ORL Part 4

When Bonnie Hunter released Clue 4 of her current Mystery "On Ringo Lake" Friday, I knew I wouldn't have much time to devote to it.  But I wanted to experiment with an idea that came to me when I was writing about Mary's Triangles earlier last week.

Mary's Triangles

Clue 4 is exactly like the pieced half of one of Mary's Triangles.

Illustration by That Patchwork Place

Sew I have worked out a way to do Clue 4.  I started with two blue 2" squares and two brown rectangles, 2" x 3".  I stitched one of each together, right sides together.

Sew square to rectangle

I pressed toward the brown ...

Press toward brown

... then stitched the two units together with the blue squares on opposite ends.

Stitch two units together

I snipped the seam at the mid-point so that I could press toward the brown again.

Snip seam at mid-pint

Last, I cut the triangles, using my 6-1/2" Easy Angle Ruler, making sure to allow for a quarter-inch seam.

Cut pieced triangle

I repeated on the other side.

There's about 1/4" of waste so I think, technically, I could have cut my rectangle a bit smaller but when I tried 2-3/4" it came out too small and I didn't want to have to find 7/8" on my ruler!

It's not particularly quicker, but I feel like I get a more accurate triangle than cutting little brown triangles with the Easy Angle ruler and sewing them onto the square.

It does end up with one flat corner; I'm hoping that won't create a problem.  Nevertheless, I probably won't have time to do many before we find out where they will be used.

Weekly House Progress Report

The end is in sight!

We had a couple of days' reprieve at the beginning of last week which gave us a few days to catch up on things and relocate more things.  But we are still in a state of total turmoil.

The painting last week focused on the living room and entry hall.

Living Room

 Wondering where that ladder is going?

Floor to Ceiling = 30 feet

There is NO way I'd go up to the top of that ladder.  These painters are acrobats!  The entry hall is almost as bad.

Entry Hall - only 20+ feet

We're hoping today will be the last day.  The only things left to do are finishing touches (including cleaning the windows!) and painting the red wall in the entry.

Entry Hall

Today we will concentrate on getting the two upstairs bedrooms back in order.  Which should give me a pathway to where the  Christmas decorations and wrapping paper are stored.  Shopping is done (thanks to Amazon); let the wrapping begin!

The Giving Season

Quilt Overload

As I'm weeding and winnowing things in anticipation of our next move, I've come to realize that I have far more finished quilts than I can use.  (And we're not even talking about the ones waiting for bindings, or the ones waiting to be quilted.)

I have been thinking about people in my life, especially women, who have played important roles in my adult experience.  My goal is to let them know how I feel by giving them a quilt.

The first one was Sharon, a woman in our church who has served others, both professionally and personally.  She has been the main coordinator of our women's monthly breakfast, many times filling all the roles of host, cook, and worship leader on a single Saturday.

Sharon with Mary's Triangles

I was responsible for the devotion at the September breakfast where I planned to surprise Sharon with a quilt.  I tried to think of a way I could use this quilt made from Mary's Triangles to illustrate my topic, but I soon realized how few times Mary (mother of Jesus) is mentioned in the Bible!

Instead, I talked about scriptures that inspire action or reaction, like the story of the rich man who wouldn't give up what he owned in order to get to heaven.  This passage had moved me to go to Long Beach, MS with other church members to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, where we distributed a number of quilts made by guild members.

Mary's Triangles

Mary's Triangles is one of those easy, two-at-a-time piecing techniques that create complicated looking blocks.  I found a great tutorial on Pinterest here.  (It also occurred to me that one could use the first part of the process to make Clue 4 of On Ringo Lake, once you figure out what size to cut.  I'll work on that!)

With Sharon's quilt I started with a collection of 5" strips someone had given me to make the large triangles.  I added in squares and neutrals from my stash for the pieced triangles.  My barn-raising layout was inspired by (and limited by) the number of blocks I could make with the big triangle colors.  Having been to Sharon's house numerous times, I knew this was the perfect quilt for her.  And you can see from the picture that she was thrilled!

Sharing with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Hop over there to see what other quilters are whooping about this Friday.

ORL Part 3

a/k/a/ Sunset on Radnor Lake

Aside from the fact that I have not had any time in the sewing room this week, I'm not thrilled that yet another Bonnie Hunter mystery includes "diamond in a rectangle" units.  So I'm waiting to see how they will be used before totally diving into Clue 3.

IF I were to make the diamond-in-a-rectangle units, however, I would want to cut them in the most efficient, least wasteful manner.  Gayle at mangofeet described her process to me and it made sense  (that's scary in so many ways!).

Sew, I did a little practice today and I'll share what I discovered.  First, I used my Easy Angle ruler to cut a half-square triangle from a pair of 2" strips of diamond fabric (wrong sides together to get mirror images).

Yes, I know I don't use the ruler as directed, but as long as I know I've cut my strip to the correct size, I don't have to pay attention to any of the numbers.  (I DO follow Bonnie's suggestion to put the line ON the fabric, however.)  I needed to establish a 45-degree angle for the diamond so I cut a usable triangle first, rather than wasting any fabric.  I already have a big stack of triangles from the first cut of the geese in Clue 2 and at some point I'll pair them up with a neutral for another quilt.

After just a few practice units, I discovered that the diamond is 2-5/8" in the long direction so I placed a 3" ruler on the strip, making sure the 45-degree line was aligned with the top of the strip, and the 2-5/8" line was on the angled cut.

I added background triangles, also cut with the Easy Angle ruler, and voila!

Perfect 2" x 5" diamond-in-a-rectangle units!

You're welcome.

Saturday House Progress

The dining room on Friday

Yes, that's a toilet in the dining room!  It's sitting on the carpet that came out of the powder room.  Yuck! I've been wanting to get rid of that carpet ever since we moved in.  Kinda hard to sanitize, if you know what I mean.

By Friday night the new floor tile was installed and the toilet put back in place.  I'm so thrilled with the black vanity!

The floor tile is the same as in the kitchen, done with leftovers from the previous owners.

Remember that mess in the living room yesterday?  DH was very busy while I was at a guild meeting today!

We have a few things to remove from the walls and a couple of large pieces to move to the center of the room before the painters arrive on Tuesday.  (Maybe I can fit in a few minutes of sewing time on Sunday after the handbell performance.)

So where did all that stuff go?  Either the master bedroom ...

... or the dining room.

Musical furniture! BUT, we are nearing the home stretch!  Painting could be finished as early as next Friday.  I am SO looking forward to having the house put back together! (And getting back into the studio to finish up some Christmas projects.)

And I thought the kitchen was bad!

Check out the living room

All of this will have to go somewhere else over the weekend so that the living room can be painted next week.

As I write this, carpet is being installed in the master bedroom and tile in the powder room.  Stairway down to the studio is being painted.  Lowes made the wrong color for the studio wall so I'm not sure that will get done today.  I'm stitching in the kitchen and going upstairs for the bathroom.

Week 3 Progress (or is it Week 4?)

I have my kitchen back!

Though it's not a beauty shot, please note the new Christmas towels -- the sum total of my Christmas decor to-date.  I have reclaimed the drawers, but since this photo the counter has been crammed with china from the dining room sideboard so it still looks like everything's been turned upside down.😞

The day-to-day schedule is still being altered day to day.  I just take a deep breathe and move on.  Yesterday afternoon I started some Christmas shopping, wandered the aisles of our new Michael's, picked up a couple things at Home Depot, and went way overboard at BB&B.  Since I was just looking for kitchen towels, I only took 3 coupons in with me.  Then I started picking up stocking stuffers, big mistake.  Oh, well, it felt good to get out of the house and get started on Christmas.

The exterior door from the deck into the master bedroom was replaced on Monday.

With the old door removed, we saw that the wood under the sill had completely deteriorated!  Which explains the leaks that damaged the studio walls directly underneath.

Once they had reinforced the sill and added metal flashing, the carpenter left his son-in-law to complete the door installation.  He was very fastidious but the poor kid was still doing the final caulking after dark.  It couldn't wait until morning because we were expecting heavy windblown rain overnight.  And boy did it rain!  I'm happy to report no leakage anywhere!

With the door installed, painting could begin in the master bedroom.  We are using the same light tan in the entire house.  In most rooms this is a shade darker than the "builder's white" of the walls.  In the master it is considerably lighter than the original color and has really brightened up that room.  Carpet is currently scheduled to be installed on Friday -- fingers crossed.

I've treated myself to a little stitching by making some more flying geese for Radnor Lake.

I've currently done 80% of the geese I'll need for a half-size quilt.  I'm waiting to see how I like it before I commit to anything bigger.  I had to take a break from the geese, however, to work on a secret Santa project with a deadline.  I'll wait to post photos after the gifting on Saturday.