Seven Rows Now

One good thing about my mess-up on Monday is that when I finished piecing a row today, I could add TWO rows without any more sewing!

My goal for this quilt is to have 16 rows wide. I am nearly halfway there!

Here is my Texas Braid with seven rows. Only nine more to go. I will cut some more bricks when I get back from errands. I have some clear shoe boxes that I keep small scraps in. Since the acquisition of my sister's stash (nearly 600 yards), those boxes are overflowing. I must deplete them a little this afternoon if there is time. I want to start cutting fabrics for a "tumbler" quilt, which I've always thought of as a thimble quilt. The shape of the pieces reminds me of thimbles. I want it scrappy (what else?), so this is a good opportunity to cut out a bunch of unique pieces for that.


Isn't it strange how entirely different people's lives are from each other's? My errands are going to be picking up 7 fifty-pound bags of wheat berries, taking my daughter to take her driver's license test, and preparing to interpret our Christmas service at church tonight for a deaf man. How are you spending YOUR day?

~Joan

Emily's Engagement Ring

My Emily is a unique girl (like everyone else). She does not like diamonds. I wouldn't go as far as to say she HATES diamonds, but there is a strong negative emotion going on there. She says they look cold. Some may choose to differ. Her fiance (I can barely grasp that I actually typed that word in reference to one of my children's relationships for the first time) did good. Here is a picture of her engagement ring...

It is so perfect for her.

Off to the races,

~Joan

I've Gained a Son!!

This is the best picture I can do for right now. Steve asked Emily to marry him today, and she. said. YES!!

~Joan

How the Mighty Have Fallen

I was so proud of my sewing efforts today. It's been a packed day with doing my thing at the Y, visiting 5 different stores, mailing off my flannel quilt to be machine quilted, planning a get-together for 30 for tomorrow night (at my house), etc., etc. That was all before lunch!

It's my laundry day, so I planned to sew while processing that. I was pushing myself along, and was so happy to get another braid row finished. When I went to sew it to the rest of the top, I realized I made the "wrong" row. There are two types of braids in the quilt. I had hung my top upside down on the design wall and didn't realize it until I went to line up the new row. Oh, well...I will use it after I piece one of the "right" ones!

~Joan

Watch It Grow...

I added another row to the Texas Braid this morning. Last night was an unusual night. I went to bed when the family started watching a movie. I felt horrible...dizzy, nauseated. But I feel fine today.

Emily drove down to FL yesterday to surprise Steve. Steve was driving up here starting at 8:30 PM and bringing my oldest son home as well. So they arrived here about 7:15 this AM. They were all exhausted, so they all went to bed. I woke up four people to see if anyone wanted to go to the YMCA with me and got no takers.

So now I'm back from the Y and sewing some more. It's SNOWING!! Snow always looks so peaceful and lovely floating down.

~Joan

Texas Braid - Another Six Inches Wider

I added one more vertical row to the Texas Braid. There is a ton of sewing involved in finishing even one row. The red squares are added to the cream bricks, then either a color or a cream/red unit is added and added, and added until you have 51 red cornerstones in a row. Then there is the trimming.

I cut lots more bricks from my scraps this afternoon and finished this row and nearly one more. The one more is the wrong one to add to either side, so it might be a while before I get the "right" one finished. There will be 16 rows in the final quilt.

For you non-quilters, the red blocks are the center of each row. There are four rows in the above picture.

~Joan

Texas Braid Beginning

I was able to squeeze in a little piecing time tonight. Isaac offered to help me press, and that always makes things go faster. Here we are, with him to the left of the ironing board and me to the right at the sewing machine. It was still daylight when we started. What are we making??

We are making this...Texas Braid sections. This is from Bonnie Hunter's book, Adventures with Leaders & Enders. I have decided to limit my piecing time to this project until it's a finished top. You can stop laughing now.

This picture is a close up.

Here's one a little further out. Guess how many pins I used for the piecing and putting the rows together? See the end of the post for the answer.

And finally, all of it. Well, at least as much as you can see on my five-foot high design wall. I folded the top down (that makes it sound fun, like a convertible!!). The pieces are over 100 inches long, so folded they must be.

Zero. That is how many pins I used. When you assemble the sections, you press the pieces in such a way that you need not one pin to sew the rows to each other. Ta da!!

~Joan