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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Update on the Eagle


My son is had his board of review and he is now an Eagle Scout! DH and I are very proud of him.  The paperwork should be back from Texas in about a month or so and then we can have his award ceremony.














On the quilting front I have made decent progress. I turned Mr. Eagle's head so he is looking in the right direction, added the two borders and am in the process of putting the Scout Law around the green border. My thumb has a permanent dent from cutting out the letters.
If you have seen the first EQ drawing you will notice that I have made a few changes. The letters were way too small when I had them going around the center block. So I widened the border and placed the words around it.




The two boy scouts (DH was a boy scout) in the family decided they liked the five point star better. Sighing .... the star blocks are 5 inches with five set-in pieces and I will probably sew them by hand. I pieced a test block on the machine but I am sure that hand sewing will be faster.










I would like to get the star border done by the end of the weekend. We shall see....

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Rats



If you have done any applique you know that asymmetrical pieces have to be reversed or they come out backwards. I think we just went over this with the geese flying around my center star. Hmmm. Sometime between Saturday and today I seemed to have forgotten that lesson.
 I think I will decide tomorrow if Mr. Eagle needs has to be looking to his right (probably) or if anyone will really notice (probably).
 The paper has been removed and I have started cutting out the letters. The letters are pretty small so I will sew a few letters to scrap fabric before I sew them to the block so I can see what stitch to use and if I am going to have any problems.
 I have a small amount of ease to work in but I'll wait till the letters are sewn on before I block it out.

Well I hope tomorrow's adventures in quilting are not going to involve reversals in any form. I'll probably spell something wrong, and only notice after I have stitched it down....

It's  new day and I know the how and why of Mr. Eagles head turn. In Electric Quilt when you print a block it reverses it which is a very handy feature unless you are doing needleturn applique where you draw the template on the right side of the fabric.








Sunday, January 17, 2010

Quiltathon results


Well I guess I am satisfied with my progress on Trail to Eagle. I finished appliqueing the circle to the background square and started the center applique design. Since I jumped in to Judy's quiltathon at the last minute I wasn't as prepared. I had to do some laundry and somebody (son) ate the last of the bread and I needed to make more for lunches. Next month's quiltathon I am going to be prepared for some serious sewing time.

I took this picture before I finished sewing the circle in case you look close and see the pins!

I'll cut the circle out after I finish the appliques. Once I have sewn the center circle on I'll cut away the back and remove the papers.
I think for the words that go around the square I am going to use fusible interfacing and a zig zag or buttonhole stitch.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Slower than molasses in January

Judy is having a quiltathon this weekend and I sure hope I make more progress tomorrow than I have today. It is already 4:30 pm and time to start dinner and this is as far as I have got. While my sauce is cooking I should finish the last curved geese. I may cut out applique pieces for the  center and the background square before I call it quits for the night.




I have a ways to go. I just noticed I forgot to reverse my pattern and my geese are flying in the wrong direction!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The faster I go the behinder I get

I cannot believe it has been a week since I posted last. I am trying to have something to post about at least a few times a week..
I don't know how Judy does it but she manages to post daily and produce a lot of quilts too. But I intend to keep plugging away.

This is what I have been working on the last few days. This is the final border of Bear Hollow a quilt by Ann Seeely that was in Quilter's Newsletter in the nineties. I have worked on and off (mostly off) this quilt for like 15 years! In my defense, when I was working full time I did very little quilting. I was never good at sewing in the evening. I have two borders and the corners to quilt.
This is my slow progress on Trail to Eagle. Paper piecing is not my favorite thing. I should have just printed out the templates but I really want to paperpiece the curving geese border. Actually, now that the center pieces of the block are done I have it figured out. I will post and let you know.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I do not make New Years resolutions but I have four sayings I try to live by
  1. Stop buying useless crap.
  2. If you get it out put it back.
  3. Do it now.
  4. Just do it.
Works for me most of the time.


I am finishing the border on Molly's Meadow finally. Way too many quilt interuptions in my life. The foot pedal on my Singer is so touchy that my stiches are horrid, big toe hookers and then so close together I couln't rip them out if I tried. Zoom, zoom, zoom. slow,slow,zoom. I am going to try and put something firm under the pedal and see if that helps.






This is what I am working on in Electric Quilt. I am still playing with the design and the colors.
I  am calling it the Trail to Eagle quilt.