Mod Owls Revival quilt progress

There’s a whole lotta cutting going on.

My, oh my. I sat down at my new table a few days ago and sewed for the first time at home in about six weeks. And then I did it again for six hours for two days in a row! And I slept! Ah, quilting, you are so good for me.

But back to Mod Owls—When I cut the pieces for the quilt a few weeks ago, I cut out more than necessary. I don’t want to make the quilt bigger; I wanted to make sure I had plenty of variety, and anything leftover can make a pillow or even a non-traditionally colored baby quilt. We’ll see. 

And even after careful cutting and counting, I still shorted myself on some required cuts. On Saturday I was working on the smaller owl units and realized my mistake. As I told the Hubs, I’m good at math but terrible at counting. It didn’t take long to cut out the five squares I needed, but if I want more variety I need to cut a few more. And, thank goodness, I had enough background fabric leftover. 

Auditioning the fabric pairings

So the cutting of the pieced units has taken a while, and I’ve been trying to not overdo it to protect my wrist. It helps that I’m on the cutting table that is now at the height I need to perform efficiently, but now I find that my feet need additional support. I bought a closed cell foam mat and it feels like Heaven. 

Oops!

But while squaring up the larger owl blocks the other day, I ran into the “that’s what I get for thinking I could do that” leap of faith thing. In all my initial cutting, I accidentally cut a few squares smaller—the larger owls require a background square of a certain size and I cut them a 1/2” short. I realized this in the first classroom session. But I thought I could use them because of the squaring up that happens after you piece the unit, but no. You need that full size. So back to the extra background fabric which isn’t so extra anymore. Let’s hope I have enough to get through this quilt!

Owl heads with their beaks attached

And this brings me to my aging process. The older I get, the more I have to focus on something to make sure I’m not making a mistake. I think this is why I’m in the age of enjoying quilting by myself, because I can’t talk and chew gum (or quilt) at the same time. Sigh. 

Stay tuned for the next Mod Owls Revival episode and the quilting of the secret project. In the meantime, go make!