What does DONE look like?

Does anyone else struggle with prioritizing your own projects?

I'm really good at prioritizing other people's time but not so good at my own.  I wonder if that's why so many women go outside of the home to work, even when they don't have to do it for financial reasons.

Not only is it a struggle for me to prioritize my projects, it's really easy for me to feel overwhelmed with ALL the things I want to complete.  Shall I list all the quilts I've already put fabrics together to make?  How about the foreign language I want to learn?  And don't forget sewing for my own wardrobe or re-learning how to play the piano.  See what I mean?

One of the things I've struggled with is whether to do my own quilting, and I have decided not to do it myself right now.  There are several nearby women who charge really reasonable rates so I'll hire one to quilt my Hunter's Star quilt.  I need to get it completed by mid-July.  Totally done.  I hate the fact that I'm so far behind on my husband's Minecraft quilt so that might allow me the luxury of catching up on those blocks.  I really need some clothes too.  All of mine are too big.  Hooray!!!

My husband has been teaching me to apply AGILE project management techniques to everything I do, starting with the idea of knowing when I am done.  We just painted our main living area that houses the kitchen/dining/family rooms.  My husband painted the ceiling and I painted the walls with some help from my daughter.  I'm super happy with the result!

The room used to be a slate grey and is now a sand dollar color.  I need to buy about a quart of paint more to finish the kitchen.  Then it will be DONE!  I love the room so much more now.  Slate grey is not a color that encourages a family to gather around.  It's just a more warm, inviting place to be now.  For the first time since we have moved into the house, I go into the family room to sit and read or visit.  I think we bought 7 different colors to try on the walls before we found the one we liked best.

My Hunter's Star quilt tormented me all the while though.  It's fully pieced together, but the borders haven't been cut out or added.  Like I said, so had the Minecraft quilt so Saturday I talked it out with my husband and dropped some projects and prioritized some.  Most of the quilts will wait until next fall and winter so I have time to spend with my husband and daughter! I also decided to let someone else have the fun/headache of quilting the Hunter's Star.  Done for the Hunter's Star means to complete the quilt top in time to give it to my selected recipients (a secret.)  It does NOT have to be quilted by me.  I have gone through a Craftsy class to learn to quilt with a walking foot, and I've figured out how I could quilt that blanket, but I have a super short time frame to learn to do it well enough and then have to do it on such a large piece.  I've done just enough to begin to believe that I really enjoy the design and piecing part but not the quilting so much.

Today, though, I'm taking a break from all of that to do the Zombie Pigman.  We're heading out on vacation as soon as my daughter finishes her last final so this may be my only chance to do anything creative.  I have doctor appointments tomorrow and Tuesday and then I'm checking my daughter out of school early on her last week so she doesn't have to sit in the hall while her English class watches an R-rated show that I don't think appropriate.  (She agreed with that assessment and doubly so when she found out I was fine with getting her out of school a couple of hours early.  Bonus!)  Next week will be soon enough to add the borders onto my Hunter's Star quilt.

My colors are selected for the Zombie Pigman and I will be beginning as soon as I sign off here!

The lesson for the day is a simple reminder to allow yourself to take time for creativity, don't burden yourself with too many projects, and define what DONE looks like.

Major milestone celebration!

April 18 saw my first Instagram picture of my Hunter's Star quilt so I guess that was close to when I began it.  I cut the layer cake into 4 squares as of that date.

Now I have the pieced part DONE!

And um, it feels like I've been working on this forever.  Can I hear Celebrate! now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M

The back isn't pretty, the 1/4" seams are far from perfect, the seams aren't always pressed to one side, and the seams didn't always nestle together because they had to go the same direction, but it's DONE and it actually looks pretty.

Miracles happen.  Every day.

Hunter's Star (long)

Oh my!  I thought I had posted more about my Hunter's Star Quilt that I am making.  The last post addressed that quilt, but that is the only post about it that I could find.  So sorry about that!  Here's a picture of the quilt on my design wall (from Fons and Porter--a little bit short but it will do better than the floor!)

Several months ago, I watched Jenny Doan's quilt tutorial about how to make the Hunter's Star quilt.  I fell in love with that quilt and bought the exact fabrics that she used.  What I didn't realize was that the Hunter's Star was a more advanced quilt block, even using her simplified instructions.   There are a few things I wish I had noted earlier:

1)  I needed one more charm pack of the print fabric in order to follow the same schematics as the tutorial.  There are far fewer purplish prints in either the charm pack or layer cake than any other color.  I actually raided my stash from the floating square quilt for one additional square because I ran short after buying the extra charm pack.

2)  The hunter's star is broken into four quadrants on her quilt, hence the need for more charms and unpicking.

3)  I wish I had ordered the Block magazine's Holiday 2015 issue because that's where the written directions are contained (I think.)

4)  I would highly recommend using only two colors for a first quilt, such as blue and white, red and white, batik and solid, a single print and solid, and so forth rather than a mixed print.  It wouldn't be so hard to coordinate.

4)  On another tangent, the Block magazine is fabulous reading!  I just received and devoured the spring 2016 issue.  Get the paper mag!!!  I know it's just another thing to store, but I'm finding I'm printing out a lot of pictures from the tutorials and Google searches.  The magazine is cheaper, I think.  Here's another quilt I want to make.  I love this green shade because it makes me think of my mother.  She loves this shade of green.  I may or may not have ordered the fabrics. :-) The 4-patch and strips quilt also drew my eye but I'm more inclined to pick my own fabrics for that so there's no rush.

Back to the Hunter's Star

The steps to creating the Hunter's Star quilt:

Make the half-square triangles for the 28 star blocks.  Hopefully your math will be better than mine!  Then you trim each of those down to 2 3/4 inch squares and trim off the tag ends.

Some of these are trimmed while others are waiting to be cut down.

All trimmed!

Next, lay them up into the star blocks.  The second time around, I put the colors in quadrants.  After unpicking seven whole scrappy-style stars.  

I HIGHLY recommend laying out each set of stars before sewing them together so you can be sure the prints play well together.  Then I found that the backs were easier to work with (and will probably be simpler to quilt) if I sewed each row together before attaching one row to another.  In the tutorial, Jenny sewed each quadrant together, but the bulky seams are atrocious doing it that way.  (Another unpicking session resulted for me when I realized that.)  I don't have pictures--I'm sorry!

For memories' sake: (I got lots of practice unpicking stitches!)

Note that there are two kinds of stars.  One moves to the right and the other to the left (12 and 16 of the respective blocks) so pay attention to the pattern: (Here's the sketches I mocked up.)

After that, piecing together 28 of the 4-patch blocks will seem easy peasy!  Take the white and print charms and sew them together--again according to the instructions.  You will rotate these on the quilt so the prints have to be in the top right and bottom left corners when you piece the blocks together.

And finally, we get to the final lay up on the design wall.

Seven blocks across and eight down.  The first row begins and end with star blocks from the stack of 16.  Orient the blocks according to the tutorial.  The second row uses the star blocks from the stack of 12 with the 4-patch blocks going the opposite direction from the ones in the first row.  I'm pretty sure I got that right.  Jenny kept talking about the orientation of the print, but I got lost there.  I'm a visual learner so pictures did the trick for me.

Last step is to sew all the blocks together before dealing with the borders and binding.  I'm toying with using the remaining charm squares by piecing them into a binding strip.

Quilting and repentance

My husband sat down with me several days ago to help me figure out how many more half-square triangles I would need.  So far, none of my calculations have worked out correctly!  In the process, he helped me identify the color pattern on the quilt on Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorial that made the star and secondary arrow pop into view.  

When I began this quilt, I understood that it was to have a scrappy look and didn't see that the display quilt coordinated the colors in a set pattern.  They separated each star into 4 quadrants with blues in one corner, green in another, coral in another, and purple in the last.  If you follow that pattern, their material listing works perfectly and the quilt will have a cohesive quality.  If you use two main colors, one for the stars and one for the background, it also works, but if you randomly place the colored pieces that coordinate but do not match, the effect will be more confusing and lack continuity.  The stars will not pop out and neither will the arrows.

I had already completed 6 blocks of the Hunter's Star, 3 of the stars facing one direction and 3 facing the other.  I changed how I was placing my pieces and made the next 13 blocks in the 2nd block.  As I completed those, I realized I was down to a very limited number of prints and colors so I could either 1) buy another charm pack to make up the difference or 2) unpick those 6 blocks I had initially completed.  If I chose option 1, I would need to purchase more background fabric as well.  

I began unpicking.

That little white doo-dad has been called a sewist's best friend and her worst enemy.  Friend, because you can fix all wrongs.  Enemy, because there are mistakes that need correction.

I suppose I could have also tried to tuck the confusing blocks in between the cohesive ones and hoped that they would blend into the whole.  After all, I'm giving it away and may never see it again.  On the other hand, I've invested a lot of time and money into this quilt and I'm not happy about not receiving the pleasure of seeing it looking good.

Make no mistake about my quest for perfectionism.  I have plenty of imperfect 1/4" seams and other mistakes, but those do not affect the overall look or functionality of the quilt.  The seams will hold.  It might be slightly more difficult to quilt, but I'll be machine quilting it anyway instead of hand sewing.  Those are not critical errors.  

Mostly though, I want this quilt to represent my love for those whom I am giving the quilt.  They have helped piece my life into a beautiful pattern, through my scrapes and not-as-good decisions.  They helped me continue through hard times like my imperfect seams, and they never stopped loving me.  Sometimes I had to completely change course and do things again--the right way.  For that reason, I'm unpicking these seams so I can have a more beautiful result just as I want to have a more beautiful result to present to my Heavenly Father someday.

Likewise, that's the whole reason for repentance.  We make mistakes, sometimes grievous sins, and we need to take sometimes whole sections of our lives apart and begin again.  In ourselves, we don't have the ability, but with love and support from our families and our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can do it.  We can make a better life.  A happier life.

Amazingly, unlike these quilt pieces that still show tiny holes and pressing marks, our lives can be whole without little holes around the edges.  We are changed, just as my quilt will be changed, but our lives can be made new as if we had not made those errors or committed those sins.  

The answer lies in continuing to reach out to our Lord, Jesus Christ.  There is no other answer and there is nowhere any peace like the one that comes as we reach out to Him.  But as the song, When Someone Cares tells, 

And with God nothing is impossible,

 but you must reach and take his hand.

 With him nothing is impossible.

Those who have ears to hear will understand.

The blind could see, 

The lame man could walk away,

And lives still change from night to day when they know that someone cares

They know that someone cares,  when they know that someone cares.

And so I am continuing to unpick what took a very short time to make in the first place in my incomplete understanding of what I was doing.  

Just like life.  There is always hope, and it is never too late.  However, if I had persisted in continuing with my scrap happy method even after I understood the better way, I would have far more than 6 blocks to unpick and would have spent far more time with my little seam ripper than I ever wish to spend!  Again, so is life.  If we procrastinate changing, the changes become far more painful and difficult to complete.  

It is never too late, but it is also none too soon to begin even if you have to unpick many times over before you learn enough.  But it is in the trying and trying again where we learn and become strong.  Trust God and trust Him again.  He will never leave us even though we often falter in our imperfection.  He knows that and loves us anyway.  As the song teaches though, WE must reach out and take HIS hand.  His hand is already stretched out.

Just dreaming

Today I'm starching fabric that I prewashed for my Christmas quilt back.  According to Leah Day, it's a good idea to prewash fabrics that might bleed.  I'm using two fabrics (haven't decided which of the off-white prints to use--opinions anyone?) for the back, chiefly because I don't have enough of one fabric to do the entire back.  I don't prewash my precuts though.  I was concerned about the blue so I washed the off-white so they wouldn't pull at each other.

I love my puppy dog (who isn't so young anymore; note the white muzzle) and thought he looked very gentle tucked in between the fabrics!  (He's a very large Lab, actually classed as a giant by weight, but he looks small here. While he is packing about 15 pounds too much, the vet thinks he is close to what he should weigh so there has to be some mixed breeding in him somewhere.)

Wish List 

I MUST stop looking at more and more quilt designs.  Here's are additions to my list of my new faves that are unfortunately going to have to wait.  I need to finish some quilts that are already on my shelves!

Here's my wish list:

Surprise Pinwheels by Missouri Star Quilt Company.  

Heck, MSQC is my real downfall because they send their daily newsletters with luscious fabric deals every single morning, often with links to beautiful quilt tutorials.  I really need to unsubscribe but totally don't want to.  I'm champing at the bit to receive my April issue of their Block magazine.  I remember my Grandma Jones saying that she loved to read cookbooks and thinking, "How weird is that?"  Umm, yeah.  I get it, Grandma!

Disclaimer:  By the way, except for being on their frequent buyer list, MSQC doesn't know I'm alive.  I am not paid for sending traffic their way or anyone else's way for that matter.  I WISH they would send me free fabric though. :-) If they want to send me the fabric for this quilt, I will toss everything else aside to get it done!

Hope Takes Flight by Robert Kaufman (I've considered doing this as a back so it forms a 2-sided quilt.  Not sure how I'd fashion the quilting though--maybe just an all-over pattern?) 

Speaking of which, the Robert Kaufman site has tons of printable, free patterns.  From what I can see, it also lists stores where you can buy the fabric along with the stock numbers.

P.S.  You can Google the quilt names and find them almost instantly!

When to say it's good enough!

I took a lengthy break from Minecraft skins, but I finished the Witch after completing the placemats.  Here she is.  (My daughter informs me that witches are always girls and boys are called warlocks.  The Harry Potter world certainly reinforces that idea.)

Back to Minecraft.

The witch caused me a lot of issues because it didn't make sense to me.  My husband helped me pick colors until he asked, "Would it help if you saw the character on the game?"

Immediately I responded, "Yes!"

Once I saw the pixellated figure on screen, I could see what I couldn't figure out before.  Unfortunately what I saw made me realize that Kelli had really simplified this and other blocks into something a beginning quilter could handle and have that important sense of accomplishment.  These animated figures are *highly* pixelated.  There is another quilter that I've seen on Instagram that works with probably 1- or 2-inch squares in order to attain that pixelated look.  I tweaked the colors that I used in this version because of seeing the real one, but I'm not sure I'm totally happy with it.

What I changed

Skin

The first thing I noticed is that the witch has grey skin, not flesh tone, so that made picking that color easy.  I've run out of the skin tone so I was searching for the next best color.  That picture above doesn't show the grey very well so you'll have to trust me.  It's light grey.

Top Row

I had to really study this to see what this figure was depicting.  You need to know that the witch is wearing a pointy hat.  There is a vivid green jewel or something at the front right above the brim, and then that green extends around the hat like a greyed-out green ribbon.  I didn't have fabric that looked remotely like that so I opted for the dark grey instead.  It would make more sense if you saw the hat continued to go up to a point, but there isn't room on the block.  By the way, the blue in the top two corners is sky.  I wished for a different blue fabric but didn't have anything I was willing to cut into.

The Black and Brown Strips

I'm still struggling with this or actually.  The witch should have a strip of skin exposed between her/his eyebrow and hat brim because his eyebrow should be black.  It's a unibrow so I'm calling it in the singular!  Obviously there would be no difference between the hat and brow if they were both black so I used dark brown for the brow.  

Nose

Yes, that's a nose.  Go figure.  My husband pointed out that the witch has a mole so I appliquéd one onto the witch's nose.  I also used a lighter shade of brown for her nose because, in my opinion, skin and hair should not match no matter what color either one is.  

Summary

Overall, I think this looks a turkey with a Pilgrim hat.  However, my all-important judge (my husband) is pleased with the overall effect.  I suspect I'm going to struggle with the translation between the actual pixelation and the blocks.  Knowing what the character looks like helps me translate the block, but I'm struggling with that perfection thing again.

Okay, that's my answer.  I'm leaving it alone and moving to the next one, the Zombie Pigman.  Yeah, I struggled with whether to leave that one as is or pixelate it too.  I'm leaving it.  I won't enjoy making it if I have to figure out how to do the pixelation, to say nothing of having to buy more fabric of the various colors.  Besides, the blocks wouldn't work together if I changed stride mid-stream!

Speaking of fabric, I'm out of skin tone and nearly out of black.  I'm beginning to wonder if I needed all the colors in the fat quarter pack since there are several I've not touched yet.  There are still a lot of blocks left though!

Almost there

It is amazing how slowly placemats can come together.  I finally finished the third one; can you believe it?  I've been learning a lot about putting together quilts though.  Today I sewed on the binding and the corners weren't laying down flat so I had to go back to watch some tutorials of how to do it.  I finally got it right.  Or almost right anyway.  Missing something still because the binding is still puckering slightly at the corners.  The placemat is laying straight and the puckering isn't noticeable.

I ran out of bobbin thread on the third placemat which took the rest of the spool.  Unfortunately, I didn't look closely enough and went out to Joann's to buy more thread.  When I got back home, I reorganized my thread holder and found another spool.

Oh well.  I'l be needing that color for the Flag blanket I'm doing next.  Unless I back and quilt the pink blanket next.  So many quilts to make and finish with close deadlines.

Here's my freshly made binding:

My daughter started making a dragon today since she is on spring break.  It is cut out and its arms are made.  I think.  She's finding out how challenging tiny pieces can be!  The pattern is available on Etsy.  Cute, huh?!  (Hers will be more of a turquoise-y color because that's what I had on hand from a sweatsuit I was going to make when I was 20-something.)

I love being able to make quilts, dragons, etc. out of my stash although I'm not sure I like what it's saying about my long-time fabric addiction.  I'm really glad I have all of it on hand right now though.  I wouldn't be able to satisfy this urge to create without it.  A lot of it came from a woman in Ohio who was clearing out her stash a year or so ago.  Not a day goes by that I'm not grateful to her!