Practice Makes Better

I am practicing free motion quilting. I'm putting in multiple short sessions each day. I was trying designs that were beyond my skills and getting frustrated. I went backwards down the skill ladder to the basics. Instead of trying to put together sets of small squiggles to create leaves, I just worked on squiggles in different sizes and directions.

The tutorial blogs are not useful for an absolute beginner.  They assume a pre-existing skill set. The ease of each design is not correctly rated as a result of this assumption. There are some things that are difficult, like restitching on top of an already stitched line or precise angular changes of direction. Some designs are easier when larger, some are easier when smaller. All designs are easier with guide lines chalked on the surface fabric.

Today, I was practicing spirals. First, I practiced drawing them on paper. Then I drew them on my fabric and stitched over my guide lines. The most difficult part is changing directions smoothly from spiraling inwards to spiraling out. When I got it right, it felt easier than it was when I got it wrong. The positive reward for success was a reinforcement. After many failures, the frequency of success increased quickly.

Do I find it embarrassing that I have had to drop to such simple designs? Nope. I understand that if I can't do these, I won't be able to ever do a more complex design. Mastering the building blocks first will create a skill set that will allow me to manage the more difficult patterns later. The simple designs, well executed, will be effective on a quilt. They are certain to look better than a more complex design poorly executed. 

Keeping House

As a newlywed, living in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 465 square foot house I would spend about 4 hours per day keeping the house going. I'd do laundry, ironing, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, shopping, cooking, organization, filing, bill paying, and even some regular maintenance tasks. I didn't do any of that stuff on the weekends, but I would spend at least 4 hours, Monday through Friday, on keeping the house up. For a house that size, with no kids, it is a part time job.

You might wonder how I could have found four hours of things to work on. I ironed things back then when I did laundry. The grocery store was across the street and I would walk there and back on nice days. I washed floors by getting down on hands and knees and scrubbing them. They looked wonderful when I was done and I knew I was getting exercise. I didn't go to the gym back then. I didn't need to.

Up at 8, work until noon, and the rest of the day was mine. I'd do volunteer work with my mother, use my sewing room to get projects done, walk over to the library (it was in our back yard) and get reading material, or otherwise stay busy. 6:30 was time to have dinner on the table for the Hubster, then out and about if we felt like it, or home together for the evening.


Now, I'm home full time in a 3,450 square foot house with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Do I spend the same amount of time keeping up the house? Hah! I might spend an hour a day. Maybe. This will change. The more time I spend on domestic tasks, the happier I am hanging out at home. If home is a nice place, I enjoy being in it. Doesn't that make sense?

Explorations

The software that must be used to run the Cricut Explore can not be installed on Windows 8.1 and Firefox. At first, the software was only available if you had purchased the machine. A few days ago, it became available via a download on the Cricut website. I can't 'try before I buy' because I can't install it!

As a money saving ploy, this is working well. I guess I have just saved myself on the order of $300+ just by not installing this software. Perhaps I should look for some other things I can decide not to buy? 

Self Discovery

I was testing out a disappearing 9 patch pattern using some inexpensive fat quarters I'd picked up to play with. I kept having to force myself to make them after I grasped the concept. Anyway, I laid them out with the plan of putting them together with some solid color sashing into a quilted top for a floor pillow. I'd used a variety of colors and patterns for contrast, with a black center square to anchor them.

Oh, ugh. I hate the 'scrappy' look. Hate, hate, hate it. These test blocks are in the recycle bin. I don't want anything more to do with them. If I could put everything I don't like about quilts into a single set of blocks, this would be the set. The faster I get rid of them, the happier I'll be.


In terms of quilts, I prefer central designs, with some visual plan laid out. The matching set of identical blocks in rank and file does very little for me. If there is a second block making a specific pattern, or even better several different blocks creating an image, I'm all for it. Do I want an incredible Work of Art on the bed? Nope. Just something that doesn't give me nightmares when I look at it.

Block Of The Month

There is a quilt that is very popular for 'Block of the Month' clubs for 2014 in quilt shops nation wide. It is called the Asteria Quilt. For blogging purposes, I simply chose a shop that had an excellent image. I am not recommending that shop. I know nothing about them. Anyway, a local quilt shop is offering this quilt as a block of the month project. If I pay a starting fee of $25, and a monthly fee of $32.99 for the next nine months, for a total fee of $322.00, I will get the fabric, the cutting tool, and the patterns required to create this quilt top, and patterns for 8 additional blocks. And when I say quilt top, I mean just the pieced quilt top. I do not get backing, nor batting, nor is there any discount on having the quilt machine quilted. I have not priced machine quilting in my part of the world, but the average price would be well over $100 for a quilt of that size.

Do I like the pattern? Yes, I do, a lot. Do I think the price is outrageous? No. I have done my research and the math, and to arrive at the finished quilt top using fabrics of the type that have been suggested, the cost is not out of line.

Do I wish to spend nine months waiting for the pattern and bits of fabric to arrive? No. Not a bit of it. Not in the least. Not on your brass tintype! NO!

In the first, I don't want to create something in shades of blues. Our bedroom is in shades of green.

Second, I have time NOW. I am between jobs. When employed, I have much less time.

Third, I have no interest in spending an entire year creating something that will arrive in my hands in piecemeal fashion. I want to sew now. Who knows what I will feel like working on in six months. I'm like that. I don't think it is a negative thing. It's just me.

So, I did some searching and found the pattern for the Asteria quilt, from the designer, available to buy on-line. If I decide to do this quilt, that's the way it will happen. One month at a time? In colors that I don't particularly want? Nope.

Everything Works, if You Let It

I had some polyester satin to line a garment. I knew it was going to ravel and that I should take the pieces directly from my cutting table to the sewing machine, to finish the edges as quickly as possible. But I foolishly thought that if I simply did not touch the cut pieces, I'd be good for a while.

I cut the pieces using a rotary cutter, for the least possible jostling and movement. I removed the waste fabric, the pattern, and the pattern weights and left my lining pieces as little touched as possible on my cutting table. Glancing up from working on some other task, I watched as threads unraveled and fell from the edge of the piece to my cutting table without me even getting near them. No drafts, no movement. The threads were simply falling off with no outside interference.

I got those pieces to my sewing machine immediately, but still ended up having to re-cut some of them, as so much fabric had unraveled that they were no longer the correct size. Lesson learned.

Not That Way Again

I followed directions like these on how to put together the flying geese for the quilt that I'm in the throes of. It wasn't this specific set of directions, but the whole assembly process is the same.

I will NEVER again use this process.

There is an overlap in the first phase of stitching that creates an incredibly lumpy seam allowance at the point of the big triangle. That lumpy seam allowance is pure torture to sew over accurately. Agony. Painful. Annoying to the Nth degree. Pinning carefully does NOT help.

And only now am I realizing this, as I created all of the pieces before I started sewing them together. And even then, I had to sew lots of them together before I could define the problem.

I've long said that there are prices to be paid for short cuts. Some of them are worth it, some are not.