Okay, so the tree block I posted last time is not done.  I've been working on another quilt that I have to get done next week. 

Then my laser printer had a snafu and paper wrapped around one of the rollers.  I painstaking pulled the paper off, but still can't get the darn thing to work.  The error light is still blinking and the screen flashes "jam in output bin."

To top it all off I had a sewing accident last night.  I did something I'd never done in my forty some years of sewing:  I sewed through my finger on my sewing machine.  And yes, I'm having a hard time typing not using the finger.  The offending finger is the ring finger of my left hand.  For the life of me, I don't know what happened.  I was sewing like a mad woman,  trying to get the last border put on the quilt that has to be done next week, when Oliver walked into the room and started talking to me.  I looked up, taking my eyes off what I was doing and "BANG".  The sewing machine needle was in my finger and actually broke off of the machine and was sticking out of my finger. It had gone through the top of my finger, nail side first but did not break the skin on the other side, although I could feel the tip of the needle when I touched the pad of my finger.  I had Oliver get pliers--he went out to the garage for his needle-nosed pliers so he could get a good grip--and told him, "you'd better pull hard and get it out on the first try." Thankfully, he did.  Then he filled a coffee mug with ice and a little water and told me to put my finger it it, which I did.  We debated about going to the emergency room but wondered what a doctor could do at that point.  The needle was out, and ironically, the only evidence left was a little red dot on my fingernail and a tad bit of bruising.  Oh, and I also took an extra strength Tylenol which really helped.

So, this morning I felt pretty good.  The finger is sore--sort of feels like its been slammed in a door.  So I finished the block I'd planned on finishing last night.  Now I will always think of my finger when I look at this block.  (this was photographed when all the patches were glue basted in place)

By the way, Oliver freaked me out some when he got up this morning.  He walked into the family room and saw me sewing, and said, "You know, I've been thinking . . . what happened to the thread?"

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This week I've made some progress on the applique blocks for the the Mill Girls book.  The quilt is a medallion style book and has four applique blocks at its center.  Here is the main block with the applique prepped and glued in place.  The "factory building" is sewn down as is the sun and the moon.  All of the fabrics are from the new Mill Girls fabric collection Judie Rothermel designed especially for this quilt, plus another quilt I've designed for a block-of-the-month program with Marcus Fabrics (more on that later once I start making that quilt!)

Originally shuttles were passed back and forth by hand. However, John Kay invented a loom in 1733 that incorporated a flying shuttle. This shuttle could be thrown through the warp, which allowed much wider cloth to be woven much more quickly and made the development of machine looms much simpler.

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After working on them for two days, I finally have the applique blocks drawn for the book on the mill girls.  The quilt has a center medallion made up of four applique blocks.  Then, in the border blocks that surround the medallion there is one applique block repeated eight times.  There are other blocks in the border round, but they are pieced. 
So now that I have my master patterns--and my fabric which arrived fresh from the factory on Friday--I'm ready to begin.  There's still a lot of prep work for the applique since I like to use the freezer paper and starch method.  And, it's almost inevitable that I will make changes as I work through the quilt construction.  You know how it goes, sometimes a fabric you thought would look perfect, doesn't.  Or you want to add something.  Or subtract something. 
In any case, I am so, so excited to get this project going.

Oh . . . and I've been working on another quilt for the book.  It's going to be one of the additional projects.  Here's a little peek at some of the stars that are going into this pink and brown beauty made from the Cocheco III collection by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics.

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This is one of the projects for the upcoming book, Away From Home: The Story of the Lowell Mill Girls, that just kept getting put on the back burner.  And because I kept putting it aside, I seemed to loose my momentum.  But last week I went to sew with my group and brought along the last of the sashing strips that needed appliqueing.  That got me going again.  This morning I sewed and sewed and finally finished up the quilt top.

So, I thought I would share my process on this quilt.

Here's the initial quilt design I began with in Electric Quilt7.  You will see in the photos that I changed the frames around the applique blocks so they are all the same fabric.  I tried the green and red stripe fabric, but didn't like the look of it.  I wound up making all the frames from the same floral fabric I used for the border.

The fabric is from the Cocheco I collection by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics.

Applique preparation . . .

Here's a block . .

Some blocks sew together and placed on the design wall . . . and yes, my photo is rather fuzzy.  At this point I'm concerned that I have too much contrast in my block background fabric and my sashing fabric.  It's not quite the more subtle look I'd imagined in my EQ7 rendering.  You have no idea how many sashing fabrics I auditioned before making my decision.   I have been known to take things apart and completely re-work them . . . but I want to get this done.  I have other projects awaiting.  My decision was to press forward. 

All blocks sewn together on the design wall ready and waiting for borders.

Close up of quilt, borders attached.  (Yes, those are my feet--didn't mean to get them in the photo.  But at least my nail polish matches!)

And here's the entire quilt laid out on my floor.  The quilt has more contrast in the light areas than I had originally planned, but I think the light areas will really show off whatever quilting is placed there.  Now I'm debating whether to keep the outside square or put a light scallop on it to echo the block frames.  I also thought about really playing up the reproduction look of the quilt and putting a ruffle or lace along the outside edge.  Maybe that's worthy of some research . . . 

In the meantime, let me share another color story from my EQ7 files.  It's done in various Fig Tree fabrics that I have in my stash.  So tempting . . . but do I want to make the same quilt again?

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Fabric.  We love to touch it, to pet it, to stockpile it.  It's why we quilt.  It's why we keep starting new projects before finishing the old.

The fabric collection I am using for my upcoming book Away From Home: The Story of the Mill Girls is being designed by Judie Rothermel and Faye Burgos, two of Marcus Fabrics' designers.  I had to pinch myself several times this past week because I received the strike-offs (the pre-production prints) and was asked to give my input.  The package contained lots of prints, some in various colorways, and some in colorways so subtle in their variation that it was difficult to discern the difference.  There were FAR more fabrics than we needed.  The task was to narrow it down to 24 fabrics that I would use in the quilt.

Well, I stacked the swatches.  I sorted them.  I compared them to my illustration of the feature quilt.  I put some to the side.  Then others.  Then a couple made it back in.  The best I could do was get it down to 27. 

In the meantime, across the country, Judie was doing the same.  We were to submit our choices to Faye who would compare our selections.  At this point, I don't know what Judie picked, but I do know that she narrowed her selections down to 32.  (I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear that!)

So here's just a little sneak peek of my choices.

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