UFO Busting!

In June 2019 I went to visit ScientistGirl at OU. Her Master’s program was a bit trying at times, and at those times you need your momma! We went touristing and I bought fabric, half a ladder, pasta, and wonderful pastries! It was a fun visit. During our visit we talked about the future and discussed her possible engagement. As we talked about dream weddings I offered to make table toppers if she thought they would suit her theme. 3 months later she was engaged and I was off.

I thought it would be good to make scrap blocks to test my numbers. One such block I tested was a Sister’s Choice variation. 

Practice on left, flimsy on right

I finished the topper in April, but how I wish I had waited to quilt it!!! Because I totally love how I quilted the practice piece!!! I did stippling on the wedding topper, but so much more on the test piece. I guess it’s too late to redo that wedding topper?

When I started practicing with my Pro Circle ruler a whole new world opened up to me. Now I want to do Orange Peels and Circles on Everything!! But it can’t all be circles, all the time, it was time to temper my circle craze. 

I started with Orange Peels in the squares, then followed the lines of the diamonds. What to do in those HSTs? I just made up a straight-line design and then used the circle ruler on the other half of the block. Love it! 

I also did some SITD after finding this ruler earlier that day. It worked like a charm! And came in very handy on my border, which happened very organically. 

I worked on it all day Thursday, but didn’t finish the binding. I sewed a little too deep on the binding and had to rip it off and resew it. After a slow Friday morning the binding was done and the sun was shining for the photo shoot. 

The backing was a FQ that was just a mite too narrow, so border fabric to the rescue! 

And now all crinkly from the wash.

Linking with:
UFO Busting

Friday FOs!

Lots of things being worked on. Not a lot of finish. Lots of news in the world that is just horrible. Not a lot of compassion. ON EITHER SIDE of whatever issue divides us!!! I am tired of the finger pointing, the cancel culture, the whataboutism, the false equivalency, the name calling, the “but my side is righteous and their side isn’t” BS.

How about we start looking at individuals and hold them responsible for THEIR actions, and not prescribe thoughts or actions on others because you think they are the bad guys. News Flash, they think you are the bad guys. And BOTH of you are wrong. The “tribes” are just 2 sides of a coin, sometimes it’s heads up, and sometimes it’s tails up. But regardless of which side is up, there is no basis for claiming your side of the coin is the only one that is good. Both sides are full of bad, and also full of good, it’s only your perspective that drives how much of your good you see and how much of your bad you ignore. And right now it seems there’s a lot of ignoring of some bad behavior.

George Floyd didn’t deserve to lose his life. David Dorn didn’t deserve to lose his life. Patrick Underwood didn’t deserve to lose his life. Italia Marie Kelly didn’t deserve to lose her life. And countless business owners did not deserve to lose their businesses. Recognizing them all as heinous acts does not negate the others. They are ALL worthy of our tears. We can denounce multiple senseless acts at the same time.

Until we all stop vilifying the “other” side, we will never come together. How about we try true compassion and love?

Thursday Things

So, the UFO Challenge Along draws a number each month. As I looked at my list, the 1 item I did not want to see picked this month was #9. My #9 is the 2019 Mystery block QAL I did with a FB group. After the 6 month QAL I decided to keep going and picked 6 more blocks from quilting books. Then the FB group got drama-y so I bailed.

Knowing how much effort it’s going to take to get that item to a finished flimsy, I so did not want to see it’s number drawn. There’s just 2 months before the wedding with 5 toppers left to make, plus our Guild Challenge, which I am in charge of, is due July 13th, and ALL THOSE SQUIRRELS! You know what happened. #9 was drawn. Argh!!! So I did what any self respecting person would do. I cheated on my list. Come on, you would have done the same thing! And the replacement project is perfect for the time of year, being all Patriotic!

This pattern was also from that drama-y FB group, so does that make it OK to sub in? I made a pillow from the same pattern, and finished it long ago, so it’s time for this wallhanging to make it to finished status.

My quilting juices were a little stifled, not sure what I was going to do on the wall hanging, but I knew I didn’t want to duplicate what I did on the pillow. So I thought, why not use EQ8 as my inspiration. There are quilting tools built in, but I was not sure how to use them. It didn’t take much to figure it out and I am now ready with a plan!

EQ8 was the best investment I EVER made!!! I love playing with this program. It’s so much fun, and actually a great tool for layouts, coloring, and determining yardage needs. Now that I have found the quilting tools, I am even more in love!! OK, off the soapbox. Here’s hoping I can get this quilting before the last day of June, wouldn’t want to ruin my streak of 1 month!! LOL