I, for one, am way behind.... and I know there are others who may or may not link up. This holiday season has just been to busy for me to barely begin working on this king size quilt, much less finish it. But, I am happy with the progress I have accomplished thus far. Progress is progress... no matter how much or little you have made.
I quit cutting those blue triangle pairs when I lost count, somewhere after 300. I began stitching the 3.5 inch blocks together, but added a little twist to the challenge for myself...
I am using my 1921 Singer Red-Eye treadle to sew this project! I've had her for a while, sitting and looking beautiful in my quilting room; but I have never sewn on her. I've watched Bonnie treadle away on Quiltcam and decided it was time to put her to work.
I used Bonnie's seam guide and a hotel key card to mark my quarter inch and got started. I've had a few problems lining up the triangles properly to make the blocks end up the correct size. I discovered that the flannel shirts I used are fraying a bit on the edges and that little nick on the blue triangle that is to be used to line up the fabrics is a bit fuzzy and difficult to line up with some of the fabrics. I also discovered that some of these flannels are a bit stretchy and don't sew as nicely as I would like.
I'm glad I didn't jump in and just sew through the whole stack, sewing all 300 on one side then the next. I did a few at a time and checked them for size. I had to do a lot of frogging and restitching at first, but now I believe I have figured out how to line these things up and am making some progress.
I've completed 100 of them so far... half white and half orange. Now that the quilt has been revealed and I know the white ones are for the block and the orange are for the border, I've decided to sew just the white ones for now so that I can move on to the next step and work toward getting some blocks made. I'll finish the orange ones later when I am ready to add the border on the quilt.
I am really enjoying sewing on my treadle. There's a rhythm to working on her and I love the sound of her beat. I've got the added bonus of a bit of exercise as a treadle along.... maybe I will treadle away a few extra pounds this year as I complete my projects!
Be sure to check out the other bloggers and their progess here on Bonnie's blog:
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/01/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html
