A little something

When I am stuck waiting with (or for) Karl for any reason - hospital stays, doctor's appointments, dental appts, while he is in class (rather than wasting gas driving back and forth) - I always have handwork to keep me occupied.

Handwork of the quilting sort (or sometimes a book to read).

Here's a little CQ something I have been needling on for the past good long while.

Out of pure frustration (and middle-aged-lady determination) I decided to devote some measure of time this year to finishing the Statue of Liberty, at least, before the toilet paper it was drawn on tatters any further.Yup, you read that correctly. I drew Lady Liberty on several sheets of toilet paper, stitched the sheets together, then basted the drawing to a section of the crazy quilt top.
After many failed starts (and many more successful retreats), I put the pieces of this quilt away in storage, meaning to someday get it out and finish what I started.

Well, someday is here!

In a few short hours I will have finished the embroidery, and will be able to remove the remainder of the toilet paper and basting stitches to reveal the entire work. I was too eager this afternoon to leave much of the unnecessary paper in place, and thus began removing some of it while still working on the crown and the hand holding the tablets.As you can see, it's not turning out too shabbily. I am very pleased with the results.

Update

To date, I have assembled 950 cut squares in to nine-and-one-half finished squares. By the end of today, I hope to be 200 pieces further.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Oh, lawsy, I forgot! I need to cut out more reds and oranges first! Dagnabbit!

I am now on row two!!!!

I wish I could show you a photo of it thus far - I really do. It is looking so cool!! If you live nearby, come take a look, or I will meet you for an iced tea somewhere and bring it along to "show-n-tell."

Maria, I will call you soon to arrange a play date at your place...I want to see your sewing space with the new cabinet, and all of your ongoing projects.

Hope you are happily working on something you can enjoy this much.

P.S. That 'fat' fat quarter giveaway is almost at it's deadline....where are your inquiries? I have one wonderful friend to give some material to, and there are two more bundles that need a place to go.

Progress

I think lemony yellow is so renewing - for the psyche, for the soul, for the creative palette. It just looks SO edible!

Underestimating

Yes, I believe I underestimated the scope of this odd quilt.

I knew it would require a great deal of material resources to make the quilt work, but I hadn't really chewed and tasted the bitter pill of reality until a few days ago. Thought I had enough to work with, but found out very quickly that there is an undeniable requirement for each color value that hadn't quite been met.The purples aren't quite this blue, & the reds aren't as pink as they appear.

If I could have worked from my stash alone I probably could have managed it, but with the restrictions at play for the contest I have had to fill in with spats of new material here and there.

Holy cow!

To my delight, I am speeding through two sections (mostly layout, with one large completed square sewn) and am prepared to move on to a third area - transitions and all!! While laying out the blocks I have begun to think about the quilting pattern(s) I would like to use once I get to that point. It's nice to be able to envision that far ahead at this stage of the game.

How are your projects going?

What's up?

Maria, you know this is not aimed in your direction.

If there is no more interest in the 'fat' fat quarters, then I suppose that's the end of it.
http://truenorthquilter.blogspot.com/2011/08/regarding-fat-fat-quarter-giveaway.html
and
http://truenorthquilter.blogspot.com/2011/08/out-with-old.html

Geez, try to do something nice.......

That only took three hours

A little over two, actually, to stitch and press the seams just for one ten inch -by-ten inch block. Three hours if you take into account laying out the color squares in the desired configuration prior to assembling - and I am - and ripping out two small areas of seaming to re-sew where my corners weren't 100% .

Let's just figure three hours per ten-by-ten block, and I have roughly forty-one more to make. I can reasonably make two per day...but let's just count on one to make this little game seem realistic.

;)

Yikes! I am going to have to push it and seam these bad boys like crazy, just to keep ahead of the game. There may possibly be a day or two, here and there, where I may not get any sewing done at all - and that's the reality of it. So (realistically), I hope to have the squares compiled by the end of September, and be knee deep into assembling them in to rows by early October.

If I keep myself on task I should be able to attack the quilting process by mid-October.

Ambitious? Yes. Foolhardy....oh, yeah.

Of course, there are still all of these little squares to cut yet [smacking forehead].

Not to mention, on days like today (where the clouds are thick and daylight is minimal), I am going to have to have a bunch of prefabbed blocks all ready to assemble, because laying out a very specific color schematic is difficult to do (if not downright impossible) in bad lighting. That's the only way I'll be able to keep making hay after the sun stops shining - is to keep several 'prefabbed' blocks layed out and ready to assemble.

Well, I hope we have some sun tomorrow, because today was a natural light disaster, and I am already falling behind!

Can you see it?

The migration of color.

Can you see it? It's there, but because the colors are so 'electric' to the lens of my tiny Pentax, I think it 'blows the color reality meter' of my little digital friend. :^)There are 42 such sections to construct, and I am trusting that the handicap of very little room in which to maneuver and work in will not prove detrimental to the entire project. This is totally forcing me to work in an entirely different mode from how I am accustomed to building a quilt (and it is driving me nuts).

My fear is in looking at the larger assembled patches later, and seeing where I should have mixed the cut pieces differently to achieve the effect I am ultimately after.

More another time, for now I need to get back to it. This is 100 squares needing to be stitched together, and with 4,125 to go, I mustn't procrastinate any longer.