Update

It seemed like this quilt might be telling me I am not allowed to make it, but I have decided it is telling me to go off the pattern. I have decided to make the flying geese a different way. I tried one set, that makes four flying geese, wrote down the measurements so I wouldn't forget, and it is working, so I'll make the rest that way. I'm not saying that there is a problem with the pattern - so many people have managed to make this quilt - but apparently it just isn't for me.

Quality Work

Remember the book I told you about, Replay? The one where the guy goes back to when he was younger and lives his life all over again? It feels like the stars I am now making were started by me in a previous lifetime. I had put everything away for the birthday party, and when I brought them back out, I had a bunch of pieces I had to figure out. Some of these pieces may have needed trimming or some other kind of work, but without any notes, I had to figure it all out. So I had problems. Some of these were simply badly cut.

But this is a new lifetime, right, so the next batch of stars will be made correctly. I brought out some previously cut pieces (I tried to only cut for one type of block at a time, but if there was extra fabric, I thought I would save time and cut whatever other pieces I could out of it). Well, some of the squares were not square. You would think someone with this much quilting experience would know how to cut a square. I am going to blame the ruler, which has solid lines for the 1/2 inch on two of the sides and solid lines for the 1 inch for the other two sides, even though they are clearly marked and I do know better.

And this time quality inspection was on high alert, so I discarded the "squares" and started all over. I had to remind myself that I could save the time of yelling at myself, since either way I would have to correct the errors. This time, I measured, twice, and then cut. I then measured again, all sides, just to be sure. This time, with properly cut triangles, sewing would be a breeze, and I would get these finished in no time. I counted all the pieces to make sure that I had the right amount. This is harder than it seems since it is a scrappy quilt, it involves cutting a couple of triangles out of each piece of fabric. Yep 32 of the G triangles and 64 of the F triangles. I laid them out and made a couple of flying geese, being careful to use the correct seam allowance. I took them out of the sewing machine to measure the finished part.

Yep, it's official. The new me isn't any smarter than the old me. I need C and I pieces, not F and G.

Seeing Stars

Yesterday, as I was coming downstairs, I took a peek into the guest room, which doubles as the place where extra blankets and pillows are kept, and (tripled?) as the staging area for the daughter's moving. The star on the Macy's bag fits right in with the star pillows and quilt. The pillows makes the stars with diamonds, and the quilt uses Jan Mullens starz technique.





Then I came down the stars. The swap quilt is at the landing. This star is made with log cabins. It is curled because I had temporarily placed it there using pins, and just haven't gotten around to properly mount it.








Then I turn and walk into the living room. I like to have cool quilts to offset the heat of the summer and bright warm quilts to offset the dreariness of winter. If I remember correctly, I was sick of flying geese stars when I made this quilt.




Finally, this is on my sewing table. I am finished with the 28 white stars needed for my queen size quilt. I think I am mostly sick of these because I am having trouble with them. I am not sure whether the cutting directions are wrong, or if I am piecing them wrong, or if I haven't read the directions properly, or if it is a matter of switching rulers and using so many different fabrics, but I had to trim a lot of the flying geese. I figured that out after I had already sewed on the sides, and tried to make them fit into the center square. That's all done now, thank goodness. I have to take 8 of these and add a star around them.



Then I have to make 28 blue stars. By the time I get to them though I will be an expert at making stars, and they will go much more smoothly. Right? Right?

Fabulous Saturday

I just had the best day yesterday!

I slept in and woke up fully refreshed and rested. Had a leisurely breakfast while I waited for my cell phone to be charged. It was a beautiful day with the best color blue skies. I had a wonderful scenic drive to my daughter's school, where I gave her additional things she had decided she needed. I took her and her friends to the local grocery store so they could stock up on supplies. They were very appreciative that they didn't have to walk cases of water that far, and I enjoyed seeing more of the college town and get to know her friends. Took the scenic drive back.

I stopped at a library I don't frequent to return Replay - a very good book about a man who gets a chance to re-live part of his life. I picked up a bunch of books as well. I came home and took a short nap.

Then I got ready and went out to dinner with some friends who I used to work with. It was great to catch up on their lives and find out about others we worked with. It had probably been 10 years since I saw most of them, so it was really strange to find out about colleges and grownup activities of their children.

I came home and browsed through of the books I had gotten from the library. A bunch of quilting books, including one that has the pattern of a quilt I have already collected fabrics for. The trick now is to maintain self control and finish my stars before I start cutting out another quilt already!

Star Maker

There have been UFO challenges galore, and I've mainly stayed out of them because even though I've been planning on finishing my UFOs for quite a while, I never quite do.

This year, however, I have a better plan. I have joined Finn's challenge. We choose how many quilts we will finish by New Year's Eve. That's a while away, so I can do it, right? I decided to choose a small manageable number to start, and hope to move that number up to 100%. I told her I would do two.

The first one will be the blue and white stars I am making with Dot. I've been making stars. It seems like a never-ending bunch of stars. I'm a star maker. I have been working on them a little bit each day and don't have a lot of progress to report on it, and someday I will even finish up those stars.

I'm not sure what the second quilt will be. It will be something that is closer to completion. Either a top that simply needs quilted, or a top that needs a border before it gets quilted. I have several to choose from in both those categories, and my hope is that after I am finished with the stars, I can do several of those finishes.

Shopping

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I have many blogs that I read on Bloglines, and then I click on a post when I want to make a comment. It seems lately that several bloggers have changed their settings so that you can only read the first few lines of each post. You have to actually visit the page to read more. If you have done that, you'd better make sure that those first few lines are really interesting. It's my new pet peeve.

It's not all not dreary here on The High Road, however. I went shopping at Walgreens, and this being the beginning of a new month, I managed to obtain quite a few items using their free after rebate offers. I also bought some other things which wasn't free, but I was able to combine with some coupons to get a really good deal.

This means now I am furiously clipping and sorting coupons again. I've gotten really lazy in doing that, but with the economy being what it is, I'd rather pay less instead of more.

Fresh Start

My sister, nephew and I took my daughter to college this weekend. I had started missing her before she even left, even though she didn't really start packing until Friday. She packed as if she was going to be gone forever. She took four cases of water, two tubes of toothpaste, the most of things we had around the house, etc. She didn't pack any unnecessary things, but had a van full.

She lives on the top floor of her building, which doesn't have an elevator. Lugging those four cases of water up to the top floor in 82 degree heat is not fun, especially if you're out of shape. Her roommate is her friend, and the room that they chose is a beautiful, large room that is located in a very social position. Last year, she was at the end of the hall where nobody would see her unless they came looking for her. This year, everybody has to pass by her room to get to anywhere else, depending on which door they use. Since they coordinated schedules so both of them would get there at approximately the same time, we were able to help her unpack and get things situated. (Last year DD didn't know which bed and which closet to take, so she waited for the roommate to get there, not knowing what time that would be, so I had to leave all the unpacking for her.) The cafeteria was closed, so we went to a leisurely lunch / dinner / ice cream with the roommate and her parents at a restaurant.

This means a fresh start for her, but it also means I have yet another fresh start in my life. I had been putting off making decisions about what to do until after she left. The goal was to wake up earlier and be productive and action-oriented. I guess I needed to rest first, but I think I am ready for the action now, building up the momentum instead of rushing into it.