It says "avoid appliqué" -- 3 flowers, 4 stems, 24 (!) leaves -- it is pretty much ALL appliqué!
Showing posts with label stupid mistakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stupid mistakes. Show all posts
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Note to self:
The next time you work hard on a project & really pull out the stops -- especially if the project is for a contest -- say, for example, the Modern Quilt Guild's QuiltCon block challenge -- read the directions more carefully.
It says "avoid appliqué" -- 3 flowers, 4 stems, 24 (!) leaves -- it is pretty much ALL appliqué!
It says "avoid appliqué" -- 3 flowers, 4 stems, 24 (!) leaves -- it is pretty much ALL appliqué!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Batting One Thousand
I had Shug give me some lessons in baseball batting averages.
A player's batting average is calculated by dividing their number of hits by their number of at-bats. So say I was at bat 8 times & got 2 hits: that would give me a batting average if 0.250, kind of average. But say I got a hit every time I was at bat -- that would be 1 divided 1, or 1.000 -- or batting one thousand. Perfect.
Well, I am not perfect when it comes to how I buy batting. Right now I have 3 tops ready to layer & baste. I have quite a few bags of batting on hand -- but they have all been cut into. I could do some piecing together of my batting scraps, but THERE ARE HARDLY 2 BAGS OF THE SAME KIND OF BATTING!!! Low-loft polyester, medium-loft black polyester, bamboo, cotton & polyester, all cotton. I would have some kind of crazy Franken-batting if I tried to cobble something together with all of them!
I thought about what I have & what I've used & decided that my favorites are the low-loft polyester & the bamboo. The polyester makes a nice, light-weight quilt. I nearly always machine quilt & I used to have problems with tucks on the back. But with a light spritz of spray adhesive & some safety pins (I am a belt & suspenders kind of girl), the tucks are minimal. I was delighted with bamboo batting from the first time I used it -- nice & 'sticky', so no tucks. I also like that it is a more green choice. But it makes a slightly warmer & heavier quilt than we often need here on the Gulf Coast. I think that between these two types of batting, I think I can happily quilt on into the future. If I limit myself to buying just these two I will be able to put together a scrappy batting when I haven't any whole, unused bags.
Shug tells me that a 1.000 batting average is possible over a short period, like one game, but unheard of over a season, much less a lifetime of baseball. A lifetime average of 0.300 is considered very good. So maybe I'm not doing all that badly.
A player's batting average is calculated by dividing their number of hits by their number of at-bats. So say I was at bat 8 times & got 2 hits: that would give me a batting average if 0.250, kind of average. But say I got a hit every time I was at bat -- that would be 1 divided 1, or 1.000 -- or batting one thousand. Perfect.
Well, I am not perfect when it comes to how I buy batting. Right now I have 3 tops ready to layer & baste. I have quite a few bags of batting on hand -- but they have all been cut into. I could do some piecing together of my batting scraps, but THERE ARE HARDLY 2 BAGS OF THE SAME KIND OF BATTING!!! Low-loft polyester, medium-loft black polyester, bamboo, cotton & polyester, all cotton. I would have some kind of crazy Franken-batting if I tried to cobble something together with all of them!
I thought about what I have & what I've used & decided that my favorites are the low-loft polyester & the bamboo. The polyester makes a nice, light-weight quilt. I nearly always machine quilt & I used to have problems with tucks on the back. But with a light spritz of spray adhesive & some safety pins (I am a belt & suspenders kind of girl), the tucks are minimal. I was delighted with bamboo batting from the first time I used it -- nice & 'sticky', so no tucks. I also like that it is a more green choice. But it makes a slightly warmer & heavier quilt than we often need here on the Gulf Coast. I think that between these two types of batting, I think I can happily quilt on into the future. If I limit myself to buying just these two I will be able to put together a scrappy batting when I haven't any whole, unused bags.
Shug tells me that a 1.000 batting average is possible over a short period, like one game, but unheard of over a season, much less a lifetime of baseball. A lifetime average of 0.300 is considered very good. So maybe I'm not doing all that badly.
Monday, August 01, 2011
Dazzling...
...my stupidity, that is.
I mentioned yesterday how I began sashing my squared plates *without* measuring them first. It isn't cute enough to call 'liberated' or 'improvisational' -- it just looks bad. So I will be removing the sashing, trimming the plates, then *re-sashing* them before I can move this one into the to-be-quilted pile.
Then today, I began to piece the shirts and slacks blocks. Well, some of you may have already noticed that I had problems ahead -- I didn't until I pressed my first seams. I had Shug cut me a cunning little template for the Crooked Path squares; I made a drawing for him and he cut it as instructed. But, as you know, you CANNOT take a square, cut that square into two pieces, sew the pieces together and expect to still have a square!!! That is Quilting 101!!!!
Well, I had to take a time out. The damage is not irreversible, in fact, there is no real damage. My blocks will just be smaller (and more labor-intensive) than I had planned. But, GRRRR.
I mentioned yesterday how I began sashing my squared plates *without* measuring them first. It isn't cute enough to call 'liberated' or 'improvisational' -- it just looks bad. So I will be removing the sashing, trimming the plates, then *re-sashing* them before I can move this one into the to-be-quilted pile.
Then today, I began to piece the shirts and slacks blocks. Well, some of you may have already noticed that I had problems ahead -- I didn't until I pressed my first seams. I had Shug cut me a cunning little template for the Crooked Path squares; I made a drawing for him and he cut it as instructed. But, as you know, you CANNOT take a square, cut that square into two pieces, sew the pieces together and expect to still have a square!!! That is Quilting 101!!!!
Well, I had to take a time out. The damage is not irreversible, in fact, there is no real damage. My blocks will just be smaller (and more labor-intensive) than I had planned. But, GRRRR.
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