What's been happening this week.....

I've been out of town this week and have only now been able to reply to all the great comments on my Make a Garment a Month Sept. plans post.   Thank you so much ladies for weighing in on with your thoughts of 'sewing block'!  It's nice to know I might not be the only one suffering from this peculiar ailment.  :)  If you haven't had a chance to read their opinions, pop on over to see what these multi-talented ladies had to say.  OpportunityKnits analyzed it pretty well.... !

Meanwhile, the sewing machine has been working overtime on the Road to Oklahoma quilt.   We are hoping to get out there mid-October and I think I've been so afraid I'll procrastinate ponder too much about this quilt, that instead it's all I can think about and work on.  Daily.  Hours.  Each.  Day.  I've never pieced blocks like this before, as my other 2 quilts were more strip pieced.  I'm finding each block is not hard, particularly when I got the hang of which side to press which seam to, so each seam nestles together to match up nicely --- most of the time.   Also figured out mathematically how much of what I needed cut and assembled for each block..... to equal 48 blocks total using 4 background colors.
  
Things really starting moving along when I came up with my assembly line process.  Using 2 pieces of sturdy cardboard, I've got 16 - 2 1/2" squares in each of the 12 blocks, stacked one on top of each other, prepped for sewing in the proper order here, photo below.  Thought this was one of my more brilliant ideas than getting up and down to go back and forth to the ironing board with every individual block that I was previously doing.  :)

So far 12 blocks of the golden background color is done.  Check!

12 blocks of the spotted light brown blocks are done.  Check!

10 blocks of the light brown circles are done.  Ran out of fabric.  Need 2 more, so will substitute another color and it should be fine.

12 blocks of the mottled tan fabric is prepped for assembly. 

I am using the Gourmet Quilter's fantastic video on how she created her blocks, using 2 1/2" squares, assembling them together like a 4 patch, as well as how she made her half-square triangles.  She has you make secondary, smaller half-square triangles at the same time as your larger 2 1/2" hst for minimum fabric waste and to have another design element already made almost effortlessly.  My little basket, below, is filling up with the secondary triangles that I hope to incorporate in this quilt somewhere.

These measure at @ 1 3/4" square and are effortless to make.

On the garment sewing front I serged the raw edges of my fabric before it was washed in cold water, delicate cycle and dried in the dryer on the delicate cycle.  At least some progress has been made towards the jacket!

Also this week, I was honored to be the judge for our county's 4-H project record books.  My two girls, who are now young adults, were a part of the 4-H program for years and it's nice to see what our 4-H youth are doing today.

Better get back to those last 12 blocks!  I'm looking forward to bringing the entire design together for the quilt top then.  Then there's the borders/sashing to do, sandwiching of the quilt, quilting the quilt, the binding..... oh my!  So much to do.... okay, I'm only thinking about the next 12 blocks.... 

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

BE SURE TO READ ALL THE POSTS ABOUT THIS QUILT:
*'Road to Oklahoma' - the beginning
*Assembly Line progress
*The top is done..... or is it?!
*Let the quilting begin!
*'just keep quilting.... just keep quilting....'
*Complete!
*The rest of the story