Picking Up Where I left Off

When you temporarily stop blogging–for whatever the reason–it's sometimes hard to know how to pick up again.  Some authors offer an apology and/or explanation ... But I'll just say that things were very, very bad and now they are better.

And for a little eye-candy, how about this quilt, which also happens to be the last thing I blogged about before this blog went dark.

This photo was taken at the Northern New Mexico Quilt Guild's Quilt Fiesta, which was a lovely show in a new-and-improved venue at the Convention Center.  

Although I am no longer a member of the guild (which holds too many of it's activities during the work day which doesn't work for me), it was fun to see three quilts there in which I had a part.  This is one of them.

After piecing the top of this quilt, I don't think I will ever shy away from Y-seams again :-)

Incredible as it may seem ... I have plans to make something similar for me and maybe putting together a pattern with tips for making friends with Y-seams.

Because Sometimes You Just Need a Break ...

I continue to make slow but sure progress making the 80 Lemoyne star blocks needed ... some of which are shown here  on my design wall with the strips intended for the borders.

But this weekend, I really need a break from working with Y-seams and inaccurately cut pieces ... and so I pulled out the golden oldie UFO and made the rest of the Summer Vine blocks from sets of strips–some more coordinated than others–swapped to make these blocks in 2002.

Working on one thing can make you really appreciate the other–it was a joy to put together blocks for which the block "kits" are known to be the correct measurements ... and there are no Y-seams! 

I now have 95 of the Summer Vine blocks. I will making at least one more–but likely more than that–before deciding upon a layout and sewing them together. 

If you're curious, you can read more about this very old UFO with links to the pattern and block directions in this blog post.

Practice, Practice, Practice ...

If you saw this photo pop up on your feed and reacted by thinking that it doesn't look quite like a Sophie project ... you'd be right.

But this project–to finish a quilt that a mother started for her daughter, but couldn't finish–is what I'm working on these days.

All the pieces for the 100 Lemoyne star blocks  have been cut, as have the borders.

The placement of the fabrics within the blocks and the layout of the blocks in the quilt has been specified very carefully in a colored pencil drawing on graph paper.

Twenty-some of the blocks had been made and the top two rows assembled.  I have probably made one third of the additional blocks needed. Here's a look at the upper left quarter of the quilt-in-progress on the design wall.

I have come to think of this quilt as an opportunity for practice and problem-solving.

I never really thought about how the Lemoyne star consists of nothing but Y-seams–I expect to be pretty good at them by the time this is done. The problem solving comes from the challenge of working with pre-cut pieces that weren't so accurately cut, but since you can't make a too-small piece larger and there are no measurements, templates or extra fabrics ... I am making do and changing up my process a bit so that fabrics are aligned from the Y of those Y-seams, so the shortage/extra ends up around the outside of the block.

It isn't lost on me that each month I ask the Block Lotto community to make blocks of MY design using fabrics and colors of MY choice ... and in this project, I am forced to follow someone else's design choices–it feels a little like a sort of karmic payback.   Though, I have to admit that this brown + pastels color way is starting to grow on me ...