I am down to about 4" of sewing on my Unusual Lone Star and the piecing will be complete! You might wonder why I'm taking a break to write this? Because it was one of those "just get up and walk away" moments. I've stitched and ripped for two days and just about reached my limit. Have you ever worked on a project that brings out the worst in you? That makes you swear when you're not a swearing-woman (at least words I don't normally verbalize...like the "F" word)? Well, Karen K. Stone...Mission Accomplished! I've seen my dark side and not just muttered, but screamed f_ _ k, f _ _ k, f _ _ k!!! (I'm home alone, so nobody heard me, and it felt good. A release of sorts!)
Let me begin at the beginning...Sandy and I each began a ULS after the retreat in June. At the time, the biggest challenge seemed to be making 128 blocks that form the star. We both plugged away on our blocks during July and August. I finally finished mine and went on to the next step of sewing the blocks together to form eight diamonds, which form the points of the star. Some of the blocks missed the mark slightly, but overall they looked good. Next, I sewed together the diamonds forming each half of the star (four on each side). Still, it looked good. It has been in that state for most of the last month.
Mid-September I began working on the inner border, which is made up of a sawtooth pattern of two colors. That was a bit of a challenge, because I didn't have enough of any two colors that I liked to complete these borders which I found eat up the fabric very quickly. Fabric Depot in Portland came through and I returned from our trip late-September with just what I needed. I worked diligently on the 12 borders that are set in between the star's points and finished them this past week. Wanting to have this quilt finished for our October retreat, I pushed on to the next step. Karen K. Stone, who designed this quilt, provided some guidance in her book on assembling each of the 12 units that form the background of the star, but it was minimal. In fact, her lack of direction in this section of her book managed to take this quilt from one that could be intermediate in difficulty to intermediate-advanced! First of all, the final border was to be cut at 5 1/2", sewn to the first two shapes and then trimmed at the "same angle". This wasn't a problem for me and seemed to make perfect sense (although, someone with less experience might find this a stumbling block). I decided to cut the border at 6" and then trim the final quilt. Thank God! It was BARELY enough to give me a final 1/4" seem allowance that will be covered by binding. Karen K. Stone: what were you thinking when you wrote 5 1/2"??? Also, Karen, do you expect people to just read your mind? Your book could have been about twice it's size if you'd provided adequate directions. For example, your direction on the challenging task of setting in the background squares and triangles read: "4. Set the background pieces into your Lone Star." That's it!!! Fortunately for me, I spent years making clothing and "setting in" sleeves, gussets, etc. were commonplace. But, for a quilter, who in some cases has never had experience "setting in", directions and diagrams would be helpful. I love your quilts, Karen, but your directions suck!
Back to my tale...I managed to set in all but two of the background pieces, as I had to finally sew the two halves together. There had been some ripping/re-stitching up to this point, but nothing like the ripping and re-stitching (replay that about 20 times) that I encountered when I sewed the dead-center (think bullseye) of the quilt where about 100 seams converged to create a...bump? lump? very thick spot! I ripped, picked and sewed again and again. Finally, I ripped, re-ironed, re-trimmed, and got it this morning. That was after "just walking away" last night. I thought I'd never get it. But, I did. And now I'm down to the last set-in triangle, which is giving me fits.
What I haven't shared are a few of the other challenges I faced yesterday. Wanting to make the most of my day I decided I would multi-task by roasting tomatoes while I was sewing. I'll share the recipe later, but briefly, I roast sliced romas that have been drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, topped with salt, pepper, dried oregano and basil for about 2 hours and then freeze them to be used later in sauces or as a topping for crostini. While I was preparing the tomatoes, one rolled and my very sharp knife sliced my thumb rather than the tomato. You never know how much you use your thumb until it's disabled. To make a long story short, the bandaid fell off and I bled on my quilt! Damn! Next, as some of you know, I'm a big tea drinker. Sun tea in the summer, hot tea the rest of the year. When the weather here changed just a few weeks ago after a long, hot summer, I returned to drinking hot tea. I always have a cup going while I'm quilting and am really fond of using my to-go cup with a lid. In keeping with my usual practice, I made myself tea and took it into my sewing room. My first tea mishap was when I knocked over the freshly brewed tea emptying the entire cup on the floor and partly on my quilt. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't forgotten to tighten the lid, which was just resting on the cup. The good news is I drink green tea and it blended very nicely with my quilt colors. That wasn't my only tea mishap yesterday, as later in the day I backed up against the table where my tea rested and knocked it over again! Shit! It was later in the day that I attempted to combine the two halves of the star and began my ripping and re-stitching. I was determined to finish the quilt, but by about 9 p.m. I'd had it and I took my swearing to a new level. You guessed it...F_ _ K! That's when I turned off the lights, shut the door, and "just walked away!"
I'm feeling quite calm now and ready to finish the last 4" of my quilt. This has been helpful and put the whole quilt-making process in perspective. It's like that old saying about losing battles, but winning the war (I'm very bad at old sayings and really have no idea how it goes or who said it)...I've lost a few battles with this quilt, but am ready to go win the war!
P.S. While my patience was tested yesterday and I clearly failed, one of my "challenges" had me smiling...
Labels: Checking In, General, ULS
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