BOM Rehab

I signed up last year for the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Block of the Month. It started in June! It is now almost April. April is Block ELEVEN. I have done ONE block. There are NINE blocks still in their clear plastic bags. All the numbers are making this post sound like Sesame Street. 


Anyway, Sinta over at Pink Pincushion is hosting a BOM Rehab. This is the same Sinta who co-hosts Another Year of Schnibbles. The goal is to finish blocks over the weekend and then post a blog post on Monday. Every post is an entry into a giveaway drawing for the month. I am going to give it a shot. It is an uphill battle though because even if I do keep up and finish a block a week, I have THREE months worth of work ahead of me.

This post was brought to you by the numbers 11, 1, 9 and 3. 

Blah blogging

Is it just me or does it seem like the usual bloggers have been laying low lately? I know several are having babies, but it seems like there has been a sort of quiet on the blogging front. I do still have plenty of blogs to read.

Does anybody know anything about Karrie Lyne from Freckled Whimsy? I really enjoyed her blog and tutorials.

Super fun evening and end to a LONG week

I have a tendency to sign up for a lot of stuff and some times all those things come due at the same time. I believe in keeping my commitments so I burn the candle at both ends to get everything done. This week was one of those weeks. Daylight Savings did NOT help. Work got busy all of a sudden and I had ministries at church I had serve. Six dozen cookies and two mangled mini quilts later, I am here to say I survived!

Last night I spoke at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild. This is such a wonderful group of creative, talented and all round wonderful ladies. The title of my presentation was "Traditional Design in Modern Quilting". It was part educational, part show and tell. More than anything, I enjoyed just sharing about my culture, growing up and my last trip.

So if you are in the Des Moines area, please join us. You WILL enjoy yourself. We meet on the third Thursday of every month at 6:30. The website has additional information.

Bad sewers are very creative

That is so-er not su-er. I will explain. I watched "A Year of Schnibbles" from afar, but this year I decided to participate in "Another Year of Schibbles". I said I wanted to improve my piecing skills. 

Right!! The pieces are small. They wiggle and when sewing triangles the corners get chewed up. I started the January pattern, Full House, in January, but finished it today. Well, not quite. I need a second opinion. In my defense I was traveling for half the month of January and half the month of February. I had to skip February for that reason. Even with the leap day I knew I wouldn't be able to get it done. I did order and have received the pattern for March. 

So where do I begin. I learned that 'scant 1/4 inch seam' means not a full 1/4 inch seam. I thought it wouldn't make a difference. Each not a difference added up to a difference. Nothing matched up!!! Edges were hanging off. The points were all off. I was sewing on the edge. I just ploughed through because I just wanted it DONE! The worst bit was my sashing strips. I have no idea what I did but I ended up with two strips that were a good three quarter inch too short. This one I couldn't wiggle out of. So I ripped it out a couple inches and then attached more fabric. Hey, I signed the Process Pledge, so full disclosure. Pictures below. 

I love the fabric and the pattern is cute. Since the pattern is called "Full House" and the fabric is "Flora", I am calling this "Hothouse". I wanted it to look like tropical greenhouses, so the gray is supposed to be steel like.

The pattern calls for a border which would be my gray. I don't want it to be too dull so I haven't sewed it on. Should I put the border on?