Just Keep Stitching!

Yes, I'm still stitching.  And stitching.  And stitching.

But I thought I'd share a bit of recognizable progress on my current (and eternal) hexagon progress.

So where is my quilting hoop now?

I've been working on the four fill-in neutral background triangles that take the medallion from hexagonal to rectangular.

Quilting through so many neutral hexagons can get a bit boring, so to divide up the chore, I'm also working the border rosettes as I go so once I've finished the background neutrals, the whole thing will be done.  

I won't have to move my hoop from section to section around the edge of the quilt just to do the border.

It's a win/win!

A lot of questions were asked and answered and I shared previous edge finishing info about "knife edge" finishing HERE.

As I reach the border rosettes, I remove the English Paper Piecing papers from the hexies at the edge of the quilt - just the area I'm working, and pin things in place while I quilt 1/4'' away from the edge.

After quilting, this will all be trimmed and bound as described in my link above.

I turned the second corner last night!  YAY!

There is still a lot to go - I doubt I'll reach the finish line by New Year's - but I feel like I'm making good progress having only started the hand quilting of this queen sized quilt in May.

And this new project is growing too!

It has no name yet.  I just started this a couple of weeks ago, so it needs some time to percolate.  Stay tuned and watch it grow.

I tend to sew from the bottom of the stash up.

Do you know what that means?

When I have an idea for a project, as in choosing color plans - knowing it is going to be as scrappy as scrappy can get even with set color families - I figure out which size of scraps from the Scrap User's System will be best to work with for that block design and then I pull -

In this case I am using up a lot of pre-cut squares in a variety of sizes from Small to Charm Pack size.

Some of my larger neutral pieces are coming from FQs, hunks and chunks - but quite a few of the smaller pieces are coming of of the neutral string bin and totes of "crumbs" - I've been digging for cut off triangles in certain sizes or anything big enough to use there.

The best part?  My Scrap User's System has all of the variety right at my fingertips so I can start sewing right away without having to iron out 100 different blue fat quarters and cut pieces before I can start sewing.

Yes, I save fabric scraps relentlessly and shamelessly and start at the bottom of my stash first to see what I can use before moving on to cutting from fat quarters or other big yardage. 

How big will this quilt be?  I have a limited amount of the chartreuse green, so that will determine where I stop.

The Bonniacs are in the house!

I had gone home (no driving past dusk for me!  I hate this time of the year!) before the last ones arrived and this photo came by text to let me know they were all enjoying Corner Market for dinner!

Many drove all the way from Indiana - LONG DAY!  I hope they slept well last night.

We had a couple fly in from California!  I know we are going to have a good time.

We have a Ditch Lilies workshop happening this week! My first time teaching this quilt to retreaters.

Much like a quilt cruise, we are going to break the blocks up and teach over several days so everyone can work at their own pace without feeling stressed.

Workshop time will happen in the morning, and after lunch everyone can work on what they want with class resuming the next morning until we have covered all 5 different blocks in this quilt!

Did you purchase Ditch Lilies? Have you started in on it?  If so - why not work from home on it with us?

Today we are going to be working at building a stockpile of small half-square triangles using my Essential Triangle Tool.  And we'll turn those into the corner bear paw units.

Tomorrow we'll work on the other block units (which won't take as long) and get the main block together.

Saturday we'll work on the alternate chain block and matching half-block for the border.

Sunday we'll move on to the plain log cabin half- blocks and corner blocks.  

The remainder of our retreat time will be free sew - working on whichever blocks and block parts that folks want to do.  They may even sneak in an alternate project or two just to break things up.

Check out the great shirt!

We are ready to dig in!

Mabel says she'd rather nap instead.  LOL.

In long arm machine news - it didn't work out for the machine guy to come uninstall my CompuQuilter and service my machine yesterday - so that has been put off for a while longer.  

He assures me it will happen before the Intelliquilter installation time arrives - so that's fine.

But it looks like I'll be putting tubs and bins back where I had them because I can't work the way things are now.

At least I got rid of the worst of the dust bunnies in the process!

How are things shaping up for your Thursday?

If you were trying to order Essential Triangle Tool, Simple Folded Corners or Simple Folded Corners Mini for our Chilhowie mystery and the Mini showed out of stock, I got another shipment in!

I also have more Essential Triangle Tools on the way and they should arrive next week if I sell out this week.  Things are moving fast as folks get ready for Black Friday!

Holidays are coming whether we like it or not!  And I have placed the PDF pattern for Pine Tree Point at 25% off in both the Quiltville Store and the Quiltville Etsy Pattern Shop. No coupon needed.

Sale is good through 11/23/22 (Thanksgiving Eve) so hurry and save!

And if you already have this quilt started as a UFO - maybe now is the time to pull it back out and finish it up!  I'd love to see your finishes.

And since we are talking about November sales and savings, here's something else you may be interested in:

ALL MONTH LONG!

25% off EVERYTHING at Electric Quilt!

YES!  That includes EQ 8 Software!

And it includes the Block Base+ Add On!

Click through my links to get there, and remember to use coupon code EVERYTHING to save your 25%.

If EQ8 and Block Base+ are not on your gift list - they should be!

Don't forget to sign up for our Panic in Paducah Book & Hand Dyed Fabric Gift-Away HERE.

Drawing happens THIS Saturday 11/12/22.

You can find Bruce Leonard's New Quilt City Murder mystery, Panic in Paducah on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle. It's an engaging read! The gift-away includes an autographed paperback from Bruce and the fabrics have been hand dyed by his lovely wife, Sedonia!.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

You've got this!

⁣

Grab it by the horns and show it who's boss!

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!