Considering Background Yardage...

I admit....this is the part that is hard for me. Figuring yardage when cut with specific rulers, etc. When figuring the background fabric, I didn't take into consideration the amount of background fabric that would result in "bonus triangles" or otherwise cut off and lost. I was just looking at the surface of the quilt and guesstimating. I did say in the yardage requirements that all yardages are "approximates". But that didn't cover my hiney enough.

At this point you are going to need to add to your your background fabrics for a total of 4 -1/4 yards. This much yardage just "sounded" like too much for me, but so much is lost in the bonus triangles from step 3. And it was pointed out to me in an email this morning that the squares from step 3 took 2 5/8 yards! I had used my background squares from my pre-cut 2.5" light squares bin for this step. I know not everyone has that bin to work out of!

Those of you working scrappy shouldn't have a problem. those of you with a particular background fabric, you are going to need more. This is a BIG quilt. With the borders it finishes at 96" square.

I am doing the borders as an optional step, and will write separate yardage requirements for the pieced border hopefully this evening. If you want to plan to use the same background fabric in the pieced border as well, add another 3/4 yard for a total of 5 yards background there for good measure. Better too much than not enough?

There is one more block step in step 4 that requires some background fabric. And the borders require some more background fabric....all else is the main fabric colors and amounts given should be sufficient for them.

I hope this doesn't trip too many people up. Maybe this is an opportunity to pull in a variety of fabrics into your quilt making, one of the main reasons I go scrappy!

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Part 3, Red & Ready!

I just finished uploading part 3 of the Mystery. You can reach it here!

I had a bit of round a bout with my ftp program...some how files got renamed the same as other files (they were numbered files) and it rewrote some..so all of a sudden I had pictures that weren't the pictures I was supposed to have..pictures went missing when they were written over by others, so AUUGHHH! It's been a bit of a bru-haha over here. I think I've got it straightened out, and I sent out a call for help, if anyone has the first picture in Step 1, of the gold strips with the neutral strips and the strip set being sewn through the machine? I need that .jpg file if you have it!!

Someone emailed a bit befuddled because "they" thought that the steps were going to be once a week or farther apart and she was already falling behind. Some wanted them on the hour, every hour! Some thought it was every day! I said a couple weeks ago that there would be 2 steps per week. That means a step about every 3 days, and I am keeping with that.

And don't worry...if you can't keep up...it's not a race! You can click to the next step when you are ready, you don't have to try to keep up with other people. Breathe, Live...and click the link when you are ready.

I had a call from the guy who is installing my Compu-Quilter..He'll be here around the time I get back from Arizona, so you can see what irons I've got in the fire...along with new counter tops coming? I have got to do these steps as they fit into my schedule, and I know I can't please half the people half the time, so you will just have to bear with what I can do, okay?

I'm still getting emails from people who want directions to make it smaller. I'm sorry, but there isn't time for math and recalculating. You can easily wait another week or two and see what the outcome is, and then decide how you want to resize it to fit your purposes, deal? Thanks for understanding!

Some people have not been able to get their printers to cooperate. You can easily copy and paste from the webpage into a word document to make things fit on the page how you want them. Try that, you can make it fit your own needs that way by omitting pictures, text or whatever. It's easy. I can't help it if not everyone's printers are the same, there are too many variables for monitor settings, printer settings, page settings, etc.

I'm off to bed..it's been a long day!

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Sneak Preview!

Well! I'll have you know my whole day went out the window!

That is.....I stayed home and sewed and the other things I was supposed to do....just will have to wait for another day.

When the muse strikes, you have to run with it, right? And OH, what a delightful mess I've made in the quilting room today! A red and green bomb truly went off....

I've got the columns laid out...this is the office/sunroom floor, in other words, DH-land. And he's just going to have to put up with quilt backing columns on the floor for a bit, because there is no where else in the house big enough to lay this stuff out! Lucky enough I can close the double doors and keep the dogs and cats out of there from rearranging things.

Speaking of which....Oscar is doing FINE! The antibiotics have seemed to have cleared everything up, and I'm really really happy to say he is back to normal. He's been really really lovey and cuddly and purr purr purr...so I think in his own cat way he is saying THANKS, I feel better now. >^..^<

The next step for me is to trim all the columns to the same length...No just sewing sewing sewing and then lopping off the extra at the end. These all need to be the same so I don't end up with troubles when I load it to quilt it..

But before I do that....it's time for dinner...and I really REALLY ought to clean up the mess around the quilting room before I try to machine these long columns together....(but I don't wanna...)

Besides, after dinner I have plans to finish writing step 3 of the Mystery! Cleaning can come AFTER that, right?

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And What Could THIS Be?!

It would be really EASY to just piece a simple back of one fabric and call it done.

OR...I could combine random pieces of Christmas fabrics I want to clear out, you know the old ones that have been hanging around forever, the novelty ones that never seem to be right to go with anything else, they are too cute or too...eh?

But what if I go through my orphan bin and pull blocks that have Christmassy colors and feel to them?

And you know what? One of those Christmas fabrics (or more than one) have a bit of blue...especially the cute Gingerbread men that was a door prize some years ago. (Robin in Elizabeth City, if you are reading this, you KNOW I thought of you when I pulled out this fabric!! :cD)

Can I pull blocks and random leftover units in these colors, and piece a really FUN back for Carolina Christmas??

You bet I can!!

So here's what I'm doing. I'm separating the blocks that I think will work into piles by sizes. I'm making columns of the various sizes with bits and pieces of various Christmas type fabrics to tie it all together. I'm not using JUST Christmas fabric in the blocks, but I'm going more for color than whether it has a Christmas print in it or not, designating it as a "Christmas" fabric. To me Christmas is about the colors, not about what the print is on the fabric. That said...I'm really happy to be using some of these cute novelty ones that I could never find a home for!

The quilt finishes 96" X 96"...so that means I need a backing that is about 102" X 102" to be big enough. I'm nearly GIDDY over how much odd ball orphans and holiday fabrics this will find a home for! About 9-10 yards all together I'm figuring...

I've got 4 columns pieced. I'll piece more strips and stuff to go between them. At this point I'm just playing!

While sewing I make sure that the columns measure the same WIDTH, tho each column can be a different width from the next one. I just want them uniform so they will lay flat when sewn together. I'll trim them to length later. A bit of extra length will allow me to adjust them up, down, or turn them around for final placement.

I'll take more pics as it comes along....Not a whole lotta planning going on here, just sew and go! I'm thinking this is going to give me a reversible quilt.....and Im happy to be making more space in the orphan bin and that shelf of holiday fabrics!

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