Applique Week

Epic fail on my Block 27 for the Just Takes 2 quilt!

Not bad from far away but here is closeup!

Ooooo.

Ouch!

I never thought I was so bad at applique until I tried to do this one!

Red and white solids is just the most unforgiving combination ever.

So I took it as an opportunity to learn how to do this better.

I watched a bazillion videos on YouTube and settled on this series by Erin Russek as how I might progress on my second try at this block.

This is the first video in her series on how to do applique:

It was quite painstaking to set up but once all the pieces were prepped, it was pretty easy to put together.

The sewing was made much improved also by using a thinner needle (milliner's size 9 or 10) and thinner thread also (size 100 cotton).

The results are quite passable, I think!

So here they all are!

A layout was given for this first quarter of the quilt, but I didn't quite like it, so I am still playing with my own ideas.  :  )  Likely I will wait till they are all made and put it together then.

They look good on the wall anyway!

And here, the first try found a friend (Yay! Nothing gone to waste!)

Next, I want to try this method demonstrated by Gay over at Sentimental Stitches:

She really makes it look soooo eeeeasy!  I gotta try it again!

I am thinking to resurrect the orange and grey so I can do Block 27 again with this technique!

Pray for me!

Cheers,

Sarah

Finally! Caught up!

Massive sew-fest yesterday did the trick!  Hooray!

Looking forward to seeing how it is suggested to put all these together into Quarter One at the end of the month!

Right now, I'm having fun playing with them on my "design wall annex" in the front room.

Oh, well, I guess if anyone comes over to visit, they can play too!

Just Takes 2 Progress

Red and white...Only 3 more to catch up on before the latest installment!

Here I am so far:

I was also doing the same with orange and grey and got this far before I started not liking it too well:

If anyone sees plus points to this idea, feel free to let me know what they are!
I'm bailing on this second set for now!  At least until I totally catch up on the red and white (which I really like the looks of!)  Then I might make a couple more blocks just so it's a shape.

If I do have extra time, I really wanted to do the Farmer's Barrister's wife Sow-Along (or whatever it's called now!) over on Randy's blog.  I have a lot of vintage fabrics to use up and that might be a good place to put some of them!

I was off sewing for the past two days due to my vehicle needing to be in the shop and so spending a lot of the time just figuring out how to get my normal stuff done!

Did manage to get to JoAnn's to use my 50% off coupon on some wool batting though!  I've been wanting to try it out for ages and with all the finishes I've been making lately, I was really low on batting!
Hey, my JoAnn's is right by the repair shop!  How convenient!
:  )

-Sarah

10, 20, 30 Minutes to Sew

It Just Takes 2...Days of fitting a bit of sewing in here and there!

The first 6 blocks...DONE!

Thing One That I Learned:

Red and White solids are not a forgiving combination.  If you don't do it right, you pretty much gotta do it over!

Thing Two That I Learned:

The back basting technique was interesting.  I tried it and found it difficult to get the curves smooth.

I need to practice it some more.  On something else.  Later.  When my headache goes away and I am not tired.

I really love using freezer paper for applique.

*** Tips ***

Tucking into all that fabric, I needed to make it a bit more manageable.  So, just to get started,

I figured all the sizes I would need to do all the various blocks for this week and cut 2 strips each in of:

4.5"

2.5"

1.5"

in both colors

and one 7.5" of the background color. 

That was a good idea.

I was able to get all the sizes I needed from those strips.

***

One Block 1, spin your seam allowances in opposite directions (1st 4-patch one way and the other one opposite) so they nest properly when you stack them.

***

On Block 4, I found it useful to sew my 1.5" strips to either side of the 4.5" strips for 6.5" each side, both colorways and strip cut the units 1.5" after they were sewn together.  It was a lot more accurate for me and quicker.

I actually sewed 12" of each.  Ooops.  Thought again.  Unsewed the little ends off of 4 each.

:   p

***

Looking forward to the 2nd installment of this mystery!

Sew you later!

Sarah

ps  (Thanks to Nancy Zieman for the title of today's blogpost...This one idea, from her book of the same name, has kept me fitting in sewing for many years!)

And...In with the new!

Another mystery!

This one should be great too.

It's called the Just Takes 2 quilt.

Check it out here!

Especially if you were in awe of the red and white quilt show in NYC last year, as I was!!

This will be a few "firsts" for me:  I've never done a quilt with only 2 solid colors;  never done a red and white only anything; and never done a year-long mystery.

I am really looking forward to it!

I've got my fabrics all prewashed and dried and ready to go!

6 yards of red and 9 yards of white.

The first blocks have been released!  I'll show you mine as I do 'em and I hope to get started on it this weekend.

I think it will be easy to fit this project in between the others I have going (finishing up Orca Bay, wrapping up my 5th grade sewing class quilt, and one other quilt project, which is a secret for now!)  and at the end of the year, it will be done!  Like getting a quilt for free almost!

Life is good!

Love,

Sarah