Jack and his chain has me fascinated

The Jack's Chain is an interesting pattern, and challenging with its combination of triangles, hexagons and nine patches. Y seams!!!

In recent years I've vowed to prioritize and only start new projects that I absolutely cannot resist doing. The projects I lose sleep over because I'm constantly trying to figure it out.
The normal Jack's Chain is not one of those projects. Circles arranged tidily next to each other, it's a pretty pattern, but didn't cross my threshold of "must-do" patterns.

Then came Ring Cycles, a pattern by Lessa Siegele.
Her trick, which drove me to distraction, goes like this.
Jack's Chain traditional patterns generally have the blocks abutting each other, nine patch to nine patch.
Ring Cycles abuts triangles instead. Put enough of them together and you have interlocking circles. That put me over the top. I bought the pattern, the fabric, had someone laser cut the pieces for me, and I'm off. My obsession of 2017 (and probably 2018 as well).
On the left are the fabrics I've chosen, all Philip Jacobs.

testing pens on fabric

Before I buy any more pens to write on fabric, I thought I'd check and see how well the ones I already had worked.
The big picture below shows the progress from the original writing on freezer paper-backed muslin, through handwashing and finally machine washing hot. Below that are the individual scans.
The grayness on the handwashing is from the ink, but from the machine washing it's also from some new batiks I washed. There was quite a bit of ink released, judging by the darkness of the two color catchers I used.
My conclusion? I can use the Edding 8400 CD marker without worry. The Stabilo OH Pen Universal and the Staedtler Permanent Lumocolor can also be used, but I need to be careful to write lightly.

Cutting squares

Sometimes I notice that I'm a little too emotionally attached to a piece of fabric. That's why this latest swap from the Black Forest Guild is good therapy for me.
We are creating sheets of 20 squares and swapping them. Each sheet (in my case 1/4 of an A4 piece of paper) has to contain 20 different fabrics.
My goal is to get as many sheets as possible so I can make a Triple Irish Chain quilt. Last time I calculated, I'll need about 1200 squares, so I need to make about 50 sheets.
Finally I've got my system down so I can cut lots of squares at once.
First I grab all the fabric in one of my 12 drawers, organized by color.
Then I cut 2 1/2 inch strips from each.
Next, I iron the strips, 5 strips on top of each other, with the shortest lengths on top.
From each stack of strips I use my favorite ruler to cut 10 inch lengths. I can fit 2 strip sets under my ruler.
Finally I cut, using a brand new blade, 10 squares at a time.
Makes the work much easier.

Ingrid's quilt is progressing

Here the quilting is done. Now I have to clean the edges so I can do the edge finish. This quilt will have a knife edge finish, since the three pieces are attached to each other. Binding just wouldn't look right. The third piece doesn't get quilted- it will just be stiffened so it can hang nicely.

My connecting method will have to be adapted. At first I thought I could just connect the pieces with beads, but it's clear that the beads are too small to support the whole quilt. Now I'm thinking I will take small strips of yellow and sew beads onto them. 

There are 8 decorative stitches which comprise the quilting. Each stitch on the top piece is aligned with the same stitch on the bottom piece. Here are a couple of pics.

 

 

Victory!!! City Tracks done

Hah! and you thought I couldn't do it. It took part of one DVD and a whole Tatort crime show.
Here are some grainy pictures, but it's now in its new home on our coffee table.

 

New project - gonna get 'er done this weekend

At least I think I'll get it done. It's a table runner, adapted from the book City Quilts, check out Cherri House's books at quilts at her blog http://lizzyhouse.typepad.com/cherry_house_quilts/
I've adapted her City Tracks quilt to table runner size, chose 7 different colors, and used some scrap black fabric.
One goal is to finish City Tracks this weekend, mainly because I'm trying to get some completed projects under my belt. I've been starting too many projects lately and not finishing enough, it's quite dissatisfying.
Here are the blocks - now I'm off again upstairs to keep going! Arrgh - I took a break after laying out the quilt so I could go back later and look for major flaws. There are some. First the purples are all going the same direction. The two reds in the center row have exactly the same fabric in the same position, and the two yellows in column 4 are the same fabrics in the same direction. Gotta change those, but I'd better be careful - it's exactly thoughts like this that keep me from finishing a project.

Birgit vs Steffi - the great Piluki battle

Today was my last day at work for the year. It's been a long week, but today was particularly nice, because I got everything done early and could go home early.
Now to start on my many holiday projects.
What to do first? I finally settled on something just for me, a piluki. I'd been wanting to make one since Birgit sent me the instructions 6 months ago, and wanted it even more after Steffi demoed it for me at the Bad Herrenalb retreat. But there was never any time - always another project, always something more urgent.
Today I said, Enough! - I'm taking my precious gift of time and giving myself something, the piluki.

But which method? Birgit put a lot of effort in the instructions, so I started with them.
Honestly, though, my poor addled brain couldn't handle the "fold this way, then fold that way, then flip and do it again in the other direction" instructions. So I turned to Steffi's instructions:

1. Make a quilt sandwich
2. Add the zipper
3. Fold the cylinder so it goes the way it's supposed to 
4. Sew the ends of the cylinder shut, being careful to open the zipper enough so you can turn it.

How did it turn out? Pretty good, even though I could have finished the lining a little more neatly.
Here are the pictures.
Who won the battle? Birgit's fabulous pics kept me on track, but Steffi's folding instructions work better for me. Ultimately, I think they make a great team. They ought to do these things together, maybe we make a video of Steffi doing the project and Birgit makes sure she does it right. Heehee.
Enjoy!

Love this tool!

The great big handle for the larger quilt rules seems too awkward for me, so I never bought one.
However, when I saw this one for the smaller rulers, I decided to try it.
I use small square rules often, both metric and inch, and use my 6 1/2 inch by 12 inch ruler just as often.
This handle can be used for all of them and makes it much easier to move them around.
And, by the way, I use the non-skid plastic on all of my Omnigrid rulers, and it really helps. 

An embarrassment of riches

At our quilt guild meeting last night, I did something I'd never done before - I won the BOM! We have 2 BOMs at each meeting, and I'd never even won one before. But last night I won both the Beginners and the Advanced block sets. I was overwhelmed and thrilled.

Now the reality has set in - what shall I do with these beauties? One set is a flower, and there are 6 or 7 of those 10 inch blocks. The other set is a scrappy green block, and there are about a dozen of them. I'm thinking that I will split the scrappy green ones, and use them as a border around the flowers. I may add a flower block or two, depending on layout. What do you think?
But it needs something more, so I'm thinking about adding some flying geese to the mix, maybe as sashing, or as another border. I am so looking forward to seeing what this becomes - it will be my first scrappy quilt.

Quilted postcard - first one

This was a lot of fun, figuring out how to make a postcard from fabric. I just took scraps and an idea in my head, and went to work. This is what appeared.
I pieced the tree with some white fabric, then appliqued the bird on top. Finally I finished by stitching the word Thanks on my Bernina and ironed it on.
I'll do more postcards, it was so easy and simple to be creative.

A second welcome - adding hobbies to this blog

Hi everyone,
After allowing this blog to languish (we traveled, but did not post), I decided to add photos and posts about my passion, quilting.

Look forward to more posts about travel, but also plenty of content about quilting and sewing.
The picture in this post is my current hand quilt project, a Grandmother's Flower Garden (GFG).

Fabric-holically yours,
Karen