I've been having trouble finding my quilting mojo lately. Between customer quilts, and general laziness I haven't spent much time at all in my sewing room. But yesterday I was determined to change that. The first clue for Bonnie Hunter's mystery came out on Friday, so I needed to sew a ton of 1/2 square triangles. Plus, a looming deadline for a block for a charity quilt was nudging me on.
So yesterday I gathered my sketch for the charity block and headed upstairs. I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and use the 1/2 square triangles as leader/enders between sections of the other block.
The charity block is to be improv-pieced (no patterns allowed) and my theme was steam engines. So, I sketched up a design a few days ago and set out to make this happen, using the allowed colours.
Half-way through, my sewing machine broke :( And I mean really broke - ground to a halt and gave me a "Main drive sync failure" error. So off to the shop it went. Fortunately, I have a backup machine. Unfortunately, the 1/4 in foot on that machine is NOT giving me an accurate seam (and yes, I know I should have figured that out before starting). I haven't measured my 1/2 square triangles yet, but I can see in the improv block where my pieces are smaller than I had planned them. Not an issue for that block (it's improv after all) but I sure hope my 1/2 square triangles are usable.
Despite the setback, I did get my block almost finished. Just missing about 4" on the top to make it to the correct size (20" square), and the wheels still need to be appliqued. I'm hoping to add the steam in that top section, once I figure out a plan. You may notice, between the sketch and the block that the proportions are a bit different than originally planned. The danger of working without a pattern, I suppose. Hopefully the rest of the team will like the result anyway.
And here are my almost 150 1/2 square triangles - done in groups of 4 between every seam on the other block, I'm about 1/2 way to the goal. And I had to go measure them, just to be sure. It looks good - 2" square, for the couple I measured.
Linking up with
Bonnie's Allietare progress report and
Patchwork Times today
Good start to the mystery! And your steam engine is amazing!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great steam engine block - good job on the improve piecing.
ReplyDeleteGood looking improve block! I've learned through experience that all quarter-inch feet are not created equal. I put a guide on all my machines and check them frequently.
ReplyDeleteYay for joining along!
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