After I put the previous problem child to bed, I was confronted with his fraternal twin. This one is a scrappy floral beauty with a pink tone-on-tone fabric and brown setting triangles in the same streak of lightning layout. It’s the fraternal twin to the scrappy plaid quilt because it came about when I originally miscut all the setting triangles for that quilt. Not wanting all those setting triangles to go to waste, I decided to make smaller HST units so I could use them in a quilt with the same setting.

One of the other maddening things about unbagging long-standing projects is trying to figure out just where you were in the quilt-making process. Unless you have a very good memory [not me!], you waste time figuring out what’s been done and what still needs to be done. Are all the blocks made? Is all the fabric I need here? Did I make all the flying geese units I need for the border? And on and on.

Because the first strip is sewn for this version of the streak of lightning quilt, I am assuming I must have all the HST units made that I need. However, I was also confronted with a number of these units when I unbagged this quilt.

floral-streak

Huh. At first I had no clue why I was sewing the units together like this—some have the HST units on the right side of the setting triangle and some have them on the left side.

I have the perfect solution to this “figuring-it-all-out” problem but some of my long-standing projects aren’t included in this perfect solution. [I need to remedy that!] This is a screenshot of a Microsoft program called OneNote.

OneNote-screenshot1

OneNote is a digital notebook. [The 2013 version is available for free across multiple platforms at OneNote.com if you’d like to check it out.] It is not just one notebook though. You can create as many notebooks as you want. Each notebook can have multiple sections [think notebook dividers in a physical notebook] and each section can have multiple pages [think sheets of paper behind each divider in a physical notebook]. On those pages you can save just about anything—text, pictures, links, screenshots, webpages, charts, to-do lists and more—and like a corkboard, you can place your items anywhere on the page. What you see above is a page in a section called, Priscilla’s Beauty in my Quilting notebook. [That quilt used to be called Pomegranate Jam and that’s why the pages say Pomegranate Jam instead of the section name of Priscilla’s Beauty.]

When I have an idea for a quilt that I might want to make, I create a new section in my Quilting notebook for it. I usually add the EQ7 drawing and maybe some fabric swatches or a color chart. I might figure out the yardage needed and if the design is Inklingo-able, I might create a cheat sheet with the number and sizes I need to cut the fabric for printing.

This is a screenshot of my ideas for making my Case of the Secret Garden quilt larger with a border of applique and more New York Wheel blocks.

OneNote-screenshot2

On the chart in the first screenshot, you can see where I have been keeping track of what’s been done [check marked items and yellow highlighter] and what still needs to be done [green highlighter] for my Priscilla’s Beauty quilt. Out of the whole drop-down menu and sections shown in that first screenshot, only SEVEN are for long-standing projects. Therein lies the downfall to my perfect solution. Ideally, every one of my 22 projects should have its own section with information on what’s been done and what needs to be done. [That way I could avoid that deer-in-the-headlights moment when I unbag a long-standing project.]

One last selling point for OneNote… There’s an app for my phone so I can access my Quilting notebook while at the quilt shop when I discover that perfect backing fabric but have no idea how much I need. That information is listed in the section called, Projects on a page for finished projects that are waiting to be quilted. Cool, huh?

Okay, back to my scrappy floral streak of lightning quilt top… After slapping those sections up on the design wall over the scrappy plaid strips, I found out I had come up with a way to sew two strips together at the same time and thereby eliminating the need to sew four of the long seams in the final quilt top assembly. [It’s a shame my brain won’t let me remember such brilliance when I first see it.] It would have taken me a lot longer to figure this out if I hadn’t already had the scrappy plaid quilt on the design wall. It would have taken a lot less time to figure this out if I’d had a section in my Quilting notebook for this quilt explaining my brilliant sewing plan.

I’m hoping to have this top together late tonight or sometime tomorrow at the latest. Two projects down, three more to go.

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My focus in 2017:
Sewing in 2017

  • 1 Year of Stitches embroidery project
  • Hexiflowers (aka Grace's Garden)
  • Death Star pillow
  • Tonopah Nevada topographical map
  • 1855 Wales Center map
  • Winnie the Pooh map
  • Ethan's Quilt
  • Thea's Quilt
  • Rachelle Fae CQ block
  • Machine quilting with a walking foot

Inklingo: What’s New?
Colonial Garden Collection

Judy Martin's
Waltzing Matilda


6, 9 & 12 inch blocks


The traditional size: 1 inch Patchwork of the Crosses


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