Welcome to step three. For this step you are going to need the pieces that you cut and stored in bags H, I and J. These are your coloured and black polka dot 2 ½” squares and white polka dot 1 ½” x 8 ½” rectangles .
This step is a bit different than the rest. We are making some flying geese units but we are going to do foundation paper piecing. It just made the math easier. We are making 12 of these units . If you have never done foundation paper piecing, there are lots of tutorials online. I would also suggest using some scrap fabric to do one test block (so print 13 not 12 sheets) .
You will be following the numbering sequence on the foundation paper attached. Once you have filled the center column of the geese, you will add the white polka dot sides. Press towards the white and trim from the paper side. Be careful not to cut off the ¼” margin when trimming . Your units should measure 4 ½” x 8 ½” trimmed and will finish at 4” x 8” in the quilt.
Remove your paper and sew them into 4 sets of 3 . Be careful not to cut off the head of your geese when sewing them together.
We’re getting close to the finish. Watch for final clue and reveal next Monday.
Don’t forget to post your pictures and use the #polkadotpartymysteryquilt hashtag so we can find you!
Welcome to step two. For this step you are going to need the pieces that you cut in stored in bags D and E. These are your 5 ½” squares cut into triangles.
This is a very easy step. We are making 36 half square triangles.
Press towards the dark side. Do not trim. They will be trimmed in a future step .
And that’s all for now! The next clue will be published next Monday.
Post your pictures using the hashtag #polkadotpartymysteryquilt so we can all see your colours and progress .
Journey with me for a moment down a rabbit trail as I trace back from this current project on my design wall to the place where the idea was born or conceived of, as it were, and how it became a UFO.
Ah yes, those blessed UFOs . Just how do they find their way into bags and bins and then get buried on shelves?
In this case it all started when I belonged to a Yahoo group. For those who don’t know what that is, they were the online social connecting place for like minded people pre-facebook. In one of my groups, I joined a ‘swap’ . The idea was to choose a block that would finish at 12″, choose fabric for your block, cut it up and then send it with the fabric to six other people. They would in turn do the same. The end result was these blocks (the bigger ones that are red, white and blue anyway). They arrived already cut and just awaited my stitches to make them come to life . And I got that far. I didn’t want to make a small lap quilt in red, white & blue. What should I do with them?
At that time we had acreage and were operating a Bed & Breakfast in our home. I had already made bed quilts for all the guest bedrooms, but we had a barn.
It was a horse barn but we never had horses, nor were we planning on getting them . I’m not a fan of cobwebs, spiders or mice, so I have to confess I never really explored our barn other than maybe stepping inside. My hubby and kids did but not me.
However I could envision this as a rustic cabin, or a musician’s studio, or a guest cottage to add to our room inventory. We did explore what it would take to create another septic field, another well, zoning bylaws, etc . but alas, it was not to be. That didn’t stop me from dreaming up a quilt idea for the future guest bed that would occupy this space however. But it was just a dream, an idea that never really hatched. That is how the UFO was born. That was in approx. 2011.
Over the years I would pull out the bag with the blocks to see if an idea might spark. Then I would tuck them safely away again when no inspiration was found.
At some point I found this picture in a magazine which gave a sort of framework to what I envisioned for my blocks.
This was in Issue 54 of Quilting Today Magazine.
And now here we are in 2020 and those blocks are still a UFO. However, in the last month or so, I’ve been intrigued by a couple of sampler quilts I found on Pinterest. I can’t say I’ve been a fan of traditional sampler blocks that are equal sizes and set in predictable rows with sashing. But these more random samplers that keep the eye moving on a journey of discovery keep my interested and intrigued.
So where am I going with this story? Today I pulled out the project bag again and happened to have some vacant space on my design wall So I put my blocks up there in no particular order (the picture above).
Then I remembered I still had a bunch more orphan blocks all together in a small container. I decided to dive in to see what I could find that might add some interest to my sampler quilt.
More orphan blocks!
I was looking for blocks that had blue in them, though not exclusively, and red, and decided to add yellow/gold as another colour to try in my sampler. These are all different sizes and they may or may not be added to the quilt. That’s for more playtime on the design wall which could happen tonight when it cools down a bit.
Do you wait for your projects to call to you? I confess that I like working on projects that I’m enthusiastic about. I get bored easily and I’m quite impulsive. That could be why the other projects I’m “working on” have sat on my design wall untouched for weeks while I journey back to the spark of an idea to make a sampler quilt. It just wasn’t time in 2011 but it’s definitely time now!
I’m excited to add some fill in blocks here and there to make it work. It’s not going to be an EQ (Electric Quilt) exercise in drafting it out first. This is just going to be pure design wall, fly by the seat of my pants quilting. And I’m so excited about where it will lead me.
And to my other two projects…I’ll be back. But for now there’s a squirrel that needs my attention.
My daughter and I spent our Canada Day working on quilting projects. I pulled out a UFO to finish up and she started a new project using a charm pack.
My hubby and son joined us for a salmon BBQ later in the early evening. It was a fantastic celebrationalbeit different than the norm.
Here’s what I was working on:
I plan on adding another row and then some plain squares on each side . I want to elongate it and make it a bit bigger. It’s currently about 45” square.
The boredom is real folks. Here’s a little story for you. Prior to starting my quilting business full time I was a legal assistant. I graduated from high school and got my first job at age 17 in a law firm. I actually finished Grade 12 early and had to go back to graduate.
I made $475 per month at that first job. And with that salary came regular rebukes from my boss that I had a head like a rock garden, yet I persisted . The valuable lesson learned was that I indeed am a bit of a scatterbrain and need to write stuff down or it’s likely to be forgotten.
I eventually moved on to a better job, better boss (by far!!) and much better salary . Those were the days of the IBM selectric typewriters with the little ball typeface. Remember those? Well, whenever I got bored I would change the typeface . My boss caught on and asked me one day why I did that? I told him boredom. Rather than making me conform, you know what he said? “I change my pen” . Ha ha!! See we aren’t all that different.
Anyway…..I’m ever so grateful that I don’t have to do all my quilts with just one quilting design . You wondered where this was going no doubt. There are so many designs out there for us to enjoy and incorporate into our quilts. I hope you like these . I’m about to load a customer quilt and utilize this one called “Triangle Meander”. It’s available at Urban Elementz.
These are the others added to my collection today . I’m slowly adding my whole collection. If you mouse over them on the pantograph page you can find the name of the design. If you see one you like when requesting quilting services, please refer to it by name .
I’ve been challenging myself to find joy in the mundane. It’s easy to be joyful which things are going well and lining up to your expectations and desires. But what about when you are thrown a curve ball? I think it’s safe to say that the whole world has been thrown a curve ball this year.
I’ve seen the worst of humanity responding by looting while others are hoarding toilet paper and sanitizing wipes and upselling them . ( I have yet to find any Lysol wipes in any of our stores here.) But I’ve also seen the best of humanity. People are helping their neighbours, talented musicians and singers are sharing their melodies and lyrics with us online, churches are reconfiguring their services to reach their congregations and reaching into the communities with help . And of course there are the sewers who are using those stashes to make face masks, scrub bags and scrub hats for the front line workers. Every one of my quilting friends who is contributing to these projects has expressed the greatest joy at being able to help . That’s how I feel too!
I have been pulling out my fat quarters and enjoying making them into something helpful for someone else . There is lots of joy in my sewing room right now.
I’ve also heard of a resurgence of practical skills with everything from gardening/growing veggies to baking bread . Have you tried to find yeast or flour in your grocery store? I have always loved baking bread and earlier this year I scored a great breadmaker at a garage sale for $2.00 . Since then I’ve been baking bread almost every week. I mix it in the breadmaker then shape the loaf and bake it in the oven. I currently have a loaf in the oven right now and it’s starting to smell pretty good in my house .
New to me this year is the attempt to grow some veggies . I may be known for the calluses on my quilting fingers, but not so much for having a green thumb. But I’m devoting some energy and time to learning some tricks in the hopes that I can develop some skill in this department . I’m finding joy in this little sprout of celery that I am growing from the end of the last stalk we bought. Life! A little sprout! Yippee!
I’m also finding joy in bringing order to my house. I make no bones about my dislike for paper. It’s a necessary evil in our lives but there’s not an even an ounce of me that enjoys working with it. When I had this realization I gave up card making. I worked with paper all day long and I sure didn’t want to play with it at night. But I digress…
I’ve been working on one room at a time. The one I was dreading was the office because of … PAPER!! Anyway, yesterday I decided (with a gentle push from my daughter who had just done a clean sweep of her place) that it was time I attacked the office. And wouldn’t you know it…I found joy in scanning all these papers and then shredding them. I’m quite shocked actually. I absolutely love my ScanSnap scanner by Fujitsu. It’s worth every penny. My trusty shredder is a heavier duty one from Staples and it’s doing a fine job too.
I made some headway yesterday as evidenced by all the confetti I created and am hoping to wrap up this portion of the office work today/tonight. I’m going to reward myself with some nice red wine when this is done. There is joy in finally getting that job done that you’ve been dreading. I didn’t expect to find joy in the office, but there it was!
And of course when the office is tackled I will go pet some fabric, work on a UFO or on more caps, masks or scrub bags. The need continues and so we will keep sewing. And I know I will find joy there.
I hope you will also find some joy in the everyday things you find yourself doing while quarantined at home.
I am slowly adding images of my pantograph library for customer review. Here are two I added today. Hover over the Quilting tab on my homepage and then click on Pantographs. Now I’m off to quilt out the Flower Child one!
