Celebration!

Another Major Milestone.

Decadent... very decadent.

I just realized through another conversation I was having earlier this week that our family reached the major milestone of our daughter being classed as a cancer survivor for one year on October 16th! 
It was so hard to believe its been that long already, we got used to taking things one day at a time and so we tend to miss big fragments of time over the long run. 
I figured that was an important celebration so I had to make a cake... a really GOOD cake, the kind that you don't make except once every 5 years because you know that just looking at the cake will cause your butt to expand by 2 inches on either side! My particular cake is 4 layers (vanilla and chocolate), with cherry creme filling between the layers, iced with whipped cream and more cherry creme (that's the pink stuff), cherry filling and topped with 90% Dark Cacao Chocolate. (Oh yeah I laid out a pretty penny for that bar lol)
We had an excellent meal and just simply celebrated our family by being together and eating cake, sometimes simplicity is the best, no stress or worries. Just simply being.

And in other news..... I am almost done! Quilting is complete, and binding is almost finished. I am definitely going with 'Lesson Learned' for the name of this quilt, so many obstacles to overcome and figure out with this one. 
I was having a heck of a time with the binding on Tuesday, of course I had to tempt Murphy by mentioning that I would have this done and bound on Tuesday to a few people.... and it's still not completely bound. I was taught to cut my binding strips at 2 1/4" or 2 1/2" inches, I had always thought that was very small and tight but I really did not have a problem with that size up until this quilt. I am very thankful my eyes are getting trained to judge lengths and widths because I only sewed on a small part and tested to see how it would pull over and it didn't. Phew! I saved myself a bunch of work by doing that. So I decided to try something I had already been mulling over in my mind and did a 3-1/2" strip.  Why in the heck had I not tried this sooner!!!!!?!
I really felt like beating my head against a wall, it was so much simpler and it looked fantastic. As an aside, a larger binding is much easier to do on a machine since you aren't fighting with keeping it held down you can line up the edge against the seam line properly.

Daisy Chain

I wanted to quilt this loosely because I thought to tight of a quilting with the bright colour of the quilt, might wreck the overall design and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I can't wait to wash it to see how it fluffs up!
The design I did, I call daisy chain, I kind of accidentally fell on the inspiration while quilting building blocks. Leah Day's Poseidon's Eye is the foundation for the flower, long curving line flowing down into a circle, then go back around the circle with the petal bumps, doing the outside of the petal to the inside, once done curve off into a leaf or loop and go to your next flower.  You do have to be aware of direction while doing this pattern, basically when you start the flower you have to be facing the opposite direction of the next point you want to go since you will end your flower on the opposite side. If you get stuck a loop will help you reverse or change direction. I love the fact that I caught the color of the thread just right with the light to get it to show up so well! LOL.

I did flowing lines in the charm square blocks, even though I wasn't fussed with it on the other quilt, it seemed to fit perfectly here as a transition from sash to block to sash.

Walking foot you say?! Yes I have one  and I used it! There was only about 1 1/2" for the edge left (yes I did try all sort of fabric for an outer edge and I was not happy with anything :D), so I wanted it lay a bit flatter for the binding but I didn't want to risk puckering or tucking that tends to happen when quilting the outer edge with the darning foot, so out came my walking foot. I love my walking foot... Again... WHY oh why didn't I try this sooner?! I did a double line that makes a nice little cross hatch in the corners... NO puckering... NO tucks YAY! ( I am feeling too lazy to go take a picture of the corners... perhaps next week lol)

Since I have another project almost complete, I had to start a new one. I've been following the Craftsy BOM class with Amy Gibson and I fell in love with the foundation style blocks. I am so glad I signed up, I've been trying to figure out a style of quilt for my Dad.  I am not sure if it's me that's really picky or him, I'll blame him since I would never do any such thing.....

Wonky Log.

The foundation

Before I thought of the foundation block I had played around with a wonky log cabin block, it's alright but not what I was shooting for and I certainly wasn't happy with the plaids this way. 

Foundation piecing is super simple and very traditional which is right up my alley, I love using what's on hand instead of buying new. There is just nothing like found treasures is there?  I used a 10 1/2" block because I wanted a very strong block, not in the pieced sense, in the sense of overall impression when looking at it. To my eyes the larger the block, the bolder the color or pattern the stronger the impression is.
So I played around with the blocks, determining what exactly I wanted to do with them, I tried cutting them up into quarters and putting them back together, the second attempt I cut incorrectly and ended up with a half block when put back together. Much too much fuss I think.

I went with just simple strips, technically you are supposed to leave the center empty, mark a space of an inch or more and then strip on either side of the center. I chose to use a center strip since I am using bold plaids and 'manly colors', white would simply look out of place and ruin the over all idea.
I quickly learned to offset the 2 strips on either side of the center strip to make sure the 1/4" seams are covered after that it's a breeze and it doesn't really matter if your strips are squared, the just have to have one edge that is semi straight so you can line it up for a seam. Lot's of pressing is my only complaint, mainly because I don't have enough room yet to set up my small table top ironing pad.
My current cutting area is a piece of sub flooring on top of 2 saw horses, I really need a 3rd one under there =).
I love how the squares came together, I have them pieced together now but you can get a general idea of what the large block looks like from the 2 separate photos. 
More on this next week! Merry Creation everyone since it's getting to be "that time of the year".


Passionately cutting things up....