Monday, June 20, 2011

ring for Single Girl

So far this summer I've gotten darn little accomplished in the way of sewing - makes me a bit grumpy if I think about it for long so moving right along...
We've pretty much retreated indoors as the temperatures here are setting records this summer already...it's disgusting. The days are passed with energized conversations among me and the babes (typically concerning something the youngest has done to, yet again, offend the older ones), the Q&A game (Mom, would you cry if I died? Mom, can we move to China so I can go to ninja school?), and endless games of name-calling, pointing and laughing at each other, & (my personal fave) tattle-telling....it is just so much fun, hahaha.

We've also done a little of thisand this...Lake Murray just south of Ardmore.

And I've finally started my Single Girl Quilt. I got a ridiculously wobbly start, getting super confused about how many of each template to cut from which fabric. Somehow I figured it out after I forced my brain into a very uncomfortable and intense place of concentration and focus. I'm making 12 blocks (twin size quilt) so I basically need 12 of each template and fabric and there are 31 templates. Seems simple, right? Whatever. Originally I thought I'd cut out all templates first, but became impatient to see some rings coming together so I threw out that plan and started sewing...more cutting later of course. So far, here is what I've comleted.
(sorry, bad iPhone pic...I'm a lazy photographer at times)

I know, it's nothing to brag about, but looks pretty wonderful to me : ) Still undecided on the background color - brown would be nice I think. And I should mention, in case it's not obvious, the ring is just the 4 quarter sections lined up together, not sewn together. That would certainly be embarrassing (though not surprising).
I feel like that tiny sliver of orange dots there at the bottom is hardly enough so I'll probably be switching it (and a couple others) around for future rings. So you see, abandoning the cutting to sew turned out to be a good choice.
As suggested by Katy, I'm organizing my templates and cut fabric by using envelopes marked with the template piece (i.e. "A) on the front of the envelope.
Another good bit of info regarding the proper lining up of the fabric before stitching is described by Megan over on her blog. Since the fabric edges are cut at an angle rather they shouldn't be lined up in the typical fashion...good to know, right?!

So there's my update on the SG Quilt Along. Hope you all are starting to work on yours. Share your progress at our OKCMQG Facebook group please, otherwise it's just me and Cornelia quilting along amongst ourselves. If you're not an OKC Mod Quilter and would like to sew along with us you are welcome to do so. I'll post updates here along the way.

Thanks for stopping by!