Now that I have what I need to make the quilt, I have to clean up my sewing area and tables. 
Way back in the mists of time, I flew from California to Texas to attend the Houston Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival.  This is a massive quilt show and vendor hall that takes over the Houston convention center for a week. While I was there, I bought a cutting table and a sewing (machine) table that folds up and rolls, has lots of drawers and the sewing tables allows for the sewing machine to drop 'inside' for storage, when the extended table sections are folded up. It is way cool but weighs a ton!!

​Now, during the past year of the pandemic, I had made a mess of both tables because I had placed all my Temari and Yubinuki supplies on them; let alone the dust and other schmutz that gathered.  

It took a good 2 hours just to sort the yubinuki supplies that were on the cutting table and to put them away. The sewing table had to be sorted and vacuumed since there were rice hulls (the center material of a Temari ball) everywhere; this took another hour or so. 

The first picture is of the cutting table with just one leaf opened up; that is the width I need for cutting. 
The second picture shows the sewing table with my sewing machine and the ironing board to the side so I can press what I sew.

I am ready to actually start cutting fabric. 

Two weeks ago I identified 12 quilt shops between Houston, Austin and SA (San Antonio) that I would consider visiting for the fabric hunt.

The furthest east one, The Quilted Skien, is in La Grange (not all the way to Houston) and it is a 2 hours drive each way. I was there 3 years ago when I was driving around as part of the Hill Country Yarn crawl. La Grange is a VERY old town with the court house in the center square and big ol' Victorian style homes AND the Texas quilt museum is there so i figured that now that I was "fully" vaccinated, I would drive out there to look for fabrics and visit the museum as my first stop on the fabric quilt hunt

This weekend I went out to La Grange on local roads passing many classic large Texas ranches, big stone gates at the driveway, cattle grazing on the acres and massive ranch homes off in the distance; plus wild flowers dotting the fields. Along the way you also pass a lot of little towns of just a post office, gas station and market. The roads while in good condition are only 2 lanes but have a speed limit of 60 mpg; I was doing 50 so I could look and would be passed, on the double yellow line, by big ass dual wheel pick up trucks and getting flipped the bird; but what ever. 

I arrived in La Grange to find many shops around the square closed (out of business); I had called a head and knew the quilt shop was still open.   The shop was empty so I spend some time looking at the selection of fabrics before looking specifically for the quilt; so I knew where to focus. The shop owner asked about what I was looking for and I explained the quilt and showed here the pattern. She agreed that a tone-on-tone would be good for a modern quilt and pointed me to some fabric collections that I like. During this time we also talked about the Snowmageddon, from last February and the hail storms just 3 weeks ago.  I looked at several other collections to see if I wanted to mix up the fabrics but never found anything as good; I then selected a white-on-white. She carried the bolts to the cutting table, I got a package of needles for my machine and bought 3 spools of 100% cotton sewing thread and checked out.  1.hours later, I was done with the fabric hunt then I was done with the "great" wedding quilt fabric hunt. I did not think it would be that easy. I was expecting to visit at least 2 or three quilt shops.

I then wandered over to the Quilt museum and saw an exhibition of blue and white quilts. Unfortunately no photography was allowed but I saw some really nice quilts.  

I have completed the fabric hunt in one weekend thinking it was possibly going to take at least 3. Now to clean up my sewing area and get to cutting.

In The Great Wedding Quilt Project - Part One, I said that the quilt pattern had been identified and purchased AND that the largest quilt size was a double but my niece wants a queen size quilt.  In this blog post I am going to cover, in general how to change the size of a quilt, not change the size of the blocks.

For making any quilt larger, you have to know how many extra blocks you need. Normally that could be as simple as adding an extra row and column - kind because the column has to take into account that extra row. But this quilt has the blocks set on point so it is a bit more complicated.  You have to figure not only the full blocks but the half blocks along the sized plus the quarter sized blocks that go in the corners

Once the number of extra blocks is known, then the number pieces (squares, rectangles, full, half and quarter triangles, etc.) that make up the block can be calculated. From those numbers the amount of fabric in square inches or millimeters is created. And finally, the yardage can be determined.

Now, with my engineering background, doing this math, using Microsoft Excel for the calculations (not taking any chances especially since I am dyslexic) is easy for me; you might think --
                                   WTF, I don't even know where to start to do all that math!!!
​Have no fear, there are books for this!! 
Go to your favorite on line book seller and enter "quilt math" and over 2 dozen books will be listed. This is my favorite which I bought in the 1980's and is still published today  - Taking The Math Out of Making Patchwork Quilts.  

Its a great book that covers, straight and on-point sets, mattress sizes and quilt sizes for them; adding sashing, borders and more. Then it becomes easier to know the number of blocks and the yardage.

I would like to also mention that there are some websites that have quilting calculators. 

​Before using the books or a calculator, take a quilt pattern and run the numbers for a know size and verify the numbers align - remember the pattern may round up the yardage required.

Many emails later... we have a quilt that I am going to sew. It is called Upwards and it is a modern quilt design based upon a log cabin pieced block. The pattern only goes up to a full sized quilt but I am able to do the math to increase it to a queen sized quilt. The background will stay white as will the gold/brown sections. The gray will be replaced with a heather (blue/gray) and the black will be replaced with a navy blue.

I am thinking that I want the 3 colors (gold, heather, blue) from a single color collection that way they "go together" with tone and pattern(s). The white may or may not come from the collection because some collections don't have a white but a cream and that is not what is wanted. 

I now have to find those fabrics. Yes, I could go on line and get them but I am always afraid that the colors are off due to photography issues as well as the monitor's color balance being off.   BUT I am browsing the big online quilt shops for ideas. Then in about 2 weeks I will start going to quilt shops between Austin and San Antonio to see what fabric collections they have and with luck I will find what I want. IF a shop does not have enough, then I will google an online shop and see if I can get the balance that way.  

As for the back, I will get extra fabric and do a a pieced back, with large panels so it co-ordinates with the front, if not give them another "front" to use. What fabric color for the binding has yet to be decided.

Let the fabric hunt begin!! 

Last month I received a text message from my niece; who I refer to as "The Wonder Baby", but that is another story. She texted to tell me that she is following in the family tradition of "ELOPING". My cousin Amy eloped, I eloped, my sister eloped for her second marriage, and now my neice is!

Yes, technically telling her mother and I that she is eloping, is not really eloping but since she is not having a formal wedding and they are going to another state; well it qualifies in our family's books.

So what does one give your only niece as a wedding present?  It has to be something special that can also become a family heirloom and in my opinion that present should be unique and thus one of a kind.  One of a kind items can be bought and even commissioned but why not actually MAKE the present. So that's what I am going to do.

Through out her life, I have made her quilts; I made her first one when she was about 4. I let her know what I wanted to do and that I needed some input from her so they would like it. We have now traded almost a dozen emails and have settled on a pattern and "colors" as well as the size; I will pick the final fabrics and then sew it and get it professionally quilted.  I will go visit them when it is time to give them the quilt. 

Here is picture of The Wonder Baby with her mom (my sister) back in 2002! Below this picture of my niece is a picture of one of the many quilts I have made her. This quilt, made in 2000, used the satin from my mother's wedding dress, in the some of the stars.

Oh, yes it is that time again!
Duration: 13 (+1) OR 1 year 30 days
Covid Vaccine: 1 (+1)
Trips to the Office: 6 (0)
Pounds Lost: 13 (0)
Books Read: 39 (+2)
Temari Made: 56 (+1)
Temari Tutorial/Pattern Written: 8 (0)
Yubinuki Made: 11 (+2)
Lines of Executable Code Written: 37,471 (+21635)
Studio Ghibli Movies Watched: 20 ( )
Other Series Binge Watched: 10 (+2)
Haircut: 1 (0)
Voted for President: 1 (0)
Sewing Projects: 2 (0)
Participation in Snowmageddon: 1 (+0)
Texas Chart of New Cases from the beginning to now. (below)

Last month I started this basket weave temari. I based it on a temari from one of the books from Japan (Cosmo #5) but where they used 2 colors, I used 5 - 3 for the main weaved squares and two for the framing. I also changed up how the bands weave into the framing. I chose one direction (x, y or z) for each color this results in  2 of the 3 main colors being woven in each square and the squares on opposite sides of the temari are the same.   I also took many measurements long the way to make sure everything stayd "true" so the framing at the corners would meet nice and tight. Then I made a coordinated yubinuki using the same colors, again in a basket weave where stitched threads are the warp (vertical threads) and the weft (horizontal) are woven but NOT stitched.

A few more yubinuki - the pink one is for the Plum Blossom temari that lives in Scotland, which I made last year. The green one is for the Cedar temari I made last month.

So what is a POLYHISTOR?  I am a polyhistor!  But I do not think I am a polymath since there are areas of learning that hold no interest to me such as philosophy.  And because of my age I am a Opsimath too.

Please refer to this image of the definition of a polyhistor, then keep reading for more background and understanding.

​
​When the Covid-19 pandemic started, I was doing some metal work and temari; reading. After a few weeks into the lockdown I was still making temari and started a weaving project; the metal work was set aside. Now one year into the pandemic I have set aside the weaving and I am spending my evenings mostly working on temari and yubinuki. 

It was during this past year I began to ponder my penchant for learning which to me was a bit odd considering I did not enjoy "school" as a child. That's not to say I did not like going to school or all of the things I was told I had to learn; what I did not enjoy was some of the things I had to learn and the more I thought about it I realized I did not enjoy the subjects where the learning was difficult due to my then unknown dyslexia.  The subjects I did enjoy were home economics, physical education, art, poetry, the sciences except the heavy math parts, and many after school activities like stage crew, (more) sports and Girl Scouts. It was the math, spelling and learning French - all for a while until I learned, on my own, how to make a game of learning and mastering the rules. 

What can be even more confounding is that I chose to pursue an engineering degree after high school.  I decided on the degree because I am a "natural engineer" and my father was one too and he said I would have a more difficult time trying to follow my dreams without a degree, like him, than with one (being female in the 60-70's being the other).  College was extremely difficult and my undergraduate grades where crap (gong to a very difficult school did not help) but I did graduate. 

NOTE: A natural engineer is NOT a person who engineers nature or natural resources. A natural engineer is someone who is an engineer but has no formal training and exhibits the ability to see and solve problems at a young age. I was telling my father how to fix things, he was working on, starting sometime around 5th grade.

Since then I have had this desire to learn new things - embroidery and crewl work, weaving and spinning, quilting (which is very different than sewing clothing which I do as well), knitting, temari and yubinuki, metalsmithing, raising and sinking vessels, constructing boxes, chasing and repousse and learning to make the tools for metalsmithing - all subjects that are, in a way mathematical and engineering related while allowing the person doing them to be creative. I say they involve engineering and mathematical aspects because all do require the use of math, some more than others, and they have a technical aspect to them; when you know the basics there are challenges and problems to be solved when an idea presents it self.

As I said, I realized this past year that I like learning and specifically learning where I can solve problems or processes. When I find a subject that piques my interest, I am ALL IN.  I find ways to learn at my own pace, I acquire the books, tools and other aqutromonts to master it. Many of the skills I have listed I really enjoy and have done for 30, 40 or more years And yet.... I realized that for some of these other subjects, which I also enjoy(ed) I have set aside and never come back to.  So do I enjoy the learning and gaining the understanding MORE than the act of doing it?
​
I present to you as an example my 10 year foray into Metalsmithing, shall we. I first learned how to cut and polish a cabochon, then I moved into basic jewelry so I could wear what I had made. I enjoy making the odd piece of jewelry but it did not inspire me to make more.  I like working with metal because of the underlying science and engineering which most metalsmiths have no interest in. From there I tried chain maille which I found boring after a while and from there I moved into raising and sinking of vessels - now that challenged me and continues to do so.  To do more with the vessels I made, I then learned chasing and repousse; to color my work I delved into the alchemy behind patina and the construction techniques of making boxes and hinges. 

Throughout all of this I realize that I am very good at the technical aspects and can make some wonderful things many of which are my own original ideas. What I lack is the continuous flow of creative ideas that would make me a true artist in some things I have learned but not in others.  I am OK with that which is why I am an Artisan not an artist.  

I know I can find a subject I enjoy, learn it, become proficient in it and make and be creative and sell these items as a polyhistor and an artisan.