Beaucoup - En Provence Part One (#3)

I am now working on my third set of pieces for the mystery quilt. (This was Week One for most of my sister quilters.) For me it was a good time to stay home and sew.

If my car could talk, it would say "Stay home!"

 When I did last year's mystery quilt, Allietare!, I felt I made it a little too scrappy for my taste. I thought I would try to go less scrappy with En Provence. It seemed like a good idea in the abstract. It turns out that "Week One" calls for a large number of neutral four-patches. This presented me with two challenges.

First, I became aware that in order to make a half-size quilt I would need much more than half the number of four-patches specified for the full-size quilt.  It would require close to 75% of the number needed for the full-size version. Would I have enough fabric?

The first six neutrals I bought for En Provence

Second, and of greater concern, I was beginning to wonder if my idea of "less scrappy" was going to work for all the four-patches. Would I get enough variety with only 6 neutrals? To make a piece like the ones I made for weeks five and six, 6 neutrals would be more than adequate. But to make a variety of four -patches, I was going to need more fabrics.

To complicate matters further, I wanted to make every strip with one "darker" neutral and one "lighter" neutral. I was aiming for a subtle checkerboard effect. (I probably got something less subtle than intended.) But this plan really limited what I could do with the four-patches. I picked up a couple of extra darker neutrals and I fished through my paltry scrap collection for some of the lighter neutrals from Allietare!  (not shown)

After making dozens of four-patches and using up several of my fabrics, I decided the only way to do this was to buy more neutrals and mix them in before I finished any more four-patches. I didn't want to end up with two groups of four-patches, each lacking variety.

The day after a big snowstorm I went to a quilt shop and didn't find any fabric that I hadn't already seen. The roads were bad so I decided to skip the other quilt shops and stop at Jo-Ann's, which was more or less on my way home. I found some nice fabrics from their Buttercream collection and quickly retreated to my snug little sewing area to make more four-patches.

The top 3 and the bottom fabric are from the Buttercream line. The fourth one from the top is from the same collection as one of my lavenders and one of my yellows.

So, it took a while, but I finished a gazillion neutral four-patches, and I learned some good techniques in the bargain.

Bonnie had some great tips for cutting and for making the four-patches nest perfectly so that the center seams lined up exactly.

Perfectly nested

Bonnie also taught a very easy way to "spin" the seams on the back. I had learned a difficult way to do it and I always dreaded having to do it. No longer.

Spin, span, spun. Fun!

Here are the fruits of my labor and here is a link to Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Link-Up

A whole basketful

 
Lessons learned:
Scrappiness depends.
The line on the ruler goes up on the fabric, not next to it. 
Direction matters.

"Business" Card Holders

First, let's be clear about one thing: I don't have business cards; I have retirement cards.

I am soon going to a mini-reunion with some dear friends from school many moons ago. I decided to make a gift for each of my friends. This time the gift will be "business" card holders.

I used some fabric from a Kaffe Fassett collection. I just love his bright, cheerful designs. I found the directions here: Directions for Business Card Holder

The directions were good, but I still had to work at it to get it to come out well. I had to make several trips to various stores to find the right kind of hairbands, the fusible fleece, and the buttons.

I made a lot of mistakes on my prototype. It probably took around five hours what with all the ripping out of stitches. It took me a lot of time to figure out what combinations of fabric to use for each holder, what color thread, what color buttons, etc.

I wanted to use my machine's monogramming stitch (I have a Janome Memory Craft 6500). This added a level of complexity.  After some trial and error I figured out using a tear-away stabilizer would help.

I had to make sure the monogramming would contrast sufficiently with the fabric. I'm not sure I always succeeded with that.

I also had to measure carefully to figure out where to place the monogramming. I first used a scrap of a quilt sandwich to practice the monogramming. Surprisingly, the dimensions of the monogrammed lines were different on the quilt sandwich than on the unquilted card pocket pieces. More ripping out.
Eventually I got them centered, but half of them are probably not fully centered.

I really liked the fusible fleece. It is really more like a batting than a fleece. It fuses very easily and smoothly. I wonder if I could use it on a larger quilt project?

I had a few sewing machine disasters along the way. Something happened with my bobbin case and it got chewed up a little, but I got it working again. Also, at one point a pin fell into the feed dogs and while I was trying to fish it out it went all the way in. Apparently no harm, no foul.

Once I got to the point where the pieces were assembled and turned inside out, I had a lot of trouble with the top-stitching. Then I remembered my trusty old walking foot. It worked like a dream.

When I finally produced a decent result I decided to take an assembly-line approach for the rest. This project had so many changes of thread and feet and stitches, and stitch lengths that it really did save a lot of time to do it in this fashion.

I am pretty happy with the end result:

Phew! The card fits!

They are all different!

Lessons Learned:

Multiply the time estimated for the project by at least three.
Add three extra trips to the store.
Make a practice piece before you waste materials.
Use a light fabric where you plan to monogram.
Remember the walking foot!

Facile et Rapide - En Provence Part Five (#2)

Week Two for me, Week Five for everyone following along with the mystery in real time.

This was an easy week because Christmas fell during the week. I just had to make a relatively small number of half-square triangles. I used Bonnie Hunter's Essential Triangle Tool and the cutting just flew along.

Here is the link to Bonnie's Link-Up.

It is so much fun to see what fabrics others have chosen.