Sewing blocks together to make rows.My design floor in lieu of a design wall.
I guess you could say I’m channeling my inner Lara Langston – the heroine in the animated Aloha mystery video series – by sewing along on my Singer Featherweight, too. I finished the blocks on National Jelly Roll Day (Saturday) and laid them out this afternoon between a therapy dog visit with Sadie and a private sewing lesson with a middle school student.
Bit by bit, the quilt will get done. The directions call for a pieced border that resembles a checkerboard. Since there’s so much color going on in the quilt, I’m going to opt for a simple white 2-1/2″ border to frame the quilt and then bind it with a teal print.
Oh, and yes the post would not be complete without a picture of Sadie from today’s visit at the Georgia Primary Care Association annual conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead.
What are you making with your jelly roll strips today?
Me? I’m finishing up the blocks for my Aloha Mystery 5-0 quilt:
I’m about two-thirds of the way through making blocks. I used a jelly roll and white background fabric from my stash. I purchased the bright blue and green fabrics used as accent squares in each block. The teal print seen in the back stack of fabric will be the binding (and perhaps an outer border once everything is laid out). Backing fabric will be a Lori Holt cheater print that a friend gifted me. My plan was to rent time on the longarm at Tiny Stitches, but available slots are few and don’t mesh with my schedule for the three weeks. I’ll FMQ it on my domestic machine instead since I need it done in time for an event on October 11th.
Bonus Project: If you’ll notice, this quilt pattern required a lot of stitch & flip (a/k/a folded corner) units. I sewed all the of the leftover triangle bits together and trimmed them to yield 1-1/2″ HSTs. Final result: a useful hot pad for my kitchen – instead of adding to the rubbish bin.
I’ve been in kind of a “meh” mood the past week. Nothing seems to be going as it should from quilting projects cut wrong to therapy dog events still in limbo to estimates to repair a leaking master bath shower that are coming in a lot higher than anticipated. I won’t even go into recent events in the news. Makes me want to hole up in my house and not go anywhere. However, I made commitments to certain folks. Sadie & I must appear for those events, but I can opt out of the rest.
At this week’s R.E.A.D. visit with the public library, the librarian’s expression matched mine. I remarked she must not be feeling it either. She agreed. By the time our last reader left 90 minutes later, I was in much better spirits. So were several patrons and library staffers. All due to the simple act of sharing my dog with others.
Thursday morning, we presented a program on therapy dogs as community helpers to a local kindergarten class. Several upper elementary students were waiting in the lobby as Sadie & I stepped off the elevator. Their faces lit up when when they saw us. Everyone had to come say hi. Big Girl was definitely in her element. After the kindergarten class, we found the 2nd grade classroom where many my former Monday enrichment regulars are now learning. It was wonderful to see them again.
Still showing up even when I wasn’t feeling it pulled me out of the funk that was starting to settle in.
I finally figured out where I screwed up on the Aloha Mystery Quilt – and am extremely grateful I had another jelly roll of the same fabric line in my stash. I spent most of Sunday fixing my mistake and getting the different bits color coordinated to make a controlled scrappy version of the Aloha Spirit design. There’s a celebration at the sponsoring quilt shop on October 11th. I plan to be there to share my completed quilt.
Now on to making pillowcase for my guild’s community service program.
Come Stitch With Me 