Yesterday I spent the day recuperating from some sort of intestinal bug. I spent a bit of time pitying myself in the morning since I had spent a good portion of the week prior down with migraines. Once I completed that task (the pity party) I decided to move forward. One can only enjoy that sort of thing for so long.
I decided to look at www.vistaprint.com and play with designing a business card for Needle and Foot. The day prior to being sick, I was in our local kitchen goods store, The Wooden Spoon. (Isn’t that a cute name?) I was comparing the eight cup Chemex and the ten cup pot. I have a customer on Etsy that wants a ten cup cover and I had not yet made a pattern for that size. The manager was so gracious when I explained what I was doing and that I hoped to avoid actually buying the ten cup pot (they are sort of spendy and I already have the six and eight cup model). Once she saw what I was making, she asked for a business card to show the owner because she thought they might be interested in talking with me at some point. Alas, no business card had I. So I did what any other professional would do and wrote my contact info on a scrap of paper that I dug from the darkest depths of my purse. You should know that the nuns always gave me a hard-earned “C” in cursive/handwriting all those years back so it is sure that I left a gorgeous note. Hope they don’t lose it. Hence the need for something a bit more professional. Off to Vistaprint.
After I created what I thought looked like a good draft I submitted it to my Advisory Board of Five (aka my five sisters). Oh, the helpful information that I gleaned from them. The texting session went as follows:
Me:
Here it is, what do you think? I know the picture is blurred and I am working on that but how about the information?
Them :
- I like the picture. Make the picture bigger.
- Add ‘Quilter Extrordinaire’ under the name.
- Now you can use the cards to put in those fishbowls at restaurants and win free lunches. This is the only reason I have business cards. I haven’t won yet but I feel it happening at some point.
- Oh, I actually won a free lunch doing that at Noodles & Co. (In my old life.) <this advisor is currently retired.>
- See, they pay for themselves.
Me:
Thanks. Now, do I order 100 or go big and get the 10,000 pack? Buying in bulk is always more economical you know.
Them:
- Do they have a ten pack??
- 100 doesn’t seem like enough but 10,000 would allow you to wallpaper a room in the Downieville house <that is the house we are currently renovating.>
It is always best to have support like this when making critical decisions. The expertise and wisdom run deep within this group. If you don’t have this type of support I highly recommend you go out and adopt a few sisters for yourself.
Other than designing business cards (I bought the 100 pack, by the way) I did a little bit of sewing. Prior to getting sick, I decided to start working on the first row of Mari’s Classic Stitches BOM. She is making the first row with Broken Dishes blocks which are created with HST’s. I am not usually a fan of HST’s – all the trimming and squaring up that is required gets to me after a while. But the block is cute and I really want to do this row quilt for RSC2015. I dug in. The color for January is blue which I have plenty of scraps for. Unfortunately my first attempt was not entirely successful. I read the instructions wrong and made HST’s that were three inches when squared off. The instructions actually said to make them so they were 3″ finished (like when sewn into the block.) This means I should have squared them to 3 1/2″. Dang it. Luckily after making the first 24 HST’s I put them on the design wall to play with them. Soon as they were up there I knew they were too small. So that stack went into a Ziploc bag to be used some other day, in some other way.
I started over and it all went as it should. Got the HST’s put together (and it didn’t take long.)
It’s that trimming. Why isn’t there a better way? Or is there? Does anyone have any good tips for trimming HST’s? My method for making HST’s is to cut two square and put them right sides together. I have a little tool to draw two lines that are each 1/4″ from the diaganol. I sew those two lines and cut them apart down the center. The method works but maybe I am missing something wonderful that would allow me to love making HST’s? If so, please leave me a comment with your suggestion!! I will be ever grateful as sooo many blocks are based on HST’s.
Enough whining. The trimming was completed. The fun part is piecing the blocks. Here they are – almost done and hanging on the wall.
One good thing is that with this project, I noticed that my points are getting more accurate. Not all of them… but some actually look like this:
And, ta da! First row of the quilt is done. Yay! (Hard to take a picture of this as it finished at 60″ long and it is raining out. This will do for now.) Row one complete!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Linking to Lorna at Let’s Bee Social and Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. Both of these links are found at the top of my page, under Link Ups. Also linking to Angela at So Scrappy for RSC15 and with Megan at Sew Stitching Cute’s link up.
Oh Bernie, I was tickled to see the “first row” hanging from your staircase. It works. !! !! !!
Yep, wherever I can get the picture. I’m just glad it’s been raining a bit today. Not much but we’ll take what we can get, right?
What a great-looking row! And I agree–great place to take a picture. You’ll have to show us the business card when it’s ready!
your sisters sound like a riot! your story made me smile. trimming those things gets to be really annoying, but it’s worth it when the points match up easier. your quilt looks great!
My sisters are definitely a riot! I wish they lived closer to me. Yes, love having nice clean points!!
Thanks for stopping over Molly.
—Bernie
I tend to make my HSTs in batches. I like the method you used best, and I’ll sew 6 of those at once to make 12 HSTs and then trim those up before going back and starting over. I find that by breaking up the sewing and pressing and trimming that I stay much more motivated to work through a large group of HSTs. Your first row looks great!
That might be helpful. Trimming a billion at once is just annoying! So moving in. A cycle like that might just be better. I will try that with the next set.
Thanks for your advice and for stopping by!
Bernie
Having three sisters for myself s the greatest gift on earth !
Your points are perfect (written and sewn) 🙂
You’re so kind! I didn’t know you had three sisters. Are they local? I sure wish mine were closer.
B.
Awesome blue row! Love it!
The Advisory Board comments are fabulously hilarious! 🙂 Looking forward to seeing your business cards. I want to make business cards (for my blog that isn’t really a business… yet). But I think I want to change my blog name so I should probably do that first, eh? 😉
Yep, I do love my advisory board. They are the best.
Have you thought of any names for your site? Hard to come up with ideas, isn’t it? Vistaprint was a bargain tho and easy to use – when you are ready for those cards to be used as entry for the free lunches all over the Bay Area. 😉
Wonderful work and lovely blue colors.
Thank you Carol! I have never done a row quilt before so this is really a fun project. Glad you stopped over.
B.
Love the Broken Dishes.
Thanks – now that the blocks are together I am really liking this first row of the quilt. So…wonder what the next color is???
Glad you stopped over.
B.
Oh my! That sure is a lot of HST’s!!! I love making them though, even when you have to make tons. It still never makes a task look ever the less daunting. Thanks for linking up with WIDTW!!! Great post!
Your advisory board sounds like a hoot! I should probably get around to making cards before I need to have them made too. I feel like the only people who ask for them are the ladies at my LQS but still!
So on HST trimming, I use a Bloc-Loc and while it’s not perfect is 10,000x times better than my stupid ruler slipping cause the seam bumps things up and I end up with kukky shaped half-ish square triangles.
I have also heard a rumor (aka never tried it myself) that instead of pressing your HST open leave it folded (but set yout seams), line up the stitching with the 90° line on a ruler then trim ’em two sides at a time. I’ve never tried it cause I read about it the day after my Bloc-Loc came in but so is life…
Thanks for the tips. Never heard of blok lok but will look into it. It makes sense to trim the corners two at a time so I may try that first. Glad you commented with these ideas. Thanks so much!
B.
Since I love HST blocks so much I have resigned myself to trimming… but I do the same thing Terri Ann does and trim them with my Eleanor Burns Triangle Square Up ruler before I press them open. It helps! Your blocks look great.
Looks like that is the best bet. I will start trimming them without pressing seams first. Thanks for letting me know. I do love all of the variations and ways that HST’s Dan be used so its worth it.
Take care and glad you stopped by!
B.