A New Shop Hop

Good morning, my friends. We're still chilly here, with overnight temperatures in the 20's and daytime temp's in the 30's. We're expecting a change when the rain starts up again this weekend, but next week is looking sunny and a little warmer. We've been cold because of the east wind coming out of the Columbia Gorge, where it's always among the coldest places in the state.

It was a stay-at-home day for me. Aside from doing a little housework and taking a walk on the treadmill, it was all sewing, all the time. I might have accomplished more, except that I was doing a lot of thinking and sewing strategizing. If you smelled smoke, that was probably my brain overheating.

Sadie helped out by positioning herself on her quilt and staying out of the way.

I was ready to start on the first two blocks for the Shop Hop 4.0 quilt. As I've said before, I'm making the blocks from this Dear Friends Suitcase Quilt pattern. You can find the free pattern right here.

It's a pattern from Paint Brush Studio Fabrics. The instructions go on at length about the different fabrics and what pieces to cut from each one. When one is making the blocks from different fabrics from those listed in the pattern, it becomes quite a confusing mess figuring out which fabric pieces go where.

So I studied and studied the pattern, eventually figuring it all out. Then I created a diagram and labeled the pieces I'd be using in all the blocks, cut and labeled all of them. It should be easier going forward. There are 64 one-inch pieces in the Altoids tin. That should keep them contained for the duration of the project.

Of course, the first step was to embroider the names and places for the quilt shops featured in these first two blocks. That was completed last week.

The next step was to create the handle for the suitcase.

You might recall I had to do the embroidery on fabric pieces larger than I needed in order to have enough fabric to fit in my embroidery hoop. When the embroidery was finished, I was able to cut the excess to be used for a strip sewn across the top.

And then I was ready to make the "case" part of the suitcase. I heard something on television last night that made me laugh. The character was saying that "suitcases are sad. They're like drawers without a home." To make these sad, homeless drawers, I first snowballed the outside edges. (Enter the one-inch pieces from the Altoids tin.)

Then, I added the contrasting strips and created the body of the suitcase. After that, they were ready to be sewn into quilt blocks.

Here's the first one from Grand Country Quilts in San Marcos, California. This shop specialized in modern-ish fabrics, and this is the one I selected. My friend, Debi, tells me this shop has closed, but that it will be reopening.

The next one was acquired the same day at Quilt Passions in Mission Viejo, California. This shop specialized in Hawaiian prints. I could have gone wild in this store. Everything was so beautiful.

And here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far. When it's finished, there will be 16 blocks in all. Already I've collected all but five fabrics I'll need to finish it off. We'll have to visit lots of quilt shops while we're traveling in Canada and Alaska next year.

Okay, so that brings me to the Quilter's Choice section of my whiteboard. I'd already decided to do a mini quilt, and so I spent some time paging through this book. I like this book because each project is done in three different sizes. You can make a quilt in a size that's workable or impossible.

Mini quilts are a good way to practice accuracy with cutting and piecing, and so I like to choose the "impossible" size. This is the one I selected. It finishes at 15-1/2 inches square. The smallest pieces are cut to 7/8 inch. Yikes. I don't think I've ever worked with pieces so small.

But then last night, after getting into bed, I was looking through the "Quilt Stuff" in my "Dropbox." I've been adding things to my Dropbox for at least five years. I'm guilty of downloading items and then never looking at them again. There were at least a hundred projects downloaded to the Quilt Stuff folder. I found myself saying, I want to make that...and that...and that! So many cute projects! Where have you been all my life?

Well, I fell in love with this one. 

It's a small wall-hanging, and I might not be able to resist substituting it for the mini. It would certainly be more fun to make, and that is kind of the point of the Quilter's Choice section of the whiteboard. It's where I take a break from the "meat and potatoes" projects and do something just for fun.

So, I'm still trying to decide. As is often the case, we'll all have to see what I make when I write tomorrow's post. At the moment, it's a mystery to me too.

When the Quilter's Choice project is finished, I'll be back to the top of my whiteboard list. Next up will be to quilt Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. It's been lounging on my sewing chair and machine for the past couple of weeks letting its wrinkles relax out. It's a large quilt, and the quilting shouldn't be too difficult. I'm just dreading the part where it makes my wrist hurt. I'll be using a splint, but it's awkward quilting that way. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself because that probably won't happen for a day or two. Right now, I'm going to head back to my morning slow-stitching. This is all that's left of the seventh block for Grandpa's Bridges. I expect to finish this today.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot to tell you what the Retired Resident Engineer (RRE) has been up to. Since we're not traveling this winter, he needed to come up with something to keep himself busy during the dark and wet winter...something other than watching TV all day. He decided to get a 3D printer and get familiar with designing and printing stuff. He's been a man obsessed ever since the 3D printer entered our home. Up until recently, he's been printing little items that are used with the printer itself...a basket to capture the cut off pieces, for example. But yesterday, he printed something that was actually useful.

As I've mentioned before, our Starlink has lots of pieces that require some thoughtful storage solutions when we take it on the road. There's a long cord that is coiled up for storage. So, how does he keep it from coming uncoiled and making itself difficult to untangle? With a few false starts, he created these little hinged clamps to keep it all together. His first attempts were (a) too small, (b) too rigid, (c) I forget what the third problem was. Yesterday, he nailed it. Here it is in its closed position.

And look at this nifty little hinge he designed and printed. Pretty cool. He's having to learn a lot about this process, and so creating something like this was an accomplishment.

Okay, it's a busy day ahead of me. Tomorrow's post might come later in the day. I'm meeting up with Sue for breakfast to do the handoff of the baby quilt for her new grandson.

If I wake up early enough, I'll get my blog post written first, but that is doubtful. We're closing the window shades at night to keep the warm air end. Keeping the shades closed has the added advantage of  keeping the room very dark. The cold temperatures keep the bed feeling super cozy, and so staying in bed and sleeping late feels very luxurious.

But enough of that lazy talk. I'm finishing off that covered bridge now. There's much to do today. We ate the last of the biscotti this morning. Don't be surprised if I bake something today.