Doing, and Blogging Hesitantly

Since posting to this blog eight days ago, I've been keeping busy in the sewing room. Though I have some things to share, I have been reluctant to write a blog post due to the problem Blogger/blogspot.com has been having. The issue began May 23.

Blogspot blog authors, worldwide, have not been receiving comments. Though readers comment on blog posts, the blog post author is not receiving notification of comments.

For me that means the only way I know if my post has received a comment is to actually go to the blog post to check. I can certainly do that, but if you've commented and I don't know you, I won't have your email address to reply to you.

Blogger is owned by Google, so I've been following the Google Forum discussions about this. Google acknowledged a problem on May 30 (a week after people began complaining), and said the problem would be fixed "soon," as far as I can tell, nothing has changed.

This has prompted some bloggers, including me, to consider switching from Blogspot to WordPress. It's a change that needs to be understood though, before taking a leap. I have more than nine years of blog posts and photos that I don't want to lose.

In the meantime, hoping that a Blogspot fix is in sight, here's some of what I've been up to.

#ComfortQuiltQAL
For the past six weeks I've been keeping up with making the large and small blocks for AmysCreativeSide quilt along. These are the 20 large and 25 small blocks for week 6.  During the hours of machine time spent piecing those 3-1/2" X 3-1/2" small blocks, I was glad to finally introduce orange-colored pluses to the aqua and green pluses.

Amy suggested we have a little play with all the blocks we'd made so far and this is what mine look like on my design wall. In the blank rows, during week 8, I'll be adding strips of low volume fabrics.

I've been working ahead, and made all the blocks - 20 large and 30 small - for week 7 which begins this coming Monday. All the blocks I made, including those hidden in the piles, are orange.  

Binding
Two quilts have binding sewn to them and are ready for hand sewing! Yay! These are: a quilt I'm pattern-testing for a friend; and "Roulette." I enjoy adding binding, perhaps because it signifies a near-finish. Happily, I have lots of Wonder Clips!

Curated Quilts Mini Challenge

Every issue of Curated Quilts magazine (a friend calls it a "journal" since it has no advertising) is designed with a theme that's also a challenge. For issue 5 the challenge is improv, using "connections," as the theme. 

As with every Curated Quilts Mini Challenge, the quilt can use some or all of the colors, and must be 10" to 16" square. I'm learning that's this challenge is a good exercise of my design skills. (My triangle quilt was accepted into issue 4 that comes out in July.)

This is the improv I started a few days ago... as I beat my head against the wall and wondered what in the world I was doing! Improvisational piecing is not my gift. It's so un-fun for me that I decided I'd rather do laundry. Or clean toilets! Or. Or. I was looking for excuses to not work on it because I didn't know what I wanted to do. 

Yet, I persisted, cutting apart sections - using only my rotary cutter (no ruler) - piecing fabric insertions, cutting again, and repeating. Every action meant trying to figure out where "connection" fit into the piece. This is what I ended up with.  

It didn't take much backing (navy-colored pearl bracelets) or batting (an old hunk of Warm 'n Natural), nor many safety pins, to put the sandwich together.

And quilting was almost a snap - lots of walking foot quilting on the Bernina, and a little free motion quilting through the middle. Then big stitch hand-quilting to accent the "Splices." Yep, that's what I named it. The deadline for submissions is June 15, so I'm happy to submit it to the website a little early. I've never been much of a last-minute person. Only 25 mini quilts are accepted for publication, so it remains to be seen whether this will appear in the magazine or not. Here are the submissions thus far.

Splices, 14-1/2" X 14-1/2"

How do I feel about improv now that this is done? Well, it's still very much a challenge for me. And I can't say I enjoy the process - it's really work - but I am more than pleased with how this one turned out. I will do improv again, and continue to hope that with practice, this design style eventually becomes a little easier.

I'm ending this post with a picture of our sweet old boy. Hogan is now 14 years and 8 months old, and doesn't show too many signs of slowing down. Though his walks are sometimes more like meanders, and he occasionally gets up stiffly from the floor, he can still jump up on his window bench in my sewing room, and he still likes to go and do and even play with toys in the evening. Like his human counterparts, in his head he thinks he's still young. Linda