Another Week in 15 Minute Increments

The peak period of work is over, for the most part, and things are moving at a more normal pace. This means I had enough time to rest and stitch, and even do some housework that was postponed.

Most of my time has been spent slow reading and slow stitching for the crazy quilt class. Poor lighting and poor eyesight leads to imperfect stitches, but hopefully they will be fine in volume. I have many more stitches to go!

I also sewed a bit more on On Ringo Lake. I want to keep making progress on that quilt.

Here are the final results of the week:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  147 out of 161 sessions
Success rate: 91%

I'm still tickled by this success rate. I expected it to be much lower and expected to start playing catch-up to get the rate back up in the summer.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch Report
Design Wall Monday
Monday Making 
Let's Bee Social 
MCM 118 

"Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

Quilting Recap

It is Monday, so time for another recap of my quilting progress last week.  As you know, I have been trying to sew for 15 minutes every day, allowing myself the ability to catch up on missing days during the week.  Ever since I started that goal, it has (almost?) always been On Ringo Lake that took the stitching, and the two have always been intertwined. Talk about one, you are also talking about the other.

There was a break this week, since all of my time was spent reading the material for the crazy quilting class with Kathy Seaman Shaw, planning fabrics and embellishments and making the block.

I pulled these embellishments just to prove to Kathy that I had the material I needed for this class, but who are we kidding?  I could probably have supplied the whole class and still had leftovers.

On Ringo Lake was nowhere to be found this week. (Well technically the rows are draped on the ironing board which I can see every day, but beyond an apology or two, it didn't get any attention.)

So here are the final results of the week:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  133 out of 147 sessions
Success rate: 90%

I'm pretty sure I spent more than the minimum daily allowance, and therefore the success rate should have budged up, but no, it is time for humility and the rate stayed the same.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true.

Ray Evans

Crazy Quilt Block

I expected to take one fifteen minute stitching session to make my block for my crazy quilting class with Kathy Shaw, but it took a long time to pick out more fabrics since my planned pieces were too small, cut out the templates, arrange and rearrange the fabric in my mind, cut out the fabrics and cut more to balance out the colors, find and clean the baby iron, sew the blocks, press, sew, press, sew, press, sew, press, sew, press, sew, press, look for the lost piece, and finally cut something else to fit.

I chose a very neutral palatte because I love the look, but I have a tendency to use bright colors.

Everytime I chose a particular set of pieces that would have a particular fabric, I found there was an overlap. I'm not 100% happy with this layout, but I've already spent my entire week's allotment of sewing time on one block.  I'm happy to spend the time to learn everything I need to learn, but at some point, I have to say it's good enough and move on.

"Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life."

John Updike

Linked to:
UFO Busting #21 - Yes I succumbed to a new shiny project.

Weekly Recap of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

15 Minutes to Stitch

I had a busy week at work, and on the time I did have off, I chose to rest instead of quilt. I did not manage to get all seven sewing sessions last week. I did quilt some, so maybe about half of the sessions.

I am still sewing rows of On Ringo Lake blocks and sashing, and debating whether I want to make the quilt as big as I planned.  The quilt is queen sized, but my bed is a double bed. I thought a queen quilt would be more versatile and could just hang down more, but now I'm not so sure.
One of the advantages of making something is that it can be customized for your particular needs.  I will keep going from the outside in, and see how big I want to make it as I go along. I can always use the extra blocks to make a smaller quilt, a bed runner, wall hanging, etc.

I also signed up for a crazy quilt class with Kathy Shaw so one of the sessions was taken up collecting supplies and reading the initial material for that class.

I reenacted the design bed experience for you.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  5 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  126 out of 140 sessions
Success rate: 90%

 Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch
Let's Bee Social

Pink Day

It is pink day over at So Scrappy, so I am scrambling to find pink things to show you. First up, this beautiful azalea I photographed last week, right after  I showed you the azalea from last month.  It doesn't look as good this week, so it is a good thing I took the pictures when I did.

I'm still working on the On Ringo Lake quilt mystery, sewing the rows of blocks and sashing together  I really like the way I can use the bed as a design floor, so now I have a design bed. Not so much bending, but I do have to go up and down the stairs to get from the sewing machine to the bed and back.

The flowers are so showy, they are hiding all the leaves.

Oh there's the leaves!

Besides the On Ringo Lake quilt, I have joined a crazy quilting class with Kathy Shaw. They are free and quarterly, but there is a limited sign up window and I missed it last quarter, so I've decided to give it a go now since I managed to be there at the right place and time.   I've gathered up my supplies.  I don't really like this combination of supplies, but I will adapt it with time. It is going to be mostly peach/pink and green. . Even though the photo doesn't show a lot of pink, it still fits the theme.

Speaking of pink/peach, Bonnie asked for melon/coral, but here is some pink from my On Ringo Lake quilt so I can properly register for Pink Day!

Linked with:

 So Scrappy! All the pink projects are so beautiful this week!