Holiday Fabrics

 

I had ordered some Holiday fabrics before I knew I would make the boxes. They arrived yesterday and I put them through the Washing Machine Shuffle and now they are ready to be cut and made into boxes.

I put the Christmas Random Plank quilt on the table along with some other decorations. I have been doing my Christmas shopping online (the way I always do) and the gifts are starting to arrive. I shall begin wrapping them up this weekend so I can mail them off next week.

I had to order myself some slippers. You can see why.

Christmas Random Plank

The Christmas Random Plank quilt is in its place of honor on my dining room table. I'm working on getting the rest of the Holiday decorations up. It's fun to have a new place to decorate.

Christmas Random Plank

It was nice to have something easy and creative to do during the hot weather of the last few days. I watched a lot of tennis while pinning the binding to the Christmas Random Plank quilt. Since this quilt is going to live on my dining room table during the Holiday season, I didn't want to spend a lot of money of a fancy fabric for the backing, so I bought a cute holiday fabric that was marked down after the holidays.

 After pinning and pinning and pinning, I selected a thread color and starting sewing the binding down.

After a trip through the washer and dryer, it's finished.

 (I have to work on getting better "beauty shots" for my quilts.)

Here's the whole thing spread out on the driveway and I think it looks pretty good!

Christmas in August

The Christmas Random Plank quilt is back from being quilted. I've got the candy-cane binding already made. It will be nice to take a break from the packing to finish this up.

The Wrong Road

There's a quote I have posted on my inspiration wall...

"No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back."

Remember this fabric I selected for the back of the Christmas Random Plank quilt?

I had a hard time ironing it. The iron seemed to drag, and when I brushed the fabric flat on my ironing table, there seemed to be some gritty stuff on it, that seemed to come off.

So I tossed it in the washing machine, and then in the dryer. When I cleaned the lint filter, I could see little black specks throughout. Feeling better about it, I started ironing it again, but it still felt gritty and grimy.  As I worked my way across the length of the fabric, I realized the metallic gold  print was coming off, leaving a grubby, grimy feel to it.

I called the friend who gave me the fabric. She admitted she had bought it early in her quilting career, and it had not come from a quilt shop, and the fabric was probably of a lower quality than we both use now.

I didn't think the fabric would ever make me happy, and I couldn't imagine touching the quilt and feeling that grubbiness every time.


So I did the only rational thing I could do.

I threw it out.

Post Christmas Random Plank

Now that Christmas is over, I trimmed the ends of the Random Plank quilt,

and stay-stitched the flimsy all around.

I had a six yard piece of Holiday fabric, so I ironed that and prepared the backing.

Next year, this will be a quilt!

Random Plank, Revisited

All year I've been thinking about how to resolve my issues with the random plank quilt I worked on late last year.

Over the weekend I was doing some Christmas decorating, and I wondered if the quilt was big enough to cover my large dining room table. As it happens, it was. I like it a lot more as a table cover than a quilt. I'll send it out to be quilted after the Holidays are over.

Woot!

Sewing Up the Christmas Random Planks

I got out of work early on Friday and started sewing up the Christmas Random Plank Quilt.  I cut a piece about 76" long, lined it up with the rest of the strip and sewed it together. I added a few more strips and then saw this:

I did NOT like the two red strips almost perfectly aligned. So I ripped it out and moved the strip around to the other side, then kept going.

After a while I'd lay the quilt on the floor, and then place the big strip next to it, to decide where I wanted to stitch it down.

My self imposed rule was to use the strip as it came off the pile. I could arrange it on either side of the quilt any way I wanted. I didn't modify the big strip by trimming pieces down.  I used the strip as it came. I did have to wiggle some things up or down a little bit so the accent squares didn't line up.

 by the time I stopped for the night, I had nineteen strips sewn together.  I cut my original strips 2-1/2" wide, so this is about 38" wide.

I'm pressing the rows after sewing four or five together. Otherwise it just gets unmanageable.

It's not a bad way to make a quick quilt. I made the random planks because I had a lot of 2-1/2 strips already cut, and I wanted something quick. If I were to do it all over again, I wouldn't leave any strips the full WOF. I don't like they way they look when they fall next to each other. You can see it here in the first pair - there's a long gold strip next to a long red strip right in the middle.  It's not particularly interesting.

This is going to be a quilt that will live on the back of the couch during the holiday season, so I can wrap myself in it when I lie down on the couch to read or take a nap. Or it will be used for guests, so it's going to be just fine.

I had HGTV on while I was sewing this up, and one designer said "If it's perfect, it isn't interesting to look at." I think that's not far from the truth.

I don't know how much more I'll get done over the weekend. I have to get the Christmas tree up and decorated, and the house needs a good vacuuming!

The One Strip

Here is the One Strip.  Since I don't know exactly how long it is (and no, I am not much interested in measuring, and re-stacking this strip), I won't be sewing it the way the Jelly Roll Race instructions ask. (I am not going to cut off the first 18" and throw it away. That's just dumb. I started my long strip with a short strip!!!! LOL!!!)

I have a hard enough time sitting still for an hour, let alone parked in front of a sewing machine feeding fabric for what feels like infinity, so that ain't gonna happen.  Here's what I am thinking I might do:

Since I want my quilt to be about 60 x 80 inches, I MIGHT measure out 84 inches from the starting end of the strip. I'll mark it with a pin.  Then I'll fold the strip from that point and sew two layers together. When I get to the fold, I'll cut it apart, open it up, and THEN....

I'll decide which side I want to add the strip to, and sew that edge! I am pretty sure when I get to the end, I'll cut the strip, and then move to the other side and keep going. In other words, I'll go around as if I were in a circle. I might zig zag and go back the way I just came if I like the way the fabrics work better. I'll see when I get there.

Remember, the only reason Jelly Rolls exist is to get you to BUY THEM.  Jelly Roll Races exist to get you to USE THEM. Then you can BUY MORE.

Jelly Roll Race quilts ALSO get quilters to LIVE DANGEROUSLY by TAKING CHANCES and letting the chips fall where they may, because we all know quilters like making things PERFECT, and they are loath to TAKE RISKS.

Allow me a wide streak of EGO here when I tell you I have no such fears or inhibitions.  Heck, if you've been following my blog for any length of time you know how I start a quilt without a clear idea of what I'm doing, and have absolutely no trouble making the same element two or three times until I get it the way I want it. I love to see what happens by ACCIDENT (made fabric).

HOWEVER, I draw the line at STUPID. I draw the line at BORING, PREDICTABLE and UGLY.  One visitor to my house once asked why I would MAKE a chessboard when I could BUY one at a store. My reply? "Why would I pay money for something UGLY when I can make something BEAUTIFUL?"

So when I tell you I am going to break the rules for the Jelly Roll Race, you can be damn sure that if I don't like the way the colors line up, I am NOT going to sew them together. I will tinker with them to get it to look BEAUTIFUL.

Because it's my party and I'll cry if I want to.  So to speak.



And yes, I've ALWAYS had this I-gotta-be-different streak. All my life. All. My. Life.