And then I got side-tracked OR Snowflake splendour OBW quilt based on a panel – 1

As busy as my life occasionally gets (this includes socialising with friends and family) I somehow always think I have time for yet another adventure or project and after finishing my EQ course “Catch the Waves”, I’ve enrolled for another course starting 21 August with daily lessons and homework for 6 weeks, I received my Westalee ruler quilting starter pack and would love to try it out and I’ve started THIS new quilt!

A while ago I asked our local Pfaff dealer to order me 7 repeats of this panel fabric and she always goes the extra mile when I need something.

I kept one panel intact, layered the other six, cut these stacked panels into strips and the strips into 60º triangles.

Then the fun of sewing the half hexagons started, trying to find the “nicest” combination from the 3 options I have.  Once done I sorted according to most obvious colour just to make the arrangement on the design wall easier.

Deciding on the layout was the hardest part for me.  The packing, stepping back to stare, changing and repeating the process several times almost got to me. Then the disappointment when I started sewing the strips together to see how much the total top actually shrunk after stitching. It meant I would have to cut away from my centre panel way more than I wanted to.

Well at least I am trying things on my own, struggling more than I would have liked to but I had no manual, guide or rule book to go by and I think with all the little mishaps, I am doing good.

All stacked up – 4

I attended a hilarious but very motivational Woman’s Day talk along with fellow quilter, Wilna, DIL and one of her friends this morning and had a way too big slice of chocolate cake, which now just made me lazy.

I got home and finished the last lesson of the current EQ course I did and can report that I have 5 rows of my All stacked up quilt sewn together and I am really proud as I had heaps of interruptions and little quilting time.

Just before I stitched the last of the 5 rows together, I noticed a wee bit of a mistake and for a moment there I pondered whether I should not just leave it as is and afterwards claim that it was the Amish way of deliberately making a mistake.  Knowing myself though, I thought I better fix this as should I make another mistake; my Amish story will sound somewhat far-fetched!

On the cleaning front I can also proudly say that I am still keeping my sewing room in impeccable condition, tidying it up before heading to bed at night.

All stacked up – 3

We had the big kids over for supper on Friday and granddaughter slept over.  Our pets enjoy the family activity being in one room where they can be present too.

After granddaughter left on Saturday we were invited by Karin and her hubby for snacks, drinks and watching rugby on TV and they even gave us “take-aways” so that I didn’t have to cook on Sunday while the men played golf. 

I am doing an Electric Quilt course via internet presented by Kari Schell and boy, is this interesting?  After having had EQ for years I realised I actually knew nothing.  After work I sit at this computer waiting for my new lesson to arrive via e-mail and then I do my homework, so work on the actual sewing side has been really SLOW…..

I however made a little progress and started from the centre and sewn the two centre rows together, the layout still confuses me terribly and I frequently call hubby to see if what I do is according to the quilt layout I printed with EQ. Two down and 14 more rows to go but long before that I still need to finish a whole lot of blocks!

All stacked up – 2

I went sale shopping with my youngest yesterday and found a pants and gown at really good prices but for my undies I had to pay full price.  My daughter however, being of a smaller size than the average person, had a ball with all the items on sale. I did not dress in appropriate shoes for a shopping spree and back home my feet were killing me, so I didn’t do much apart from taking these photos.

Unfortunately my design wall is in the passage right opposite my sewing room.  Unfortunately for the simple reason that I can’t get enough distance being inside the sewing room to take a photo of the full width of the design wall, so I had to take this photo from an angle.  I have finished one whole row from left to right and can now join these and take out the pins.

I can also not just use flannel to adhere the blocks to as our 3 huge dogs loves playing in the passage and with the wind caused by them running up and down, my blocks simply comes flying down.  So pins I will have to use.  With having a row sewn together I need fewer pins though.

All stacked up - 1

I downloaded this free pattern over HERE 

It was designed by Linda and Carl Sullivan. You can find their website over HERE 

I immediately knew this would qualify as a quilt to bust my scraps even though the designers used Kaffe Fasset fabric (Collective Spring 2017) and I didn’t have too many scraps of these as I tend to rather use them for fussy cutting BUT (and there is somehow always a ‘but’ with my quilting) I wanted it bigger…. much bigger.

Now with most patterns simply enlarging the blocks or making more blocks will do the job but this one baffled me especially with the layout but I eventually got the hang of it.

This is the very beginning of my current project but now I have to get ready for a 60^th birthday party tonight.