (much like sewing binding strips). I then use my quilt as my measuring tool----why mess with those blasted measuring tapes??? As Bonnie suggests.....
a) simply spread your quilt out and lay your border strip through the center of your quilt (I typically follow one of my center seams)
b) trim to match the length/width of your quilt
c) PIN PIN PIN your border strip at each end and middle and here-n-there along the length.

Trust me! I never used to pin! Anything that slowed me down was annoying, and pinning was one of them! Not to go too far off on a tangent here, but....I couldn't stand pressing when I first was starting out either! Gahhh.....I'm now a changed quilter forever because I understand that (in the long run), pressing and pinning saves time.

Anyway, since I have been attaching my borders with this method:
** I have not had a single "wavy border" problem. For those of you who don't have a quilting frame and use your DSM for quilting, this 'wavy border' problem probably isn't that much OF a problem. But, if you took a gander at Bonnie's border page, you'll see the disaster that some non-square borders create on a quilting frame.
** I no longer stress over finding a way to measure out 74.5" of border fabric like I did when I first began quilting using patterns

Raven Stars (70" x 81")

If you've followed along and participated, I would love to see your final product. Be sure to drop me a comment or email to share your progress!

Blue Ridge Beauty, Raven Stars, Maltese Star and a Tooth!

Blue Ridge Beauty was the first task-at-hand this morning and the quilting was completed shortly after 9:00. I had some difficulty and am a bit unclear as to what the problem was exactly. My bobbin thread had run out; so I tied off a new start......and then........a bit of tugging here-n-there and SNAP! Bobbin thread breakage. That's a first! I actually had to rip out the little bit of section I attempted to sew. Then retried after reinserting the bobbin case....SNAP again! Hmmmm........ After ripping out the small section again, I decided to give the machine a quick cleaning, rethread the upper thread AND change bobbins. **shrug** One of them worked, because I was off-n-runnin' again.

I unpinned the quilt from the frame, but it still remains hung over the bars. I didn't have floor space open to lay it out for trimming. Rather, the center of Raven Stars was still claiming the floor. Therefore, that was my next project to tackle....

and by lunch time, all the borders were added. For those of you who have been participating in the Quilt along, the final step will be posted on Wednesday (Block piecing, top piecing and borders).

Then, I pulled the remaining Maltese Star - Mystery 24 blocks so that I could piece together the final rows into a completed top. The mystery did not include any borders, but I am electing to add some. This is the stage it currently is in. An hour ago, I came upstairs to make a cup of tea. While waiting for the water to heat up, I pulled out my Harry Potter book (I started reading it last night before bed and only managed a few pages before my eyes couldn't remain open any longer), and have been reading ever since. I don't know if I'll get back downstairs anymore today/tonight. I figure I accomplished enough to consider it a full sewing day, so I'll be perfectly fine if I don't get back downstairs.

Cailtyn had a great day on Wednesday at school! I received an email from her teacher early in the day saying that she had a really loose tooth. (Psht---NO CLUE that it was even loose!). And then, right around 1:00, another email came in that said "It's out!" This is her first lost tooth, and now.....the other big tooth and two bottom teeth are all loose.

Okay....back to my reading ;0)

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 4: Star Points

Today, we piece the 168 star points! Refer back to Step 1: Cutting directions if you haven't already cut the pieces for this step.


Layout the units so you are certain how the white pieces match up.

Now that little notch that we so pain-stakingly trimmed off will have a purpose! I started with the right white REC. Notice that the white will not match black corner-to-corner. Instead, you will be fitting the white REC to match up with the EDGES of the black TRI, not merely with the corner.

Piece and press. This is a unit that doesn't follow the "press-to-the-darker-fabric" rule. I pressed towards the white.

Now repeat with the left REC piece. Again, you will be using that notch to line up along the edge of the black TRI unit.

Piece and press (towards the white again).

Do not panic that those little black corners are showing! Truly! Once pieced into the final block, they will result in PERFECT corners!! :0) You shouldn't need to trim up anything; just cut off the little dog-ears that were created from pressing. 2.5" (almost) on the spot!


And to finish up this step, using HALF of the star points (84) and all of the remaining 2.5" white squares (168), attach a white square to either side of 84 star point units. Press towards 2.5" white square.

Yeah----next week: Step 5: Putting blocks together!!! :0)

Raven Stars; Red Blossoms; RRCB; BIL visit; Stash Report

Since Raven Stars isn't a mystery, AND for the fact that I want to show you all that I HAVE been doing something quilty this weekend.........my quilt center has been pieced despite having two more steps yet to be printed for y'all. This is merely the quilt center; I am still planning a simple border.

A shot of my design wall, still housing Red Blossoms; the border pinwheels were my leader-ender project for the day.


At the end of the day, with about 30 minutes left on the clock before I knew I needed to pack up, I pieced together 10 of the string blocks for RRCB.

Amazingly, for much of the day though, I was upstairs watching "Uncle Ryan" and Cassie and all the others play the Wii. Simutaneously, I worked on a puzzle that has been out on our side table since Christmas; I'm not much of a puzzler, but.......I finished it. Sorry Cass!!!!

Although a good amount of sewing happened this weekend, my stash report still won't change (much) since all the fabric used had already been recorded. However, I will at least get updated numbers to include the fabric used last weekend for the mini-nine-patches.

Stash Report: Feb. 14 - 27
Used/week: .61 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 34.93 yds
Purch/year: 6.0 yds

Net Used: 28.93 yds

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 3: HST's

From step #1, take the 168 Purple and White HST cuts, and piece them into 168 Purple/White HST's.


Now, that's not really enough for a complete step, so...

Once the HSTs are pieced, separate them into two groups of 84. Attach a 2.5" white square to each HST as pictured; you'll be making 84 attached to the right side and 84 attached to the left side, making mirror-images of each other. You will be using 168 white squares which will leave 168 squares left yet for the next step.

This is what NOT TO DO. I thought I double-checked the proper placement, and for whatever reason, half-way through my one stack, I stopped to check the placement. **hitting forehead** HOW many years have I been quilting??? Tscha...mistakes happen; don't sweat it! Sadly, I needed to unsew a buku amount of mistakenly sewn units.


Okay, now THAT is enough for a step :0)

Next scheduled posting: 3/2/11 Step 4: Star points.

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 2: Nine-patches

From the cutting directions last week, you should have set aside 13 - 2.5" purple strips and 11 - 2.5" black strips.

Strip sets:
Make THREE sets of Panel 1 (B/P/B) (6 black strips used; 3 purples strips used)


Make FIVE sets of Panel 2 (P/B/P) (5 black strips used; 10 purple strips used)

Pressing: For most of this step, I always attempted to press towards the black fabric.

Sub-cut Panel 1 strip-sets into 42 - 2.5" x 6.5" units.
NOTE! You will have excess from these panels! However, depending on the width of your fabric (WOF), you may need that little excess in the next sub-cuts.

Sub-cut Panel 2 strip-sets into 84 - 2.5" x 6.5" units.
Here is what I mean about WOF differences! My black JUST allows me 40". I didn't have quite enough in my 5 stripsets to cut all 84; I only could cut 80. :0(

So, my extra 2.5" sub-cuts from Panel 1 were ripped...


And my "hang-over" purple fabric from Panel 2 sets were cut to 2.5" squares...
...and I was able to get my last 4 PBP units.

IF all of your fabric only allows for 40" WOF useable inches, you will sadly probably need to cut a couple more Black and/or Purple strips to make the needed amount of units. SORRY!

But in the end, you should have:
42 - Black/Purple/Black 2.5" x 6.5" units
84 - Purple/Black/Purple 2.5" x 6.5" units

Each 9-patch needs two P/B/P units and one B/P/B unit. Make 42 9-patch blocks.

The next scheduled posting: 2/23/11 - Step 3: HST's.

Saturday sew-in status...

1. Piece Maltese Stars step #5 - DONE!

2. Piece Blue Ridge Beauty blocks into a top (and open up my design wall!) - SORTA DONE!
I pieced the blocks together into the quilt center, but haven't added borders yet. However, my design wall was finally clear again :0)

3. Write step 2 of Raven Stars - DONE.

4. Piece 1 OR 13 more Red Blossom (Pineapple Blossom) blocks - NOT DONE, but the blocks have taken over my design wall.


DH was off of work early yesterday, so he volunteered to drive the 80 miles down to Eau Claire to pick up my machine that has been sitting, waiting, since Monday. Ah yes, a lovely husband :0) Mind you, he also enjoyed his stop at the Sporting Goods store down in that area... :0) The verdict on my machine: a gear had loosened which is why is was so noisy, and the fact that the gear was loose was causing my needle/bobbin to be out-of-sync. No gear replacement was needed; just a tightening.

And all day long, I've been working some more on the RRCB HST units as my leaders-enders project.

But now...I'm a bit peetered-out. DH was up bright and early at 5:30 to head out with a family friend for a day of ice-fishing. As hard as he really tries at being silent, it still doesn't matter. I'm such a light sleeper. He apologized when I came rolling out of the bedroom at 5:45, but I simply shrugged and said "no biggy." It's the weekend! No stress and I can get my day started before the girls wake up.

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 1: Cutting

This entire quilt center is going to be pieced from 2.5" strips and will result in very little waste ;0)

I usually do not cut out all of my pieces at the start of a project anymore. However, I have participated in two mysteries recently where the first step was to complete all the cutting, and I must say, it's been nice to have it done and out of the way, so that when steps are posted, I can get right to the piecing!

In all reality, this may just be the most time consuming step of this entire quilt-along. I couldn't believe how long it took me to cut it all out; over two hours certainly. So, take your time; spread it out. Or, you could simply just cut all the 2.5" strips for this step and wait until the steps get posted to cut the smaller pieces/units; the choice is yours.

Cutting Directions
Black
18 - 2.5" strips.
Set 11 strips aside. Using the remaining 7 strips and your TRI ruler, cut 168 "tri units."



Purple
20 - 2.5" strips.
Set 13 strips aside. Using the remaining 7 strips and your EZ Angle ruler, cut 168 HST (half-square-triangle) units.


White
37 - 2.5" strips.
Using 21 of the strips, subcut into 336 - 2.5" squares.
Using 7 of the strips, cut 168 - HSTs
Using the remaining 9 strips and the RECS ruler, cut 168 PAIRS of "recs units."

**TIPS for the "RECS" units**:
Keep your fabric folded in half (wrong OR right sides together; doesn't matter). Do this so that you obtain the required "mirrored image" of each unit in the finished block. Keep the pairs together. You can see a small stack of my "pairs" started at the lower left of the above picture. The picture to the left shows how these pieces will eventually be used in a later step. VERY important to have the mirroring!!!
Cut that tiny notch off the corner. You can see it pictured above. Yeah, it will be putzy, BUT will save you a headache later on when we piece the units together.

That's it!
Remember, borders have not been included yet. I will cut those out once the center is pieced.

Some of you dynamo quilters out there will be able to figure out how to sew some of these pieces together; Go for it if you want!

The next scheduled posting: 2/16/11 - Step 2: 9-patches