Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Sew Much Fun!

I'm just sewing my fingers off & having sew much fun doing it!

I've finished all the arches. The big ones (pictured here) took an hour a piece. That's 12 hours on the large arches alone! And there were 4 smaller ones too! But I have to say that I loved every minute of it! 


I made a couple of mistakes with the colours. Four times I grabbed & sewed in the wrong colour & continued on without noticing the error until the end. I've decided that I can live with it. 

Now that I've finished the arches, I've moved on the flying geese. Are t these lovely? There's 16 of them to make, but they go MUCH faster than the arches. 


Once they're trimmed, they'll be inserted into the arches like this:


I'd be lying to say that I wasn't nervous about it all coming together well. But I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now, I'm just totally loving the process. And the colours. I really, really love the colours!!! 

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Another Aurora Update - First Arch Done!

Oh, I could get very addicted to paper piecing! I just loved making this arch! A good thing, too, considering I've got 11 more large ones & 8 small ones to make. 

As you can see, I still have to trim it down to the 1/4" seam. 

Here's the pattern cover for reference. 

Hoping to get another arch or two done today! 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Cutting Done!

Took a long time, but it sure looks pretty. 

Next step is to put them into sewing order for the arches. Can't wait!


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Interesting Article!

We were away this weekend, so no sewing to report, but I did get the strips cut in order to sub-cut them into smaller pieces. The first step in a long series of next steps for this quilt.

I must admit that having run out of the white fabric, I'm worried about running out of the rest of the fabrics also. I guess I'll cross that bridge if/when it happens. I do have to stress that I ran out of the fabric due to MY errors. It's no one else's fault but mine.

A member posted this article on our guild Facebook page. It's a longish read, but a very interesting one on "quiltonomics". I have to say that I found myself agreeing with most of the people quoted. I just don't think it is possible to sell your quilts for their true value.

http://www.mooreapproved.com/2015/02/quiltonomics-the-real-cost-of-quilts/

Quilting for me is a hobby. I do not generally sew or quilt for others and on the odd times that I have, I have always regretted it. As mentioned in the article, you are lucky to recoup the cost of the materials let alone your time. Also, I find that I apply too much pressure on myself when sewing/quilting for others. To me, it sucks the joy out of the whole experience. I am too self-critical to enjoy making something on commission.

The cost of quilting caused me to make some changes a couple of years ago. I love the sewing and the gratification that comes with it, but boy, I was turning out a quilt every two months. At $200 a pop, I could just no longer afford it. So, I made a decision to make fewer quilts. I wanted to make fewer, but more intricate and skill stretching quilts. In this way, I would be spending less on materials but have something to work on all the time.

How has this decision worked out for me? I think it is working pretty well. (Although, I did complete 5 quilt tops last year one of them was made almost entirely from scraps so had very little cost and a couple of others were started in the year previous.) The Double Wedding Ring and Aurora are good examples of quilts that stretched my skills but not my pocketbook.

There is a downside to this decision, though. When I am into something tough I sometimes regret the decision to work on harder things. Sometimes mindless sewing is what your soul needs. Perhaps the solution is to have 2 projects on-the-go? One straightforward scrappy one and one tougher one for when you are mentally/emotially ready for it.


Ciao!


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

This was REALLY hard!

Only because I kept making mistakes! And worse than that, the mistakes were all my fault! Not bad or incomplete instructions, but just plain ol' failing to pay attention. Don't you hate that? 

The last time I posted about this quilt, I had realized that I had the wrong side of the fabric facing on 2 of the spikes. I undid them & resewed both. I was very satisfied until I realized that I did it AGAIN on one of the spikes! Grrrr. So, I unpicked the stitches & then discovered that I had unpicked the spike that was sewn correctly! Yikes!!

So. I had to cut more of the white fabric. There is very little hope now that I'll have enough white left to complete the project. One of the drawbacks of buying a kit is the possibility of running out of fabric if you make mistakes. It's ok, though. I have a plan .... One that involves buying more fabric. This quilt is continuing to be the most expensive quilt I've ever made. Oh well. What can I do? 

I did, finally, get all the spikes sewn, sewn together & then got the center sewn in. It's not perfect, but after all the mistakes I made I was just happy to get it to this point. 

Let's hope I pay better attention with the future pieces! 




Sunday, February 1, 2015

Aurora Update

Got a few minutes to sew this weekend!!!! YEAH! Here's the latest pieces! 

They're not sewn together yet, I just placed them in position with the centre I finished a couple of weeks ago to see how it would look. I like it!


Looks great, right? Well, that is what I thought until I picked them up to put them away for the evening at which point I realized I had the wrong side of the fabric facing up on 2 of the long pieces. Ugh! I'll have a remake those ones. I'm a bit worried about running out of the white fabric. 

I'm looking forward to getting them all sewn together!

Wish my luck!