What constitutes a good day? For me it’s finding my way into my sewing room and spending quality time working on a project. That’s today’s good day. Other days, it’s spending time with friends, or helping my sister build a deck, or other project we have going. Or it could be just sitting on the porch watching it rain. In any event it has been a good day.
I am finally getting my feet settled on the ground after my A Boy and A Girl quilt won a few very nice ribbons at two of the fairs I had it entered in. The last event is in late September. I do have to brag a bit, it was featured as the back drop for the news reporter on the 5pm news one night. I told my sister, “I’m a movie star”, her reply, “No, your quilt is”. Don’t ya just love sisters? Needless to say, I am very proud of my quilt and am thrilled it has been so well received.
I am back working on Bed of Roses by Sue Garman and actively stitching month 6 but prepping month 9. My goal is to have it finished by January. Got to get busy in the sewing room. Outside the sewing room has been keeping me occupied with putting up veggies, canned some, froze some. Boy does that take time. But the end result is good eating. Also assisted my my sister building her deck. Want to head back into the sew zone…..
At the Ozark Empire Fair there is a challenge each year with a theme. Next year’s theme is Drunkard’s Path. This interests me because I have made a Drankard’s Path quilt that is very dear to me. This pattern is one of the first patterns I started my journey of becoming a quilter and I even hand pieced it… I have an orphan applique block I would like to complete and use as the center. I will need to locate the Alexander Henry fabric in my stash from about 1987 that I used to make the bird. That may take a while. I think I might know which tub it’s in. I think, (ha ha). I would like to use it as my focus fabric. I am thinking framing the applique block with a ribbon effect made of hexagons EPP style maybe using 5/8″ size but when I started digging into my “stuff” I found 2 packets of 1/2″ Hexagons from Paper Pieces. So decision made 1/2″ it is. I guess it’s going to be sort of a round robin design with the outer border being Drunkards Path. It’s a developing idea in. We’ll see where it takes me.
I also located my Locus Path Roller that I used to trace around the template giving me a quarter inch seam allowance. I looked it up on the WWW and am unable to locate anything regarding this product it was made by Victory Tool & Die Co., Inc out of Rochester, NY back in the day. This was way before the rotary cutter came to be, when we hand pieced most quilts and bravely tried machine piecing strips for log cabins. I am thrilled to a have located this tool as I have other patterns that it will be useful to get that nice 1/4″ seam allowance. It’s a brass circle with a center hole where you put your pencil in and run the disc around the template with the pencil marking your seam allowance as you go. It’s pretty neat. Even after all these years.
Getting back on track with Bed of Roses. These are some steps I take while prepping a block to applique:
I’ve been up to my eyebrows in making circles for this quilt. Lots and lots of circles are required. Thank goodness for Perfect Circles what a great invention. I love tools. Any way, almost finished prepping the 2 blocks in Month 9, finished sewing Month 6 and have started sewing Month 7. There’s hope for me yet on getting this finished in my time frame.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Happy Stitches.
Sissy Malone
Appliquenut 