This is your last chance to report on your March A Long progress to show your spirit for 15 minutes a day in the Month of March.
Last Day of March falls on a Saturday, so I hope that means a lot of you can get a little bit of sewing time in today!
Don’t forget to report and then we’ll be rid of the drill sergeant for good. At least for this year. 
….whaahahahah….
Huh?
…WHEREISYOURREPORTSOLDIER?YOUFAILEDTOREPORTLASTWEEK,ANDNOWTHISWEEKYOU’RELATESOLDIER…
Oh yeah, that.
Sir.
…IDON’TLIKEYOURATTITUDE.YOU’DBETTERNOTLETMEDOWNSOLIDIER,REPORTIN.NOW!….
Sir, yes sir.
Two weeks ago, I —
… JUSTREPORTONLASTWEEKSOLDIER…
Last week, I worked on another alternate block.
Then sewing a few more 6 inch blocks for the back of my quilt.
…YOUMEANTHE FRONT?…
No, sir, the back. I am sewing and designing the back of my quilt.
…ISN’TTHATAWASTEOFSPACEORTIME…
Sir, I fully expect to see the front and back of this quilt when in use sir, I want to be able to enjoy both, sir.
…DIDYOUFULLYUSEALLYOURDAYSSOLDIER?….
No si……
….WHATWASTHAT?…
NO SIR!
I slept sir. One day. Was exhausted sir, I needed to rest sir.
….whawahwawhwhahwahah….
Not true! The other days I worked on fabric acquisition, assimilation and integration sir.
…what?….
Acquisition – buying fabric
Assimilation – washing fabric
Integration – ironing, folding and sorting fabric.
…whahawhaahha….
Yes sir. Sir?
….whahahwaht…
I decided to make a fake quilt sir. I used a Fibonacci print and I cut it out of the fabric. And I put a border around it.
…justlikethat?….how…why…?…..
Yes, sir, just up and decided to use the fabric sir.
There were so many stacks. So many stacks of scraps.
….whahaha….
I don’t know how this is going to work, sir. The box filled with scraps and blacks and white is full even before adding the sample block and instructions.
…hwhwhaaha…
Yes I could acquire a better scrap storage system to pass around as a pizza box. Sir, I realized that ‘providing a majority of fabrics’ for a scrap quilt isn’t all that much fun because you have so much to anticipate for others to use together for several months into the future.
….whahahahahahwahawhahaaahahhh…
….andthefakefibonacci…?…
Here sir!
….arentyouforgettingonemorethingsoldier?…
Oh yeah, here’s the link to Life in Pieces.
…ATEASE!…
*editors note, going to post these show notes, but audio has been having issues. Will publish to see if the site works & diagnose any issues in the afternoon. Problems are with the hosting site.*
Reporting in our 15 minute stars of the week!
Also a shorter account of my own week of sewing. Some designing (you saw it already, I’m going to do the last one on that post)
Organizing and buying fabric. Sewing with my friend.
I started on a second quilt top for the back of my exothermic quilt. Yes, that’s way more work, but hey, I had them done already, just had to piece it together.
More to come on this.
And I named her!
Meet
Carlotta.
Sounds like Darla (sorta) and is a diva in one of my favorite (phantom) stories ever.
And the name is italian origin.
Additional Music
Must be a Word by The Rubinoos
I have had a crazy busy week between internets, sewing days, sleeping days, and pool days. Long days!
Anyway, I am starting to organize & calculate my quilt backing for my exothermic wonders quilt in the midst of it all.
So pinwheels done at the retreat:
And then square in a square blocks of (some of) the leftover border blocks. Here’s four out of 12 of those.
Anyway, this weekend I’m going to try to catch up on more stuff.
Don’t forget to report. How’s your 15 minute progress? At least in the back of your mind?
And Rhonda’s finish – a – long! 1st quarter’s end is right around the corner!
HSTs
Originally uploaded by Linda Rotz Miller Quilts & Quilt Tops
I just had to share this little picture from Linda Rotz Miller on flickr. I friended her a while ago and she’s amazingly productive, more pictures faster than about anyone I’ve ever met before – even Pam.
If you’re a flickr user, be sure to friend Linda.
This particular post is about the number of half square triangles found in two different quilts that look totally different. Check it out!
In my quest to make me crazy, I just had to look at two other completely different options for a quilt design for my Guild.
I agonized over the perfect alternate block for the footstool block to provide a choice for guild members to make.
I came up with two choices, and asked you about it. And got some ideas which boil down to half and half or so.
First a listener suggestion that I am not going to pick just because I am stubborn about the original block, but this option is good too, trust me:
This gives the quilt an on point feeling. Good design. Seriously. But again, I’m stubborn.
So then I have the whole different direction with another 5 x 5 grid block to match the 5 x 5 of the original block.
This is using a grandmother’s choice block as the alternate block. Which I really like, this feels very Bonnie Hunterish scrappy to me.
No weaving here, no flow in that sense, but look what happens when the blocks match, a cool secondary design. Now the block looks much more squared up to me.
But I am trying one alteration to the grandmother’s choice block and see what works with it.
Which brings the black and the repetition of the quarter square triangles together and breaks up the ‘unintended sashing’ feeling of the last quilt.
There are larger sections of color now and there is an emphasis on jewel tones. The quilt flows differently too, but I think the secondary pattern can tie this whole thing together.
Still thinking here.
It helps to have two resources for 5 x 5 blocks but I have to admit, it’s not an extremely popular grid size to begin with.
Hoping that sharing this with you helps you see what kinds of things people think about when looking to create quilting designs. Not that I’m an expert by any means, but it’s the thoughts that I go through.
Well we had a few people report in with their progress, and I know more people are playing along as well!
We’re doing a 15 minute challenge for the Month of March to get 15 minutes of sewing time (or other quilting related time) to make that a priority for the month of march.
We’re halfway done, we should try to finish strong!
I share other’s progresses that reported to me by sunday early afternoon, then I share about my experiences going to a long arm rental place, and a quilt show held in a mall. And a little about writing directions for the guild swap coming up in April.
Interesting week to say the least.
And some quilty pictures for you from my iPod touch from the show:
Hope you enjoy!
If anyone wants to report in for a (short apparently) podcast update for tomorrow morning, you should do it today to be counted.
It was fun counting off all your names and such on the last podcast.
I have one, maybe two people reporting in so far. How are your 15 minutes a day sewing going?
If you’re a twitterer: #MAL15 Stands for March A Long 15 (for 15 minutes).
Glad to have gotten buzz about this from some of the other podcasters!
Just trying to encourage 15 minutes a day!
And here are our Ants who are the stars of our marching music!
Da Ta DA!
I just wanted to remind everyone about the National Quilting Day Sew IN on Saturday, March 17.
Since it’s also St Patty’s day, you can always GDAS – (Get Drunk and Sew), but I wouldn’t recommend if you want the results to look nice. (and only if you’re of age)
If you haven’t heard, and heard, and heard, over on twitter, there’s a sew-in happening. #NQDSI
There will be prizes and all sorts of stuff. And any projects you work on and put up into SeamedUP will work towards the contest they’re having.
Rumor is that 1st and 2nd are pretty much locked up (or were two days ago), but there is prizes up to 5th, and who knows, maybe you’ll be able to leap frog over the Seamed UP speed demons and win it all?
But you can join in the Twitter Sew In on Twitter on Saturday, and be sure to tell your other online friends about it.
More details will be found here about the Sew IN. I’ll be sure to be there at least part of the day (afternoon US time).
Don’t forget.
And this is a great way to get your 15 minutes every day all rolled up into one. Don’t forget to report on your progress on Saturday!
I’ve been thinking about one principle of design or just a general rule I heard somewhere.
When putting two blocks together in a quilt as alternating blocks, a quilt works best when the blocks are of the same grids.
A 3 X 3 grid is a typical 9 patch block.
I found this really cool 5 X 5 grid block that I want to do with my guild, but I wanted to have an alternate block of weaving chains to tie the quilt together because this block I want to do (see below) seems too fragmented as it is.
This block is called footstool. and you can easily see the 5 x 5 block.
The chain that I originally paired it with was a 3 X3 grid block, an underground railroad block (called bluechains in EQ7)
Which is clearly a 3 X 3 grid, which makes a fairly wide chain.
Putting the quilt together it looks like this:
And I like the pattern and flow of this quilt very much.
But I am still bugged by the 3 x 3 next to the 5 x 5.
So digging into EQ a little bit more, there is another chain block that is similar that is a 5 x 5 grid.
Which just fragments the whole thing even more in the quilt.
But when I add some darker color in the middle, it looks less distracting.
The quilt now looks like this:
So I can’t really decide.
What do you like quilt on the left or on the right?
And I reserve my right to change my mind or go with even a 3rd or 4th option.
You are currently browsing the Scientific Quilter blog archives for March, 2012.
Scientific Quilter Podcast
|
