Putting on my shoes

Next on my list of "oh good grief, I'm so ridiculously behind" projects were the September and October blocks from the GenX Quilter's Moccasin block of the month project.

Although these blocks are 9.5" square, I seem to wizz through the cutting of them a lot quicker than some of the smaller 6" blocks from the Moda Building Blocks and Farm Girl Vintage projects. Perhaps because there's only 7 or 8 fabrics in total in Moccasin?

Here's the September blocks.

And then the October blocks (a bit cropped).

I love the neat, bright contrast of these blocks and am a little sad that, after next month, we're all done!

Finally, I'm adding a plea to all my October blog posts this month and it's aimed at any quilting Vermonters (Vermontees? People of Vermont?) out there. As you may know, I'm gradually visiting all 50 states and this November I'm visiting Vermont. As well as visiting various tourist attractions I'm also hoping to do a bit of quilt shopping. Can anyone recommend a quilt shop? Or anything else for that matter!?

Just in case anyone is about to say I'm missing the awesome fall colours by not visiting now (and I'm sure they are absolutely gorgeous) - this is the view I see out of my bedroom window every day.

I live in Sherwood Forest (alleged home of Robin Hood) so have beautiful woodland views every day.

Curvemaster: the curate's egg

This month's GenX Quilters Moccasin block is a curvy variation on a simple nine patch.

 After weeks of straight lines it's good to do something even a little bit curvy! Plus I thought this was an excellent opportunity for me to whip out my Curvemaster foot and give it a whirl.

To cut out the pieces for the patches I used my freezer paper method for tracing templates. This involves tracing the template onto freezer paper, trimming to size with scissions, ironing the freezer paper onto the fabric and then cutting carefully around with a rotary cutter. To avoid cutting my template I mark both the "true" shape and then the larger seam allowance shape outside of the "true" shape. When cutting I line my 1/4" mark on my ruler cut with the "true" shape. A few rotary cutter passes later and I had all my pieces ready to go.

The first step in using the Curvemaster foot is (unsurprisingly) to fit it to your machine. Despite the instructions on the packaging and website, it soon became clear that the foot wouldn't just snap onto Naomi the Janome's ankle. The little bar on the foot (no idea what the technical term is) just wasn't wide enough to fit Naomi's ankle (she's a 8200QC if anyone's interested). 

With a bit of trial and error (and some very careful tightening with a screwdriver) I discovered that the number 4 ankle supplied with the Curvemaster could replace Naomi's standard ankle and then the Curvemaster foot would snap on. 

The next issue was getting the fabric to feed evenly. I'm not sure whether this problem was caused by me choosing the wrong adapter but the two layers of material wouldn't feed even through the machine about 30-50% of the time. Instead the top layer would feed through but the bottom layer would remain static. After a while I was reduced to starting sewing a good 1/8" into my block just to get the feed dogs to bite, backstitching back to the edge of the fabric and then going forwards again. Sometimes even that didn't work.

On the occasions when the material did feed properly, the Curvemaster works like a pro, zipping around those curves and fitting convex and concave pieces together beautifully. Yes, it takes a bit of practice but doesn't anything worthwhile in life?

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th August.

Sewing without looking

I recently saw a t-shirt that said something along the following lines "I live dangerously - I run with scissors!". I had to snigger because I still carry scissors blades pointing down. I'm not a big risk taker.

So it was a bit surprisingly to find that I'd mis-pieced at least three units in block 8 of the GenX Quilters Moccasin block of the month project. I can only assume that i was sewing with my eyes closed when I turned two half square triangles the wrong way. And then sewed a flying goose unit in upside down. I guess I should be grateful nothing was back to front and that I didn't sew over a finger. 

Here's the blocks 

The eagle eyed amongst you will note that the colour scheme doesn't quite match the pattern. I'm going with the excuse that it's a design choice - I wanted the centre star to be more prominent and the block look to be less scrappy. It wasn't that I mis-pieced the pink and blue flying goose units. Nope. Noting of the sort. Ahem.

Note to self - look at what you're sewing in the future. 

Hitting the wall

I wanted to be able to post about a finished quilt today. I wanted to be able to show you a beautifully pieced and quilted project. I'd even settle for a sewn top at this point. But no. I've hit "the wall".

I've heard about this phenomenon from friends who do EXERCISE (yes, as fat as I'm concerned it deserves capitals). Apparently it's something that you "hit" at a particular point during a long bout of sweaty, painful, blister-inducing exertion. Not that I've ever experienced such a thing. Exercise I mean (see I'm getting better, no capitals this time). Let alone the wall.

But I've hit it with this double pinwheel commission. If I ever see another half or quarter square triangle it'll be too soon.

This is the plan of the finished project. Cute huh?

And this is where I'm currently up to. Not so cute.

The blue triangle blocks are sewn and trimmed. So that's half of the 960 blocks done.

But one half of the red triangle blocks are pressed and the other half aren't even that far along.

Apparently there are only two options for dealing with The Wall - give in or plough on ahead. I've promised myself that I'm going to crack on with this this weekend, if only to stop the moaning (from both me and you who must be bored hearing me moan!). There may be a slight break to piece this month's Moccasin BOM block from GenX Quilters or maybe even the triple scoop block from the FQS Snapshots but no more! I will stay on task, I will! Maybe.

Desert and white oak

Sounds like an upmarket fragrance, doesn't it? Or maybe more like a supermarket brand body spray! Either way, it's the next instalment in the epic sewing week.

The "desert" bit comes from blocks 3 and 4 in the GenX Quilter's block of the month pattern for this year, called Moccasin.

They were fairly straightforward blocks, being shoo fly (or Sherman's March or Church Dash) blocks plus a Bears paw block.

I'm slowly catching up with the BOM - I think I'm only two months behind now!

Next up was the White Oak Basket, one of two for the Craftsy BOM for May.

This month's blocks were a little like French homework - you know that you have to do it but would rather do fun stuff instead. But if you leave it, it's going to be looming over you all holidays. Best to get it out of the way ASAP. Particularly as this month's blocks had 13 pages of instructions; yes, 13!

I'm not 100% happy with the block (I somehow managed to miscut the basket lip fabric so that more than just the border print is visible in some spots). However I know that I'm just being picky and should instead embrace the glory of those partial seams which came together with no problems!

Pine needle basket is the other block for this month. I'll get cracking with that tomorrow.

Sunday Stash #7

I seem to have feast or famine weeks when it comes to purchasing fabric and this week was definitely a feast week. As my storage waistline shows - it's bursting at the seams!

First up a FQ bundle of Safari Moon by Frances Newcombe for Art Gallery Fabrics.

I love the quizzical zebras on the indigo fabric but must confess my favourite print is the swallow/peacock flying. Gotta love Art Gallery Fabrics.

Along with the Safari Moon bundle, I also bought some Aurifloss in black and brown and some batting (not pictured as it's far too boring!) all from Sew Hot

I also bought some FQs of Kona solids from Quiltessential. They're not too far away from me so I just visit some time soon!

The solids and Aurifloss are for a secret future project! Can't say more as the intended recipient reads this blog!

Then I had a delivery from Missouri Star Quilt Co which included a design roll and yardage of Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee line for FreeSpirit Fabrics. No prizes for guessing this quilt!

Also in the bundle was a pack of 5" squares and design roll of Alison Glass's Sunprint for Andover Fabric.

I also then ended up getting a FQ bundle from Massdrop as well but you can never have too much fabric right?! If you haven't checked out Massdrop yet, it's definitely worth a look. Although the Sunprint drop has now finished, they currently have a FQ bundle Handcrafted on there, with an option for 1/2 yard bundle.

Finally I also got my sticky mitts on the Moccasin BOM project put together by GenX Quilters. I love the western colour palate and modern design. I'm not sure whether I'm Generation X or not - I think I might just sneak in there - but I'm hoping GenX quilters will forgive me if I'm accidentally misrepresenting myself!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles's link up.

Happy Sunday sewing!