I've Got This Covered! - Good Fortune, Part 1

Right before our long trip we had people over and I had to put all my sewing stuff away. We have been home for a week now and I am slowly starting to reclaim my sewing space. But not without a fight - from various inanimate objects.

I successfully pre-washed the red and neutral fabrics. The edges did fray, but not too badly.

I set up the ironing board and started to iron and soon realized that the pad that came with the ironing board needed to be replaced. I had ordered one a while ago, so I thought it would be a quick, easy job. But nothing about it was quick or easy. First, where was the pad? A lot of my sewing stuff was in our son's old bedroom. I pulled several large tubs out from under the bed and rummaged through them. No luck. I looked in all the cabinets in the laundry room. Nope. I looked in the basement where more sewing stuff resides. Nada. I finally located the new pad in one of those stackable plastic drawers in our son's bedroom. That must have taken about 45 minutes.😣

I have an extra-wide ironing board. It works better for quilting. It came with a small metal tray on the end that serves as an iron rest.

There is no space between the iron rest and the end of the ironing board. One would have to pull it out in order to replace the pad. I pulled as hard as I could, but it didn't budge. I turned the ironing upside down to look for the little lever that would release it. It was kind of dark, so I picked the board up and moved it over to an area with better light. There was no lever. Absolutely none.

I tried pulling on it some more. I tried it with the ironing board upside down.

If I could remember the brand of the ironing board or where I bought it maybe I could Google it for instructions on changing the pad. I ended up Googling "how to change ironing board pad" and wouldn't you know that several folks have made YouTube videos on this. But none of the videos had an ironing board with a metal tray on the end. They were just plain old ironing boards with plain old ironing board covers. Do you really need a video to show you how to do that?

Eventually I asked my husband to help me. He tried pulling on the iron rest. It wouldn't budge. He got a screwdriver and a hammer and applied some strategic taps and it started to move.😙 Once the stupid iron rest was loose it was very easy to put the lovely new cover on. I really like it. It's much fluffier than the old one and it even has a little pocket for the special measuring cup for filling up the iron or for snippers or for anything else that is usually in the way on top of the ironing board.

Another 45 minutes? At least.

So I ironed all of that pre-washed fabric and snipped off all of those loose threads and started cutting some strips.

I used my new ruler stickers to help me cut my strips. They worked like a dream to remind me what line I should be using.

 
Then I was ready to sew, so I had to get my dear, sweet sewing machine out. I had put it away before our trip because we had people over and then we had a house sitter, so it was better to leave it under its dust cover. I schlepped it across the house and put it on my sewing table. When I checked the thread I realized the spool holder thingy was missing. Oy! 😞 

I wondered if it was left behind when I put my machine away ten weeks ago. Could I have seen it later and stashed it somewhere for safekeeping? I looked through all of my sewing bins and baskets and all possible logical places to put a thing like that. Unsuccessfully. Then I decided to look some more in the sewing room. I looked under the baseboard heater. Then, in a moment of pure inspiration I spotted it on the carpet, behind the table leg. You could only see it if you really looked. I suspect it fell off when I took the cover off my sewing machine today and bounced off the table without making any noise. Is that possible? That was probably a 30-minute delay.

Fortunately, I had no further problems of this sort. I sewed a few sample pieces (four-patches, as it happens) and then measured them in accordance with Bonnie Hunter's instructions. They weren't as perfect as I wanted them to be, but I honestly wasn't sure what to do about it. I had measured carefully and cut carefully and pinned carefully and sewed carefully. I followed Bonnie's Instructions to the letter. Despite my best efforts some of the pieces had one square that stuck out a little. How can this be?

What I ended up doing last time was making about 5% extra pieces. If one turned out badly, I could throw it out and I'd still be ok. I think that's the easiest way to do this. I'm still going to be as careful as I can, but I'm not going to sweat it if a few pieces are less than perfect. I just won't use those. Yes, I've got this covered!

Some of my 4-patches

Link to Bonnie Hunter here: Bonnie's Link-Up, Part 1 and see what this looks like in all sorts of different colors. So much fun!

Lessons Learned:

• When you are nesting two seams together, make sure they nest accurately all the way to the end.
• Make 5% more than you need to allow for imperfections to be replaced.
• Allow extra time to get set up for a big quilting project.
• If a spool holder (or any other part) ever comes off your machine, always put it back where it belongs (on the machine) immediately.

Good Fortune, Introduction - Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday.
I am thankful for friends and family.
I am thankful that I have the leisure and wherewithal to pursue my interest in quilting.
I am thankful for Bonnie Hunter's inspirational mystery quilt-alongs.

Today is the kickoff of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune! mystery quilt. (Link to it here: Good Fortune!) 
I am so excited to be starting this quilt. I have eagerly anticipated it for several months. This is my fourth straight year starting one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts on the day after Thanksgiving. Her generosity in giving such a gift to the quilting community is so uplifting and refreshing.

On Halloween Bonnie revealed the colors for this year's quilt. I was on a long trip and wasn't able to visit any quilt stores until this week. This afternoon I went to the Quilt Zone and was shocked to find an empty storefront with a "For Lease" sign in the window. What happened? When? I will miss this gem of a quilt shop.

I was also shocked to see that I haven't added to this blog in 11 months. I have spent a lot of time traveling this year. I guess that is why I have been feeling such a strong pull towards quilting lately.

A little more about Good Fortune! Bonnie drew on her recent trip to China for the the color palette for the quilt. It works for me! I just got back from a trip to China and other parts of Asia where these colors are prevalent. Here is a photo we took in the Philippines of goldfish in a feeding frenzy. This brings to mind the oranges Bonnie chose.

And here are my fabrics

To the golden oranges Bonnie added red, green, and blue. These colors are everywhere in Asia.
In Taiwan . . .

 In Okinawa (Japan) . . .

 and in Korea . . .

This traditional Korean dress is called a hanbok

 And here are my fabrics

To be honest, these colors are a little outside of my comfort zone. I suppose that's why I didn't have any of them in my admittedly tiny stash. (But it's so much fun to shop for them!) Bonnie always gets me to extend my horizons.

And then we have the neutrals. The one on the far right has a little bit of gold sparkle.

This time I am going to try something new (for me). I am going to PRE-WASH all of the fabric. I got a lot of these fabrics at Jo-Ann's. They had a big sale on fat quarters this week: 79 cents each! Wow! But I am worried that they may shrink or run, so all of it is going in the wash. I hope they don't unravel too much.

Lessons learned:

• I need a larger stash