Halo's Making Me Happy

My incentive plan to hand quilt on Minnie only after I do a bit of work on Halo is paying off. Look at what's on my sewing table!

For the first time in I don't know how long, there is actual white space starting to appear on the design wall.

Border strips are being added and blocks are being sewn together. It's very surreal.

Every glimpse I get of this quilt as it finally gets closer to completion is such a treat. Just absolutely love the combination of all of those different fabrics. I don't think I have ever made a quilt quite this scrappy, but it's hitting all the right high notes.

I cut all of the border pieces except for the four corner blocks. Those cherries in the upper right corner is one of the pieces that I want for a corner, but do you think that I can find it? Can't possibly be because of my 'piling system'. I'll just keep going; it's got to be in there somewhere....M 

The Carrot

Knowing how fickle I can be, I didn't want Halo's border to be left in the dust now that I'm hand quilting Minnie. So as a bit of an incentive I committed to assembling at least four border pieces each day before I could pick up my hand quilting. I mean, I'm so close and I just don't want things to stall again.

It's paid off. Pretty soon it was time to start working on the last edge. 

My design wall was already too small for the quilt so I had been placing the pie-shaped pieces along the top edge as well as I could without having them fall to the floor. It sits about four inches below the ceiling and there is no design wall space to work with, so it was time to get a little creative.

Rather than testing the placement of each border piece as I went, I laid out all of the elongated pieces that I was going to use in order.

Then, as they were assembled I gently folded each piece into a loose pile and sat it atop the design wall. They look like pigeons perched under an overpass. You can barely see the pieces, but at least I know what I'm to sew where.

And ta da - my persistence has paid off! With the exception of the four corner pieces, all of the edge pieces are now assembled so it's time to start sewing this beauty together....M

Squaring the Circle(s)

Remember Halo? I've been enjoying it on my design wall for months on end (or is that years?) but I thought I'd finally tackle a few of the edge blocks and see if I can't finish it some time this century. I have a design wall so it would be nice to actually use it as one rather than as a holder for an almost-completed quilt 😏(though I do love seeing it up on the wall).

Currently, all of the edge pieces form half circles, so I need to add the adjoining curved pieces that square everything up (the pieces to the left). 

I wanted my border to be a little wider so I've cut the edge pieces twice as long as the template; they are 12.5" x 5". If it looks like it's too much when everything is together I can always trim it back a bit.

I toyed with using various shades of greys for this to create a bit of a border within the pattern itself but opted to continue with the totally scrappy look.

There's no rushing curves so you have to get into a bit of a Zen mindset. It's proving to be a nice change from assembling trees and it's wonderful to finally see the border come together. 

Truth be told though, it feels like I am spending more time pinning than I am time sewing.

A little work last weekend and a bit more this weekend and I'm almost half way there. The bottom left corner looks a little funny because I haven't inserted that piece yet. I can see where one or two pieces might need to be shuffled before it's sewn together, but I'll wait until all of the border pieces are together before venturing there....M

Crawling Out of the Rabbit Hole

Despite my intention to put the little three-inch hearts to one side and move on, I stayed stuck in the rabbit hole of little pieces just a little bit longer.

Actually, long enough to make another baker's dozen.

I kept finding little pink scraps and cutting them up, so of course I just had to see what they look like worked into a heart.

Still very stinkin' cute! But it's time to crawl out of this rabbit hole and move on. This time I'm serious. I think 😉.

I have my heart set on getting Halo off the design wall where it has lived for heaven knows how long now. All of the blocks are finally together, with the exception of the edge pieces. I cut just a few and laid them alongside the blocks but it just wasn't working for me. 

After mulling things for a while I realized that the bottom test piece was too dark; if I continued with shades like this it was going to have a distinct piano key feel, taking away from the circles. Not.

I want subtle with a just a little variation in tone between the pieces to help those circles shine, so I culled my initial fabric selection so that it was much more low volume. Much better....M

To Scream or Not To Scream...

There's been a little Shakespearean tragedy (or maybe it's a comedy?) playing out in the sewing room.

Keen to get Halo closer to the finish line now that the baby quilts are done, I've been focused on finishing up all the necessary pie shapes needed so that I can move on to assembling the blocks. I was getting to the end of the line so I started cleaning up the fabrics and templates and decided to take a look at the pattern again. 

It took a bit of time to register, but eventually I figured out that I have been laying the edge pieces out incorrectly. 

I should have been building it so that the edges finished in complete circles, as shown at the right, but I was finishing off with half circles/a straight edge. Ah, the power of the pattern.

Things were eventually rearranged to where they should be but what made me want scream was the fact that I had sewn so many unneeded 'T' centres for the blocks - 15 in all. So I resorted to my tried and true crisis management technique: turn out the lights and leave the room.

Sanity prevailed a day or two later and I returned to begin sewing the blocks - finally! I have to say that I'm just loving seeing them come together.

SO scrappy!

I take the pieces for one block down off the wall at a time and it helps me track how many I've made and how many are left to go.

As for those 15 extra T sections, not sure what their fate is. Maybe some day they will become a runner or a baby quilt, but right now I'm not up for cutting more pie-shaped pieces to finish them off. Time will tell....M

Halo Has A Growth Spurt

Every now and then a little more gets added to Halo. 

Last week it was time to fill in the few remaining blanks that were dotted throughout (they are just placed for positioning, not sewn in)...

Much better.

Then, when all the blanks were filled in, I started second guessing myself and wasn't convinced that when all of the seams in the next step were sewn that it was going to be large enough. I don't want a border on this one, which meant adding another row along the side and the bottom. Yup, 15 more blocks. Sigh.

So I madly attacked pieces that I had cut for the 'T' centres (square-in-a square blocks with the four curved pieces to rest the pie-shaped pieces into) and they are now finished. (I love those scrappy square-in-a square blocks - I'm pretty sure they will show up in another quilt...)

Now I'm back to making more pie-shaped segments, which is going to slow me down again. I've got to cut lots more pieces and the curves don't come together nearly as quickly as straight seams. Oh well. 

By the way, congratulations to Joceyln who won the Quilt Design book giveaway! And thanks again to Ann for donating it. I hope you enjoy it and get lots of use out of it Jocelyn....M

It's Been a Long, Long Time

It feels like its been all Minnie, all the time around here lately so it was time to mix it up a bit (I would dearly love to see Minnie finished this year but I still want to like her when she is 😉!). 

In search of something else to pick up nothing much seemed to appeal - either I had to cut or lay out blocks. I just wanted something to sew. So I went and sat in front of my machine to ponder my options and found the answer staring me in the face. Halo!

I cannot even begin to remember the last time I sewed on it (it has lived on my design wall all this time) but I had tons of the pieces cut and ready to go, so decision made.

With all the curves involved, it's not speed sewing by any stretch of the imagination, but periodically I will sit down and sew eight or ten more pie-shaped pieces and get them up on the wall...

filling in spots as I go.

Then I prep a batch and I'm ready to sew the next time I sit in.

Soon I think I'll switch to assembling blocks. When I've been laying things out I've focused on the circles and the fabric combos therein...

but this is the block layout, with the pie-shaped pieces in each corner. Lots more curves to sew! This will give me a new perspective on everything and might result in a few moves, but I think I'll just see where things take me....M

A Time to Cut

I'm inching my way back to Halo but need to cut more pieces before I can continue, so digging into fabric will become the order of the day.

None of my blocks are together - everything that is on the design wall are the block components - so I was tempted to just start putting a few together and then play with the layout with whatever the result was.

But I'm going to add more to the bits and pieces first and then begin assembling blocks. Those curves have a way of slowing down the process but it is a great excuse to play with lots of different fabrics.

I came across a very pretty monochromatic version of Halo the other day done all in blues but wasn't smart enough to make note of where so that I could share it with you. It made me think (like so many other patterns do) that you could just make endless varieties of the same pattern. Lovely as that sounds, I think it would also lead to a little crazy-making and a strong desire to start something different in no time.

This little fellow was at the feeder yesterday so hopefully he'll make a return visit while I cut.....M

I Took Your Advice

Summer is in full swing and the July calendar has been busy so there has been precious little stitching done lately, not even hand stitching. Despite the fact that I drag it wherever we go it doesn't seem to come out of the box; catching up on my reading seems to be taking priority. That said, I did escape into the cool of the basement a few nights this week to work on Halo a bit.

A few weeks ago I was toying with making this quilt much whiter than it is, ghosting in several of the orbs, but when I asked what you thought of the idea the feedback was overwhelmingly to stick to the original plan, so I'm following your advice.

I love the scrappiness of it all...

how traditional prints meet up with more contemporary patterns.

And it amazes me how it changes as every new pie shaped piece is put up on the wall.

Sewing curves isn't the fastest process in the world so I have to just try and find the zen in it. I started out pinning one at a time, sewing it, pressing, and then starting another, but I found that if I pinned small batches of three or four and then sewed them all at the same time and then pressed them all it seemed to go faster, so that's where I'm at.

This looks a lot like the picture up above but if you look closely you'll see how it is slowly filling in. None of the blocks are together yet because I keep moving things around as new pie shaped pieces are made. Still lots of curves in my future!....M