Around the World - start of the trip

It's been a while since I told you about my plans for the Around the World quilt on my Singer 99k.  Since then, I have actually managed to start stitching on it and am slowly adding rounds of squares and my progress has gotten me this far -

Ignore the pink and yellow post-its which are marking my row numbers
and spoiling the effect of the Around the World colour ways for now.

It's quite the learning curve working with the hand-cranked Singer and figuring out how to grow this pattern sensibly, even if I am doing it without using handy strip piecing techniques.  The Singer is lovely but I didn't realise how hard it can be to hold fabric single handed while using your other hand to crank the handle.  Small pieces are grand, but as that block has grown bigger, it's heavier and harder to support with just my left hand.  Also, no matter how hard I try, my foot is still looking for a pedal to press EVERY time I start sewing. It takes my brain a few seconds to stop anticipating a power surge ;-) 

 

I should have listened to my own plans to only select and cut fabric for a row or two at a time.  I got a bit carried away one evening and it took a LOT longer than I had imagined to press and cut fabric for all these rows.  I think I just got excited about choosing the next colour and then the next, and the next.  Those B&C fabrics are just so inviting!  Not happening again though - max two rows at a time.

So far all those many squares have only reached about 36" square.  Feels quite small for all that piecing, but that's the result of using 2.5" squares instead of bigger ones.  (The rationale for which is on my first post here.)  Anyway, no hurry on this and no definite idea of finish size either, so I'm not committed to anything I don't want to do.  The cut fabrics for rounds 12 to 19 have yet to be added so I think I have plenty to be getting on with for now.

Hope to do a little more Around the World travel again soon!

Around the World with my Singer

I've been trying to decide what I really want to make as my first project on my vintage Singer.  I want it to be pretty, to be fun and to be for me.  How very selfish!

Of course, this beautiful machine has sewn before I came along.  She's a 1939 Singer 99k hand cranked machine (and my Christmas gift from hubby last year). I wonder what she has been used for in her lifetime?  Wouldn't it be nice if she came with a little video montage of her work?

Anyway, I digress.  I've found it surprisingly difficult to decide what I want to make on her first.  So, I narrowed it down.  Yes, I want it to be a quilt.  I want it to be with really pretty fabric, so my Bonnie and Camille fabrics it shall be and I just want to sew simple squares.

My B&C stash, except for one layer cake.  I promise I'm not hiding any elsewhere.

All of that sounds pretty good to me.  I don't need complicated right now, especially not as an extra, new project on top of the list of WIPs I already have.  It will allow me to get used to the machine and find a consistent quarter inch seam, I hope.  And, it's going to help me with my plan for 2017 to sew from my stash and reduce what I'm storing.  Yes, my B&C fabrics are my absolute favourites but you know, I feel that now is the time to use them not keep them all neat and tidy in a box.  I've also noticed a lot of folks destashing fabric this year because they have too much or no longer love fabrics they once couldn't wait to buy. I don't want that to happen with my B&C collection and, after all, I bought it to sew with, didn't I?  It's not like there won't be further collections to come, is it?

High tech planning. (That's washi tape, not a quilt border!)

So, a quilt of squares with a mix of whatever B&C lines are in those boxes?  I think it's time to make an Around the World quilt, or is it a Trip Around the World Quilt?

I've been calculating.  Not exciting, but it was an interesting exercise that proved to me that because most of my stash is fqs I will probably get a more varied range of fabrics in my quilt if I work from 2.5" squares. It also showed me that as the rounds of the pattern get bigger, I will be needing to buy more whole metre cuts (a considerable number) if I plan to keep each round a single fabric.  So, because I want to use up what I already have, I think I'm going to work on my rounds in a single colorway, rather than a single fabric (i.e. a green round will have several different green prints in, not just one).  I'm sure that's all clear as mud, but it makes sense in my head.

Squares on the starting block!

I know there are clever ways to speed up the making of this quilt pattern but I plan to do it the slow, hard way.  Just because.  I'm in no hurry and I don't particularly enjoy that strip piecing and unpicking method anyway.

I want this to be a relaxing/de-stressing project. So, I will choose and cut fabrics a round or two at a time and sew slowly and prayerfully.  Did I ever tell you how my sewing time is often my prayer time?  I want to sew more prayerfully again because there is so much in this world, in the lives of my friends and in my life that I need to chat through with my Father.  I look forward to that quiet time immensely.

Sounds like a plan for getting acquainted with my Singer, doesn't it?