Procrastination Justification

Okay, so I stayed up until the wee hours last night figuring out how I could come up with backing for the Drunkard's Path without taking a trip to the quilt shop today. No matter what, I just didn't have enough of the two Moda fabrics to piece. Until I looked in the closet solid stash and realized that back when I was having fits and starts getting that circular stitching right, I had bought just a small bit extra of the solid ivory background. Well that piece was enough to stretch my other leftover fabrics to a fit.

Yay.

One would think that I would have made my sandwich and started quilting today, anticipating an August OPAM finish from this, but if one would have thought that, then one doesn't know me at all.

Instead of finishing that project, or instead of pulling out the Baltimore Album notes to see what my homework was for this month, I thought I'd have a much better time standing at the cutting table for 4 hours cutting all the pieces required for the Halloween quilt. (Inordinate amount of cutting  time due to lots of fussy cutting that was required.)

And now that they're cut, and I'm staring at the drunkards top and background pinned to the design wall, I've convinced myself that the best course of action is to fold those puppies up, slide them into the freshly labeled 'To Sandwich' cubby in the studio closet, and head full throttle into the Halloween quilt.

If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy....that's my excuse!

Friday Night Sew-In Progress

It's not as far as I would have liked to have gotten (hey, I HAD to go to Happy Hour) , but it's something.....

As you can see, I decided on the first Drunkard's layout. I just liked the pattern created by the dark brown.

And then I commenced stitching 64 blocks together. For the most part, it wasn't so bad aligning the one curved line of stitching from block to block, but some of the blocks were a little testy being lined up after that stitch because of how good a job I did (or didn't do) sewing together the pie and the wedge, so there was quite a bit of ripping that went on and swapping out this block for that block so that one block wasn't a quarter inch shorter than the block it was sewn to.

But it's done, and now I'm avoiding stitching those 8 rows of 8 blocks together and aligning all the seams, which I shall get to as soon as I turn on the iron and press their seams in the proper direction.

To assist in my habitual procrastination, my neighbor accompanied me on a whirlwind tour of three local quilt shops that began at 10 this morning and ended at 4, with a stop for lunch and a dash into a new bakery we found to inquire about wedding cakes.

Shop 1 was my source for some backing, sashing and binding fabric to make the Jeweled Forest batik Christmas tree pattern from the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of McCalls Quilting. I was lamenting to the salesperson that the quilt was only wall hanging size and that I had seen a much larger throw size quilt at one of the local shows. She smiled, walked over to the pattern wall and came back with this pattern:

which I bought...though it's  not the quilt I saw at the show. I think that person took the original pattern and just resized it to come up with this:

Onward and upward to Shop 2, where I was excited to find 2 things I'd been looking for.....Print & Fuse (fusible web for applique that you can run through your printer so you don't have to trace), an honest to goodness piece of silk Matka to use on a woofelt/embroidery project, and yet another pattern for some organizers that I'm going to make to hold my applique and woolfelt projects and supplies (I was spurred on by the fact that I've got a stash of Timtex, and a drawer full of vintage zippers, which are needed for these bags...and really, who doesn't have fabric...so I'm ready to go with this project.

We also learned how to transfer color to fabric for embroidery purposes -- which involved crayons and irons and was pretty neat. My neighbor thought it would be a great way to make a quilt label.

After a stop for lunch, we headed off to Shop 3. My neighbor hadn't seen a longarm, so I took her to my Bernina dealer who also sells the Handi Quilter Avante. And I was tempted by the new Bernina B580 coming in September.  Or maybe I'd rather make a sweet deal on their floor model 830 (they're running the 830LE now in the shop).

 Decisions, decisions.......

Maybe I should stop daydreaming about expensive equipment and concentrate on turning on the iron and getting back to work on Drunkard's Path. There's new projects to be started that can't begin until we finish the old..

Enjoy the weekend!

Everyone Should Have a Design Wall

If you look on the Internet, there's all sorts of guidance how to make your own. You can get drywall at the home improvement store and staple gun flannel to it...you can hang 4 cork squares and pin a vinyl table cloth backwards to them (and use them for bulletin boards when you aren't using them for a design wall)....on a small scale you can cover a kid's science project display board with flannel (that was my first design wall--in addition to our bed....

Or you can purchase one of the various pre-made styles marketed to quilters. (or do what I did....put one on your Christmas list). I've got Cheryl Ann's Design Wall, and I like it a lot. It's large, it assembles in minutes, tears down in minutes, has a nice little carrying case, and it's free-standing. I've also seen another that mounts near your ceiling (or over your windows) and the design wall pulls down like an old fashioned window shade. Supposedly you can leave your blocks on it and roll it up to stash your project.

Having a design wall has come in really handy with this Drunkard's Path project. I've been able to arrange the blocks in various configurations before I make the leap to permanently sewing them together.

Another helpful hint is to take a photo of your arrangement and view that before you decide. You'll add a whole new perspective. It's like standing back and reviewing. I'm seeing patterns in the photo that I'm not seeing on the wall in front of me.

Here's wha layouts are currently being pondered:

The last photo is a reverse layout of the first photo. I'll likely use the first, second or last layout. Sewing the blocks together is the project for tomorrow's Friday Night Sew In. Check back Saturday to see what I went with.

In the meantime, the Halloween fabric arrived today. It took a great deal of control to not walk away from the project in process and start cutting fabric for the Halloween quilt. I don't really decorate for Halloween so much, I much prefer decorating for 'Fall', but when I saw this quilt in the August/September issue of The Quilter Magazine, I couldn't resist. And I was able to find all the fabric I needed to recreate it at two shops.

I can't wait to get started, it just looks like such a happy, fun project. I wish the weekend would hurry up and get here.
Have a fabulous Friday!