30/30 Sewing Challenge - Update 4

Ok this week was much better as far as sewing goes, but it was a really tough week otherwise.  I sewed more this week but as you will see in some of the photos, tired sewing is not a good thing.  I was determined to have a better week and so on Saturday when I got off work I started finishing the borders on my kissing booth quilt.  I was down to the last two borders and so it went together easily.  I love that sense of accomplishment when a top or quilt is done. It is a good size, I am not tall enough to hold it all up off the ground.  Which means it will be good for me to tuck under my feet and still reach my ears (the perfect quilt length to me).

On Sunday I pieced the back for my disappearing nine patch that was going on the long arm next. Then I had to iron it and the top, since the top has been folded away for months.  I love the colors on this one, the yellows are just so springy to me.  I think my photos of the back are on my ipad at home, and the only photo I have is of the top on the ironing board. I also loaded the top and back onto the long arm.

Monday meant quilting day.  I got the batting in place, turned on my tunes and started quilting.  I will say I love with the thread blends, but that also can lead to a few crossed over lines.  This is a fairly large quilt, and so it took me a good three hours to quilt, maybe a little more.  Of course I had to stop and play with Hollywood in between rows.  He has learned when the sewing stops to run into the room and beg for attention then, because when the machine is running I ignore him. I took a photo just as I was on the last pass.  I will say it over and over, I love my Handiquilter!!!!

Tuesday was grocery shopping day, laundry day, etc.  But it was also binding day.  I actually got the binding pieced on Monday and sewn to the back because I knew Tuesday was going to be a busy day. Once I got home I went to work on finishing the quilt and it was done fairly quickly.  I threw it up onto the frame to get a picture and who decided he needed to be in the photo....that would be Hollywood.

I decided cut out a practice block for my next test quilt on Tuesday night.  It is more half square triangles and I wanted to do a different method than the pattern described.  The HST were very easy to do with this method but they came out just a little bit small, but I decided to trim them up anyway and piece the block. Still love the new Bloc-Loc ruler, it really does make trimming those HST so much easier.

Now piecing the block is where things really fell apart.  First I cut two pieces too big and didn't realize it until I had already started sewing the block together.  Now the smart thing would have been to rip out and cut down, but to my tired brain that idea seemed hard.  Since it was just a test to see if I liked the colors, I just forced it.  But I really was tired because I put it together all wrong.  I looked at it and knew something wasn't right, but decided that I just needed to go to bed.

Now Wednesday was just a rough day.  Things were very stressful at Sharla's office, and they had a big job that needed to go out Wednesday morning.  We got to her office very early and I ended up staying there for a couple of hours to help her, before going to my office for a very hectic day. So by the time we got home we were both very very tired, but I wanted to get some sewing done. I had decided to switch the pink and purple and wanted to test using a little larger fabric.  I was able to get the block together, but when the designer saw it on Instagram, she noticed I still sewed it wrong.  That bottom left is still not sewn correctly. I did learn that I liked the pink and purple switched and even more important I learned sewing tired is not a good thing to do!!!

On Thursday I knew I was still too tired to try and sew, so instead I started cutting out the rest of the test quilt.  I didn't get it completed, but I made a good dent in it.  I just cut and watched some TV to give myself a little down time.

On Friday I had hit the wall.  I just was tired and neither Sharla or I was willing to do much.  In fact dinner was pickles/olives/crackers/cheese.  Yeah it was a gourmet night.  But once I rested for a little while I thought I could cut some more.  I'm still not finished cutting, but I've made some more progress. And no the blue and yellow aren't for the test quilt.  They are borders for a quilt Sharla is doing.

So that was my week.  My test blocks were a bust, but I learn something doing them.  And I finished a quilt top, finished a quilt and got most of another quilt cut. So overall I'm very happy with my progress. I think I've reached all of my goals for the month and still have a few days left over. I've quilted and finished one quilt each week this month, I've cut and pieced my kissing booth turning twenty quilt top, and I've started work on my test quilt.