From finishes to starts

 

So, yesterday I talked about projects I’d finished.  Here’s another. 

This is the plums block.  I let Rob pick the next block.  I don’t think there were but four to choose from in this twelve block quilt.  He chose the tomatoes.

And, then we had to prove to Syd that tomatoes are a fruit.  We discovered that while the Supreme Court had named them a vegetable, proving that real business is less important in the U.S. than nonsense is, the tomatoe is botanically a fruit.

It takes a few days to do the prep work.  Not as long as it takes to do the stitching, but the prep is still substantial and makes the stitching go faster and easier. 

I’ve pieced my background and traced the block onto a piece of plastic. 

You can just see the outline of the pieces.  But, that tracing will be my placement guide.  I can lay it over the background and see exactly where my applique piece should be. 

I also traced all the applique pieces onto freezer paper and cut them out and ironed the paper to the right side of my fabrics.

Then, I traced around the paper with a ceramic pencil, such as sewline.  I cut the fabric an eighth of an inch larger than the paper, and put the pieces in numerical order.  Taht tomatoe vine in the picture is the largest piece I’ve ever tried to applique down.  Twenty pieces will go on the block before that one does, tho. 

I’ll lay the fabric onto the background and use the plastic placement guide to get them just right.  Then, I’ll peel off the paper, pin the piece to the background and needle turn it down. 

One day, when this project is finished, I’m going to have a great quilt. 

We just have no idea when that “one day” will be.  This is a long term project.  I need long term projects that I can pick up and put down because I am easily distracted by things that are shiny and new.  This project is pretty forgiving of being picked up and put away. 

But, it makes a great project for evenings spent watching TV with the family.

Now, I’ve got to go find several shades of red thread because these tomatoes are all red and I don’t have many red bobbins in my thread caddy that I carry around with this project.  

At one time, I thought I needed a whole lot of bobbins for each machine.  This must have been a popular concept because, as I collected machines, some of them also came with lots of bobbins.  So, I have lots and lots of spare bobbins.  I load some thread on them, stick them in this caddy, and I’m ready to go.  I could probably even take out some of those blues and add some reds and oranges and yellows.  Guess I haven’t needed many of those colors as I appliqued these blocks.

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  Syd decided to dress up for school today.  In a dress.  A very overdressed dressy dress. 

Okay.  So long as I don’t have to dress up, too, wear what you want.  But, don’t complain about how uncomfortable you are all day.

Lane