Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

And when I discovered, quite by accident, that you can use gift tissue paper (white!) as the foundation

I remember you said that, however, I am usually too lazy to cut tissue foundations, when I can just sew and trim!!

LABFIEND said:

And I can make them wonky if I want!

I can make them wonky even if I don't want!

Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

you can use gift tissue paper (white!

I tired this when you mentioned it before.  Didn't work for me.  Not enough body to it.  Did you do something special?

Cathy (cacnurse1) said:

Not enough body to it.  Did you do something special?

Nope .. just used the white tissue paper straight from the package.   Of course, I wasn't wrestling with it either.  :-)

I've been saving my used dryer sheets for some time and using them.  They don't add any weight because they're paper thin after use, plus they still have a little bit of smell left in them.  But.....my blocks were 5" - they wouldn't work for the larger blocks.

LindaPutt said:

I've been saving my used dryer sheets

That wouldn't work for me as I use liquid softener.  Also I usually do 8 or 10 inch blocks.

I have been making string quilts for years and I do not put any foundation on them as I go. I did a block swap some years ago and the blocks that required foundation are really heavy in the finished top. Paper is tedious to rip off. Early on I tried without and it just came out fine. If you press carefully and don't pull or tug foundation is just an extra step that is not necessary.

But then I am a rebel!

Had to go looking for this thread about what we are working on.....lol!

anywho..... I made myself a work apron.  Since I am continuing to work several days a month, I needed to do something.  Over the holidays one of the other workers made me a holiday apron.  We wear aprons at work so we always have our own phones and ink pen or pencil.

but, we are headed into February.  Thought about another holiday one, but really didn’t want to end up With lots of seasonal ones....so I made a sewing themed one!

cute.  since it is red it still looks valentine-like unless you look close.  YOu need to make a green one too for March

and definitely more fun than masks!

Slowly but surely it's growing.  I think I want to make another dozen or so flower blocks before I call it done - large lap quilt size - this is about 3 x 4 right now.  The blocks pieced so far include 2 background stars but none of the blocks are connected yet so that I can work on the arrangement of the colors. Considering I started this at least 3 years ago I'm happy with the progress.  I do wish I hadn't decided to piece the background stars, I don't mind the petals but those stars are very time consuming and fiddly - they don't lie flat, even after I worked on re-drafting the template.  The wool mat is helping "press them into submission" pretty well.   This process is stressing my "it has to fit perfectly and lay flat" inclination.  I keep thinking quilting this isn't going to be particularly fun either.  But it does look cool.