Such a Saturday As This!

The snow is gone.

I mean, completely and utterly gone, even in those places where “the sun don’t shine.”

My van Moby is back up to the top of the lane way next to the cabin, and temps will be into the mid 50s today.

January in the south, you are a conundrum! 

Where it’s been in the teens and 20s for the past many weeks, this is a welcome respite, but I’m not up to trusting this trend yet.  We’ve had many an ice storm in February as winter gives its last fight toward spring.  No, I’m not trusting this at all!

But yesterday, the shining sun in a blue blue sky was enough for me to not want to hole myself up in the cabin basement studio.  I wanted to look OUTSIDE.  I wanted to watch the birds, the deer, and I’m still treadle hungry --

Notice the chain of pieces behind my foot pedal?  Yes – I was busy in the loft!

The daylight was bright behind that window!

Just putting pieces through!

These are the lines I drew using my Bonus Buddy ruler on the plane home from San Diego!

Always love it when I can make good use of found moments of otherwise wasted time.

I’m stitching NEXT to the lines, just a thread away (but not TOO MUCH!) from the lines keeping my stitching between the two lines.  The drawn lines are your fold lines - where the fabric needs to fold so the unit will reach up and over all of the way.  The shorter outside line is my bonus line and this project is giving me many many many of these!

Weeee!

(Who else remembers this red paw print? LOL!)

I can’t live without the Bonus Buddy!

My Bonus Buddy Ruler is now available as a stand-alone single as well as being included in the Essential Triangle Tool package!  You can use the magic line on the Bonus Buddy using the full instructions included to save your cut off corners from these flying geese in a 2’’ size to finish at 1 1/2’’ with nothing to trim but dog ears.  You’ll find them in the Quiltville Store. 

This handy gadget also has the needle holes I use to assure that I’m getting the correct seam allowance so my units come out the right size.

Oh yes!  This is what I want!

I love bonus triangles so much that I will often plan a quilt so that I WILL have them!  But there are a few things to pay attention to in order to make sure they are coming out the right size.

First and foremost…make SURE that your stitch & flip square is FULL SIZE in order for it to end up the size you need it to be.

This means that you need to cut your squares with the line that you are measuring by ON THE EDGE OF THE FABRIC, not just next to the fabric sitting on the mat. This makes a HUGE difference in the size of your unit.

If you don’t know what that means, please refer back to  THIS POST.

Make sure that you are drawing a FINE LINE, not a thick one.  The thickness of your line can throw you off.

Your thread weight matters.  Thicker thread will take up more space so you will need to do a couple of tests to see where you need to sew in regards to the line to achieve the best result for the thickness of your thread, the weight of the fabric, and how you cut that fabric.

There was a lot of dog ear trimming while dinner was cooking!

The staggering amount of bonus triangles also means that I tackle the pressing and snipping of dog ears in small batches.  Let’s face it – Who wants to deal with a baggie of wrinkled, in-pressed and un-de-dog-eared (I just made that word up!) units that have been squashed into a zip lock baggie at some future point in time?

If I press them and trim them as I make them they are always ready for this project, or the next one.

And while I treadled and pressed and trimmed, this was going on toward evening time. 

Click to play:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jan 20, 2018 at 2:22pm PST

I love watching the wildlife on the mountain!

I need one more night on this and it will be done!

Tonight.  I WILL finish this long term project tonight!

Don't you just love the texture of hand quilting in low light?

Yesterday’s #quiltvilleoftheday

Oregon or Bust from Scraps & Shirttails II!

I love working with recycled fabrics and simple blocks!  Both Scraps & Shirttails I&II titles are on sale in the Quiltville Store  for $19.99 each! These titles will be retired in the not so far future, so grab them while you can.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

I’ve got some big dreams.  I think that birthdays do that to me.  Where do I want to be this year, next year, five years from now, and am I working towards it, or am I just holding on to pipe dreams?

I’m putting some action behind this one.  I’m not even going to talk about it until it is a done deal.  But it could be huge.

Don't just talk about it, DO IT and your results will do all the talking. Vintage quilt found in Temecula, California.

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday, everyone!