Saturday, April 19, 2008

A sewing day!

Yesterday I woke up and realized I didn't have anything scheduled for the day! And it was a rainy day! (can't walk Choco) And I already had groceries for the night's dinner! This means there was no reason why I couldn't just sew all day! Yeah!

First off I have to confess that I've been lurking around Bonnie's Orange Crush mystery and without really committing myself I've been making four-patches from leader-enders. I don't have the right fabric for this quilt but hey, I can always go out and buy some if I got motivated right? Ok. four-patch blocks done. Step two was to use the Easy Angle ruler and make triangles. Well, I just so happen to have an Easy Angle ruler that I bought last summer and it was still in it's packaging. Great excuse for experimenting on the Orange Crush so that was my job yesterday! I cut loads of triangles (Bonnie's right! The ruler is great!) and made loads of split four patch blocks. I'm still at that stage but she's given us two weeks to finish step two so I'm in no rush.

Just to add some variety to my day I pulled out the basket with my Feathered Stars in it and spent about 15 minutes looking at my half-done pieces. What was I doing? How many pieces did I need? How far had I gotten? How big is this block supposed to be? It's easy to forget after relegating a quilt to a few months of back closet residence. But I started measuring and squaring and pretty soon I was back in the groove. I've laid out my stars (hey, I made 12 of them. Wow! I thought it was only 9!) and put the lattice around them. Hmm... Very blue. I guess I hadn't realized that when I ordered the fabric and it is certainly different from my imagined quilt but it is a pretty color. Hoping I can get this to flimsy stage this week!

When evening rolled around I felt so guilty from all my sewing time that I started cleaning house and by the time I went to bed around 9:30 the place looked good. Tetsu's first comment to me this morning was

"Hey, the house looked great last night when I came home (around 10:30! He never changes!) Did you have guests or something during the day?"

He meant it as a compliment but it makes me realize how lax my housekeeping has become since he can notice a difference. Also sort of sad that he'd think I'll clean for guests but not just for us! I'll try to keep in mind that I'm a wife first and a quilter second!

8 comments:

Bobbie BentNeedle said...

Tanya,
Your feathered star IS very blue - it looks almost like snowflakes to me, and as we are starting to get some really warm weather here in southeast Texas (just above Houston), it looks marvelously refreshing. I love the lattice around them, too. (And I keep trying to NOT look too hard at Bonnie's Orange Crush - I've got too many "irons in the fire" already - and I also have that housekeeping thing that I'm WAYYYYY behind on!)

artfilstitch said...

You are so focused....The feathered star is wonderful and the blue is very striking. What size are you going to end up with?
Enjoy your blog and look forward to hearing about your life in Japan each day. You make us feel as though we are next door!
Thanks,
Liz

The Calico Quilter said...

Good job! I've never had the nerve to tackle a feathered star. Can't wait to see the finished flimsy.

anne bebbington said...

That blue is very BLUE! but all the more gorgeous for it - I think it'll look wonderful when it's all together - can't imagine getting one feathered star together never mind 12!

dot said...

The feathered stars are beautiful!!!!

Shelina said...

That's great that you can do that much sewing, and still were able to get so much cleaning done. The feathered stars are looking wonderful - the sashing fabric do change the blocks, but in a good way.

Marilyn R said...

A Feathered Star quilt is on my list of "want to make". Someday. Your's are wonderful!

Elaine Adair said...

Twelve? You have 12 feathered stars??? That's a winner in my book. Yes, it's really blue but you know, that's what would catch the eyes in a Quilt Show! Do you enter your quilts in any shows? Your work is quite spectacular.