tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47372784536659032482024-03-14T01:19:39.711-06:00Citric SugarAiming to refresh my creativity in my own little world. To be sweet but not too sweet. To organize my inspiration. And maybe, just maybe, pass a little of it onwards.CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.comBlogger233125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-77724997097251289772015-07-13T20:26:00.000-06:002015-07-13T20:26:27.006-06:00Canadians Bee 2015 - August Block Tutorial: Chevron Blocks - Herringbone style<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>Hey there. Been awhile. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>I was teaching. It was very busy. I did not have time for the web. Sewed but photos and writing about it took too long and by the end of the day, me no write words good. Me no good read blogs too. To unwind, there was knitting and Netflix. There was Knitflix. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>I have missed almost a year of the internet. I'm sure many people won, that memes were hatched and hashtagged and things were amaze-balls and awesome sauce. I saw a little bit of it. Not much. I'll try to go back and skim a bit to catch up but for the first time EVER after such a long hiatus, I'm not going to read everything. I usually do but I've been gone too long and feedly only goes back thirty days... </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><i>I did miss you, though.</i></span><br />
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Anyhoo.... August is my month for the Canadians Bee and the Queen suggested that I get the tutorial/instructions up early. So, away we go!<br />
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This scarf is the inspiration for this month. <br />
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I would like Chevron Blocks - sewn herringbone-style.<br />
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We're looking way outside my colour comfort zone and focussing mostly on the reddish family of purples. Accents include yellow, orange, dark pink, red, teal-ish-turquoise-y blue and navy. Try to pick really saturated fabrics, tone on tone or solids, and avoid any prints with significant traces of white, grey or black. Also, skip green entirely. Where we're going, we don't need green.... The Kona colours I pulled for examples (not mandatory...) are cerise, persimmon, cheddar, caribbean, red plum, geranium, dark violet and poppy. I give you the names because purples are notoriously difficult to photograph.<br />
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Each 6 1/2 x 12 1/2" half is quick if you do two at a time, but if you can only manage one, I completely understand! Please leave the halves unsewn, particularly if you make identical ones. I didn't use a pattern but here's how I made them:<br />
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You need a square of purple about 4 3/4" and several strips of your purple and accent colour between 1 1/4" and 2". Press all seams open.<br />
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Step 1: Slice your purple square on the diagonal to give you two triangles. The diagonal becomes the top of your block half. <br />
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Step 2: Take one strip and sew to the left short side of triangle. Press seams open and trim the end off. Use the remnant of same fabric strip to sew down the right short side. Trim the end square.<br />
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Repeat Step 2 using a different fabric each time until the block measures just over the finished height (12 1/2"). Use the same process to fill in the corners.<br />
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Step 3: Centring the triangle along the top as best you can, trim the block half to 6 1/2 x 12 1/2". <br />
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Voila!<br />
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Tips: I found it easiest to rough-trim my block half as I went, keeping it about 7" wide to leave some wiggle room and give me an idea of where to start the next strip. That way, I never wasted the strips by leaving them way too long, nor were they ever too short to meet the full width of the block half.<br />
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I also found it easier to "pre-cut" my strips before I sewed them so I wasn't dealing with dragging long strips all over the place.<br />
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Thanks - and happy sewing!<br />
C<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-32722367547853125822014-08-23T13:07:00.000-06:002014-08-23T13:07:28.473-06:00Have You Met....Mireio?It's been the usual insanity around here but more on that later. Right now, I need a mental respite and a touch of something pretty. Maybe you can, too.<br />
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I've been meaning to share one of my favourite online spots for ages. I head there often for eye candy and finding a little treat...<br />
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<a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/Mireio" target="_blank">Mireio is one of my happy places.</a> It's the creation of my lovely friend, Wende (with whom I would probably have coffee near weekly if we weren't separated by a border crossing and many kilometres and depending on the season, 1 or 2 time zones.)<br />
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I'm a sucker for buttons.<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/198215469/cashmere-eye-pillow-flaxseed-and?ref=shop_home_active_3" target="_blank"> And eye pillows. </a><br />
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Her photography is soft and bright. I keep telling her she needs to do a calendar. You should see the shots <a href="http://www.mireiodesigns.com/" target="_blank">she uses on her blog.</a> They have such a warmth to them - if there were a brick and mortar version of the shop, you have a perfect image in your mind of what that shop would be like, and know exactly why you'd want to spend time pouring over every item.<br />
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And <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/179335541/vintage-blue-slip-with-handmade-floral?ref=shop_home_active_21" target="_blank">she has such beautiful thing</a>s...<br />
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<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/190252039/dryer-sachets-organic-laundry-vintage?ref=shop_home_active_10" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Of6lxoEJnsU/U_jfheMX88I/AAAAAAAABzM/3gR2tanaqco/s1600/Dryer%2BSachets.jpg" height="640" width="410" /></a></div>
...that <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/190252039/dryer-sachets-organic-laundry-vintage?ref=shop_home_active_10" target="_blank">smell so nice.</a> I have her sachets in all my drawers, especially with the frillies. Every day is better with lightly-scented frillies. Have I mentioned my love of lavender?<br />
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I asked her if I could tell people about her shop and she graciously allowed me to not only use her gorgeous photos but even came up with a coupon! At checkout, enter CITRICSUGAR for 20% off all the pretty things until the end of September.<br />
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If you want to get a jump on holiday shopping while supporting independent & handmade, the timing is perfect! (And yes, I've started. I am one of those people. If it makes you feel better, I don't tend to finish until mid-December but I usually start early.)<br />
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Anyway, while you're waiting for me to get a blogpost together, I hope you swing <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/Mireio" target="_blank">by Mireio </a>and check it all the goodies Wende's got waiting for you!<br />
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<i>Please note: This is NOT a sponsored post. I don't do sponsored posts. I will only ever promote businesses and products that I personally use or for which I am a customer, because that's what friends do. We share the word about good stuff!</i>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-3364429998065936372014-08-06T12:41:00.000-06:002014-08-06T12:41:20.703-06:00Modern Borders = PlacematsFirst - thanks for all the support with the bag story! Yes, the stains mostly came out. It was pointed out to me that I kinda skipped that part. Oops! <i>Also, I've had quite a few no-reply commenters lately so if you didn't get a response from me directly, that is why. I WANTED to reply to you.... Why won't all these blogging platforms play nicely together? Sheesh.</i><br />
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In the busy-ness of my life, I am finding time to keep up with challenges. It's become a point of pride with me to not have missed a single challenge at <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank">SaskatoonMQG. </a> The one due at the end of July? Make a modern border.<br />
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How do you do that? And who came up with this cockamamie challenge anyway? (Me. It was me.)<br />
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Fine. I'm making a piece that is ALL borders. That's right just one border after another. And then I'm going to cut it up so the borders don't even go all the way around. Yeah. Take that, challenge-comer-upper-with! (Again, me.)<br />
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I started with some shots and chambray. Feels so luxurious in the hand. If only the shimmer of both showed up in photos...Threw in some Tsuru for good measure.<br />
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Once I had it pieced, I used the leftover shots on the back, and then grid quilted the thing to death. That took some time. I echoed the borders a bit with the thread colours.<br />
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Then I got out the rotary cutter. At this point, my great idea seemed a little nuts. I held my breath, began my meditation (It's only fabric, only fabric, only fabric....ohmmmmm...) and cut away.<br />
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Now onto the binding! It was important to me that the borders not be broken even though I'd mercilessly cut them to shreds moments before. So, I pieced together the bindings from the leftover border pieces. I made a separate strip for each side of each piece (what???) I'm not so good at calculating the exact amount of fabric taken up in a binding corner so I sewed the long strips and used <a href="http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.ca/2009/06/binding-tutorial_12.html" target="_blank">Linda's binding method with the mitred corners. </a> It's probably the best way to do a matched binding. Linda rocks.<br />
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How did I keep it matched all the way down? Good question! Three things.<br />
1) I moved my needle one more notch to the right to account for "quilt shrinkage" - think exact 1/4" instead of scant. On a larger piece, you'd have to measure the finished width of each chunk but this was small enough I could fudge it with my non-scant seam allowance.<br />
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2) After piecing and pressing my bindings, I ran a basting stitch 1/8"(ish) from the edge down each to secure the top and bottom together.<br />
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3) Glue. Lots and lots of glue. Wonderclips. Hot iron to set. <br />
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Once the corners were mitred, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to hand-finish these bindings with the uber-dense quilting. Machine-binding and I have not gotten along in the past; I've always thought it turned out messy and ugly, and way less satisfying.<br />
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Solution? More glue! I burned through about half a Sew-line glue pen on this project but it was so worth it. Altogether, the bindings took less time than the quilting, even if you allow for re-reading the mitre tutorial twice to remember what I did the last time. They look like more work than they were.<br />
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And there you go - placemats! Challenge conquered. Next challenge? Trying to photograph the clothing-making rampage I've gone on this summer... :-)CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-39077908261932416712014-07-24T11:44:00.000-06:002014-07-24T11:44:10.516-06:00The Bag and The Wallet: A Tragicomedy Love Story<i>Still haven't finished catching up on my blog reading but this story happened a few months ago. It's very wordy, because I love to be wordy (and had a blast writing it), so feel free to just skip to the pictures. Hah! </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Voiceover from the Trailer:</span><br />
I used to love my old bag. But time had beaten it up and my needs had changed. It was heavy and not that suitable for work. I was taking a separate tote, in addition to my purse, and that was taking its toll on my shoulder and sanity.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Act 1: Girl Meets New Bag</span><br />
But I couldn't find one I liked. Then I spotted the <a href="http://sewsweetness.com/2014/01/bye-bye-love-bag.html" target="_blank">ByeByeLove Bag</a>. And needed to make it. It would hold all the things I wanted to hold - shopping bags, wallet, keys, sunglasses, headphones, clipboard, iPad, my pencil case of teacher supplies... yay!<br />
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I tinkered with the pattern.<br />
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I added a darker bottom and put feet on it, just to give it a little protection from the floor, and I changed up the pocket flaps. I'm just not a rounded pocket flap kinda girl. You understand.<br />
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It was a marriage of linen and cotton. I lined it with foxes.<br />
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I carried the bag for a couple of weeks. It was glorious! It was suitable for work, it looked professional, and it also didn't seem out of place for the rest of my life, either. I got compliments galore, folks asking where I got it, and they were floored when I proudly said I made it. All was well.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Act 2: The Accident</span><br />
And then one morning, at work, a flustered staff member knocked her entire cream & sugared coffee all over it. And in it.<br />
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I did the mature thing, or at least I *appeared* to do the mature thing. With students around, I didn't want to give them a poor example of how to handle a first-world problem so with said co-worker being very apologetic and even more flustered, I was calm and proceeded to dab at it with paper-towels, wiped the coffee off the floor, saying all the while, "It's okay, it's just a bag, these things happen...." Inside I wanted to cry and was trying to figure out whether it could be washed and whether the stains would be set before I even had a chance to TRY to get them out.<br />
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The second I got home I consulted the experts. I decided I could chance washing it. I soaked it liberally with the stain remover, crossed my fingers and held my breath, pushing fears for shrinking and other calamities as far out of my mind as I could. Oh, the subtle ironies of a pattern's name.... Bye-Bye, Bag I Loved!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Act 3: Insult to Injury</span><br />
While the bag hung on the drying rack, and I waited to see if the stains had indeed been removed, I also needed to meet a deadline. I needed background and foreground for a quilt I had to finish. I needed to plunge myself into a project to distract me from the laundry coma my beloved was lolling in...<br />
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I went to <a href="http://www.periwinkle.biz/" target="_blank">my safe haven - my Cheers, to drown my sorrows in bolts and fat quarters</a>, carrying the wallet that matched my old bag, the one I'd forsaken, in my hand. I ran errands, and had quite the handful by the time I'd hit the quilt shop so I'm not sure if I'd dropped the tattered green beast in the parking lot beside my car or if I'd stupidly left it on the front seat and had the door not lock properly when I hit the button. I don't know. But I didn't have it in my hands when I went to pay. <br />
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It wasn't in the store - all the patrons and staff helped me look.<br />
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It wasn't in the car or beside the car. It had only been twenty minutes.<br />
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Gone. (Bye Bye Wallet!) I went straight to the bank on the corner to cancel my credit card and get a temporary debit card so that I could at least pay for all the fabric I'd had cut. I was <i>not</i> incredulous when, after I'd explained my missing wallet situation and tried to cancel my cards, <i>the bank clerk asked if I had ID. </i> <i><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Seriously???</span></i> I do have the app on my phone (always in my back pocket, thank heavens!) so I could list off the account numbers and last transactions...<br />
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I paid for my fabric at the store with the hand-written temporary card (with that big, white, shameful label that screams to everyone "I was careless with the real one") and trundled off home, heart sinking as I made a mental list of all the ID I would have to replace, and those departments and bureaus I would have to call on Monday, and all because of a stupid cup of coffee, if not for which I'd still have my bag, wallet inside, and not missing/stolen/otherwise AWOL.<br />
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I prayed that whoever had it, merely took the money and dropped the ID in the mailbox or turned it in somewhere claiming to have found it. The money (though I certainly can't afford to just drop money in the street) <i>really didn't matter</i> if I could avoid calling the ministry of health, replacing my social insurance card, my driver's license, vehicle registration.... Someone could be going through my receipts and information and stealing my identity. Yuck. I felt violated and icky. AND! What if they cashed in my full loyalty card at the yarn shop - nooooooooooooooo! - and made a break for Belize with my Air Miles? (Okay, in reality, the miles wouldn't get them farther than Edmonton, but still...)<br />
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Late afternoon on the Sunday, the doorbell rang and I ran to find a man holding my ID-laden wallet in his hands. Before either of us spoke, I nearly burst into tears, thanked him almost a thousand times, and gave him a huge hug. I had nothing to offer him in terms of a reward, other than my gratitude. Anything immediately valuable had been stripped, of course, including my hidden small note euros and pounds. (I live in the hope that a spontaneous scavenger hunt or some other impromptu excursion will take me overseas where that ten pound note would save valuable time or at least avoid calamity...) They even took the pennies. Canada phased them out of currency, but they hadn't yet been phased out of my wallet. As my conversation with the ID rescuer continued, red flags went up and I began to suspect that he might have been involved in its disappearance as well, but I dismissed the idea as unimportant, in the grand scheme. Again, I expressed my sincere delight at having my license and certificates and health card and social insurance card and all the other little bits that would have taken ages to list and replace back in my hands with hours of phone calls and running around now off my to-do list.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Act 4: Can't Even Look At It</span><br />
So now I have the wallet back and, while I'm relieved, it feels tainted. Someone rummaged through the whole thing. It had betrayed all my secrets and didn't even put up a fight. I can't bear to put the new temporary debit card in it, no matter how temporary and laden with the still-stinging sense of recklessness. I surrender to the awkwardness of a sandwich-sized ziploc bag to carry my cards. The wallet's gotta go. It's beat up anyway. It was as old as the bag it matched which was now in the bottom of the closet. It's time for the light bulb idea that our protagonist comes up with - new bag is lonely. <br />
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Flash to a furious digging through the notions box for hardware for a long-intended, never started project. Cut to woman with rotary cutter and flying fabric. Cue 80s-style sports montage or woman at sewing machine: close-up of foot pedal to the metal, iron pressed up-down-up-down, brow wipe.....<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Act 5: Hello, Hello, Love!</span><br />
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They meet in the hallway, introduced by clunky best friend, Keys O'Lanyard. <a href="http://www.emmalinebags.com/the-necessary-clutch-wallet/4575098877" target="_blank"> "This is Necessary Clutch Wallet." </a>And you know what, these two? Cut from the same cloth. A matching set. They belong together. <br />
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Add in one of those cheesy camera masks that zooms in a heart-shaped focus on the pair before the heart turns pink with the words...<br />
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The End</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">End Credit notes:</span></div>
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In all seriousness - these are great, well-written patterns, though not necessarily for beginners. Use a denim needle and some WonderClips. Take your time and enjoy it. And no, this isn't product-placement. I haven't been asked or paid to put these things in my "movie." :-)</div>
CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-68694848439230743352014-07-15T21:16:00.000-06:002014-07-15T21:16:40.395-06:00Framing Curved Log Cabin Blocks TutorialOnce again, I fell off the internet. That's life. Especially lately. I don't seem to be slowing down, folks. I am making, quite intensely in fact, but stopping to blog about it seems counterintuitive somehow and when I don't blog, I don't read. However, I miss the realm. So while I'll probably never be a regular schedule blogger, I always find my way back. That's why there're RSS readers. :-) Anyhoo...<br />
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Framing Curved Log Cabin Blocks:<br />
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Back in April (wow!) I posted a tutorial on making <a href="http://citricsugar.blogspot.ca/2014/04/curved-improv-log-cabin-tutorial.html" target="_blank">Improv Curved Log Cabin blocks.</a> And then I intended a follow-up on framing them. Here it is.<br />
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Grab your cabin pod, your rotary cutter, your background fabric, a straight edge ruler for squaring up, and, if desired, a curved edge ruler. You can also freehand, and if your curves are large, you probably will need to freehand them anyway. Starch your fabrics - if you made your cabin without starch, starch it now. The larger the piece gets, the more important it is to keep a stable edge. Bias is a tricky, shifty beast!<br />
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Cut a chunk of background fabric at least a long as one of your sides. The width is variable and you can use strips or triangles. Triangles work best for setting them "on point" but you can use strips and put things on point later if you choose.<br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">** Note: This isn't a precise technique - it's based on the same principles used to make the blocks themselves, just with the goal of having straight, right-angled sides at the end. As such, it's readily adaptable to whatever shape or size you need. So I'm not giving exact dimensions here. If you cut your background too narrow or too short, just add more fabric around after. If you are using a solid, easy peasy. I don't recommend using a fussy print that doesn't blend well at the seams. To minimize seams, start with pieces much larger than you think you need and trim down. Save the larger trimmings and use them to frame other pieces.</span></i><br />
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Lay your cabin pod on the background fabric so that the curve of the side is entirely on top of the background. Using your rotary cutter (and your edge, if desired) cut along the curve of the cabin so that the cabin curve and background curve match. Sew the background to the pod as you did for the sewing the log cabins. Press with the seam towards the outside edge.<br />
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Cut another chunk of background long enough to cover the side of the pod, plus the new piece you've just added. Lay the pod on the background as before but be aware of where the edge is - you'll have to angle your curve to end somewhere and you don't want it to be too sharp or straight at the end point. Ideally, your curve will end where the top of your pod and the background fabric intersect. It doesn't always happen that way but that's what trimming and extra fabric are for!<br />
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Cut your curve as before and sew. Press.<br />
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Repeat the process until you have background on all four sides. Using your straight edge, square your block to the desired size, or simply trim straight. At this point, it's easy to see if you need to add more fabric to corners or whatnot.<br />
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And there you have it. I chose to leave my blocks irregular sizes so that I could play with the setting but have fun with it and see what you come up with!<br />
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I've added <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/citricsugar/sets/72157645278744190/" target="_blank">a ton of photos of this process to a flickr album</a> so feel free to flip through if you need a little more help - I've even done some using triangles.<br />
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Okay, as usual, I have over a month's worth of blog reading to do. So I'm getting back to it starting now. :-)CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-90316564964490247502014-06-06T19:31:00.001-06:002014-06-06T19:31:08.086-06:00The Great Sort: How I Deal(t) with ScrapsDuring my blogging hiatus, I was still sewing. Usually in spurts. While renos continued, I could only set up my space for a bit at a time, and if I got to leave it up for days!! in a row, then it was pedal to the hardwood...<br />
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In February, I had vast amounts of space to myself to fill with nothing but a makeshift studio, conveniently located near the refrigerator and coffee maker. Also, with extra plug-ins so I could stream the Olympics on my laptop while the fabric was flying. And flying it was! I took the rare opportunity to spread out over two floors and organize my stash, supplies and most importantly, my scraps. This was an "in-progress" photo of the front room as seen from the dining room/kitchen "workshop" I'd established.<br />
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Indeed. Whatever you are thinking about this photo, I agree with you.<br />
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The process took awhile. Several evenings. But the benefits! I had a "eureka moment" of scrap storage idea that is incredibly useful to me (steal it if you want to) considering my lack of space and cold, cash dollahs! Yes, necessity invented this mother of a scrap system.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, the blues are out of control, as are the greys....</td></tr>
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Hanging folders from IKEA. Plastic filing boxes. Twelve different sections. I can see all my small scraps and still pick from many different colours at once. I can also remove an entire colour, lay it open on the table, and the fold it back up and "refile" it. Plus, pretty. (Ok, I'm not really thrilled about the plastic part but the need to keep things portable, stackable, and dust-free trumps my qualms. I also make sure to allow my fabric plenty of time to breathe on a regular basis. )<br />
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My large scraps were pressed and folded and sorted by colour ( I use a 12- colour category system: purples, pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, blacks, greys, whites, creams, browns, which is preferable to the old system of "stuff 'em willy-nilly into whatever container is closest"). Then I stacked them in a box with my baskets of various-sized squares. Strings and selvedges also sorted by colour, in their own box. And then my stash, on comic boards, solids separated from prints. Battings, interfacings, etc in another. To be fair, I do have a smaller stash than most - less than 150 yards on hand - with most of that earmarked for specific projects. I'm trying to get better at mindful purchasing, because let's face it, I simply don't have the money or the space, and fabric's only as valuable as it is useful.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nope, this isn't all of it....</td></tr>
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And now that everything is contained and organized, my space (which sometimes needs to be completely dismantled - hence the lack of shelves, no using wall space, and collapsible desk) looks like this.<br />
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And it works.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scraps in action! Tiny tiny tiny....</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pouch for a swap</td></tr>
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So does the scrap system. And that makes me very happy.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pouch for a gift.</td></tr>
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Yay for tiny!CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-2286319685198973472014-05-25T19:25:00.002-06:002014-05-25T19:25:53.464-06:00Finished: The One Less Traveled ByWhew! The Bloggers' Quilt Festival can take a lot out of you! I<i> think</i> I saw them all.... And appreciated all the lovely comments back and forth. I had a few that were no-reply which always makes me a little sad so if you didn't get a reply, that's the reason.<br />
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Anyhoo! The <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank">Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild</a> had a UFO challenge. "UFO" is always a challenge for me since I rarely have any. I tend to stick to only a few projects at a time and frequently go full-steam-ahead until they're done. I do have ONE long-term UFO but it's in storage and I haven't seen it in years. If it has survived the storage process, I will finish it likely as soon as it's freed. Other than that, I don't think I have anything that has been waiting more than two years.<br />
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I did have a crap ton of HSTs rescued and salvaged from other projects (specifically ones for my sister). They've been trimmed up in little bunches of 1.5" squares at Wednesday guild gatherings for months and months. I'm not saying people made fun of me, but more than one of my quilty friends questioned my sanity. :-) The intent was always to make a trip around the world or something like it. So the time had come to do something with it. So I dug into the scraps and grabbed my Kona Silver yardage and went nuts.<br />
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It started with tiny but traditional,<br />
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then moved to tiny but a little more irregular,<br />
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to larger,<br />
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to very irregular....<br />
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like a set of paths not quite found by feet yet.<br />
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The quilting is.... uhm, not my best. I rushed a little in a push to meet the deadline (I have never not finished a SMQG challenge!) I'm a little out of practice and always more convinced of my skills before I sit down to use them. However, I more or less got the look I was going for: more tiny and structured in the wee blocks, loose and watery as it moves outward. I'll try to remember to either leave time or to take more next project.<br />
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I added a couple of blue chunks to the binding, letting them fall wherever. The back is unspectacular and with fading light and borrowed quilt holding help, I totally forgot to snap a picture of it. It's most silver with a little piece of blue floral. <br />
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Approx: 68x78"<br />
More than 650 - 1.5" HSTs salvaged and used up. (I have about 6 left over...) One GIANT ziploc bag no longer crowding my sewing space. And I am content.CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-23253864608750075282014-05-17T12:09:00.000-06:002014-05-17T12:09:05.812-06:00Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Broken Windows<div align="center">
<a href="http://amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/" title="AmysCreativeSide.com"><img alt="AmysCreativeSide.com" src="http://amyscreativeside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/spring-2014-BQF-Button-300x290.jpg" style="border: none;" /></a></div>
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So the BQF totally snuck up on me this year. It was only a month or so after the last one that I fell off the internet and while I have been making and sewing, I was feeling like I didn't have anything I wanted to enter. However, there are a few things I haven't shared yet. Like this one...<br />
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As a mini with fabrics I would never choose, this piece was a little out of the box for me. And I dealt with it a little in the box, too. At Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guid, we had a challenge to use a bag of someone else's scraps. I got Erin's and she actually enjoyed handing over the ugliest bag of scraps ever seen in Saskatoon. She even taunted us as she threw the bag in the mix. Fabrics? Not modern. Colours? Non-descript. Size? Larger than your average scrap. Hmmm.... Workable?<br />
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I embraced the messy! I started with the batik. Some folks love 'em, some hate 'em and I'm somewhere in the middle. I use them, sparingly, and not on their own. But this one had nice little boxes in a regular pattern, like frames. I freehanded some shapes, stay-stitched the lines, trimmed the excess and folded the seam allowance back. Then I backed each opening with a little piece of one of the horrid little scraps, and reverse appliquéd it to the batik.<br />
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Then I quilted it within a sixteenth of an inch of its life. I started with a neutral cream colour and decided it needed red!<br />
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The binding was made from another one of the scraps. I knew it was going to be difficult and there was no way I'd be able to hand-finish it with the density of quilting on the back - I even debated ways I could get a way with leaving unfinished. Once it was trimmed, I felt I lost a lot of the rustic, broken quality I was getting so I recaptured it by attaching the binding to the back and stitching it down unevenly along the front.<br />
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This is the first quilt I've actually hung on my walls and I'm happy with how it turned out.<br />
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Title: Broken Windows<br />
Size: 18x11"<br />
Category: Small quilts?<br />
Pieced and Quilted by me.<br />
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Thanks so much to Amy and the sponsors, everyone who stops by, and everyone who shares their work with the rest of us to make this festival so much fun! Can't wait to see what everyone's been up to!<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com92tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-26679354535303788392014-05-15T09:20:00.001-06:002014-05-15T09:20:40.465-06:00The Whirlwind of Classes and Talks<span style="color: blue;">It's no secret that I've been a busy girl as of late. I'm decent at spacing out my commitments and making sure I don't have too many things pressing at the same time. My calendar usually looks well-balanced and responsible. However, I often forget to leave room for the incidentals and unschedule-able things, like illness, vehicular issues, and Acts of Nephew, among other things good and bad. A particularly <strike>crappy</strike> inclement spring has seen more barometric changes than the weather network* and left me with less energy and fighting spirit than usual. Renovations have meant my sewing corner has moved, rotated and/or been inaccessible since January - tricky when keeping up with two guilds and two bees! And then, of course, there's been hockey. <i>Glorious hockey</i>. Junior, Olympic, NHL, KHL, AHL, WTH?... I will admit that while I sometimes drop the ball on keeping up in quilting blogland, I never go more than two days without checking in on the hockey blogs. In fact, I was caught at a guild meeting streaming a game during a presentation. I was <i>LISTENING</i>, of course, to the presenter and looked at all her slides, but I also didn't want to miss any changes in the score. That being said, if I'm the presenter and you are in the audience, feel free to live-stream sporting events. Just keep me updated on the score! <span style="font-size: x-small;">(NOTE: this does NOT apply in the scholastic setting - secondary students are required to pay attention in class, even if I'm boring. Therefore, if you by any strange chance or coincidence are a high school student who has me as their classroom teacher at any time, I will not accept any excuses of "<i>But Ms. M..... !You said on your blog....</i>". So there. You have been warned. Also - how did you find this blog, anyway? Get off the internet, go outside and/or do your homework, please and thank you!)</span></span><br />
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Speaking of giving talks, classes and presentations...<br />
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I had the distinct pleasure of leading a workshop on improv piecing at <a href="http://www.saskatoonquiltersguild.com/" target="_blank">Saskatoon Quilters' Guild</a> spring retreat at the end of April. I do a lot of improv piecing (crazy piecing, free-piecing, what have you) These were the samples that I made up plus more that I made during/after the workshop:<br />
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Most of my job was just to give encouragement and provide a little guidance on making such unusual pieces cohesive. Here is all the beautiful work they did!<br />
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I was a proud, proud teacher, (though truly I think an improv workshop leader is really more of a permission giver and 'can't' preventer than instructor.) They all had such different styles; not surprising since they've all been quilting for years. Having never given that workshop before, I was quite pleased with how it went. The gals gave me some great and constructive feedback, too.<br />
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At the last meeting of Saskatoon Quilter's Guild, I got to see some of their work continued but wasn't able to snap a pic. I had the privilege that night to give a talk on modern quilting. Of that, I have no photos but since no one fell asleep, I think it went well, too. Put a mic in my hand and I can talk, boy! Only trouble? When you're the speaker - you can't stream the hockey game...<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*As one of many folk around here with climate migraines, I can say that spring is not a great time of year, especially with the yo-yo of sun/snow/sun/snow/rain/snain/snow/sun/rain we've had this go-round. If these manned missions to Mars advertised a permanently consistent air pressure in all compartments, ships and colonies, migraneurs would risk experiencing every bad thing that's ever happened in a scifi film.... Aliens, schmaliens!</span>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-46935544380665997612014-04-29T19:09:00.000-06:002014-04-29T19:09:07.518-06:00Curved Improv Log Cabin TutorialHiya! Yeah, I know... How've ya been? Me...? It's been busy and chaotic with a side of crazy monkey banana pants. More on that some other time. I'm going to ease back into the the interwebs slowly.... with a tutorial.<br />
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I'm a very happy member of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/canadiansquiltbee/" target="_blank">Canadians Bee</a> - a group that formed after the first round of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/simplysolids/" target="_blank">Simply Solids.</a> These ladies are intensely talented and totally amazing. In fact, I'm lucky enough to be in the <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank">Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild</a> with 3 of them! It was those three that I ran this block idea by and they all said they were game to try it so that's what I'm going with.<br />
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This tutorial is the basic technique and I'll add specifics for the bee in the flickr thread.<br />
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This is a very flexible technique and can be used as you wish. For a traditional(ish) log cabin, alternate light and dark fabrics.<br />
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Here we go!<br />
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CURVED IMPROV LOG CABINS<br />
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You might need these supplies in addition to your regular sewing gear:<br />
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<b><u>5 or more various fabrics in your chosen colour palette:</u></b> <i>This technique can use jelly roll strips easily enough but you can use wider. You can also use scraps. I started with a 3" square in the middle and some of my outer strips were roughly 3" but it's not exact, nor does it need to be. You can go smaller or bigger. Add more rounds as you please. I made two different blocks in my examples. I used yellow for both centers (A), then in one B&D were dark colours, C&E light. The other block had B&D light colours with C&E dark. </i><br />
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<u><b>Rotary cutter</b>:</u> <i>This would be a tedious process with scissors.</i><br />
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<b><u>Starch:</u></b> <i>This is handy for sewing curves. If you give your fabrics a light starch before you cut the curves, I find they cut cleaner, sew smoother and lie flatter. I forgot to starch my fabrics at first and had a little wrinkling - which will all go away once I quilt the sucker but once I remembered to starch, everything went a lot smoother.</i><br />
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<b><u>A curved edge:</u></b> <i>I used the Quick Curve Ruler and the old "no-ruler-eyeball-it-freehand" method for cutting the curves but you can also use a pie plate, an oval casserole dish, </i><i>, a french curve, </i><i>an old charger from your Christmas table settings that you've since decided you hate....or nothing. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle or oval - it just needs to have a curved side you can put against your rotary cutter. It doesn't even need measurements! But it's easier to use if you can see through it.</i><br />
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<b><u>1/4" foot:</u></b> <i> I find it tons easier to piece curves without using pins by using my 1/4" foot. We'll get to that later...</i><br />
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TECHNIQUE:<br />
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1) Choose a fabric for your center. For ease of instructions, we'll call it Fabric A. I used a 3" square here but you can also use a rectangle. Measurements aren't important here - since you'll be cutting away the edges, having perfectly straight cuts to start with isn't necessary.<br />
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Take a strip of your next fabric (B) - I used a roughly 2.5"strip - and layer your center piece over it just a little - right sides up. <br />
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You can trim the needed bit off the strip so you're working with smaller pieces. There should be a slight overlap. <br />
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Place your curved edge (or use your fabulous sense of freeform adventure!) on the overlap. The only thing to be aware of here is that the curve should start where the two fabrics meet at the edge on the bottom and end where they meet at the top. At all times, the curve should pass through BOTH fabrics. This way, you make a matching pair of curves. <br />
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Fabric A curves out and Fabric B has a nice dent for A to fit into. Remove the excess fabric so you're just looking at out-curved A and in-curved B. Place them right sides together, matching at the top of the curve.<br />
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2) Using your 1/4" foot, place your RST curves underneath your presser foot and take a few stitches. I like to put the out-curve on the bottom and the in-curve on the top. Then holding your fabrics apart as you sew, guide the bottom piece with your right hand and the top piece with your left hand, bringing them together using the 1/4" fence as a guide. <br />
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Try not to pull or stretch as you sew. There are a couple of videos on sewing curves without pins out there if you need to see it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kceRsPGtZ8" target="_blank">This one is great!</a><br />
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3) Press to the side of least resistance - in or out, depending on your fabric. There isn't a bulk issue here so direction isn't important. The seams lay fairly flat if you use the no-pins method.<br />
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4) Lay down another strip of B. <br />
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Layer your A/B center unit onto the B strip, keeping the B part of the A/B centre at the bottom. In order to keep the traditional log cabin look coming through in this modern version, always orient the center piece so that the strip you just sewed is in the same position. Always on the top OR always on the bottom. You choose - just keep it consistent for each pod/block.<br />
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Make your curved cut same as you did in Step 1. You can play around with angling your center so that the width of the strips changes from piece to piece. It can be wider or narrower, sharper or softer curves, whatever appeals to you. The idea is that this will take on its own shape and not be uniform. Each little cabin will be unique.<br />
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5) Sew your curves same as in Step 2.<br />
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6) Repeat the steps using Fabric C, then again with each D and E. And beyond if desired! <br />
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When it's the size you want, use your curved edge to curve up the sides.<br />
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You now have a log cabin pod!<br />
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Coming next month, once I start getting bee blocks in the mail, I'll do another tutorial on how to frame them out into full blocks. Hint: It's very similar to what we've just done here but with larger chunks of fabric and squared outside edges. :-)<br />
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Let me know if you have questions or if you try this technique out! I will get back to you as soon as I can (which is right after I catch up on a great deal of back emails and blog reading!) Please make sure you're not a no-reply blogger or I can only answer questions in the comment thread.<br />
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Thanks for reading - hope you enjoy it!<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-41160799724404090452013-11-07T17:33:00.000-06:002013-11-07T17:33:39.995-06:00Really Random Thursday: Knitting, Friends, Swifts, and HockeySOoooo - it's been a long time since I had my blogging wits about me for a random Thursday but I'm happy to play Randomeer today!<br />
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1) I've been knitting socks like a madwoman over the summer and into the fall. Seriously. There's been lots of knitting. Two shawls as well. And then a little project to deal with leftover sock yarn.<br />
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Pattern info clockwise from top left <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honey-of-a-hurricane-socks" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-keep-2" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/skew" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://imake.gg/2013/04/21/sock-yarn-patchwork-recipe/" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/askew-2" target="_blank">here</a>. Warning about the Honeycomb socks and the Skew socks - they are not really great for folks with high arches/insteps. The reason that super-cool diagonal is not gracing my foot is because they don't fit my arch and I can't get them on. Luckily, they fit a friend! <br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Why all the socks? Well, the company that makes the only store-bought socks I really liked manufactured items in the factory that collapsed this spring in Bangladesh and then refused to sign any legally binding agreement that would help to make conditions better and safer the people who work there. Several petitions and activist emails later, they still haven't signed and I'm resigned to make my own socks until I can find an ethical mass-made version. </span><br />
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2) Cindy - yes,<a href="http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/" target="_blank"> THAT Cindy</a>! :-) sent me a great little bag for my sock-knitting shenanigans. Look at the perfect fabric she chose... Look at the measuring tape drawstrings!! I heart her. <br />
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The socks in the bag are <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tintern-abbey" target="_blank">Tintern Abbey</a>, but I'll say this about them, I haven't quite perfected the Sherman Toe/Heel and thankfully am past the heels though I had to reknit them many, many times... Lots of Grr-argh going on. But it should be smooth sailing from here!<br />
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3) Sometimes in life, one's project-loving father retires after 46 years and begins to spend his days in the same house where one's mother has been spending her own relaxed retirement. First - there's fancy party where one wears a dress and one does the "Snap the picture, already" fashion pose...<br />
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To keep him from knocking down walls, taking apart engines and calling out very early in the morning for people to get a move on and help out, or to stop one's mother from demanding he get a part time job because he's driving her crazy...., one comes up with a project and begs for a much needed yarn swift!!<br />
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Tada!! Totally collapsible, works like a charm, and no more using my feet and knees!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I use a bag clip to wind center-pull balls - works pretty slick and keeps the tail out of the way!</td></tr>
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But no worries - there is no trouble on the M household front. My parents are still incredibly cute. But now they can have date night any night of the week. They're schmoopy like that.<br />
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4) And another reason for all the knitting is the most wonderful time of the year is upon us again - hockey season!! :-) I knit while watching to keep from getting too yell-y/bouncy....<br />
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Surprisingly, I had never been to a live NHL game before. I know that an exhibition game in town here doesn't exactly count but I got tickets for my birthday to the Jets/Bruins game here in Sept. It was awesome. The Bruins brought all their stars. We had great seats. B's 5-0.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm on the home blue line - someone pinch me!!</td></tr>
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5) And finally, it's really disappointing when the CBC can't spell in the Hockey Night in Canada app.... <br />
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What's a transcation??<br />
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Linking up with the<a href="http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/2013/11/really-random-thursday-11713.html" target="_blank"> Randomeers at LiveAColorfulLife!</a> Thanks for hosting, Cindy!<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-63362877075719875802013-11-05T16:03:00.000-06:002013-11-05T16:03:43.597-06:00Colour Challenge PillowFirst off - thank you to everyone who's stopped by during the Blogger's Quilt Festival, left comments, nominated my quilt, or voted for it! It's very kind of you and I'm flattered beyond words. You've put me in some pretty amazing company. Thanks! It took me 10 days to get around to see everyone's quilts so I do appreciate the time it takes to look, read and leave a message.. <3 p=""><br />
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The Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild had a recent colour challenge. We had to make something using a colour scheme that had been discussed at our meeting in August. <br />
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In a move that surprised <i>absolutely no one</i>, I chose blue and orange. Blue + Orange = Complimentary Colour Scheme! After playing around with some scraps, I had some little boxes. <br />
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I played around a little more and framed them into boxes using a FQ of shot cotton I'd been hoarding.<br />
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Then I tried to counteract all that square corner-ness with some circle quilting. <br />
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Et voila! A cushion! I tend to give away a lot of my challenge pieces since Mum and Seester usually call dibs.<br />
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Totally keeping this one. It's my colours. :-)<br />
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I've got more to post - a month or more of not blogging equals lots of little things that need showing and telling... but it'll have to wait until next time! Have a great Tuesday!<br />
<br /></3>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-28900896151752046272013-10-25T12:04:00.000-06:002013-10-25T12:04:49.392-06:00Blogger's Quilt Festival: Flowers Over FallsHello! If you're popping by from the<a href="http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/10/25/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2013/" target="_blank"> Blogger's Quilt Festival</a>, welcome! If you're a regular visitor, you have seen this one before...<br />
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This year, I participated in my first online bee, called <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/simplysolids/" target="_blank">Simply Solids</a>. The rules were simple, too - only solids allowed!<br />
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My month was June I stretched my brain for a while and was struck by the idea of a waterfall. To give it some visual oomph, I also decided flowers should be headed over the falls as well.<br />
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I sent my bee mates two different blues, two orange squares, and a strip of stone, asking them to make an abstract improv block - free-style, 12.5"x16.5". And did they deliver!!<br />
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I added an irregular sashing, and some borders - the layout of the quilt actually looks like this if you get close to it.<br />
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I wanted the water look to be unbroken so I made the binding shift in tone as it went around. <br />
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Then I quilted it in wavy, watery lines, broken a little in places by imaginary rocks behind the 'water.' It's a little hard to believe just by looking at it but there are actually eleven different Kona solids and three different threads. There is also the handiwork of eleven different people, other than myself, and I can't thank them enough for the beautiful blocks they made.<br />
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The back was built around one block I received that I absolutely loved (it's based on Fibonacci - how clever is that?) but it kept popping out when I tried in the front layout. I did my best to emulate the design and make it macro on the back.<br />
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You can read <a href="http://citricsugar.blogspot.ca/2013/08/finished-flowers-over-falls-simply.html" target="_blank">more about this quilt and how it came to be in this post here</a>. And if you are in Saskatoon this weekend, you can see it in person at SaskatoonQuilts!2013 out at Prairieland. :-)<br />
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Quilt: <span style="color: blue;">Flowers Over Falls</span></div>
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Size: approx. 66" x 80"</div>
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Finished: August 2013</div>
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Category:<a href="http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/10/25/bloggers-quilt-festival-groupbee-quilts/" target="_blank"> Group/Bee Quilts</a></div>
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Contributors: Myself and the other awesome quilters of Aeneous Group - Simply Solids Modern Bee, plus one super lovely friend from UK</div>
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Thank you to Amy Ellis for hosting, all the sponsors who are so generous with their support, and all the other quilters are participating (and you for stopping by!)<br />
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Past Festival Entries:<br />
<a href="http://citricsugar.blogspot.ca/2013/05/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2013.html" target="_blank">Spring 2013 - Random Containment</a><br />
<a href="http://citricsugar.blogspot.ca/2012/10/bloggers-quilt-festival-homespun.html" target="_blank">Fall 2012 - Homespun</a><br />
<a href="http://citricsugar.blogspot.ca/2012/05/bloggers-quilt-festival-myself-as.html" target="_blank">Spring 2012 - Myself as a Teacher</a><br />
<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com107tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-46346140841920737832013-10-21T18:32:00.000-06:002013-10-21T18:32:12.973-06:00Finished Quilt: Inspired by Star Trek: The Doomed Lieutenant"Broken record here. Haven't posted, yada yada. Busy, catching up, yada yada. Where does the time go, yada yada. And how do you (completely crazy - in a nice way) people who post once (or more) a day find the time? Yada yada.<br />
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We had a long-running challenge over at the <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank">Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild</a> for the summer. The idea was to make a quilt "Inspired by" something that had meaning for us and to tell the story at the meeting at the end of September.<br />
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I racked my brain. And then, after watching Star Trek (the new one but not the new, new one - Pine but no Cumberbatch) for the umpteenth time, it hit me: I'm a nerd. And that's my inspiration.<br />
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Quilting and sci-fi have a little in common.<br />
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1) Those who aren't a fan, don't necessarily understand the draw. We've all had a conversation with someone who doesn't get why we take perfectly good fabric and cut it apart only to sew it back together again. Or why we HAVE to HAVE the entire line of fabric from Designer X and hoard it until the end of time! Sci-fi nerds often get odd looks when folks don't recognize a reference or understand the Twitterverse exploding over a new movie, graphic novel or tv show coming out.<br />
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2) A language used by 'insiders' - think fat quarters, tumblers, scant 1/4", HSTs, FMQ for quilting... Lightsabers, phasers, Daleks for sci-fi. Or in the case of this quilt, Red Shirt.<br />
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<i><span style="color: red;">red shirt: </span>the throwaway character on a science fiction episode, (namely Star Trek), who will be dead by the end of the episode, identifiable by his red uniform</i><br />
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I present to you my latest quilt. Inspired by Star Trek: The Doomed Lieutenant.<br />
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This quilt relies on the idea of the Red Shirt - a no-name officer who'll be toast before long so we don't lose a main character. Poor Red Shirt, whatever his name is. Was.<br />
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It ended badly for him.<br />
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Colours for this quilt were chosen based on what I've observed from Star Trek over the years. Tumblers represent officers, the navy background is the 'final frontier', and the teal thread sort of makes it sparkly but in a throwback, retro-space way. I'm really happy with how the quilting turned out.<br />
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The back was put together using the leftover tumbler halves and yardage. Approx. 71" wide.<br />
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As a bonus nerd Easter egg, there are 42 little uniformed officers on the front of this quilt. Yep, I'm a nerd... :-) And a proud one.<br />
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***<br />
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Ok - Gotta go catch up. Again! Trying to finish before the Blogger's Quilt Festival this weekend...!CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-23918964837499410802013-08-31T00:11:00.000-06:002013-08-31T00:11:50.867-06:00Finished: Flowers Over Falls - Simply Solids Bee QuiltYeah, I fell off the face of the earth again. It's been a slice. I'll spare you the details.<br />
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I have a few things I've been meaning to share and I'll get to them. I truly want to catch up on all the things I've missed - and I have missed you all and your projects and your wit and your insights. I have just been incredibly unplugged this summer, and I think that's a good thing. Back to teaching on Tuesday so I imagine my routines will start coming back slowly but surely. (And I owe more than a few emails....)<br />
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I HAVE managed to finish my Simply Solids Bee quilt. June was my month and while one bee member dropped out, an awesome block friend from UK (<a href="http://canadianabroad-susan.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Hi, Susan!)</a> offered to make one for me. SO cool!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One must always have a tall person in the family - thanks, bro!</td></tr>
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My concept for this quilt was the idea of flowers and twigs heading over a waterfall. Each of my bee mates got two shades of blue, two squares of orange, a strip of tan (all Kona) and instructions to improv-piece an abstract block that measured 12.5 x 16.5". (See my post here for more details...)<br />
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And they did a beautiful job!! I made the sashing strips and borders ( also improvised) from the scraps they sent back and spare yardage.<br />
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Then I sewed the top together - but in keeping with the improv/modern/abstract idea, I didn't use a traditional layout. The layout actually looks like this:<br />
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All together, there are 7 blues (sky, aqua, baby blue, bahama blue, peacock, turquoise and teal), two oranges (mango and flame) and two neutrals (white and stone). There are only a few scraps of white. I tossed them in with the sky blue so that the sky blue looked blue and not white!<br />
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There was one block that I absolutely loved but try as I might, I couldn't make it work with the rest of the improv blocks. It broke my heart until I figured I could showcase it on the back and actually build the back to echo that block. The entire back is a reflection of that block and uses up all the leftover yardage.<br />
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It's quilted with watery lines in three shades of blue thread.<br />
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I matched the binding to the gradient I'd created with the blocks so that the quilt appears borderless. And I'm really happy with how it turned out. To make it work, I used <a href="http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.ca/2009/06/binding-tutorial_12.html" target="_blank"><i>Flourishing Palms'</i> french-style binding method with great success</a>. (Thanks, Linda!)<br />
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This might be one of my favourite quilts of all time! I'm chuffed to bits with how it turned out and I have my very talented bee mates to thank for it (though some of them wanted to kill me... Oops. :-).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Faux art-shot.... Does it look like water over rocks? hahahaha.</td></tr>
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<i>Flowers Over Falls</i> is about 68x80" and contains the handiwork of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/simplysolids/" target="_blank">Aeneous Group of the Simply Solids Modern Bee </a>and <a href="http://canadianabroad-susan.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Susan of Canadian Abroad</a>.<br />
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Thanks so much, you talented bunch, you!! I'm glad I managed to get it finished for an upcoming show in October AND before my birthday today/yesterday (30th). <br />
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This is me at 35. And 35 feels lovely. <br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-49176416321910253842013-08-07T16:38:00.000-06:002013-08-07T16:38:25.481-06:00Oops!: Now with Finishes.I had considered calling it Oops!: The Musical, but I couldn't get song rights. :-P<br />
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Seems like I forgot to check the internet for a month. Oops. Maybe it's a failure to really dig into the new routine or just a need to spend less time with my computer but I've definitely tried to prioritize other things this summer than blogging and blog-reading. You do NOT want to know how many unread posts are in my Feedly....<br />
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I have been busy with the following: meeting <a href="http://cafejabbaccino.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">blog peeps</a> in person!, sewing, knitting, teaching Nephew a bunch of stuff his mother doesn't approve of, hiding in dark basements away from sunlight, teaching English as an Additional Language, offering my shoulder, cooking while listening to loud music and kitchen-dancing, watching just about every CFL game (<i>something</i> has to fill the void between hockey seasons....), and reading actual, physical books. Books, people! Remember those? I love real books, but man, I have a hard time sitting still long enough to get "gripped".<br />
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Anyhoo. I'll ease back into the (ir)regular blogging routine with some finishes I meant to post ages ago. A couple of months ago, I was giving a little presentation on QAYG at the<a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank"> Saskatoon MQG</a> as part of our meeting. I had done up a few slapdash sample pieces using scraps and 12" batting squares just to illustrate some things that I'd learned for the prez. And then, of course, I'm left with these little thingies and no plan. Blergh. So I just started throwing them together.<br />
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I ended up with two mug rugs from my piles of scrap,<br />
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a mini table topper,<br />
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and a coffee table runner.<br />
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The white on white chunks are leftovers <a href="http://citricsugar.blogspot.ca/2013/01/shadow-blossoms-and-punisher.html" target="_blank">from my brother's Punisher quilt</a>. The muslin that backed most of these <i>was</i> from yardage, but that too was leftover from another project so I call it a win. Even the binding was from the leftover basket. The batting was scrap that had been cut into 12" squares just for practicing free-motion.<br />
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Is this my best quilting/sewing? Heck, no, but I used up some scraps , I learned some techniques, and if I spill something on them, I won't cry for days. So there you go. Not every piece has to be show-worthy. I think these are like the quilt version of sweat pants. I wouldn't show them off to fancy company, but to protect a table from Hot Wheels or the carpet from living room picnics, they're just fine. :-)<br />
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And now I have a month's worth of blogs to catch up on. Again.CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-35535009436602387642013-07-09T14:33:00.000-06:002013-07-09T23:33:51.714-06:00Technical Tantrums and Other Fun Ways to Spend Your Week<i><span style="color: blue; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The following section contains an explanation for my week+ absence based on a petty first-world problem. Feel free to skip down to craftiness after the asterisks.</span></i><br />
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I am a little naive at times. When my RSS reader (Reeder) told me that it would continue to work after the demise of Google Reader, I believed it. I didn't confirm that it would indeed work closer to the planned date. Nope. Imagine my surprise and dismay on July 2nd when it didn't. Blerg! Apparently, they're working on it but it wasn't going to be ready in time. <span style="font-size: x-small;">( I find it important to add here that I am not a total Luddite; I have embraced new technology faster than the average bear, but I'm rarely a first-adopter and I am cautious regarding change. I still don't like the new Flickr....)</span><br />
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I went looking for a replacement, hopefully temporary, as I love Reeder - I had it all set up the way I like, I was happy with the interface, and it synced across all my devices. I wasn't crazy about Bloglovin' but the Feedly app wouldn't let me login on my phone.<br />
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So then I spent a day and a half importing all my carefully curated feeds manually into Bloglovin'. I was then too tired and annoyed to read any of them for a few days. And when I sat down to delve in, I hated it. I would even say I <i>loathed</i> it. It changed my settings randomly, wouldn't adapt to needs and ways of doing things, and it wouldn't import some of my feeds for seemingly arbitrary reasons. I threw my hands up, closed the computer, and stewed. I tried the mobile app. Hated it, too. Had that existential blogger moment where I questioned why I even bother to blog or read blogs, and in the grand scheme of things, what does it all mean??? I moped, offline, for a few more days.<br />
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Then, missing the interaction and inspiration <span style="font-size: x-small;">(and my damn hockey news!)</span>, and blindly hoping that they'd already found a solution to Reeder, I returned to the desktop. Alas, no. But I spend another day manually importing my precious feeds, <span style="font-size: x-small;">(and adding several more that I don't really have time for...)</span> into Feedly. While it's not Reeder, it is more adaptable to what I'm looking for and how I use RSS. I could breathe. It'll do. Faced with an overwhelming total of posts in the 4-digits, I spend another afternoon going through each feed to clear out posts prior to when I'd checked out of the interwebs last week. That brought it back to a manageable level. That's where I left it last. Manageable. Though I still worried about how to read on the go, which is how I do most of my non-comment/lurker reading.<br />
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Imagine my delight when the phone app for Reeder has been updated to work with Feedly. And all is <strike>right </strike> moderately okay again in my blogging universe, though I still have some catching up to do. Phew. Sometimes, technology is not worth the paper it's printed on....<br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">******* (These are the asterisks I meant...)</span><br />
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During my impromptu blogging hiatus, I threw myself into sewing.<br />
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A July bee block for SimplySolids is done. It was very fun to do, though she'd warned us to be conservative with the fabric. I didn't want to end up short so I made a little template for each row, save the last one, and used it to cut a triangle from each fabric ahead of time, and religiously trimmed each seam so that it would be easier to line up the pieces. One pink triangle got a little cheeky but I didn't notice it until I'd already packed up the block for sending. I can see it in the photo but I'm hoping it's not a disappointment to my bee mate...<br />
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On my own bee quilt, I have almost all of the blocks (just two to come in) and I've started working on the sashing and border strips. The sashing strips are 4.5x16.5" and are made from the scraps left over from the blocks. It's much farther along than this photo but I still have the top and bottom "border" strips to do. I've even made the binding! I'm really enjoying this whole process.<br />
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I also finished up the charity quilt made by<a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank"> our guild</a> but I'll save that for another post!<br />
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There were rumours this week of looking for a summer job but visiting family and a nasty chest cold that's left me worse than sotto voce (in fact, zero voce!) has quelled that idea. I'm spending a lot of time watching movies, knitting socks, and glaring at people who ask me questions they know I am unable to vocalize an answer for and then make fun of my hoarseness. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(That's right, Dad - I'm writing at you! Now, quit giggling. It was funny when Seester was the voiceless one, sure, but you've gone too far... "What? What was that? Heeheehee." Too far, sir. :-P )</span>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-8756231984110479242013-06-30T07:16:00.000-06:002013-06-30T07:16:02.350-06:00Opportunity to Help: Slabs for CalgaryHi all!<br />
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I'm headed south for the day - spending time with family. Some of whom are moving to Calgary.<br />
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Speaking of Calgary....<br />
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If you live in Canada, you'll no doubt have seen the devastation in Alberta on the news. (Or in person - our prayers are with you!)<br />
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The <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/2013/06/29/opportunity-to-help-slabs-for-calgary/" target="_blank">Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild</a> is throwing their support behind <a href="http://naptimequilter.blogspot.ca/2013/06/slabs-for.html" target="_blank">Just One Slab - Quilts Recover - Southern Alberta.</a> We're making slab blocks!<br />
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It's a fantastic way to use up some pesky scraps and do some good will sewing.<br />
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To learn more, (especially if you're in Saskatoon): Check out our post on <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/2013/06/29/opportunity-to-help-slabs-for-calgary/" target="_blank">Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild</a><br />
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OR<br />
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Cheryl's <a href="http://naptimequilter.blogspot.ca/2013/06/slabs-for.html" target="_blank">Just One Slab post at Dining Room Empire.</a><br />
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Have a safe (and dry!!) Canada Day long weekend!<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-90743761509930901332013-06-25T16:45:00.001-06:002013-06-25T16:45:40.470-06:00Finished: Pod Bay Cabin DoorsOkay, so two months ago, <a href="http://saskatoonmqg.com/" target="_blank">our guild</a> issued a "make it modern" challenge: Take a traditional block and put a modern spin on it. <br />
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Due date was this past Sunday. As of Friday at midnight, I had bupkis. Blargh!!! <span style="font-size: x-small;">(I almost sent a strongly worded email to the demon-seed whose cockamamie idea this was before I remembered it was me and Jaclyn. Oops!)</span> I had been tossed around the idea of a snail's trail, only curved, and no amount of sketching or logic could make that happen for me. But I do love me a log cabin so Saturday morning, I started to play.<br />
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So I cut out some rounded squares using the Quick Curve ruler, and then went to town, log cabin style, demolishing some leftover charm squares. I tried for a little while (okay, just twice) to do evenly measured, precise curves but ultimately just improv'd them using the ruler as a guide, not centring or measuring. It was more fun that way.<br />
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And then I had pods. Oooo-oooh! What to do with those? Join them together or isolate them?**<br />
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One lightning fast trip to the quilt shop for a yard of shot cotton later (seriously, I didn't even put on makeup...), and I was back to the machine, trimming out the blocks.<br />
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Hmmm. Nope, not done yet. Not modern enough.<br />
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There.<br />
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Back, baste, echo, bind. One finished wall-hanging. Finished in time for the challenge deadline.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">About 24" square. Or two feet. Heehee.</td></tr>
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I love it when a not-a-plan comes together! I had a "yeah, I'm awesome" moment before I scorched a piece of fabric and remembered I'm human. :-) I'm really happy with how it turned out - totally surprised myself and may be permanently over my fear of curves. Also, starch is the bomb.<br />
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So, if you get lost on your way to a project, change where it is you want to go. :-)<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">**The name of the piece occurred to me at this moment which also made me isolate them instead of joining. I heard my nerd voice say, "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." <i>Of course, Dave... </i>Hey, I've never claimed to be normal. :-)</span>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-74876191678535574892013-06-22T11:09:00.001-06:002013-06-22T11:09:59.123-06:00PlayingSometimes, when an idea falls flat, it leads you to a better one.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-znMBoHBpLK0/UcXaZX7eu1I/AAAAAAAABvA/tR2i3wtLVN0/s640/blogger-image--797502268.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-znMBoHBpLK0/UcXaZX7eu1I/AAAAAAAABvA/tR2i3wtLVN0/s640/blogger-image--797502268.jpg"></a></div>We'll see where this goes...</div>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-42012752788090773352013-06-17T05:00:00.000-06:002013-06-17T05:00:01.508-06:00Featured: The Name Game!I told you I had a surprise.<br />
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Today, I was lucky enough to be asked by my lovely friend Cindy at <a href="http://www.aroundtheblockdesigns.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">LiveAColorfulLife</a> to play her famous <a href="http://www.aroundtheblockdesigns.blogspot.ca/search/label/The%20Name%20Game" target="_blank">Name Game</a>! I'm thrilled - I've been introduced to so many wonderful bloggers by following <a href="http://www.aroundtheblockdesigns.blogspot.ca/search/label/The%20Name%20Game" target="_blank">The Name Game</a> and reading Cindy's blog. <br />
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So, if you've ever wanted to know why I go by the name "CitricSugar", be sure to swing by <a href="http://www.aroundtheblockdesigns.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Cindy's blog today</a>. :-)<br />
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Thanks for asking me to play, Cindy!CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-7913061671032476852013-06-15T21:39:00.000-06:002013-06-15T21:39:59.036-06:00Finished: Sedimental Feeling (Feelin' Groovy)So the last ten days have been a whirlwind. Family events, lots of teaching, internet issues - I won't bore you further but it seems that too often I end up with ten days worth of blog-reading to catch up on.<br />
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After starting, piecing and basting it in January, I finally finished this quilt last Saturday and relished the hand-binding time... And then it took me forever to find two people willing for even the briefest moment to hold it for pictures. I had to take them very quickly!!<br />
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I don't often do patterns anymore but I really liked this one when it first came out. It languished for a year or so, untouched. And then there was a Groove-along last summer but budget and time kept me from joining up. Plus, I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. <br />
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I ended up coming across a picture of rocks - a whitish-grey with rusty orange stripes through it - and the gears started turning. The pattern looked like sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, layered and folded over time. (At least to my mind anyway - I'm far from a geologist.) I picked a bunch of neutrals and added my favourite - orange - to be kinda oxide-ish.<br />
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Wanting the quilting to be different for each colour, I scribbled a bunch of free-motion designs that had an abstract stone feel to them. The grey has a pebbly, gravel texture to it. The orange is more crystal-like and reminds me of quartz or potash. The white is layered loops. The brown I tried to make a little like shale - layered and broken. And the natural I tried to make look like my inspiration - a solid coloured rock with bands of wavy colour running through it. I matched the thread to the fabrics but not to the sections. Variegated brown on the orange, natural on the white, etc.<br />
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The back is composed of all the scraps and leftovers, plus a yard of teal to cover the shortfall.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorry for the dips along the top - cranky quilt holders! :-)</td></tr>
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I didn't get a close-up but I did a semi-crazy thing and matched the binding to the top all the way around. <br />
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Sometimes, the binding on a quilt looks like a mini-border and breaks the visual of it. Since I already knew how wide the sections were because of the pattern, I had the binding pieced before I even finished the quilt top. The corners were tricky - as was accounting for quilting shrinkage - but I'm really please with how it turned out.<br />
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Haven't had a second to sew since. Maybe on Monday. Oh, and I have a surprise on Monday! :-) See you then!<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-51484129509520721152013-06-02T20:28:00.000-06:002013-06-02T20:28:51.224-06:00Sparks<br />
Last weekend, I started playing around with some scraps. I have had the sparks of an idea trying to catch fire in my mind forever. I'm only moderately sure about where it's going but I'm having fun.<br />
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I've also finally started quilting (well, technically, I started quilting it months ago but I only did a small section and then it sat again. For months.) a quilt I started in January. It's been basted and sitting there, waiting for me to just get on with it. Truth is, I've been hesitant and wanting to do a solid job, since it's made of solids so every stitch shows, and because I was really happy with how the top turned out and I didn't want to ruin it. I even languished through a "false start" where I hated the quilting and tore it out. Yesterday, I felt the tug on my quilting sleeve - time to get at it. <br />
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Coming along nicely, I think. <br />
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Except for that. Nothing I can't handle. :-)CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-41382931205623439512013-05-28T15:42:00.000-06:002013-05-28T15:42:24.448-06:00On Apples, Ducks, and Odd Conversations.Thanks, everyone, for the much needed dose of perspective the other day - you're right and I've decided to listen to you. :-)<br />
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And speaking of thanks, I owe huge thanks to Kristel at <a href="http://wipgirl.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Work-in-Progess Girl</a>. One of the great things about joining a bee this year has been getting to know a new bunch of quilters and bloggers. And in leaving comments on some of these fabulous new blogs sometimes leads to secret giveaways. THIS is what was waiting for me in the mail today.<br />
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Love the card! It had a spoiler warning on it. All kinds of awesome right there. The fabric is gorgeous. But then I opened this lovely parcel and here is what was inside:<br />
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How cute are these??? Apple potholder hot pads! The details of the leaves and the tiny apple seeds - and all that bias binding perfectly sewn around the edges. Jaw dropped. Squeals of glee. Snoopy dance.<br />
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They're beautiful - I love them. I can't thank you enough. :-)<br />
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***<br />
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We also have a new neighbour. I noticed her last week when she flew out of the flower beds. I didn't get a good look, just thought<i> "wow, that's a rather large bird, looks like a duck, which is ridiculous, we don't have ducks in our neighbourhood, where's the bird book - what </i>was<i> that?" </i><br />
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It was followed up by some conversation that included, <i>"It can't have been a foot long, Carly!, it was the size of a duck, what were the tail feathers like, very short tail feathers, Well, I *know* what a magpie looks like, it must have been a grackle, it wasn't a grackle, greyish brown and it had a long beak, it couldn't have been a duck. Right?"</i><br />
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On Sunday, there was Most. Definitely. A duck sitting on the front lawn. <i> ("Hunh, that's a duck, I told you I thought it was a duck!!, what the heck is a duck doing here?")</i><br />
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She flew away but my father moved a flower pot and discovered a nest up against the house. She returned a little while later and has been nesting in the flower bed. I've named her Daphne. Welcome to the 'hood, hon!<br />
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<br />CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4737278453665903248.post-48579968752695210152013-05-25T16:18:00.003-06:002013-05-25T16:18:49.711-06:00Details.Sometimes, things go swimmingly. Your points all match, your sewing machine makes you feel like a rock star, all your tools are enhancements to your work, and your skills grow by leaps and bounds.<br />
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Other times, not so much.<br />
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In the interest of always keeping things real, I'm sharing some of my recent Not-So-Great Moments in Quilting.<br />
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These blocks, for instance.<br />
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I signed up for the<a href="http://www.dontcallmebetsy.com/p/lucky-stars-bom.html" target="_blank"> Lucky Stars BOM at Don't Call Me Betsy</a> and had not yet sewn a stitch. I love the precision and results of foundation paper-piecing. I've done a lot of it and usually get pretty good outcomes... I finally cut out all my fabrics, making sure I had a good mix (it's mostly hoarded Lizzie House, some Rounnieres, and a little bit of Architextures) of values and colour. I wanted to do the smaller size of blocks because I didn't have a specific project for them and therefore, didn't want to commit scads of fabric to it. I trim religiously and didn't rush the piecing but seam bulk affected my results. After a couple of goes with the seam ripper (and its paper-tearing consequences), I called them "close enough" and washed my hands. These are not perfect but Seester is always telling me to quit picking on my own stuff. I'm letting these ones go. I'll try harder with the rest. (It's not the patterns - they're great - this is totally a problem existing between sewing machine and chair...)<br />
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Then I was prepping some quilt-as-you-go stuff for a guild meeting at the end of June. It was going well, I thought, until I went to put my free-motion/darning foot on the machine. And that little pin that keeps the foot steady, makes it go up/down, and rests on the needle? Gone. Nowhere to be found. And of course, I lent out my spare foot to a guild-mate who'd never tried free-motion. Blast.<br />
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I went rummaging. Paper-clip? Nope. Too bendy. <br />
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I found a picture-hanging nail! Much sturdier, with a little stopper, too. Nope. Too short to reach the needle bar.<br />
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Longer finishing nail. Perfect length - reaches the needle bar. Sturdy. Sew, sew, sew, happy as a clam, Ka-chunk. Why? The nail keeps sliding back through the hole and off the needle bar.<br />
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Final solution? <br />
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I found a refill eraser for a mechanical pencil. Nail through eraser, through hole, through picture hanger. Worked like a hot damn. So there's your emergency darning foot fix. Does in a pinch. <br />
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I've since picked up a new spare. I don't trust that eraser. Something about its very nature tells me it'll try to undo what I've done... ;-)<br />
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Ciao for now!<br />
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<i>PS: I am having a really difficult time with getting my photos to look right ever since Flickr did their update... Anyone else get it figured out yet? They just don't seem to show up the right way on the blog, as if the resolution is off. I tried it using bigger pics, too, but I'm stymied!</i>CitricSugarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17580076318545974487noreply@blogger.com26