Almost there (and a link party)

Wow, I was playing catch-up and I almost won... :)

The Ongoing Project List:

1. SYS2015 future projects - waiting for next tutorial
2. Block Swap Adventure - June block, planned
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - 1 big block done (see below)
4. Water Lilies (Spangled Stars Quilt-along) - almost done! (see below)
5. D wall hanging -  no progress
6. the SK project - no progress

The EverythingElse List:

1. Embroidery calendar - no progress
2. Animal blocks for charity quilts - paused for a while
3. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - paused for a while
4. College Days Blog Hop blocks for tote/grocery bag -  no progress
5. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
6. As You Wish -  no progress
7. Happy Halloween wall hanging -  no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion -  no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. B quilt - no progress

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Susan (quiltfabrication.blogspot.com) is hosting a fun Quilt Along (Spangled Stars)!!
I joined last week and this week I almost caught up to the current step (which is technically the last step before assembly). So I pretty much assembled the entire quilt top in one week! Kudos to me!! :)

Actually I am still working on finishing several blocks, but I post on Saturdays so I wanted to get this post done before finishing all the blocks! :)

So this is my current plan

Original design by Susan,

(left) week 1 progess,
(middle) current state after one week!!
(right) my current draft: modified layout for colors/size

So what I did this week was:

Uneven nine patch blocks

Bar blocks (inspected and approved by my sewing helper ;) )

Several Stripes and Cross and Star blocks (which for me are flowers not stars ;) )

It takes me a little more time to stitch my blocks together because I am making it very scrappy and with a gradient colored background, so I cannot use the fast and useful tips that Susan gives in her tutorials (most of the times).

I found out that cutting several pieces of any specific measure (either 2, 2.5 or the weird measures with quarters and 7/8s) is a nightmare for me :) just because I keep forgetting what the measure is, where to find it on my ruler, sometimes I turn the ruler the wrong way (using that extra half-inch side, or not)... anyway... I found a super easy trick to solve that problem. It not my idea, I saw it online somewhere but I don't know where... anyway this is the trick

Several layers (typically 3-4) of painters tape on the back of the ruler at the desired measure! The layers of tape create a nice "bump" on the back of the ruler so that you can just slide the ruler on the edge of the fabric and it will stop exactly at that point, and then it's easy to cut and go on with another cut! You don't have to remember what the measure is... whatever it is, it is where the tape is! and you can reposition it very easily and several times!!

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The only other project I worked on is my Mirror Mirror Afghan (using the tapestry crochet technique)

16''x22'' front and back

This is going to be my main central panel for the afghan! I really like the way it turned out... looking forward to start the other block (with inverted colors!)

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How about you? What are YOU up to?
Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up