The remaining 12 plates have been faced. Now to turn and press them.
What’s on my Design Wall?
Or perhaps a better title is Why UFOs are Created.
Last week I ran into an issue with my Dresden Plates. No, it’s not getting them to lay flat — although that can be a challenge — but rather I sewed the petals in the wrong order and didn’t discover it until I clipped and turned the plate. Argh! There was no salvaging that plate and since I used a smaller stitch, I wasn’t looking forward to ripping out the stitches on the 2nd plate sewn wrong, but not yet clipped.
So, I cut more petals – enough for 4 plates so I didn’t have to rip out the two plates I did back when I was first working on this project. Between this and that, all I accomplished on the Dresden Plate was getting the 4 new plates sewn together and prepping the centers . So, now there are 8 days left in the month and I’m supposed to finish the Dresden Plate because it’s UFO # 10.
So did I work on it over the weekend? No, I finished up the Dragonflies during the week and decided I needed to know if I had enough black and white fabric for the quilt. I did, so I starting cutting the fabric, essentially starting a new quilt over the weekend. Although technically it’s not a new quilt since I started the dragonflies last August.
I even held back on cutting the black squares, but that didn’t stop me from putting one block together. The yellow square was easy to cut from the yellow strip I’ve been hauling around since August. The only reason I don’t have more dragonfly blocks done, is I’ve got to trim them and that was going to take some time.
So, the Dresden Plate quilt could easily get set aside for the “new” quilt. It’s more exciting. It’s new. I want it finished by early April, and there’s no way I’m going to finish the Dresden Plate by the end of February, so give up and work on the new quilt.
But, instead I’m going to buck up, put the pieces for the dragonfly quilt in a bag and set it aside to work on next month. I’ve checked my calendar and there’s nothing on the schedule after work this week, so there should be nothing to prevent me from making progress. If As I make noticeable progress on the quilt, I’ll post pictures. But until then, I may be incognito.
Meanwhile, check out the quilts being worked on by others by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
Stash Report
I really haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. If it wasn’t one thing it was another. There wasn’t much quilting/piecing going on this past week, although if you looked at my ironing board this afternoon you wouldn’t believe me.
Can you see those Dresden Plate petals at the top left of the picture? Those are the replacement petals I cut. I went ahead and cut 4 sets – one to replace the plate I clipped before discovering I sewed it together wrong; one to replace the 2nd plate I sewed wrong and is already attached to the interfacing and finally two to replace the two I previously sewed and aren’t aligned correctly. Are we sure this is a UFO? Since I appear to be starting from scratch it almost seems like a new quilt.
The rest of the mess on the ironing board is the fabric I pulled for my Dragonfly quilt. The black is the same black I’m using for the Dresden Plate. I’m not too fond of it since it attracts lint from the entire metro area. But that is a six yard piece (or maybe there’s six yards after I pull the two yards I need), so I can’t justify buying more fabric. I even went to the quilt store yesterday with a gift certificate in my pocket and didn’t buy any fabric – although this FQ did come home with me.
This was my “prize” for finishing Three Sisters’ Choice. It’s one of the quilts on my UFQ list at the quit shop. I picked this FQ since it could be worked into the Dragonfly quilt.
I’ve got half of the fabric cut. I still have to cut the black squares and rectangles before I can begin sewing.
So, why am I cutting fabric for the Dragonfly quilt? I finished embroidering them this week.
Working on these I discovered a couple of things. A freshly sharpened Crayon delivers more color than one which has been used. Also, to get the blue ink out of the fabric, I filled a bowl with soapy water and soaked the pieces for “a while”. They rinsed clean.
Pardon me while I record the Crayola Crayon Colors and DMC Floss #s. I figure if I do this now, I’ll have the information if I need it later. The DMC #s may not be current. Some of this floss could be from before I got married 25 years ago. The crayons are from a box with a 1990 copyright date on it.
| Color | Crayola Crayon | DMC Floss |
| Yellow | Yellow | 307 |
| Purple | Violet (Purple) | 333 |
| Pink | Magenta | 602 |
| Orange | Red Orange | 608 |
| Green | Yellow Green | 907 |
| Blue | Cerulean | 996 |
Now that I’ve recapped this past week, here’s the Stash Report:
Fabric Added this Week: 0.25 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 5.50 yards
Fabric Used this Week: 0.956 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 19.768 yards
Net Used for 2011: 14.268 yards
Check out how others are doing by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
What’s on my Design Wall
For this week’s design wall, I have three of my completed Dresden Plates for this month’s UFO Challenge. This does not include the two I made previously because I want to realign them on the background and change out the centers. The color is not very accurate in the above picture, but it’s pretty close in this second picture.
Notice anything wrong?
Yep — I sewed the quarters together wrong — at least twice — and didn’t notice it until I was turning the plate. I’m going to be cutting more blades later this week as I trimmed and clipped. I guess I need to go through the rest of the plates to see if they are put together correctly and see how many more I need to make.
Check out other design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
Stash Report
No new fabric came in the house this week and there was a trip to a LQS. The centers for my Dresden Plates really need to be round, so I tracked down Bigger Perfect Circles. They are a heat-resistant plastic, so I’m able to prepare the center circles so they are nice and smooth.
I ran a running stitch along the edge of the circle and then pulled it up with the template in side. Then I “painted” the turned under edge with a bit of starch before heat setting the crease. It works really well. Here’s a picture of the back of my circles:
On another note, Three Sister’s Choice has definitely been given the Quality Control Cat stamp of approval. Yesterday morning I was napping in the recliner when the phone rang. When I jumped up the quilt ended up on the floor. When I wandered back into the room a couple of hours later Seven was napping on the quilt. She did NOT want to give it up. I may just have to make her a quilt of her own.
As for the stash usage, I used about 5/8 yard on the Dresden Plates — now if I can get them appliquéd in the next couple of days so I can start quilting.
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 5.25 yards
Fabric Used this Week: 0.625 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 18.812 yards
Net Used for 2011: 13.562 yards
Check out how others are doing by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
Found in my Stash…
…a length of gold Dimples (Judy would be so proud). Although, can you call less than a yard “a length”?
Anyway, there’s enough to make the inner gold border and all of the centers for my Colorworks Dresden Plate, which is this month’s UFO Challenge.
Progress on UFO #10
February’s UFO started off looking like this. When I started this quilt, the plan was to make this:
Those are 15″ blocks with 3″ sashing, so the quilt would finish at 75″ x 93″. But since I can’t find these two quilted blocks, I can either pick a different quilt to work on, or approach the quilt with a fresh perspective.
Picking a different quilt wouldn’t get this one done, so I decided to try a fresh perspective. I played in EQ with several ideas and decided on this one:
This quilt has a 2″ inner black spacer border, a 1 1/2″ inner border and then finishes with a 3 1/2″ outer border. The quilt will measure 59″ x 89″. I have to dig through my stash to see if I can find 5/8 yard of yellow fabric. I may just have to make a trip to the LQS. Believe it or not, when my husband looked at the options and I told him this one would require a fabric purchase, he still picked it. I think he said something about 1 yard (I hadn’t done the math yet) wasn’t that big of a deal.
I haven’t just been playing in EQ, I’ve actually did pieced. I now have 10 plates in progress. I’ve got more cutting ahead of me.
Drop in later in the week to see how I’m progressing.
What’s on My Design Wall
Today it’s really What’s on my Scanner Bed. I was afraid to try to put them on the design wall. It looks like I’ll be redoing a couple of these before I put the top together. If they were all usable I’d be a little over 1/3 of the way done. I’m going to put these back in their envelope for a couple of weeks. I need to work on something bigger.
I still haven’t found the two completed (as in quilted) blocks to my UFO#10. I have no idea where they got to, but I have found the black batting, so I think I’m just going to regroup. There’s nothing stopping me from making the plates and appliquéing them to the background. The final decision will come when I see how many plates I can get from the fabric I have — there’s no buying new – the fabric is at least 20 years old.
Follow the links over at Patchwork Times for great inspiration.
Stash Report
With all the snow last week, I didn’t get out much, so no new fabric came in the house.
I pieced the backing for the mystery quilt using nearly all of the leftover fabric. I worked a bit on the DWR, pieced a few tiny Ohio Stars and make the pajama pants.
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 5.25 yards
Fabric Used this Week: 3.92 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 18.197 yards
Net Stash for 2010: -12.937 yards
Check out other results by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
Quality Control Cat Strikes Again
Seven, the Quilting Quality Control Cat, also inspects hand quilting.
The fuzzy picture is from the camera phone. DH was afraid if he walked past us to get the good camera, Seven would think it was time to eat and jump down. The green light is from and LED light I have attached to the cap I’m wearing.
