Playing with Jacks!

It’s my LAST night on this long trip. I’ve been in Louisiana since LAST Monday…..and tomorrow I fly home! It was two weeks ago yesterday ((Sunday)) That I left North Carolina for San Diego and the Road to California Quilt Show in Ontario!

Here is a pic of me that Liz took in California while holding a border section of my hexie project…

I feel like it has been SIX weeks, but at the same time it has flown so fast…each day just cram packed with things to do, places to be, quilts to teach! It’s been a whirl wind of fun, but I am ready, really ready, to go HOME.

With all the storms pending, and due to the fact ((and the remembrance)) of what fun wet luggage is ((NOT!)) We stopped tonight at the Walmart to pick up a can of Scotchguard. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to find, but we were directed from the hardware section to the craft section and finally found it in the laundry aisle. I suppose that makes sense, but never having looked for it before---and considering the fact that this Walmart is Huge---it would have been nice if the FIRST person we asked knew where it was!

The hotel I’m staying in has a patio area, and I’m on the ground floor, so in between bouts of editing photos and writing this post, I’ve been going out there to spray the bags and let them dry in between rounds of spraying.

**Note To Self** Remember to close the sliding glass door while spraying!! This stuff is potent!

I intend to KEEP spraying until the whole can is used up….on not only the quilt bags, but my clothing suitcase as well!

My thoughts and prayers are with those in the path of this winter blizzard---though I have to admit to wonder why the weather channel always shows this as if it starts BELOW the Canadian border, when I know our Canadian friends are being pounded too. It takes me back to Elementary School where we would study the country, the states, and it never appeared as if there WAS anything at all above the USA! Why is this storm a big deal here, when they have bigger ones there? Not to minimize it for anyone that is in the path, it’s just that I am aware of the fact that there is more in the continent of North America than just the USA! Take this picture for instance...see how the storm makes such a CLEAN LINE at the border? LOL! I wish the weather channel would show the whole picture, that’s all.

Be safe everyone, no matter what side of the border you are on! My flight takes me from New Orleans to Houston to Greensboro, so I should be south of the mess.

Packing Packing Packing…and a long travel day home. I’ll be home for 10 days before I have to do a quicky trip fairly locally! I’m headed up to Lexington, VA for a meeting with the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild! That is still not-quite-mid-February, and roads up through Virginia and the south east can get kind of icy so I’m hoping all this nasty stuff is gone before I have to drive it.

So on to today’s workshop! Playing with Jacks is a fun and EASY quilt to get familiar with the Easy Angle Ruler and slow down long enough to solve ANY problems that may have plagued you with your personal seam allowance. We work on that and work on that until we find out WHERE it is with your machine. It can be a boring process, but if you want success in your patchwork, you need to know where it is and how to find it. And consistency is important! Let’s face it….most traditional quilts call for scads and loads of half square triangles, and we want them easy and consistent.

And this brings another question.....why is it that some quilters refuse to clip their dog ears? They obscure my view, and add bulk to corners and junctions. Why is it so hard for people to even want to clip those off? Believe me, your patchwork will lay nicer and be so much easier in the piecing/quilting department if you just trim them off!

From there on we play! The blocks are 6” finished, so you get plenty of repeat across the quilt surface to twist and turn the blocks and form really fun designs. You can choose to add sashings or not, totally changing the look even further. It’s a great study in a 3 fabric (or more) color palette, pushing the boundaries a bit on the color wheel and just experimenting. We had a great time!

		Playing With Jacks 1-31-2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There might be several pictures from the same projects, I just kept clicking as the projects grew! Look for the Green/Blue/white one where she decided to reverse the triangles and have the anvil block be dominant with the WHITE triangles as the design, instead of the blue ones…making the blue ones be the background. It totally changed the quilt, and we both liked it so much better!

Remember to play and experiment with your blocks. We would cut as many half square triangles as we could from each strip set, and often there are a few left that won’t make a full block, so students were encouraged to make some RENEGADE blocks using the spare parts. This really added interest to the quilt, throwing in a bit of free whimsy and surprise.

Time go to spray another round of Scotchguard ---remembering to close the sliding glass door and not letting all the fumes in the room in the process!