Once I got past all the jigsaw-esque stuff, it went along pretty well. Here's a closer view as well. Guess there's not much to do now except machine applique all those edges. In days past I would have welcomed this project as my carry-along project for my coming trip to Houston. Can't do that anymore - no pins, no needles, no scissors allowed on planes.
OK - let's be clear on this. I don't like jigsaw puzzles. Not for any particular reason and not because I wouldn't like to. They just make me run screaming from the room every time I try to participate.
So why wasn't it painfully obvious that I needed a little more than just simple lettering -- A, B.... G -- to reassemble the pieces going around my coat of arms. Drew up the design, lettered the pieces (symmetrical mirror image design), cut my templates apart and ironed them to the fabric.
that's when the fun began. the letters were in order, top to bottom, but how the heck did they go together? which pieces went on which side. What was I thinking???? I finally did get one side "assembled" - that is, pinned together so I knew how it went, -- but I was exhausted and went to bed. what the heck was I thinking.
and what's more, I could think of at least a handful of things I could have done to prevent all this megillah. The fact that I only thought of it after it was too late is probably the reason why I only do applique rarely and never in quantity.
I'm working on a challenge piece for November and finished the bones of the center last night. Goes pretty fast once I have the idea. Well, at least sometimes! Here's another view as it really is - no mocked up additions.
People often say to me 'oh I don't have the patience to quilt.' My reply is uniform -- it's nothing about patience and it's all about persistance.
I'm feeling that at the moment as I sew on the outer triangles on 330 plus square in a square blocks (see below). It's all about getting the job done and there's not much about being patient while doing it. It's going OK though. The first squares done seemed to tip the thing to red and I was concerned I'd lost the pinkness of my pink and green quilt. I purposely chose some of the lighter blocks and added some medium pinks to the larger triangle mix and voila - back to pink.
Yup - it's all about persistance with a good dollop of "what if I did this?"
Where have I been, you ask? Well, I've been bustling around doing various things.
First off, my quilt that's been in the Roots of Racism exhibit has been invited to be in the Art in Embassies Program, and will be sent to, of all places, Islamabad. How cool is that?
This past weekend I worked both days, mainly because of doing physical inventory on Sunday night. This meant I worked 7 days in a row, between two work weeks and let's just say that by Monday, I wasn't all about customer service, LOL. Today I was off though and it felt great to sleep in a bit, have a nice lunch, do wash and then SEW.
I have been working on our guild's challenge for the year -- "this year's theme is to "Fool Us." Work so far outside your usual style/techniques/colors that we who know your quilts so well can't guess who made it! " This has to be the hardest challenge ever. I've done my best in this regard, and all I can say at the moment is that it's as done as it's gonna get for Tuesday. No it's NOT Sunbonnet Sue. No.No.No.
Because of this flurry of sewing, I spent some time tonight with my pink blocks. Remember that? I had had a thought about how to assemble all these blocks so I laid out batches of 9 of the small square in a square blocks and then photoshop'd them to make this this.
Oh and I started my "coffee, regular" campaign to educate young coffee providers as to the ways of the world.
And before I forget, a big mucho thanks goes to John and Jerry at Gloversville Sewing Center who demonstrated that customer service is job one. They returned my frantic phone call when my machine just died, Tuesday last week. Jerry was in the area Wednesday and came to the mall and picked my machine up. They called me later in the day to advise me that all was well, it wasn't major after all. And they returned my machine to me on Friday. What's not to like about that? Thanks guys for helping me meet TWO deadlines.
My friend Sue helped too. Pat and I had picked up her machine on Tuesday while having our two machines fixed (yup - part failure just after maintenence, gotta love mechanical things). Her machine was still in my trunk and I sewed on it Tuesday and Wednesday nights and got the NYQ! raffle quilt's quilting done.
