A Distraction

Good Morning Everyone!

I began my morning by waking up and hearing the rain drumming down on the roof, lashing against the window, and the wind howling.  This is our part of the "big storm."  Luckily we won't be getting the snow.  It is the kind of day that I would love to spend all cozy in my quilt room, but I have to go out this morning.  The occasion is quilt guild, though, so it will be a fun outing.

Lately I have been "busy" with these.

 

This pile is 84 sawtooth star blocks.  I need 100 for the king-sized quilt I'm making for our bed.  Winter is nearly over (if we are to believe the groundhog) and my husband keeps mentioning that our bed is quilt-less.  Anyway, since I took this photo, I finished all the blocks (plus a few extras) and have laid out 70 of them.  My design wall only holds that many, so I will put them together and then lay out the other 30.  Usually when I get to this stage of my project, the momentum really pushes me to the end, however, I'm having the opposite situtation with this project. 

 

I constructed all of these blocks the same way.  My problem in putting them together is that all the seams are pressed the same way--the seam allowances do not nestle!  So, all those points have to be matched and all the bulk is in the same places.  It is a little like stitching hills and valleys!  Anyway, I used the Fit to Be Geese ruler when I constucted the stars, so at least they are matching nicely.  Since the seams are such a disaster, I'm choosing to press them open to help distribute the bulk, and I must add that trying to press a really long strip open on a shorter ironing board is "challenging" and less than fun.  And so far, I've only done sets of two of the long strips!  I'm dreading sewing them into larger pieces, sigh. 

 

You can't be surprised to find out that I've found other things that I "needed to get done."  I got caught up on the Temecula Quilt Co.'s row quilt.  Next I remembered that Mary from Quilt Hollow had alerted me to a project that made her think of me in the new April issue of American and Patchwork Quilting.  I picked it up at the store and browsed through it.  At first I didn't see anything, but then I finally spotted it.  This project was shown in an alternate color story.  Now usually I don't care for a one-block quilt, so I disregarded it for a bit.  I kept looking at the picture, though, and yesterday I carried the magazine up to my quilt room with me.  I started pulling fabric to see what I had that would work, and then I began cutting, and well, one thing led to another and the next thing I knew my husband was calling to say he was on his way home from work.  It was nearly 7 pm and I had no clue what was for supper.  I had sunk into that wonderful "no distractions, no realization of time, etc." quilt mode!!!  I love that, especially since I've been so distracted lately!

 

Luckily my husband is very understanding and sweet about me not making supper and so we just had a "heat and eat" meal and then I disappeared back upstairs and came down a couple hours later with this:

 

 

I taped the flimsy to my mantle.  It fits there just perfectly--and I can get a nice picture of it hanging.  I'm really loving it!  This year is my year to improve my machine quilting and I'm taking a class in a few weeks on feathers, so this quilt is going to be perfect to "custom" quilt.   I can't thank Mary enough for putting me onto this project!

 

Meanwhile, back on the design wall....   I really hope I can refocus on the project and get it done!  But of course the next row is going to be published at Temecula Quilt Co.!

 

Have a great day!  I hope your weather is better than mine!

JoAnne