There were a few challenges thrown my way once I started to sew the blocks together. I had already sewn 3 strips of 5 blocks each when I noticed that the pattern join between them was not consistent. Instead of interlocking triangles, I was getting some joins that did not interlock and yet some that also did not interlock but in the opposite direction. Sigh. The quilt is so busy with color and pattern that I could probably have gotten away with leaving it be, but I didn't like it.
I had followed the pattern's instructions which said to sew a triangle on "two adjacent corners" for the border blocks and "on one corner" for the corner blocks. It did not mention which 2 corners and it also did not mention that it's important. I was a bit bumbed out about it and at about that time I had to make a trip to NY, so I simply let it be while I took care of duties. On my way back from NY I decided I could make due by sewing a triangle on every corner of every block therefor allowing me to orient them as needed to achieve the interlocking triangles between blocks. This has altered the way the edge of the quilt looks, but unless you know what the pattern looks like in the book you'd never know. I rather like it this way anyway! Win.
The other challenge came when I went to pick it up from the long-arm. There was a pucker of about 3/8" extra fabric along one edge and it was pretty noticeable. As it turns out I have not been sewing my borders correctly! The woman at the shop was very generous in explaining to me how to sew borders on to achieve squareness, with opposite sides of the quilt being equal in length. Lesson learned, new technique in my arsenal. I was able to alleviate the pucker through a little ingenuity. As luck would have it, there was no quilting running across the pucker so I was able to make a slit in the backing behind the pucker which allowed the pucker to relax. It worked perfectly and I sewed a piece of backing fabric across the slit on the back of the quilt and will place my label over that making the whole affair invisible! Win.
While the quilt was at the shop being quilted I made a bag for shopping. One of several I hope to make. Now that we're more conscious of the environment and the excess amount of plastic we throw away, I'm bringing my own bags for grocery shopping. The black fabric I used for the side pockets look like suede but it's only cotton!
I started another bag today and I'm making this one bigger.
A wave of motivation to put up some preserves came over me during this past month and I made some ambrosia conserve, some spiced honey orange slices, and some spiced honey jelly. The jelly was an impromptu affair resulting from the left-over sauce from making the orange slices. I simply added a tablespoon of pectin to it, brought it up to setting temperature and processed it. Quite an excellent jelly which I will make again.
The temperatures here have finally started to rise and we lost considerable snow these past few days. There is still an amount to go but I suspect it will be gone by end of month. It feels good. 'Twas over 60 yesterday and I opened the front door to let some fresh air come sweeping in.
I have some Dahlia tubers set in some potting soil in the bathroom from which I'll take cuttings once they are a few inches high. I learned this technique from a wonderful gardener in the UK. I do love Dahlias.
