Wednesday progress

I’ve finished quilting Northern Tree Line, but it is still waiting for its binding. It’s waiting on trimming, as well, as I ponder how much extra to leave around the edge in order to be able to get binding on without cutting off all the triangle points. I used a very simple quilting design called Ferns, designed by Barbara Becker.
Today I loaded on a very old quilt. It’s called Grandmother’s Diamond Ring. According to records here on the blog, the piecing was finished in July of 2012. I have no record of when I started it.  I suspect it pre-dates the blog. Which means it is older than 2010, which is when I started blogging. It’s been hanging around because I wanted something special in the white background hexagons. I finally found that something special earlier this year in the form of these roses. It’s a Rose hexagon designed by Judy Allen and Jessica Schick. I have a stencil for the border using the same rose that I bought years ago. Maybe that’s why the roses in the hexagons caught my eye. It’s kinda hard to see the design in the border, but the picture can be biggie sized if you click on it.
This one is going to take a while. The borders have to be marked with chalk and the hexagons each have to be marked with disappearing marker. I worked on it most of the afternoon, but a large part of that was spent figuring out how to do the borders. There isn’t a corner turn on the stencil, so that took a bit of thought and finessing. This will likely be on the machine for the rest of the week.
I’m continuing to work on the binding for La Passacaglia. I’m hoping to have it done for a Friday finish celebration.
I’m linking up to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social. Then it’s time for some supper and maybe trimming Northern Tree Line and making its binding. Who knows, there might be two finishes for Friday.....

Design Wall Monday

I’m on a roll!! A blog post a day for three days in a row!! I wanted to show a picture of the guild blog sampler as it is so far. I had to recruit my husband to help hold it off the edge of the deck to get a full picture, rather than trying to hang it on the design wall where it won’t fit and where there are various machines and objects in the way. Not to mention an ironing board piles with stuff..... you get the idea.... too  much stuff, not enough space and not enough time spent organizing. There is a dark purple border, the same colour as the outside triangles left to go on, and this one counts as done. It looks so very much better in person than it does here.
I’ve loaded yet another of my own quilts onto the machine. Northern Tree Line is getting its turn at quilting. It’s almost halfway done. I didn’t put any borders on this piece, and the half square triangles go right out to the edge. It’s going to be a challenge to get it bound without losing triangle points. There will most likely be quite a few points cut off..... oh well.
I’m going to link this up to Judy’s Design Wall Monday. Then I think it’s going to a more binding evening .

Rippit, rippit.........

I’ve finished sewing together Northern Tree Line. I was so pleased with myself when I put it up on the wall and took a picture of it. Then I went right into cutting and piecing leftover large triangles for the backing. After supper, I sat down to start writing this blog post celebrating this top being finished and looked at the picture.......... something’s wrong........ There are not one, not two, but three blocks turned the wrong way! Grrrrr....So instead of feeling great about the finish, I went into the having to rip stuff out doldrums. Thankfully it isn’t a difficult fix. With some selective ripping they can all be removed, turned the way they should be, and put back in. In fact, two of them have been ripped out and sewn back in place. The first one took two tries. I ripped it out, sewed it back in, looked at it, and realized I’d sewn it in wrong again, only wrong in a different way......... sigh......... This is the down side to having a design where each of the blocks is turned a different way in order to get secondary effects. I’ll finish the last of it tomorrow. Tonight, my brain is fried. So, I’m going to link this up to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social and then find something fairly mindless to do.

What I’m working on....

I’ve done some rearranging on the design wall, and put up my Northern Tree Line quilt. I wanted to get an idea of the distribution of the lights and darks, and also find out how many more blocks I need. There are 81 blocks finished, which leaves 19 to go. I’m wavering about what to do with the darker shades of the blues and greys, whether to group them together, or keep them spread apart a bit. It’s tempting to put the darker blues together around the outer corners or in the areas where there are four together. I’ll have to let that one simmer and maybe move things around a bit and take some more pictures to get a better perspective. I did discover that the darker shades of the blues have to be up against the darker shades of the greens, or the design layout gets a bit muddy. I can actually see a spot just up to the left of centre where there isn’t enough contrast. That’s the bonus of taking a picture, rather than seeing it in person. The idea behind the quilt is to re-create the colours and feel of a walk through a forest in Northern Ontario.
I’m linking up to the Canadian Needle and Thread Network and also to Lorna’s Let’s Bee Social. Lorna’s another Canadian blogger, and she’s actually going to be coming to speak to our guild and do a workshop next November. That will be fun!

Design Wall Monday, Feb. 8, 2016

I’ve managed to get a bit more done on Northern Tree Line. It’s well over 25% done now. And I have parts done for a bunch more blocks for it as well. I’m hoping to have it finished by the end of the month. I went out and picked up a few more light blues and greys for the backgrounds. I’m running a bit low in variety and the amount of triangles I have to work with. I’m on a push to get some things finished. I actually finished adding the binding to a quilt today, but haven’t managed to get a picture of it yet. Maybe tomorrow during the daylight. In the meantime, I’m linking up to Judy’s  Design Wall Monday. Lots more to see over there, always lots of great eye candy and inspiration.