Pieces of my Heart lessons learned

I know I am supposed to be working on UFO's but a few weeks ago I saw a facebook post showing Wendy Williams's new quilt "Pieces of my Heart."

(Photo of finished quilt from Material Obsessions website)

I loved it so I ordered it from Austrailia and started working on it the week it arrived!  First, I still love this quilt and I am going to finish it.  I may even finish it this month!  I have however learned a lot...

Second - it is useful to check online to see if there are any videos.  I had only gone as far as pulling fabric and reading the direction when I found a 4 minute video by Wendy and Material Obsessions.  That made my life a lot easier!

Third - when you have enough fabric/scraps add a few more on each end of the value spectrum.  I started out with almost all reds and pinks.  After watching the video I added a lot more purples, oranges and yellows.  Also added more textures.  Really happy I did.  I have everything from Kaffee to Mary Engelbreight and everything in between!

Fourth - the technique is sort of a flip and sew log cabin...when trimming use a really long ruler.  My first half has a bit of ruler drift since I was only using a 15 inch ruler.  duh!

Fifth - pin often.  The heart can get a bit wobbley particularly as you get to the outer rows.

Sixth - press, press, press...hit it with a bit of best press or starch and press again.

I hope to get the last row onto the left side of the heart today and maybe even start the background piecing.  

This quilt also has a lot of wool embroidered hearts.  My friend Paula gave a bag of wool bits in lots of different shades of red, pink, orange and purple.  Can't wait to start playing with those!

On other projects...I had a finish!

This went to a fund raiser for a friend's sister's medical bills.

And this quilt top is for my sister!  It is Bonnie Hunter's Trip around the world pattern only put on point.  Yes, I took and fairly easy pattern and managed to make it complicated!  I have the backing ready to piece so should have this to the longarmer this month...phew.  Good thing for me they still need quilts in the summer up in Maine!

A finish! Phew!

Watson inspecting my work....great, now I have to check for pet hair again!

Now the pressure is on...only a month until my guild show!  So I am happy to report I finished a quilt!   This is a final finish - binding, sleeve and label!  Whoo-hoo happy dance!  (only four more to go!)

They are all "almost" done.  This is the problem with having so many UFO's...it takes longer to finish anything since quilting time is spread over so many projects!

Yesterday I put an old CD on - a workout tape from the 80's - and I got lots done!  I made miles and miles of binding.  Think got caught up in Blondi and Pat Benetar beats!  I also made several yards of sleeves...easier to do this in big batches!

All this puts me closer to the goal.  Want to have the binding sewn down on the King size quilt by tonight so I can sew on it during the Sunday morning news shows.

Also, I am going to a quilt retreat next weekend.  For me this is a "finish-it" retreat.  Though if I can get some of my projects done before Thursday I may allow myself to start on one of the three baby quilts I need to make for nephews who are expecting!

And a brief ad...my friend Sue is fostering these two kittens.  The little female was shot with a bb-gun and has a broken leg.  When Sue brought her home the larger male kitten immediately bonded with her.  Now Sue needs to find a home for them together!  She is hoping the Kaffee background will bring good luck!

Want to sew...

Today I do not want to fold fabric, iron fabric, or organize fabric...I just want to sew!

A box of orphan 9-patches....

I am tired and between workshops, meetings, and the setting up the new sewing space I have way overdone it.  Today is a day of "rest!"...well maybe not rest...maybe just sit down and sew!

I plan to make the binding for my pink spider (my Miss Muffet quilt!) and get the first part sewn on by machine so I have some handwork while watching the final episode of Wolf Hall!  The second photo shows the fabrics I'm auditioning for the binding...I may use a bit of each...it will be a thin binding...

I have to be careful sewing however...this is why I don't work on mitered borders when I am tired!

I can do mitered borders...

well, maybe not today....

This small disaster happened last week...of course it was the last of that fabric so now all the borders come off!

Maybe I should drink a few more cups of coffee before I head into the sewing room....

Not the typical "feed sack"

I've posted before about how much I love finding unusual backing on my quilts.  The most frequent is a sack that originally held feed, sugar, flour or salt.

They actually can be helpful when trying to figure out where a quilt may have been made.  Often you need to be able to read backwards to figure it out!

Like this quilt that has a sack from a flour made in the western part of the U.S.A.

Sometimes it doesn't help at all...like the quilt that has Domino Sugar sacks for a backing.  (This I didn't even notice until I washed the quilt!)

Domino Sugar was sold everywhere in the U.S. when this was made...fortunately I know who the maker is and where she lived!  It is a S.C. quilt.

Imagine how excited I was to get a phone call from a fellow quilter telling me she has a box of old fabric bags that was looking for a home.  Since she knows I love old textiles she called me first!

What a grab-bag!  When most folks hear "feedsack" they think of the pretty bags sold in the 30's-40's here in the U.S.  The bags were used to make everything from clothing to toys to curtains!

The bags I got were a bit different.

They were all muslin and had advertising printed on them.

Some were simple

Others were very detailed!

This Holly one is my favorite...not sure what I will do with them but they do make great study pieces of a time when quilters couldn't or wouldn't go to a fabric store and buy large pieces of fabric to back their quilts.

What to do...

Do you ever find yourself looking at a quilt and saying to yourself, "I should like this quilt but I don't."

That is what has happened to me with this string star quilt that I bought a few months ago.  It is string...I love strings.  It has a lot of red...I love red.  So why isn't this working for me?

I think it is the red in the string pieces doesn't work with the red in the outside...makes the star look too fractured for me.  (trust me it looks better in photos than in real life...)

The stars in the corners don't have any solid red pieces and I like those a lot.

I could applique some vintage fabrics over the solid reds in the stars.  Could be a lot of work.  Or I could take out the corner stars and half square setting pieces and replace them with a different solid - orange or yellow perhaps?  Less work than the applique and it would give me four stars I really like to put together into a wall-hanging or some pillows.  Third option is to do nothing and either wait and see if I like it better next time I pull it out of the closet or to sell it to someone who can decide what they want to do with it....

Meanwhile Dobby doesn't understand what all the fuss is about...