Apparently My Math Isn't So Good

How did this happen? I am so frustrated right now I could scream. And the worst part is I got too cocky and didn't follow my own advice. There was a little voice in my head that said "make the last row of white thicker than in the instructions so if you're off you'll have a cushion to cut the block down to size." That would be so much easier than trying to "fatten" the block up to size. Ugh.

Sewing on the last round, getting cocky...

Last month was my month as a quilter in the do. Good Stitches Bee and I asked the group to make Stash Buster Blocks from Little Miss Shabby's awesome tutorial found here. I waited until all the blocks from the other members in the group came in before making my own blocks so I could see if we needed to balance anything out in the quilt.

Beautiful little 1/4" seams. I'm not crazy.

Murel made a beautiful block using the Stash Buster #2 tutorial for one of her blocks and I decided that I wanted to showcase it on the back of the quilt so I needed to make three blocks to round out the quilt top. I cut my strips and squares based on the measurements in the tutorial and started putting the blocks together. I considered cutting the strips on the outside layer a little fat, just in case my seams were slightly off, that way I could cut it down to size. But when it came time to sew the outer strips on the block, I measured and got cocky. Okay math is not my strong suit, but I swear that according to my math I should have been okay with the correct sized strips.

How am I 1.75" too short?!

I was very wrong. My block turned out to measure 10.75" instead of the desired 12.5". That's 1.75" difference! Arugh! I shouldn't have gotten cocky. So it's back to ripping stitches. The most frustrating part is when I measured my seams they were all measuring out at 1/4". And I used my trusty 1/4" foot on all the seams so I don't know where I went wrong and SOOOO grossly wrong.

This time I added 3" boarders and cut them down to size.

So here is my Tip of the Day: When in doubt, always make your last row thicker than you think. It's so much easier to trim a block down to size than it is to try and bulk it up to size.

Kona Color Card

Lookie what I got!

The Kona Color Cards are finally back in stock over at Pink Chalk Fabrics. I have been waiting and waiting for this! Yippee! Now I can finally figure out what color this is...

This handy little tool is going to make my life a thousand times easier when I got to match Kona solids to my projects and make purchases online. Computer screens are never true to color but now I've got the whole line in my real life. Woot!

And very, very soon I'll be hosting a giveaway right here for my 100th blog post. Keep watching!

do. Good Stitches November Blocks

Check one more thing off the list! Last night I was able to piece the last few rows onto my second block for the do. Good Stitches {Hope} Circle. This month Emily of This Little Life of Mine, asked us to make two yellow and white blocks. The blocks could be any style we wanted but the primary colors should be yellow and white. Surprisingly I found I didn't have very much yellow in my stash at all. In fact, other than some scraps from other bees I am in, I only had some Monaco and two Kona yellows - banana and canary. But I thought using Monaco in both blocks would help tie everything together.

As I was searching for pillow inspiration, I stumbled upon this Evening Star on Flickr, complete with a link to a tutorial. Something about it spoke to me and I decided I wanted to try it for my first block. I finished it with a row of Monaco and a row of white to get it to 12.5" square and I like the way it turned out. Only one little mistake. Can you see it? One of the points in the center is slightly off.

My second block, for some unknown reason, I decided to do 2" squares. The initial concept was to cascade down from yellow to white but as soon as I pieced my first row I realized that my math was slightly off (surprise, surprise) so instead of 7 rows or 7 I needed 9 rows or 9. I cut more squares and laid it all out and only after I squared up my block to 12.5" did I see my mistake. See those two rows of white squares? Yeah, they're supposed to be on the bottom of the block, not the top. Since I had already cut the block down I decide to just go with it. Oh well.

So the To Do List is definitely getting smaller and I'm also quickly approaching my 100th post. I can hardly believe it! Thanks for sticking with me. And Amy finally got her linky working for this week's Sew and Tell Friday so I'm linking up! Come and join the party.

It's a very good day!

I have been stealing a precious few sewing moments in the morning for the past two days. Yesterday I woke up at 5 am because my mind was working overtime. All good things, in fact it turned out to be a VERY good thing. I was just offered a new show and a huge promotion and since I don't have an agent I knew I would have to negotiate the contract myself yesterday and I hate to negotiate contracts. I am so bad at it. I am too nice. But since I was up early and I couldn't shut off the brain I decided to start working on my second block for my monthly commitment in the do. Good Stitches Bee. I went with 2" squares that cascade from yellow to white and initially I cut too few squares but before I had to leave for work I was able to get all 9 rows of squares pieced together.

This morning I got up at a reasonable hour now that the next gig is in line and the contracts have been negotiated. The life of a freelancer. But I ended up with a few spare moments so I started working on piecing the rows together. I didn't have enough time to finish the block completely but it's about 75% of the way there and I should be able to finish it up tonight or tomorrow morning. I've found that any day that starts off with a little sewing can't turn out bad.

And stay tuned because in 5 more posts I'll be hosting a giveaway to celebrate my 100th post!

Making a Dent

I made a dent on my To Do List this weekend. It wasn't a huge dent but at least I got a couple things out of the way. Saturday night wonderful and amazing fiance went to a hockey game with his friend and I opted to stay in and sew.

Cross the November Blocks for the Red & Aqua 2 Bee off the list. Rebecca asked for Pinwheel Inspired blocks and let us run with it. I came up with these two blocks. I would have made a third but I rand out of the white fabric she sent and, frankly, I have a lot on my plate this month so two was all I could come up with this time. I hope she likes them.

I was also able to get one of my blocks made for the do. Good Stitches Bee so I only have one more to go there. And I realized that there was one thing I forgot to add to my "Need" To Do list. I have been working on a cross stitch table cloth for probably 12 years now. I gave it to my mom for her birthday in July but there were a few finishing touches and some input from her I needed before I could officially be done with it. Since my mom is coming into town this Saturday I want to have it completed and ready for her to take home. So last night on the couch I made a little more progress on that. Hopefully it should be done by Saturday.

November To Do List

I have quite a To Do list in my head of things I need or would like to finish before the end of the month. I know there is still a lot of time left in November but as I look at my calendar it seems all of my precious weekend sewing time is being eaten up by life this month. It seems as though this will be my last free weekend for a while.

Next weekend I'm probably going to have to work on Saturday and then my mom, grandmother and sister are flying in Saturday night because my incredible friend Candice is throwing me a bridal shower on Sunday - even though we're eloping. How incredibly sweet and thoughtful is that? My mom will stay on through the week and my dad will join us on Wednesday because that Thursday is American Thanksgiving. My wonderful and amazing fiance and I are hosting both sides of the family this year (minus my sister) for the first time. And guess who's doing all the cooking? They'll stay on through the weekend. And that brings us to December. Can you believe it? Phew.

But I don't want to slack on any of my commitments so this weekend (and then in any spare evening following) I need to make a dent in my To Do List.

NEED TO DO

1) November Bee Blocks for the Red and Aqua 2 Bee

2) November Bee Blocks for do. Good Stitches Bee

3) Stockings for the November project in A Dozen Quilters Bee

4) Modern Swappers: I have my secret partner's fabrics already. And I know exactly what I'm making. I even have the fabric picked out. I am just working on my prototype then I'll get to cutting into the Heather Ross I picked up just for this project. I wanted to prototype it with linen first so I didn't ruin the Heather Ross. I also have a plan for the decoration for my partner but it keeps changing.

This will hopefully turn into something really cool for my secret partner.

5) Bee Blocks for October's do. Good Stitches quilt. (Yes, October. But October was my month to quilt and I wanted to get all of the blocks in before I made my own blocks in case I needed to balance the quilt out and I'm waiting on two last blocks to come in.)

6) Quilt and send the October do. Good Stitches quilt.

7) Danita's Quilt (our friends Dan and Anita are having a boy sometime this month so I need to get cracking!)

Yikes! Those are all the NEED to do. I haven't even gotten to the WANT to do.

WANT TO DO

1) Finish Marc's Quilt. I am still waiting for two more blocks to come in and then I can finally get started on layout and piecing this quilt top together.

2) Jill's Bag. I started this and I need to finish it but I realized I laid out one of the panels incorrectly so I need to find the remaining fabric and re-cut a piece before I can continue.

3) Pillows for the couch. I have that fab Echino and City Weekend calling my name.

City Weekend just waiting to be used!

3) Apron. I would really like to make myself an apron.

4) Ironing board cover. Again, just a little side project to brighten up my sewing space.

5) Organize my sewing room. I am getting there, slowly, but still working primarily from the dining room at the moment.

My wants will have to wait. I need more hours in the day. Anyone know how I can swing that one?

I do have a bit of exciting information. You know those pillows by Anna Maria Horner I was "crushing" on yesterday? Well, Natalie had a brilliant idea: Why not just email AMH herself and ask her about the pattern. That possibility never even crossed my mind. So, last night I emailed AMH and she actually wrote me back! Turns out she is working on a larger version of that pattern and is planning on releasing it (for free) sometime soon! Yippee! And how sweet is she for responding to me personally? I can't wait!

One last thing, I want you all to know that I read each and every comment and I love hearing back from readers. I do my best to respond to every comment but lately I've had some "No Reply" comments that I haven't been able to answer. And I do my best to do some detective work and try and track down the "No Reply" commenters through their own blogs, etc. So if you haven't had a response from me, that's probably why. Keep the comments coming! I love reading them!

Sewn Together November Blocks

Last night I was able to get a little sewing done. I decided to tackle my Sewn Together bee blocks for Anna. She asked for two wonky star blocks and gave us this awesome French themed black and white fabric. This was my first attempt at making wonky stars. She had us follow a great tutorial from the Silly BooDilly. I think I ended up with a little too munch wonk in my block (I had to rip a seam or two... Shhhh!) but I am pleased with the end result. So pleased that I'm linking up to Sew and Tell Friday's over at Amylouwho's blog.

My wonderful and amazing fiance even commented on these blocks. He really liked Anna's fabric choices and even liked the wonky star pattern, which is good to know because it's really tough to get him to settle on a design aesthetic that he likes sometimes.

Speaking of which... Yes, I am a bit obsessed with City Weekend at the moment and I really want to make a pillow for our couch out of my City Weekend stash but I'm trying to find a pattern that said wonderful and amazing fiance and I can agree on. We've settled on a couple different patterns that we both love.

The problem is we both really, really love Anna Maria Horner's 16 point star pillows (top left) and I can't find a pattern for a 16 point star anywhere and I KNOW I will need to paper piece something like that. Anyone out there know where I could find a pattern like that?