Friday, February 19, 2010

Making Progress, I am. Yeessssss.

Andrea of Under a Blue Moon mentioned last week how she was struggling coming up with clever titles for her posts. (Andrea has a beautifully written and wonderfully eclectic blog, you must check it out if you've not done so) I have to admit, I have the same struggle some days. Andrea fixed her problem by translating her English titles into French. I have no idea what they mean, but they sound so ravissant ; )) . So that got me thinking...how could I change up my boring titles....I decided to translate my titles from English to Yoda...yes Yoda, from Star Wars.... I hope you enjoy the change of pace.


All this talk of spring.......

and this is the view from my window.......I think spring may be a day or two away for me.


I'm progressing right along on Faceted Jewels and enjoying every minute of my time in my sewing room, I think it's the bright and cheerful colors.

So from this, I went to this.....

I have all the center blocks pieced. I reduced the block size from 12 inches to 9 inches and I'm so glad I did! I was worried that making the blocks smaller would would ruin the secondary pattern created when connecting the blocks, it did not.

Isn't it just like magic, the way all those squares and straight lines form circles!!!

I also tried something new when assembling the blocks. On other scrappy projects, I would make one block, making sure I had a good mix of colors, and put it on my design wall. Then I would make the next block, making sure I had a good mix of colors AND that no like colors from the first block touched the second block. And so I would go, mixing and matching one block at a time until I got just that perfect block to go with the rest of the perfect blocks.

Remember my flying geese for Toulouse? I spent several hours putting them in order on my design wall, rearranged them all night long in my sleep, and tweaked them a couple more times before I was satisfied and willing to start sewing them together. Lisa/Stashmaster had the exact same geese I had (we did a swap) and pieced her geese by picking one from my pile then one from hers. I could hardly wait to see her border made up of random flying geese. It was gorgeous!! There was no noticeable difference between our borders.

So with that in mind I chain sewed my Faceted Jewels blocks together.....WOW did those blocks go together quickly! I'm not someone who's into quick and easy, mainly because I'm lucky enough to have plenty of sewing time and few if any deadlines. But wasting time is a pet peeve of mine, and all that work I was doing on finding the perfect combination of scrappiness was a waste of time. I think I got a nice assortment of scrappiness without all that extra work.

Something else that was new to me were the triangle-in-a-square units (tias units) that were in this block. I had never worked with them before. I made them by using the Tri-Recs rulers created by EZ Quilting.


For some reason the tias units were a smidge smaller than the 3 1/2 inches they were supposed to be. Luckily for me, when I pieced the units, I was able to line the point of the triangle up with the seam in the four patch block then ease it all together. I'm not sure why they came out smaller, something I'll need to work on the next time I make them.

So now it's on to the border, it's a pieced border and something I hadn't started on before I packed everything up, so it's back to cutting and trimming and sewing..but no fabric decisions, that's all done.

13 comments:

  1. It's stunning! I can tell you're having lots of fun. Yoda speak - hmmmm! LOL

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  2. Love the Yoda! Okay, you are really making me want to start on my faceted jewels and that is a good thing. Yours is looking terrific. Do you think that the reason your TIAS were a little smaller was due to the fact that you reduced the block size? I like the fact that you made them 9 inch blocks. What will the finished quilt size be?

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  3. It is looking FANTASTIC! I love it. I'm always worried about fabrics touching when I do a "scrappy" I really do have control issues lol.

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  4. Awesome beautiful quilt. Even though you said it went together quickly, it looks very intricate. I just love your jewel colors.

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  5. Thelma, this is fantastic!!! Absolutely love it. So glad you were able to cut down on your time...gives you more for the next project! I like the Yoda speak by the way.

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  6. powerful you have become ... size matters not ... made it work, you did ... beautiful it is!

    LOVE Yodish, i do ...... may the force be with you!

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  7. Wow! Love the colors on your quilt! It's better than the picture from the pattern. I'm amazed at how the circle shows up. I need to try that.

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  8. Amazing the progress you have made. Looking great, love the colours

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  9. I'm enjoying watching your progress on Faceted Jewels. I've loved that pattern for the longest time, but have yet to make it! The fabrics you're using are absolutely fantastic for this quilt.

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  10. It's fabulous! I love it! I might just have to try those blocks...wow!

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  11. Excellent. And isn't it nice that you can learn how to do things easier (and more fun). I am currently piecing sashing, the fun just goes on and on. ;-)

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  12. I love, love, love, this pattern! I have wanted to make this quilt since I first saw the pattern. I certainly have enough fabrics to do it, and I have the rulers, so I probably should just get started. I like your idea of making the blocks smaller and I'm glad that worked out. Your blocks are looking great so far. Keep up the good work.

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