Tuesday, June 26, 2012
I started a new knitting project this morning before breakfast. I have some baby wool and wanted to do something with it, but without much of any one colour I wasn’t sure how to use it up. Kathryn gave me her pattern for baby caps so I’m going to try it out. If it works, I’ll make caps for the basket of gifts each of the BOND mothers receive when their babies are born.
I got the spacer pieces for my Butterfly quilt cut first thing this morning at the bee. Next up was to prepare the appliqué pieces for the flowers. As I was patiently tracing away, my friend Barb called over and said, “What are you doing it like that for?”
She then proceeded to show me a much more efficient way of tracing the petals for my twelve flowers. I saved a lot of Steam a Seam doing it her way. Next I was placing those petals on some squares of fabric and again Barb called over, “Aren’t you getting at least three petals on those squares?” I knew that three on the square were possible, but I was getting lazy. After her reprimand though I squeezed them up and ended up with extra squares for my stash.
I didn’t quite finish the appliqué pieces, but I think I can get them done tonight. My next step on this project will be sewing the top together – always a big moment when the piecing is done!
A fellow quilter was stitching down some binding today and asked me for some help in joining the two ends. I’m quite confident in doing it on my own pieces, but telling someone else how you do it is completely different. I suggested she check with Barb. Barb taught several of us (because when Barb is teaching something we all listen) a new way of binding that doesn’t require any of that overlap by 2 ½” (except I use 2 ¼” because otherwise it doesn’t lay flat) measurements. This particular method will work well on those smaller pieces that I always have trouble with!
We all had a good laugh at the expense of one of our quilters. Her husband always brings her machine and gets it set up a half hour or so before Annie arrives. Today she walked in with her project box and got all ready to sew. All of a sudden she let out a big whoop – “I forgot my quilt!” She doesn’t live far from the Senior Center so she was able to zip home and get it.
We do have fun at our bees!