RED AND WHITE QUILT - 7

Good Morning, it is about 4:30am and I am ready to start my day....  Now that the holidays are over with and I hope everyone made many wonderful memories, and I have gotten back to sewing.  I finally finished all 28 of my blocks. Whew!  Glad those are done.

I am moving onto the next project of this quilt and that is the center block.  All I have direction wise is to look at the picture.  Like I said, the directions are not good or maybe they all are like this, I am not sure!  Here is the picture that I am supposed to reproduce.

Here are the directions.  It says to applique the designs.  Ok, I can do this, let me figure something out and what would be the best way for me to handle this.  I also am showing the picture of the leaves that are to be appliqued and the small diagram of how to layout the vines for the leaves to attach to.

Now, what I did was cut out one-fourth of the above picture on the cross arrows in the center of the picture.  I then put that one-fourth section into my printer and increased the size as far as I could with 8 1/2 X 11 paper.  Then I copied this four times and taped it back together.  I had to take this picture and make it large enough to fit the 18 inch square of material that it will be used on.  I came up with this next picture which isn't perfect but close.

I then centered this onto my 18 inch square of material and used tracing paper and traced around the red design onto my material for a guideline to sew on the vines. 

 Now, instead of doing hand applique which takes a long time, I decided to digitize the sample of the leaves and circles that were given on the direction picture and turn them into an applique that my embroidery machine can sew out.  I had to print that direction picture at 100% to get the correct size of the circles and leaves.  Then as I digitized these designs with Embird Software, I measured each design of leaf and circle on the paper for the size to get everything correct.

Here is a picture of as far as I have gotten as of yesterday!  I wasn't sure at first, but I think this is going to work and be cute!

Once I get finished with this, I do believe all I have left is some more straight sewing to connect all the blocks and I will have all the hard parts over with.  Please let me know what you think!

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 6

Well, I am moving right along on these blocks.  I have 13 finished and 15 more to go.  It takes me about 1 hour to get one finished.  I thought I would show you some of the steps I have to go through to get these points correct.

I have to sew on the four side strips to the center square.  On the first two side strips I have three main areas that have to match perfectly to make the points on the stars.  You will see where the sewing crosses.   I first sew along the wrong side.  You can see that I have to mark the cross section with a purple evaporating pen.  I must see the cross point and sew a little to the left of the cross.  Now when this is in my machine I can't see the cross, so I mark it with the pen so it stands out.  This is my first match and I just sew about two inches across this section through the sewing line cross.

Now I flip the square over and I have two more crosses on this side and you can see in purple where I sewed on the back.  I have to mark this stitching line from the back because now I will sew down the whole side of the front of this first strip.  When I come to the purple, ( the stitches I sewed on the back), I try to sew directly behind the first row of stitches so it doesn't create any bulk.

I have finished sewing down the first strip and marked with a pin each point that I had to watch and make sure it was sewn correctly.  These were the three areas that must be watched closely.  This has to be done on the first two sides sewn to the square.  You want those points showing (beige color) and (red and white) not to be cut off.  

On the other two sides, I have an additional step and that is the little corner square that hooks all four sides together.  I have the pins showing the additional match and it also has a matching point, so on this side I have five areas that must match.  This is what takes so long.  I don't see how anyone could just sew all of those sides together and have everything match perfectly without taking some additional steps.  This is how I am making them and they are coming out nicely.  

This was the steps I wanted to see how Fons and Porter handled this, but as I said before, they just said you sew on the sides and you are finished.  If you are making a video, you must show the hard areas also or don't bother making a video.  This is no help to us.  I hope these directions might help someone else. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 5

I am really struggling with this quilt.  I think the problem is the flying geese.  It said to sew them at a scant 1/4 inch.  OK, what exactly is a scant 1/4 inch?  I know you gals are not much for talking on my blog, but I could really use some answers.  Can I trim the flying geese down to the correct size or do I half to resew them all? 

 I really wondered if I should not of just sewed them all at 1/4 inch, but I tried to listen to these directions which I really think are poor.  Now, they are not lining up exactly and I have to stop and fiddle with each and everyone of them.  When I start, there are three intersections that must match up perfectly on each side of the large square.  First I sew the three little sections that intersect and line them up perfectly and then go back and sew on the rest of the sides.  Is this how you would do it?  One of the intersections is on the backside when I sew, so I was never hitting this correctly and would have to tear it out and correct it.  This is when I decided to sew just the intersections and then go back and sew the rest of the seam.  It would really help if these flying geese were the correct size, so what I really want to know is can I trim them to the correct size or do I need to rip them apart and resew them??????

Here is the square that I was not happy with and I redid it.  It looks much better but it also took quite a while to get everything to line up perfectly.  I even watched Fons and Porter on tv and they were sewing this block.  When it came to attaching the sides correctly, they just skipped over this part and said you just sew on the sides and you are finished.  I knew then that it just isn't so easy or they would of showed how to do it.

MELANIA TRUMP HAS ON A COAT JUST LIKE MINE!

http://www.cynsew.com/2014/11/my-coat-is-finished-take-look.html

Here is a coat I made back in 2014. The link with pictures is up above.  I purchased this material from Mood Fabrics in New York.   I just saw a picture of Melania Trump with a coat almost identical with the exact fabric made by Valentino!  Click here   Melania Trump Article  If you want to see the article, they are showing the European look but made in the United States.  Her coat cost $790.00 and mine cost around $150.00!  Since I made mine first, they copied off of me!  LOL

Melania's

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 4

I now have all of the darling little 316 flying geese made.  What a job, I could not see straight any more.  I have them all pressed and ready to be sewn. 

 I did go ahead and finish one of the twenty-eight quilt blocks. After sewing it and pressing it, I noticed that I have two corners that are not quite matching perfectly.  Hmmm, now as I have said I am a perfectionist, should I rip them apart and fix it or can I just let it go.  Well, I stopped sewing and decided to see if I was going to be able to live with it and it has been on my mind for two days now.  Some times you just have to walk away and calm down.  It makes me mad when I have tried to be so precise and this happens.  So, I have decided that I can't live with it and I am going to have to rip it apart and see if I can fix it.  Even if no one would ever be able to pick it out of the quilt, I will know it is there.  Is there anyone out there that is like me, or am I the only crazy person who would do this?  Here is the finished block and then I will show you what I don't like.

Here is the first corner that I am not happy with ---

Now the opposite corner is the same and I see another problem.  I have my flying geese fabric matching the half-square triangle.  I don't like that either, so that will have to be changed also.

Well at least this is my first square and I know now what I will have to watch for when I sew the other 27 squares.  It took me a couple of hours to do the first one so I hope I will be able to move along a little faster for the rest.  Oh my, now that I am taking a closer look, I see that I have three flying geese matching the half square triangles in the block.  Now I have to fix them all.  Do you think I will be able to make it through the entire quilt and be able to keep this from happening???  It would look better if I could.  I know how most people sew these scrappy quilts and just pull the next sewing piece out of a paper bag and sew it where it lands, but  I am not sure I can do this.  

I took my mom to the hairdresser a couple of weeks ago and as I was waiting on her I noticed there was a clock hanging on the wall and it was crooked.  Of course, my eyes keep darting to that clock and oh how I wanted to go over and straighten it out but I didn't.  Then when my mother was finished and we were back in the car she said to me, "Did you see that crooked clock on the wall?"  I said "yes," and she says, "Oh how I wanted to straighten that out."  My mom is 93 and I am 67.  I never knew this about her!  I must get it honestly.

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 3

Well, I worked on this while watching the Cleveland Browns football game on Sunday.  What a mistake, my husband was yelling during the whole game.  They were making some pretty bad mistakes and he gets so upset.  I keep telling him he is going to have a heart attack over a stupid football game.  He just won't listen to me.  He just says, Oh just let me yell it out!!

Anyway, I had to take these little 1 7/8 inch squares and draw a diagonal line through them and then line them up on my little flying geese. All 158 of them.  I think next time I decide to make a quilt, I will pay more attention to how many tiny pieces there really are.   Now, after I attach them to the flying geese, I have to sew 1/4 inch down each side of the diagonal line and cut them in half.  Then I realized I will have to attach these now 316 pieces to something else. I am getting worried because I even have pieces smaller than this.  What have I gotten myself into!!!! 

RED AND WHITE QUILT - 2

I am moving a little slow on this quilt.  I only am sewing about an hour a day so it is going to be a slow process.  I am ready for my next step and here is what I have finished.

I think I have one more round to go of flying geese.  There sure are a lot of small pieces.  They go a lot smaller than what is showing and they all look the same so I have to be very careful that everything is marked correctly!

Before I continue, I am going to clean out my bobbin area and add a little drop of oil to the wick.  This is a very good practice to keep everything in good running condition. You would be surprised how much lint was already in this area.  I made 28 squares and my bobbin case was full of red lint.

I also take a Q-tip and put some oil on it and I run it up and down on the needle bar.  You have to keep moving it to different positions to get a little oil on all of it.  You will be surprised how much better and smoother it runs.  Happy Sewing!!