New Background

I was tired of that standard Blogger background, so I thought I'd try something new.  This one will at least help wake me up in the mornings!  Place mats are all assembled, just need some quilting to be finished.


I think I'll see what Katie's reaction is before I also make a table runner!

Slow week

I didn't get to sew all week.  Today I've completed two more place mats.  By making the fronts and backs independently and not worrying about squareness, it turns out one side or the other - or both - is not going to be square to the quilting.  But I didn't really plan for it to be.  They're just naturally sort of wonky.  I'm kind of bored with this part - so I think I'll work on something else.

Backs

Fronts

Something done

I did get one place mat completed last night.  Other than some puckering around the area where I stitched the opening closed, I'm pretty pleased with it.  This is one of my least-favorite, design wise.  I thought I was pretty smart coming up with the log cabin idea for my last piece, but the fabrics are too random, and not cohesive enough for me.  It's ironic - I look at quilts and projects that are made with nicely coordinated fabric lines, and think that's not really a challenge, because all the color and design work is already done for you by professionals.  But it looks good.  Can you argue with good?  

Glitches

Guess Blogger isn't the only one with technology problems.  I ran into glitches with my sewing machine and my printer yesterday.  Very frustrating and time wasting.   I bought a hard-shelled suitcase at Target and had tested out fitting the machine into it (tight but it may work).  I rolled it around a bit to test it.  When I got the machine back out and set up and started to sew, there were immediate problems with the bobbin tension.  I had been piecing just fine yesterday, but now was trying to quilt the placemats.  I finally got it back in action after trying all the typical solutions, but it made me wonder if it's really wise to transport it.  What choice do I have?  I don't trust UPS and I can't seem to find a good option in Cleveland or Columbus for renting one.


I also spent a lot of time without and conclusion reading about the conference and considering various travel scenarios.  I did discover a Yahoo Group for the symposium, which is NOT very well identified, just a link on a website saying, QSDS Connection.  Well who knows what THAT is supposed to mean?

Finishing* the Placements

All but one mat is done.   Here's a shot of how I design as I go:   

I cut the largest remaining piece of the feature fabric (leaves) into three pieces, since I have three more mats to go.  There is more fabric if needed, but this seems to be a nice size to "feature" and still have other things going on.  I like a darker "edge" rather than letting the limey green run off the "page."  So I put a strip of this fabric that is left over from my purse and ruler bag.  I don't think I ever photographed the ruler bag...but I digress.  The next step was to add a horizontal strip of dots. I laid the pieces over my template and checked to make sure this piece of dotted fabric would fill the remaining horizontal dimension.  

I finished out the left side with some solids, I like the solids to frame or enclose the prints, usually.  

Then I tested to make sure the piece was at least as large as my template.  It's hanging out of each side, so it's big enough.  

I got bored with the big vertical piece of fabric, and wanted the next one to be something new, so I sliced it into four pieces.  

A few steps later, here's how that one panned out.  More to come... the UFO list has reached 20, and I need to SEW, not blog!!

*Note: Finishing, not "Finished."