12/3/22

Progress on Three Projects

Good morning my friends. As I considered the title for this post, I thought I might be able to put my high school French classes to work and come up with a new word...something like "troisgress" or "troisjects." But, yeah. It doesn't really work. I give myself an "A" for effort though. 

It's a pretty morning here. I'm going to get out for a walk today. I'll head down to the lowlands where I'm unlikely to slip on ice. I need to head into town to get some mushrooms for tonight's dinner. With such a nice day ahead, I'm going to walk the main street of our town. It's an old town, and there is always something interesting to see there. Heck, I might even find an open bakery or something. If memory serves, there's also a chocolate shop. Why, the mind reels with possibilities!

Backing up to yesterday, I started my day with Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage: the project I love to hate. As if I needed yet another reason to hate it, I realized yesterday that it was developing some puckers in the embroidery.


I believe this happened because the muslin backing was stretched tighter than the quilt top as I was stitching the first sections. Adding more embroidery to sections that are already pieced and stitched is probably generally a bad idea. So, what to do? What to do? 

As I was taking my shower, I realized I could probably snip the muslin on the back to release the tension there. Once the quilt has been sandwiched for quilting, that won't show. Heck, it might not show at all, at any time. So when I was finished getting dressed, I carefully...oh, so carefully...snipped a tiny hole in the muslin and then slipped the blade of the scissors between the two fabrics. Then, I snipped a line between all the troublesome stitching.


And that fixed it! Yay!


Phew! Close call. It seemed like a good time to head down to the sewing room to make a little more progress on my challenge quilt. Here's your peek.


Again yesterday, I set a timer for a one-hour minimum amount of time to work on it. I like that method for things that are causing me to procrastinate and gnash my teeth. Today, I believe I'll be adding enough that it will capture me under its spell. They're hard to work on until they start to look like something that makes sense. Then, they're hard to walk away from.

Finally, I finished quilting the middle section of the Trashy Triangles quilt. The motif I'm using quilts two vertical rows of HST's at the same time. Unfortunately, there is an odd number of vertical rows, and so I had one row on the far side where my chosen motif wouldn't work.


For that, I decided to do dot-to-dot quilting to finish off that far edge. Then, I took it downstairs and laid it in front of the living room window for its picture. The borders still need quilting, but here's how it looks so far. It's pretty hard to see the quilting, but I'll show it to you anyway.


Same goes for the back. I do love that fabric, though. I'm so happy to find a way to use it.


It was getting late in the day by then, and so I barely started the inner border of quilting. Here, I'm using a motif that Lori Kennedy calls "Paperclip." I like this motif. It looks good on the quilt, especially with variegated thread, and it's one that I can do easily...always a good feature in a quilting motif.


I left it needle down when I stopped for the day.

Sadie likes this quilt. She's thinking it would make an excellent spot for a morning nap.


So today will look much like yesterday, making "troisgress," but I'll head out fairly early for my walk. I'm hoping to finish the borders on the Trashy Triangles today and then it will be ready for binding. 

Oh yes, and I almost forgot to update you on the basement situation. Sigh. The only work that needs to be done is to finish re-installing the baseboards. Most are already finished and installed, but there were a few pieces that were broken when they were removed, and those need to be replaced. It was supposed to be finished two weeks ago, but then the new baseboards did not arrive at Lowe's. Now they're in, but they aren't the right ones to match the existing ones. So, the workers were here for a few minutes yesterday, then gone. They're taking a sample to someone who does woodworking and can create some that will match. It means our job will probably stretch into January now. Keep in mind, we discovered the leak in April. By now, I could have conceived and birthed a child. It might have been less painful.

9 comments:

Barbara said...

Walking is good for solving problems – it’s like the feet are little psychiatrists. ~ Pepper Giardino

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Aw geez - another chapter in the reno saga. Nothing has been easy has it (or timely!). Good thing you have your sewing to distract you from all the angst.
Trashy Triangles is looking great!

Kate Theo said...

At our ages grands are the only way to go! Sorry for the woodwork delay once again. You’ve got snow and we have none, which is pretty strange for our neck of the woods! Love your sewing project! KTh

piecefulwendy said...

Glad you were able to fix the embroidery. The triangle quilt is so colorful and fun! Hope the basement saga is over soon!

SJSM said...

"By now, I could have conceived and birthed a child. It might have been less painful." You made me laugh!

The shower or a good nights sleep has cures for all sorts of life problems. It was a logical thought process to come up with the solution. You needed the distraction of free thinking for it to percolate to you conscious reasoning. Hope your walk had you finding small joys.

Christine said...

My daughters were discussing men yesterday after the debacle of my kitchen.... We have decided that no matter what you do or say 1)they are not listening. 2) they will only do it their way 3) they think they know everything and 4) who are you anyway? Why are you moaning?
I just love that flowery backing material, I would hang the quilt showing that side..... An oblong of cheerfulness....

Karrin Hurd said...

Great idea for fixing the embroidery. Glad your basement situation is almost finished.

kc said...

My phone is almost dead, but, please, do tell, where did you get those gorgeous flower decals for your machine?? Good thinking on the muslin adjustment!

CathieJ said...

I like your solution for your embroidery. Some of my best ideas occur in the shower. I really like that quilt. The backing fabric is great. Enjoy working on all three projects.