Sewing on a Sunday Afternoon -

I finished the webbing part of assembly for Shoo Fly Shoo yesterday!

It wasn’t a feat for the faint of heart! 

I set 192 4’’ finished blocks with 1 1/2’’ x 4 1/2’’ cut colored sashings and 1 1/2’’  neutral cornerstones.  (Yes, I’ve mentioned this before, but if ai don’t put it in each post, someone is going to comment asking what size and how many!)

The best part?  All of those neutral cornerstones were already for me to grab from my 1 1/2’’ squares box – the sashings were ready to cut from my abundance of 1 1/2’’ strips in my Scrap User’s System.  It works!  I just had to lay those out and cut them to length, and am so happy about the short strips that have found purpose here.

If you don’t know what webbing a quilt means – click the tips & techniques tab at the top of the blog. You’ll find info there.  It’s a way to chain assemble a quilt top to the point where all rows are completed all the way across, and all rows are held to each other in order by the chaining threads between the rows.  It’s the only way to go with a quilt that has sashing and cornerstones – if I press the seams in each row toward the sashings, the entire quilt will nest as I sew the rows together.

Zoey Jo was not impressed by this whole ordeal!

The top – completely webbed!

Now for the cross-seaming!

These little blocks have been so fun!

See the chaining threads between the rows?

The chaining threads may be left in place – they aren’t hurting anything.  The only time I would clip the chaining threads is if I were to press a seam open, or spin a seam as in a four-patch.  This isn’t happening with this quilt.

Have you ever had short seams on things like these narrow sashings and cornerstones start to come apart before you want them to?  Simply by leaving the chaining threads in place, these junctions will stay tight and nothing will pop open while joining rows to each other.  Dual purpose.

And yes – I assembled this all in one piece – as far as I could go until 8pm arrived and it was time to stop and settle in with some handwork for the night.

There are 9 seams left to finish the center – and then I can add borders.

This combo is floating my boat right now.

The inner border needs to be darker than neutral, but lighter than the colored sashings so that it doesn’t over power them, or take over.  The outer border?  What’s not to love about a deep lovely purple?

I would love to have this quilt in the quilting machine this week if possible – my go-to size has been roughly 70 X 90 because it will fit a Quiltville Inn bed perfectly with enough drop to cover the box springs and rails.

And yes – there are more blocks – more than 100 of them.  So I am looking at making a second bed-sized quilt for the Inn with an alternate setting.  Perhaps with scrappy 4 1/2’’ squares for a quicker finish, and a great way to use up some charm packs that have been languishing around.

Emmy Lou Lou, still hiding out away from Zoey.

They are still on the outs -

And all Zoey wants to do is play!

The TV watching continues -

And this is so funny – I was in my chair – Dave was on the couch.  She wanted to be as close as she could be to both of us so she laid across both arms of the couch/chair.  Oh honey, that doesn’t look comfy – not at all!

And then miracle of miracles -

Zoey Jo took herself to the open door of her crate, crawled in and promptly passed out.  All on her own.  With no prompting!

I was able to get some hand quilting stitches in while we continued to watch whatever it was that I wasn’t really paying attention to. (That happens a lot around here when I am stitching!)

I have no idea what her previous life was like.  I don’t know how she ended up in the shelter.  We are learning more and more about her as she learns more and more about us.

Open crate, contentedly sleeping belly-up!

So here we are at Monday.  I am headed into the QPO to crank out some mail order.  So many of you have ordered the Addicted to Scraps book at the sale price of $15.99 while we practice “Social Distancing” and happily play with our fabrics! (Isn’t this what every quilter dreamed of?)

If you want to know what quilts are found in the Addicted to Scraps Book, click the BOOKS tab at the top of the blog.  With each book cover image is a link to view the quilts in each book. 

This sale lasts through 3/31/2020

And comes with a free PDF download for my Wanderlust Table Runner pattern!

A $10.00 value.

Quilters will be extremely good at putting “Social Distancing” in practice over the next couple of weeks – we have projects to start, and to finish!  We have online groups to solo-retreat with.  We will come through this thing okay.

I am trying to avoid too much Facebook news feed watching.  I find photos of empty store shelves to be more than discouraging.  It’s panic inducing.

I’m planning on getting creative with the food that is in my freezer – and I will do what I can to not run in panic mode.

Creativity calms the heart and occupies the mind when things seem to be running out of our control.

What are you doing during this time of stepping away from the world? 

Is there anything you are finding helpful?

if you are an Audible member – we just noticed this morning that there is a 2-for-1 sale going on, and you might want to check it out and find some good audio books to listen to while you stitch.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Vintage applique quilt shared by Sue in Michigan.

Our sense of humor is one our most important defenses! Life is so much better when we find we can laugh at ourselves through difficult situations along the way!

Let your giggle out!

Wishing you a wonderful Monday -