Asterisk beginnings

I started on an Asterisk Quilt. I'm using the Moda Stich in Color pear and turquoise color family that I picked up in Atlanta back in August - I also acquired another yard of each to make sure I have enough for setting the blocks on point thanks to The Quilting Garden.

Half the blocks are the colored ones with white stripes and the other half which I have started, but are cut, will be white with the Stich in Color patterns as the stripes. These only have 3 of the 4 white stripes, the 4th will go the other direction. I've been doing the blocks in sets - all got the first stripe, then cut in half, all got the second, etc.

The backs are also beautiful, each seam pressed open, but I didn't think to take pictures of those at the time. That will be for a future post. If I didn't press them open, the centers would get messy. 

Really Random Thursday

I've mentioned that I coach high school rowing. I also am on a master's (adult) team. Last weekend the team competed at the Textile River Regatta (on the Merrimack in Lowell, MA - where all the mills used to be hence Textile). I rowed in two events - the women's 8 and the mixed 8.

I'm sitting in 5 seat - the seats are numbered starting from the front of the boat (Bow, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Stroke <-- the lead rower facing the coxswain)

 In the women's 8+, five of the rowers in this boat were novices and for several of them it was their first race ever. It's quite the introduction since the Textile is long at 3.4 miles, even for the fall races. As a basic break down of rowing - the fall is like cross country running: everyone is racing the clock, started every 15 seconds, and going from point A to point B on the river following all the twists and turns with the final results calibrated once all boats have finished the course; whereas, spring rowing is like track: 6 boats line up side by side and go completely straight with the first boat to cross the line declared winner.

The mixed 8 had two women in the stern pair (last ones to cross the finish line), 4 men in the middle, and two women in the bow pair (the first to cross the finish line). I was the bow seat for this race. 

This weekend we have a home course race for the teams that utilize our small river in Cambridge, MA. Then over the next few weeks New Hampshire Champs, Head of the Charles in Boston (the biggest fall head race in the world with 9,000 competitors and a technically difficult course with two 90 degree turns), and to finish out the season Head of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia. 

A little WIP Wednesday

This past weekend, I decided to cut more into the Kona Solids Woodland Bundle that I got recently. I found a tutorial for chevrons, but can't for the life of me remember where it came from, so I can't link to it. But it's pretty straight forward - sews strips on a stagger, line up either the 45 or 60 degree line on your ruler to one of the seams and cut. Do the same thing only with the stagger going the other direction this time and sew those two trips together and you've got yourself a chevron.

This is me playing with the technique. I have two friends who are expecting in March (one friend has twins coming) and I think this will end up being the foundation for one of the baby quilts.

Fully Pieced

The disappearing four patch is now fully pieced and has borders. a 3/4 inch white followed by a 3" red. I still need to press it now that it's done before I sandwich it. Of course, I need to figure out a backing fabric and what color thread for the actual quilting. I'm contemplating either a deep red or gold.

And a clsoe up on one of the corners - this is probably the best close up of the red fabric I've gotten showing the gold, what doesn't show is next to each gold line is a slightly deeper red/crimson line over the base color.

Ambition!

When I first moved to Boston several years ago, my family played musical sewing machines. My mother had gotten a new one and my sister liked the one my mother had been using previously. So my mother's machine went from DC to Philly. When my sister came down to DC to retrieve that machine, she brought the one she had been using, and that one came with me to Boston. It was a little Pfaff Hobby 1016. It's simple, it does straight and zig zag stiches, and that's about it. 

As I've gotten more into quilting, I've decided that I want to be able to do more. So after lots of research about different machines, and the different features, I settled on a Pfaff Ambition 1.0 - one of the really nice features of the high end Pfaff's is the IDT, as they call it, or built in walking foot as I call it. It also has an alphabet so I can embroider letters, 136 different stiches, and light! There are 3 LEDs lighting up the sewing area. The rest of the particulars can be found here: Pfaff Comparison Sheet. 

And now, you can see a small bit of where I sew. I have a tiny apartment - 284sq ft for a kitchen, bathroom, and bed/living room. Over the summer I lofted my queen bed to have a lot more space. And it has made all the difference. 

To add sashing or not?

All 16 blocks of the disappearing four patch are done. For the most part I made them in the pairs from when I cut them. It never seemed like much to do two at a time. I like that and may continue that for future blocks where there are many to be made so it doesn't seem overwhelming.

Now my question becomes do I add sashing. It's very busy as is, and I kind of like it, but I'm not entirely sure. I'll also lay it out with sashing strips before making my decision, but I haven't done that yet and only have a picture of it laid out. Without the possible sashing and without and border it's 32"x32", these will be 8" finished blocks.

What, when you go on a trip, you don't go to the local fabric store?

I went to Cornell this past weekend for homecoming (did the tailgate part then went on a wine tour, didn't actually go to the football game because it's Ivy League football, but hey Cornell beat Yale 45-6, so yay!). While I was there, I stopped in at Quilter's Corner which is a HUGE quilt shop that is similar to Intown Quilter's in Atlanta for the amount and variety of fabric they carry. I didn't go nuts though, but I did pick up what will make a fantastic border/binding:

Then I saw this and thought it could be a bag/wallet or something in that vein. The blues are a little darker and more vibrant than the picture shows, but I like that this picture was able to catch the sparkle of the gold in the print. 

 And then this was waiting in my mailbox when I got home. I already know what I'm going to do with it, but I have other projects that need to get finished before I can start on it. Have I mentioned that polka dots are awesome? Because they are.