This is April’s UFO block.  I figure I’m half way through the block now.  The leaves and ribbon are fused in place and now I just need to stitch them down.  This started off on a dark tan and green window pane plaid, but the thought of making those berries did not excite me – I can’t cut out a decent circle that small.  Although it might explain why I was looking at THESE the last couple of weeks.

When I realized my leaves were not fused down, I picked a lighter color background and decided to put my last class to work.  I used Helen Stubbing’s Colourque method to Faux Applique the berries.  I even have finished the stitching around them!

Perhaps tomorrow, after the oil change in my car I’ll quickly finish up this block and the one from March which also just needs the stitching.  Then it will be time to work on this month’s block — or Eeyore.

If I can just stay home and awake I could make more progress on this quilt.

Looks like I’ll be lining Piglet so the finger board doesn’t show through.  Those gray blobs are Eeyore’s left feet.

Very little.  But then, if you read yesterday’s post you would understand why.  The little light brown rectangle thing is for the Eeyore quilt.  To be honest, I can’t tell you when I did that last week or the week before.  But it’s upon the wall.

I wish my Piglet parts had been up there too. That’s part of why I had to stop and straighten.  I couldn’t find Piglet!  Turned out I had taken the pins holding him together out and stuff the parts into a zip bag for “safe” keeping.

Last night I finally sat down at my sewing machine.  Something I could actually finish probably would have been better to work on, but instead, I pulled out block # 23 from Just Takes 2.  I’ve re-drafted the pattern so part of it is paper pieced.  This is as far as I got.  It’s still not perfect, but it’s so much further along than it was.  Three more sections like this, the center and the outer ring and I’ll have it done.

Don’t forget to check out what others have on their design wall by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

It’s been a long and busy week around here.  It started off with a road trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, home to the International Quilt Study Center and Museum and The Quilted Kitty.  The trip was so I could attended a Colurque Class taught by Helen Stubbings from Hugs & Kisses.  My friend T and I drove up a day early to visit the Museum.   So that was Sunday and Monday.

Tuesday the evening was spent assisting my husband in preparing for the 6th grade band and string concert.  Certificates to print and t-shirts to wash.  Oh, there was that quick trip to Hobby Lobby which set me back a few yards.

Wednesday was a quilty type day.  I went to the Machine Quilter’s Showcase.  Breath taking quilting and vendors to visit.  A few notions came home with me, but no fabric.

Thursday was the big concert.  Afterwards I helped to clear the stage and fell into bed when I got home.

Friday I collapsed after work.  Imagine that!  I woke up in time to make a quick dash to Jo-Ann’s for a couple of pieces a fabric for the Eeyore quilt and thread.

Saturday morning was more dashing around. First up was driver’s license renewal.  Then I spotted a sign that said “quilt exhibit”.  The Raytown Historical Society has a small quilt exhibit that I stopped in to see.  When I got home there as a little bit of house cleaning and straighten my sewing room. Then it was off to Sedalia, Missouri to see my niece graduate from high school.    She loved the quilt, so I didn’t get to bring it home.  Again I collapsed into bed when I got home.

This morning, I’m moving slowly, but plan to take in the quilt exhibit at the Kansas City Star, and then maybe, just maybe get a little bit of work done on the Eeyore quilt.  I haven’t looked at my schedule for the rest of the week. I’m afraid to.

If you’ve read this far, here’s the results of my shopping and not stitching.

Fabric Added Last Week: 13.125 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  59.338 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 32.562 yards

Net Used for the year -26.776 yards

Hop over to Judy’s to see if anyone else was able to quilt this past week.

I headed over to Hobby Lobby this evening to pick up more fabric for my Just Takes 2 quilt.  My plan was to pick up 3 yards each.  I ended up only getting two yards as this gorgeous turquoise and lavender paisley jumped into my cart.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.  It’s been so long since I bought fabric just because I liked it, I had a hard time deciding how much I needed wanted.   In the end I bought 4 yards of the paisley, 2 yards of the yellow (I’m thinking background), 1 yard of the blue and 1 5/8 yards of the lavender since that was what the cut piece measured.  I hope this gives me enough to make something cool — and if I have to add to it from my stash, that’s alright too.

Now, to get a few other things done so I can work with this new fabric.

No new fabric and none used that I’m counting yet.  So the report did not change.

Fabric Added Last Week: 8.75 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  46.213 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 32.562 yards

Net Used for the year -13.651 yards

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see if more people bought fabric this week or used it.

Friday night was Sew and Chat at Quilted Memories.  Since I didn’t want to drag my big machine out and I didn’t really have anything readily available to work on, I grabbed my red work in progress.  It  is a portion of Winter Wonderland by Crabapple Hill.  It’s another of my many long term projects.  Just three more sections to embroider, but they are the biggest — the top section with the music and the bottom two scenes.

On this week’s Design Wall post I mentioned I had a swap block measuring 1/2″ bigger than the rest of the blocks and I needed a solution to include it in the quilt.

I had a few options

• chop off points big time
• remake the block
• make a new block
• find another solution

I opted to find another solution as each of the other options just weren’t going to work for one reason or another.  Admittedly some of the points got chopped off — but that’s true for several of the blocks in the quilt.   But with this solution I just lost the tips — not 1/2 of the triangle!

This is not the block, but I wanted to show this picture to show how I attach the cornerstones and sashing to the blocks.

By doing it this way, I can work the quilt in sections.

The first thing I did was frame the block with the sashing fabric.

See — some points still cut off, but not really noticable unless you are looking for them.  Next, I trimmed the block to 8 1/2″ square.  This number is the correct size of block + sashing on all sides + seam allowance.

Then I cut 4 cornerstones, turning under the edge on two sides.

These were appliqued (yes, there’s that word) to the corner of the block, matching raw edges.

See how the squares ‘creep’ into the block?  I don’t think this would have worked if the block didn’t have light corners.

I did not trim away the sashing.  I’m not worried about the extra thickness because this will be machine quilted — eventually.

In this detail picture the fix nearly disappears and of course in the picture of the full quilt, I’m not sure you can see it if you didn’t know where to look.

This solution worked for me because of the layout design and the light corners on the block which was too large.

Another solution which would have worked had I realized this BEFORE   I started the alternate blocks would have been to frame ALL the blocks and square them to 7 1/2″ finished and made the alternate blocks 7 1/2″.

I made a set of block several years ago that were supposed to measure 7 1/2″ and they were all over the place size wise.  I framed all those blocks, then squared them ‘wonky’.   Quilt 1 Quilt 2  Although I’m not sure if I would use the same colors today, I don’t think you can tell that the blocks are not the same size.

This is the center of the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler Swap quilt top.  I still need to add the outer borders, but I thought I’d show you how I fixed my problem block.

But not yet, in the next post.

But in the meantime, feel free to look for it.