I Thought I Was Done Cutting

I thought after spending close to 4 hours cutting up approximately 10 yards of various fabrics into strips of various widths and squares of various sizes I was done cutting. Nope. I spent approximately two more hours cutting those squares into triangles. I now have to connect this mess of triangles together in a specific order, 4 times, one for each side of the quilt. I finally got the last giagantic triangle thing for the top done and gave up and hand stitched it. Wanting to feel like I actually made some progress I spent the rest of the evening joining merely one quarter of the triangles. There must be a trick to it that I've yet to figure out. Three more borders to go, there's hope I'll stumble upon it.

While I was working on this quilt I got to thinking about a quilt I got at GoodWill for $10. How can anyone value a handmade quilt so little that they would give it to GoodWill. It was signed no less. Someone cut and pieced and put a backing and batting together and quilted this quilt for someone that just gave it away to GoodWill. I suppose once you give something to someone it's there's to do with as they wish. On the other hand, maybe the maker decided the intended recipient was not worthy of the heart and sole they'd put into the quilt and gave it to GoodWill. I'd rather believe that. Interesting thing was, GoodWill placed very little value on it. It wasn't priced. When I asked for a price, I was expecting it would be higher than the commercial made quilt it was hanging next to. So when the person said $10, I said okay. And so much for quilting tonight.

Meanwhile this is where I'm at on the rug I started last year at some point. It's getting closer to done, but I really only hook on it one evening a week. I think when I pick it up next I'll work on some of the outer border since I have quite a bit I could be working on and I hate doing outer border all at once, especially on a decent sized rug.

Progress is Progress

I got the top and bottom black strips on today and the weird giagantic triangle that resembles a flying geese.

I've never made a quilt. I started a quilt you do in long thin sections, quilting each section and attaching it to the next. That's all neatly toted up and the instructions are actually with it. That's a miracle in my world.

Then there's my gazillion 3/4 inch hexagons I'm piecing my hand. Might be ready in time for my funeral blanket perhaps.

And then there's this, that up until tonight, the cutting out part seemed the hardest until I came to this:

Trim the four 6 1/4 x 44 black flor and four 6 1/4 paisley strips to the same length as the four sides of the quilt center border. About 38.5. Well I'm trimming side by side on the off chance I'm a hair off soemwhere.

The next part is lay a trimmed paisley strip right sides up on each of the four trimmed black floral strips also right sides up.

Fold two opposite corners of the paisely strip down between the two strips forming the long border triangle. This actually looks like a giant flying geese.

The center point shoudl be 1/4 from the edge of the floral (bottom) strip so it isn't sewn into the seam. SO THE POINT SHOWS. The ends of the paisley strip should cross where the 1/4 seams will intersect. Press fold and then trim excess to 1/4 seam allowance. HAND or mAchine stitch paisley triangles to the black floral. Serioulsy, like this is going to be the only thing with top stitching. I don't think so.

So I measure, fold, press, etc and BASTE the stitching line and somehow manage to stich this one long side at a time. What I don't understand, since there's plenty of extra on the black floral is why it's not done like a flying geese. I need to check my extra pile and see if I have enough to experiment with. This is going to be one side pernight, which means I won't finish by Friday. Unless perhaps I spend the rest of the evening drawing my lines on the back of the fabrics, basting (machine) the fold lines, pressing and then pinning in preparation for sewing maybe two tomorrow.

I spent Friday evening cutting instead of hooking. It seems I have almost as much left over, on the left, as I cut. Other than that it seems I've been busy accomplishing nothing while waiting for Spring. It's still Winter here in Michigan. I've cut out a skirt that probably won't fit, so it's all in a plastic bag where it will stay until the scale shows less than it currently does. There's hope it may fit by Summer. Heck, there's even hope we'll have Summer this year. Who knows, maybe I can make a small throw out of the remains.

This is the center portion of the quilt, hanging from the drapes. Who knew a window could double as a design wall. There's also a rug hooking pattern behind the quilt center, and pattern directions from projects I've been working on, as well as the quilt, are also pinned to the drapes. And the whole purpose of locating the sewing machine in front of the window was to enjoy the view. That's not happening so far. Everything has to do double or triple duty in a miniature house.

I also dyed some wool last week. I started with a dark oatmeal, a yellow and white check, and a pale beige with pale green stripes running through it.