Quilts and Onions

Hello everyone,
This week I finished the 3 blocks for the March Star Crazy block-of-the-month quilt. 

These are the blocks I have finished so far, January thru March.  I don't like the 2 stars on the right.  There is not enough contrast so I will probably remake these in different colors. 

I have found the perfect spot to cut fabric....in my kitchen!!  I have a large bar area that is the perfect height for cutting fabric.  My cutting mat fits beside the stove and there is plenty of room to spread out my fabric.  The rug helps to cushion my feet so I am not standing on the hard tile floor for hours. 

This week I bought 3 bunches of Texas 1015 onions.  I usually buy Texas Supersweet.  The garden center told me that 1015 and Supersweet are the same so I am trusting them.  My 2 granddaughters are on spring break next week.  They are going to spend the week with me and have agreed to help me plant onions.  Let's see....3 bunches of onions, 50 onions per bunch and there are 3 of us.  I predict the kids (age 10 and 4) might get one bunch planted before they get bored.  Hey, that's okay,  I will take any help I can get! 

Have a good weekend.  Until next time,

   

Star Crazy BOM - January Finished

Hello and welcome.  This week our temperatures have been in the 40's so I thought I would plant garlic BUT the ground is still frozen...hard as a rock.  I am very very late at getting my garlic planted but I am going to try again next week. 

Since there is still snow on the ground I am quilting.  On Wednesdays I attend what is called Sit N Sew at Oklahoma Quiltworks, my local quilt store (local even if it is 25 miles away, ugh).  Today I finished the 8 January blocks for the Star Crazy BOM. 

I call my quilts Edison Quilts after Thomas Edison.  His quote "I've not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" seems to always apply to my quilts.  I, like him, am learning from my mistakes.  This is what I learned today in this quilting venture.

• Use more contrast in my fabric selection.  I bought more fabric today (good excuse, right?)
• My blocks are a little oversized because I always sew using a scant 1/4".  For this project I have to use a true 1/4" seam allowance. 

I attempted to square up my blocks using my Quilt in a Day Square-up ruler.  I love this ruler but there was no squaring of these blocks.  You can see the slivers I cut off.  I was going to lose the tips of the stars if I cut too much so I called it good. 

Here is another Edison quote for you "Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".  Press forward in whatever your life's passion is, success is right around the corner.

Until next time,

Star Crazy BOM - The Beginning

Am I crazy or what?  I am starting another block of the month.  Again this pattern comes from the Quilt Show hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims.  For those of you who do not quilt this is a member paid  on-line quilt show.

I am getting brave.  I am going to try a totally different color pallet than the pattern calls for.  In 2009 I collected red fabrics and I think this is a good time to use them.  My color pallet will be red, white and black. 

I am using the Quilt Dance Tags to identify my fabric colors verses the pattern fabric colors. For each piece of fabric, I randomly select a tag and I will use the row-block number to identify my fabric choice on the pattern.

Using the pattern I tried to identify the color value of the fabric used in the pattern, determining what I thought would be light, medium and dark fabrics.  I used one of those red plastic viewers(can't remember what they are called) that remove all color and simply show value.  I wrote L,M, or D next to each color then I selected my fabrics the same way.  Once a fabric was selected I assigned a number to it and wrote that on the pattern.  Each month I will have to pull my color selections and see if I need to make changes based on the pattern that month. 

Now I need to start cutting the January blocks.

Until next time,