I don't tend to use batting much, I'm always using fleece, even Marion's quilt was backed with fleece.  That was my mistake on that applique one, I treated it like fleece, including the drying.  The one you are doing I definitely would dry it flat so it may be fine.  And since it will be a wall quilt it won't be washed often.

Does anyone know the formula to figure what height your cutting table should be at? 

I know what I'm using now is to low and it's causing issues.

Jo

My table is at 29" but I do find myself leaning over at a "half bend" so that if I am cutting for a long time, my lower back does feel it.  However, if you bend your elbows at 90°, that's too high!

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/formula-height-cutting-table-t170778.html

I found this but I don't agree.  It says the height of your arm when bent, but if mine was that high my shoulders hurt.  Mine is about 3 inches lower.

Thanks Dee,

In the link it mentioned ironing board heights, I can iron for hours without issues.  My cutting table is at 29" and Ironing board at 35" so now I have a good idea how high my cutting table should be. 

jo

What a darling little apron!

Thanks Lynn.  I wore it to work yesterday and it worked great!  I even wore my red sewing machine earrings to go with! Lol

bornblesse2 said:

...so I made a sewing themed one!

Cute!  Great pockets.

I really like how it came out.  Wore it to work the other day and the pockets were just the right size for holding the phone and such....

In between dedicated Forever Projects, I have an all-purpose Forever Project.  It's mindless prepping and sewing of hexies.  The entire process just relaxes me.  There's no thinking about it, you just do it.  

But even when I'm working on the all-purpose Forever Project, I kinda/sorta still have a plan.   I learned, a while ago, that making singleton hexies doesn't get you too much by way of a final project.  Other than smooshing all the hexies together ... or maybe using them in a border ... what do you DO with tons of singleton hexies (especially if they're small)??

However, I *have* made singletons.  I've also made 6 matching hexies to make a Grandmothers Flower Garden .. and I've also smooshed the 6 hexie flowers together to make a top (not yet quilted).  I'm not in love with Grandmothers Flower Garden, so i don't want to make more 6 hexie flower units.

I came across a 4 unit hexie that were sewn into a diamond shape.  That was sufficiently different, so I started making these diamonds.

To make my lazy efforts easier, I do things in an assembly line basis.  I cut enough 2.5" squares for a diamond (I need 4), put them in a stack.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.   I'll spend an evening of watching TV, going through my scrap bins and cutting the (4) squares of the same fabric.   At the end of the evening, I have a whole messload of stacks that I just need to prep.

Next phase is the mindless prepping the hexies.  I use junky thread to baste the fabric squares around my paper hexie templates.  I make my own templates by using Fiskar hexagon punches.  To make a bed sized quilt, you're gonna need a HUGE amount of templates and, honestly, I'm just too cheap to buy them commercially.  Of course, by using the Fiskar punches, I am limited to the size of the punches, but that's OK.  If I want some other size, I use my Scan-n-Cut to cut the hexie templates for me.  :-)   Both methods give me absolutely uniform templates fairly inexpensively.

When I've prepped all of my stacks into 4 hexies, I thread baste those matching hexies together so they don't get lost.  Here's a bunch of 4 hexies, all prepped and basted together.

The next phase is to sew those stacks of 4 hexies into the diamond shapes (shown above).  The inspiration piece for these diamond shapes was done in shades of purple, blue, and green.  They looked wonderful together.  When I started sewing my diamonds together, I realized (belatedly) that because I was using all of my scraps, there was no coordination of colors.  This meant that my assembly was going to be random.   

Oh dear.  My brain doesn't do "random" nicely.  Even when I've done "brown bag" strip piecing (throw all of your strips into a bag, reach in, and use what you've drawn out), I tend to micro-manage the colors.  I do much better with a plan.  So, my plan .. such as it is ... was to put the diamond shapes together in kinda/sorta rainbow order (ROYBGIV).  Roughly, ya know, because sometimes the scraps don't exactly cooperate for a color.

But, that gave me some organization.  I then stacked all the same color (more or less) diamonds into stacks ... red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple ... and also brown and black.  I think I have a stack of gray in there too).  Here's a picture of my stacks of predominately color-matched diamonds:

I figured out for a twin sized quilt, which is roughly 65"x95", I'd need 19 diamonds sewn together, at the 3:00 and 9:00 positions to make one row of about 65" long.  I'd also need 19 rows to give me the length of about 95".  This is because the width and height of the diamonds are different measurements.

Continuing my assembly line process, I then picked diamonds from each of the color stacks .... ROYBGIV ... repeating the colors to give me 19.   This would give me one row.  I tied all these diamonds together and labeled which row it was .. because the 2nd row began where the 1st row stopped, so the color repetition would be continuous.  Here's rows 3 through 8, all neatly tied together and labeled:



I've already sewn rows 1 and 2 and put them up on my "design wall" .. which is just a sheet hung in front of a bookcase.  I pin my blocks to the sheet because there's no friction to hold them up.  :-)

You'll see "voids" between the rows.  Those will be filled with either white or off-white hexies.  Or maybe even another "solid" color .. I haven't decided yet.

In fact, I really haven't even settled on a twin size.  The 65"x95" is roughly a twin sized quilt but if I put borders on it ... I'll get a larger quilt.  Maybe some hexie vines in the border.  Maybe.    I can defer that decision for later.  :-)

But for now, it's the assembly line: cut the squares.  prep the hexies.  sew 4 hexies into a diamond.  put the diamond into its color stack.  pick 19 diamonds in ROYBGIV order to make a row.  tie the row together and label.   Once I have all 19 rows tied and ready, then I'll start sewing the rows together.   It's easier on my brain to work in this way, rather than do all those steps one row at a time, then repeat for all 19 rows.  That would drive me bonkers!

I'll be bringing this project with me to work on, as we drive to the Retreat.  I get a lot of sewing done on our road trips.  Mr. Pirate likes to drive and has only rarely asked me to take over.  I can't just SIT in the passenger seat, so having a project is a creative way to use that time.  :-)