Design Wall Monday and ToDo Tuesday, Week 7

Not much has changed with my sampler blocks. I ran out of the off-white fabric early last week, but a last-minute trip to Tulsa and a busy weekend didn't allow for buying any more. The rain is supposed to clear out Thursday, so that's my next chance to make a trip to the quilt store. In the meantime, I've been playing with arrangements and this is what I have on the wall today.

I didn't get as much done on my ToDo list as I would have liked, but again, I wasn't home for a couple of days and the weekend was a bust. Here's how last week's list turned out.

✔1. Put name and date on the Snowball Blossom quilt.

✔2. Finish the one side of sweater makeover.

x3. Put borders on all the Sampler blocks.

✔4. Think of a name for the Sampler blocks. It's name is Ameliorate! As I've completed the three unfinished blocks, and worked on a plan to make all the blocks the same size, I could see where my quilting skills have improved, or ameliorated, since I first began.

x5. Buy design board flannel and get it washed and ironed.

So this week's list will be much the same.

1. Finish the sweater makeover. This has been a challenge. I bought wide twill ribbon to replace the zipper, which was also held on with twill ribbon. I put the ribbon on the one side where I had removed the zipper, and it was really stiff. So I ripped that out and tried to think of something that was soft and a little stretchy. I finally decided to use strips from an old bar towel and it worked perfectly. Now I need to shorten the sleeves. The sweater was also a little short, so I decided to add some fringe. I'm not sure if I like it or not.

2. Put borders on Sampler blocks. I hope I can get to the store for more fabric.
3. I still haven't thought of a name. Maybe when the blocks are all finished and up on the wall, something will come to me.
4. Buy design board batting. I am not thrilled with the flannel on the other boards and decided to try some batting on the next ones.
5. Make a receiving blanket. Nothing special, just something to go with the Snowball Blossom. I don't piece these, just put two fabrics back to back.

I'm late getting to the party, but there should be a lot of inspiration there by now. I'm joining these:

Sewing Reports for the Sixth Week of 2020

I had to say goodbye to my 100% sewing success this week. Hubby had a business trip scheduled and at the last minute, I decided to go with him. I wanted to see Daughter and the Grands even if it was just for one evening. We had a good visit and may have some news to share in the next week or two.

I have continued to work on the sampler blocks and ran out of the off-white fabric. It looks like I used a lot of fabric, but that's only because I only count things to the nearest quarter. I don't know how other people would count five inches off a yard of fabric, but I count it as a quarter used because I don't have a full yard available for the next project. I'm still in the red for fabric used (I have more fabric now than I started with on January 1st) and have to buy at least another half yard as soon as the weather cooperates. We are supposed to have rain every day until Thursday, so I probably won't make the 50 mile trek to the fabric store until then.

Linking to:
and
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

Starting the Week with Design Wall and Week 6 ToDo List

Not much has changed on my design wall since Saturday.  Ameliorate Sampler hasn't moved. Weekends are not meant to be my sewing time. What little time I did spend in my sewing space wasn't very productive.

I was going to go to JoAnn's today to buy enough flannel to finish covering the foam boards for my design wall. But the wind is howling today and tends to push my little car around on the highway, and it is supposed to start raining soon. So that will have to wait until tomorrow. I may update my ToDo list if I get that done.

Let's see how I did with last week's list:

✔1. Decide on a layout for the sampler quilt.

✔2. Clean up the Snowball Blossom quilt.

x3. Make a label for the Snowball Blossom quilt.

x4. Attempt a sweater makeover.

Not good. That sweater may be in the trash by the end of this week. I took the zipper off one side and that side immediately started raveling. Turns out it wasn't the zipper that shrank; it was the twill ribbon holding it to the sweater. So I could put the zipper back on with some new, pre-shrunken twill, but I'm just going to leave it off. The metal tip of the zipper edge hitting my neck bugged me in the short time I wore it.

Here's my list for this week:
1. Make a label for the Snowball Blossom quilt. Instead of leaving it off, or even leaving a space for who the quilt was for, I decided just to put my name and date completed on it and call it done.
2. Finish the sweater makeover - or at least try to finish the one side I've started. If it doesn't lay flat, I'm done.
3. Put borders on all the Sampler blocks.
4. Think of a name for the Sampler blocks. That should be easy, but I struggle with names.
5. Buy design board flannel and get it washed and ironed.

Linking to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts
To Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

Sunday Sewing Week 5

I spent more time this week looking for the right fabric and planning a layout than I did with any sewing. And an evening was spent with a magnifying glass and the ripper. But all that is done now. Plans have been made and fabric bought. Yes, sad to say, I had to buy fabric to complete this quilt. After all the blocks have been made with reproduction civil war fabrics, I just couldn't put anything else with them. Buying that fabric put me over my beginning stash total, which set me back in my stash reduction goal. But a little stitching every day kept me at 100% with my stitching.

Linking to:
15 Minutes to Stitch at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

Borders for Each Block of the Sampler

When I finished the last sampler block of the Ameliorate Sampler, I set it aside and started thinking about a layout and borders for the quilt. I had these three ideas for layout:



I was leaning toward the first design because it is different than I usually see with samplers, although I did like it on point too. Either way, it means coming up with a lot of filler before getting to the border and that means this UFO won't be getting done quickly. But thinking of that first layout, I went to the nearest local quilt store (nearest being forty-five minutes away) on Thursday and bought a blue floral background fabric along with more of the same off-white Moda used in the original blocks.

That morning before I left, a lady texted and said she was having a big sale on all her remaining fabric. She had closed her local quilt shop last year. And when I saw local, it was right here in my little town. How I hated seeing her close that store. I texted her and asked if she had any civil war fabric, but when she didn't reply, I went the other one. After I got home, she texted back with a picture of four or five bolts of reds and browns. I thanked her but told her I had gone to the other store.

That evening, I got out the blocks and started squaring them up and soon found that they weren't the same size. I thought it was because I had messed up, being brand new to quilting when I started them. But I had just finished one of the blocks and it was pretty near perfect. So I dug out all the instruction pages and sure enough, some of the blocks are 9-1/2 inches and some are 9-1/4 inches. Why on earth would they do that?!!! So now I needed to come up with a plan that included borders around each block so they would all be the same size. I did this with Microsoft Paint, so it is far from accurate or professional, but here are my three plans again, but with larger blocks and the blue floral outer borders. Just a few blocks for an idea, because doing this on MS Paint was time-consuming. I also left out whatever I would make for the center of the medallion.

 


When I showed these samples to Hubby to get his opinion on the colors, he said he liked the traditional layout best. Well that puts a kink in my plans. He seldom tells me he likes anything about quilts one way or the other that I am now reconsidering the traditional layout. To make a long story longer, the next day (yesterday) I went to the local quilt store and bought some of her civil war fabrics. She has a one yard minimum, so I bought way more than I needed, but I didn't want to make another ninety mile round trip and her prices were low.

I decided to make an inner border out of a color that went with the colors in the block, and an outer border of the off-white to make it stand out against the blue background. Here it is along with a sneak peak of my new design wall. Now I need to go to JoAnn's to buy enough flannel to cover the rest of the foam boards. But not on Saturday.

My One Monthly Goal for February is to finish Ameliorate Sampler into a flimsy.

Linking to:
UFO Busting at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts