Days of Quilting, Friendship & Laughter!

From strips to four-patches -

Isn’t strip piecing just the best?  This was my morning yesterday.

I’m also happy to report that Operation Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs – Try number TWO was a complete success. 

I’m not sure what happened the first time around, it it was likely operator error, but we are well on our way now and I am excited about learning to make many of the recipes from the many places I’ve been directed to thanks to your comments.

I need something that can speed up the dinner process from time to time.  I get home from the Quiltville Post Office about 5pm, and if I don’t know what the plan is before I leave in the morning – dinner turns out to be “BREAKFAST” or even the “Let’s just go out” which is happening far too frequently in my book.  It’s not healthy for my body, it’s certainly not healthy for my wallet.

I’d love to know what your favorite recipes are – in fact, we could have a recipe share by posting your favorites in the comments section below!  Ready? Set? POST!  I’ll link this post to the recipes tab at the top of the blog so we can always go back and find new ones to try.

I shared with Jill how I speed cross-cut with the Accuquilt Studio!

I only needed a large handful of red/blue four-patches to use as cornerstones in my current Irish Courthouse Table Topper adventure.

She was amazed!  I love that I can share something this simple – that is such a game changer!

Sashings laid out, four-patches in place!

Oops…gotta rotate that one second up on the far right!

(And I did before sewing it together.)

Webbed and ready to cross-seam!

Things reconfirmed to me during this process:

I chose to make a double-strip sashing because of the four-patches just to make it look less like there was a sashing there at all.

IF you choose to spin the seams on the back of four-patches in a setting like this – just know that your sashing seam may nest on one end of the sashing, but the other end of the sashing will fight – because the seam on the sashing is pressed to one side.

You’d have to make 2 batches of four-patches, sew them in opposite directions so that half of the seams would spin left, the other half spin right – in order to make things nest all the way through the quilt assembly process.  What a pain!

Before you go spinning seams willy-nilly – know if they will work with the next unit you are joining them to or not.

The solutions?  Either don’t spin the four-patches at all, just press them to one side and deal with it as you are assembling, or press the seams on the sashings OPEN, and then pin to match.  

You can also just flip a seam in the sashing as needed and then press with a heavy hand to get that seam to lie flat – and I’ve done that with much success as well because it is a long seam, and I don’t plan on stitching anything in the ditch during the quilting process.

Jill and I talked quite a bit about open seams during our sewing time yesterday, and we both agree to feeling that a pressed open seam is a vulnerable seam as there are then only 2 threads of strength between the patches holding them together. When pressing to one side, that seam is protected by the double fabric strength of the seam allowance and stitches are less likely to pop while the quilt is in use.

Do open seams give flatter pressing?  Yes.  But what does that matter when you are going to wash and dry the quilt and use it? It won’t be flat ever again after quilting.

More than .02 cents, I know – and I have just broken my own rule of “Don’t discuss politics, religion, fabric washing, seam pressing (open or not), dry iron or steam iron, or just how many sewing machines do you REALLY own?!

And then we laughed and laughed some more!

Just what is IN that blue juice that you area always drinking, Jill??

Oh, but this is going to be so pretty!

Both of these blocks are Accuquilt dies.  The small block is 6’’, the large is 12’’.  Jill cut all of the pieces before coming down, and has been sewing up a storm.  I love it!

Meanwhile – I’m loving this!

I’m very excited to be welcoming the gals from the West Jefferson Quilters Guild to Quiltville Inn today, for a sew day full of fun, friendship and a pot luck lunch!

I get to sew as well, which will be fun – so this project will be coming along with me to finish up.  I have some ideas for borders – but haven’t gotten as far as cutting out yet.  So I’ll likely return to string blocks for more place mats with the row by row license plates.  I need 24 so that 12 can be in use, while 12 are in the laundry – and there are plenty of scraps where that all comes from!

The digital pattern for Irish Courthouse is still priced at 50% off in the digital pattern section of the Quiltville Store.  It’s only $4.00 and no coupon is required – there are only a couple of weeks left of this sale, so don’t miss out!  You can be sewing, right along with me. 

My quilt is aiming for table topper size, but Jill commented that it would also be just about baby quilt size by the time my borders are on.  What two colors would you like to be working with? Or would you go completely scrappy?

Jill is leaving me this morning, but I’ll hopefully be seeing her again in a few months.  She will say hi to the ladies as they arrive, and be on her way back up to Erie, PA.  We spent our last evening of stitching time looking like this:

We love our Craftoptics!

I’ve been using them for my close handwork for several years now.  Last spring my prescription in my glasses changed, and I simply sent my craftoptics back in and they updated the prescription in these as well – they were back to me in no time!

Go to Craftoptics.com for more info. These are great. they have my own glasses prescription in them (bifocals even!) and then the magnifiers flip down on top of the glasses. My prescription changed this year, and I sent them in to be updated with new lenses with the new prescrip - such quick service! When purchasing use coupon code QUILTVILLE100 when checking out (or over the phone) and that will save them $100 off a WOW Package.

My realization for myself is that if I can justify the cost of a computerized long arm quilting machine, and I can justify all the cost of all of my quilting tools, machines, fabric, everything that goes with it – I can also justify the cost of Craftoptics that enable me to continue doing what I love to be doing – while actually seeing what I am doing CLEARLY in the process.  Forget the looking silly while wearing them. Do I want to see to do what I love to do?

The answer is a resounding YES!  And I’ll never regret it.

Quiltville Inn Rally  Time!

The Waggy Quilters have chosen the weekend of November 12th to hold their retreat at Quiltville Inn!  They are even adding some extra days to their stay, and adding in a workshop.  I am so excited!

Which means that we only have these available dates left:

Mar 5-8
Apr 2 -5
Nov 19-22

And the random number generator chooses:

Entry 22, Nola Hartman & The Bonniacs!

Nola, I’ve sent you an email.  Chat it out with your ladies, choose your weekend from the 3 listed, and get back to me so I can make the other two weekends available to others.

We are down to the nitty gritty of filling 2020, folks!

Those March/April dates are fairly close around the corner, so I hope that there are a couple of groups that can pull themselves together quickly enough to grab them!

If we get to a point where a drawn group is unable to use any of the remaining available weekends, the group will remain on the waiting list and we will continue to draw groups until the dates are filled.

Quiltville Quote of the Day

The first time I learned about Helen Keller I was about 11. And I couldn't fathom a life without sight nor sound.

Anytime I am feeling the slightest bit down, I remember that I have eyes to see and ears to hear and quilting to keep my hands busy.

Life is indeed a daring adventure! If we choose to look at it as one!

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!