At last, one job FINISHED!!!

 What can this be?  Surely, not a quilt project!  I'm trying to get so many different "jobs" done, and have been unsuccessful at checking them off my "to do" list - seems like everything is NOT done, yet these  homemade butterhorn rolls are done and delicious!  

35 lined all up, like little soldiers. 

32 made it to storage - wonder where 3 of them disappeared to??? 

I am bringing the rolls (not a single burned one!) to dinner with friends.  The pot holders will live in her house now.  

 

Seems like Cardio P.T. is taking up so much of my time, at 3 times a week, still continuing for another 2 months.  Yes, it's necessary, and a pleasant experience, yet there is no dilly-dallying.  Roof issues are almost finished, business issues still are undone, home improvements have come to a halt with winter hanging over, Thanksgiving and Christmas are both "looming" - wish I had a more positive adjective to describe a lovely time of year, my printer won't print which results in numerous projects undone, and I have a "new" phone on the counter, still in it's unopened Fed-X wrapper, staring at me, challenging me to get that project on it's way.  Furnace filter ordered, air compressor hardware reconfigured so I can blow out used filters.  Oh yes, and I'm planning on  learning some cost savings tricks on my "Smart TV" and eventually may even drop my TV/Cable access since the programming is so unrewarding.   All overwhelming projects - no time to concentrate on any of them, and very little time spent on quilting. Gotta remember, "One Day at a Time."  I'm exhausted.

I miss my man.  8-(((

Rocky Road to Kansas, and Orphan Blocks

I'm playing with strings, sewing them down to phone book pages.  This is going to be Rocky Road to Kansas, inspired by Eleanor Burns, Egg Money Quilts.  This particular pattern has 2 cardstock templates which are provided in her book. Thanks Eleanor!  I've made it before and it turned out great.

First, I rough cut the phone book pages to wedge size, then sewed on all the strings.  There is no measuring, so this part goes FAST.  I already had strings, and used most of my 1 1/2 in. pieces, but added wider and narrower for interest, mostly in the blue range.

I drew around the wedge template on the back of the string units, then trimmed with rotary cutter.  The center pieces start as squares, cut in half, sewed on the widest part of the wedge, and trimmed.  They are consistent for the entire project.

This will be 30, 12 inch blocks, 5 x 6, and I'll probably add a border.

I sewed the 4 wedges together, with that triangle attached and ended up with a star thingy, points flapping in the breeze.  (I forgot to photo the white template piece used for the 4 sides, provided as well.)  I marked with pencil the center of that white triangle/pivot point and pinned it to the inside pivot point of the star, started sewing at the outside star point to that pivot point, needle down, and wrangled it around (used a stiletto) and sewed down the other side to the next point.  One would not think it would work but it DID! I bit of pressing and voila!  After the first one, I discovered I should remove the paper from that pivot point for a sharper pivot.  First one is OK.  8-))  NO puckers!

 

Below are several 6 inch orphan blocks made into potholders.  I used one layer of cotton batting, then one layer of Insulbrite.  I found that turning them was not neat and tidy for my first ones (had forgotten how to do this simple task - note the flying geese points all caught in the thick seams!).  Then I remembered how to do it better!  Add a small sashing so the points wouldn't get lost, and for the backing. put a seam in the middle of the backing, but leave a few inches for turning.  For me, it's impossible to turn that item neatly leaving a side seam open, but if you sew a seam in the backing, and leave a few inches for turning, sew all 4 sides, it turns so much neater, then simply hand stitch the backing seam closed.  I machine quilted a few seams to finish it off.  I don't hang my potholders, so no tab.  AND no fussy binding.