One Thing Leads to Another

Well, I started with the little squares I had cut from the leftover charms, and I made the little basket (which I forgot to take a picture of -- oops). And then I thought about using some of the squares I had left to make up a hot pad. Like this:

I took a bunch of photos and meant to write it up last weekend and then accidentally deleted the photos. (Oops, again!)

So I made up another so I could take some photos.

To begin, I once again used Pellon's 1" fusible grid interfacing. I cut 12 by 12 on the squares and then cut out a two inch square from each corner.

I laid out thirty-two 2" squares on the grid and pressed.

After folding over and sewing as usual, I made a small cut at the corners to meet the seam line.

I also trimmed off a wee bit from the seam allowance.

The little cut I made meant I could press open the seams at the cut-out corners as well.

Seams all sewn and pressed! So fast and easy. I love it.

After I grabbed a bit of spare batting, I settled for some easy straight line quilting.

I used the AccuQuilt GO! 8" circle die to cut out the hot pad circles--  the cross lines make it easy to center the patchwork.

So I ran the pieced and quilted section thru, and then a little Insul-Bright, a backing piece, and another piece of batting. Easy peasy.

So, it may have taken be a little longer to get there, but this little duo accounts for my GO! Sew Challenge for last week and this week. Whew. That's good, because this quilter just had a very nasty bout of food poisoning, or maybe the flu, and I am wrung out. Writing this up is the only thing I've accomplished all day. I could use better photos or perhaps more time in Photoshop but, hey, sometimes good enough is good enough, right?

And, as Scarlett said, Tomorrow is another day!

Gotta Sew!

Gotta sew! -- despite sewing room challenges. I've staged a coup on the dining room table. So progress IS being made. For one, I managed to sew all the GO! Tumbler rows together.

Isn't that pretty? Having got it to this stage though, I'm pretty sure I need to add one or two more rows. From this angle it looks plenty long, but that's my camera skills for you. When I hold it up, I can see it needs to be a little longer. It's destined to be a lap quilt that a guy could use --  so while it is plenty long enough for little ol' height-challenged me, it's not long enough for the male contingent. Perhaps by next weekend it will be ready for borders.

I sewed up the latest Westering Women block from Barbara Brackman. Was I the only quilter to find this block an absolute pain in the neck to sew? My inset seam skills abandoned me. I am afraid I periodically used language unbecoming a gentlewoman and scholar.  Still, the block did come out to size in the end. (That had quite a bit to do with a hot iron, steam, elbow grease and determination.)

And there's some more GO! work ahead. For one, it's never too early to start holiday sewing, is it? This year I'm making up some little baskets using Pink Penguin's basket tutorial. It's a good use of leftover charms, for one.

The basket pattern calls for 2" squares and I have a 2" GO! die, so that's perfect.

A few years ago, I gave myself a GO! Challenge to use the 2" inch die and cut up charms into entirely useable pieces. You can see the results of that here.  This time I wasn't aiming to be that frugal. I was entirely fine with just getting four 2" squares per charm.

A few passes through the GO! and I've got a happy little assortment to play with.

When I make up the basket pattern, I like to use Pellon's Fusible 1" grid. It speeds up the sewing process and gives the basket a little extra body as well. Here it is with the first set of seams sewn. (I created a couple tutorials on using the Pellon grid that you can find here and here.)

And in no time I've got the two patched sets I need for a basket. So cute!

And there's lots more to keep me busy this coming week.  GO! Sew indeed.