It seemed like a good day to at least get a start on my April OMG goal. This month's goal is short and simple. Since we just returned from a 7-month trip, I gave myself a pass for the month. Next month's goal will be a little harder. So anyway...this April block for the Tuxedo Tales quilt. The top-stitching won't get finished until Big Bertha comes home from her visit to the spa. For now, I've fused all the applique and drawn in the lines for embroidery and top-stitching.
It's a little hard to tell without the top-stitching, but that's an Easter egg sitting on the cat's head and a chick has popped out of it. I'll be adding some fly-stitching on the egg and the chick will have a French knot for an eye. Also, I'll use my sewing machine to stitch in a stem for the daffodil. The cat's mouth will also be machine stitched. That's as far as I can go until I have my machine back. Pfelicity could probably do this, but I prefer to do it with Big Bertha.
As for Pfelicity, she has a very pretty straight stitch, and so she'll do a great job with this mini quilt. Recall that I've worked out categories for myself for organizing my work, and minis are one of the categories. It'll also work as a scrappy quilt and, hey, this will also work as a PINS project (Projects I Never Started) because I purchased three of these Suzanne's Art House mini patterns eons ago. Checking previous blog posts, I found the post when I acquired them right here. It's dated April 23, 2016...so nearly two full years.
So anyway...not being a mini aficionado, I wanted to start with something simple, and that little bow tie quilt looked easy enough.
I'll do the one in the upper left corner there. These end up at 6 x 10 inches, and so those little blocks are small.
Yesterday I sorted through my smallest scraps to come up with 15 small-scale prints. It was harder than you might think because I have very few small-scale prints. These are the ones I selected.
Today I'll get to work on that quilt...after my housekeeping chores are done...just sayin'.
Here's an update on my starters. When I looked at them yesterday morning, the whole wheat starter on the right had risen about an inch above its starting place at the rubber band there. That was very encouraging. The white starter had done absolutely nothing. If you look closely, you can see there isn't even any bubbling action. Nevertheless, I gave both another feeding in the morning, and then looked at them again in the evening.
An hour after feeding the whole wheat starter yesterday evening, it had already risen even higher above the rubber band than the morning feeding.
The white starter? Yeah, that puppy is so outta here. I dumped it out and washed the jar, readying myself to start again this morning.
As I explained in yesterday's post, my starter is made with pineapple juice. This morning I mixed 3-1/2 tablespoons of white bread flour and 1/4 cup of unsweetened pineapple juice. ("Unsweetened" simply means no added sugar, in this case.)
When I mixed them up, it looked like this.
Now I won't do anything more to it for another 48 hours. In the meantime, I'll stir it 2-3 times during the day. Probably not much will happen between now and its next feeding on Sunday.
The only other thing I've done since yesterday's post is to continue on with my embroidered quilt shops. There are just three left to do before I can make the first row of blocks.
Two more are in my hoop now, and I'm hoping to have these all finished before the weekend is over.
So that's it from me. I hope to get well along on my mini today. It's been rainy and yucky out. It would be great to get out in the garden and clean up some of the winterkill, but we're stubbornly waiting on a sunny day for that.
6 comments:
Wait on the yard work-you still need to get fully back into your old routine--
like sewing all these neat projects!! oh and making bread!
enjoy, di
You always get so much more accomplished than I would. :)
That is such a fun block and the quilt with bow ties, love your fabric picks for it.
I like how you are doing the shops in stitchery, can't wait to see what you come up with.
Debbie
Nothing is more frustrating than a starter that doesn't start, especially when you can't quite figure out what the problem is. I'll have to try the unsweetened pineapple juice when I do a starter next time. Now that I have a better understanding of starters, thanks to you, I think it will go better for me. I know that little mini turned out cute as a bug's ear, so I hope you make the other two! And the cat mat(s). Don't want to forget them :-)
Oh, I bet that first trip to the grocery store was a bit much after being gone for so long. Well that one out of two took off isn't too bad. Hopefully your new one will pick up quickly. I'm playing with some mini pieces, not sure I'm a big fan of that kind of stitching just yet. Looking forward to seeing yours come together.
I have those Mini patterns, too! Can't wait to see yours!
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