Fiber Babble: I Feel Like I'm Cheating

I Feel Like I'm Cheating

April 14, 2012

"Bye, Hunter," I said right back. "From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris ♦♦♦♦◊ Heh. Apparently I read this book not once, but twice in the space of 3 months. Both times I gave it a 4-star rating, neither time did I write a review. Odd, even for me.

I just wrote two posts over on "my" forums showing what I've done recently. The 'cheating' part is that I'm going to splat them here pretty much word-for-word, so a few people will see this as old news. Hopefully I'll redeem myself with the addition of something else at the end of this post.

Yesterday I actually sewed. I gotta tell you, it was frustrating for part of the time, and here's why (there will be pictures in a minute or two):

We have a thing called Block Challenge at the shop, where you purchase a pre-chosen, pre-cut pack of fabric, take it home, make one or two 12½" blocks from it, then bring the blocks back to be entered into a drawing for All The Blocks.

I took some time, figured out what I wanted to do, and pre-cut all of my pieces on the Studio cutter at the shop (the Janitor In A Drum size of a Go! Cutter). Piece of cake, right? Just sit down and commence ta' sewing, right?

Of course not. The Studio Cutter came about as a fabric cutting tool based upon the popularity of die cutters for paper in scrapbooking, etc. The problem is that in the early models (the dies themselves), the manufacturer either didn't know or didn't pay attention to the fact that quilters need exact ¼" seam allowances or exact 7/8" added to triangles or - hey, how about this? Exact SQUARES, not 'close enough for government work' squares.

Yes. This tool that was supposed to make my life a breeze meant sewing and ripping and sewing and ripping (ad nauseum) my 12 1/2" (now 12½" ISH) block took at least three hours. If I'd had more of the fabric at home, I would have just re-cut the %$!# things and been on my way.

By the time they got to the 'home version', as far as I know the company has gotten a clue (and I would hope with newer versions of the dies for the Big Mama version, too). But this was fah-russ-terr-ating.

But wait! There's more! (There's actually another Block Challenge block that's 2/3 done, but I'll save that)

I'm not sure if I've told you already, but I'm hosting a ROM (Row of the Month) at the shop. Each month we have one row (which works out to half the width of the quilt); rows are done in colors of the rainbow and may have stitchery or applique added to the pieced blocks.

I got most of the applique done for May's row yesterday. It just needs some stems and small leaves to wander over onto the Churn Dash blocks:

Here's the kick-off row from March.

April's done, too. I don't know why I don't have a picture of it yet. Though it was a fairly traumatic row to make...

In not-already-posted-somewhere-else news, I took a stab at creating a block pattern for the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. I love it (these aren't the assigned fabrics for the hop), but it's only 8½" and that makes part of this particular block too fiddly, even for me. I'm not going to abandon it, just re-size it and re-think its application.

And because it's Caturday...

"I know squinting will give me wrinkles, but this is the only sunbeam in the house!"

Labels: quilting

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2 Comments:

At 4/14/2012 4:52 PM,

Gimpy Cat Babbled Back:

Hiya, so first question is - did you read Dead to Worse twice in that short time because you liked it so much or because you forgot it after reading first time around? LOL

Second question is - please can I have a cuddle, pet or snuggle with Moonpie, she is sooooooooooo beautiful!

Love all your work the ROM sounds interesting and looks like fun. The block you created looks good - and fussy, will be interested to see it done in a bigger version. As for the easy peasy pre-cut block, well my hats off to you, no way I would have kept with it, I think Id have started again or gone out!

Enjoyed reading your blog post this morning :-)

At 6/05/2012 5:27 PM,