Past quilt from parts department............

To expand on my "parts department" post yesterday, this is a quilt I made in 2016.  I had a lot of batik 2" finished triangles that I had previously cut from scraps.  I made the star blocks as my mindless evening sewing for a few months.  Then the blocks got placed on a shelf.  One day I came across them and on the next shelf were leftover red 16 patch blocks from another quilt.  As I moved them and placed one pile on top of the other, I saw that the both sets of blocks were the same size and this quilt was born.  It is one of my favorites and has never been moved to the gifting pile.

I searched my flannel boxes and found 4 more light fabric for triangles.

After I cut the new triangles I paired the fabrics for sewing last night.  I had enough light triangles to match all of the rest of the dark triangles that were cut last year.

I sewed 40 of them last night but will wait to take a picture of all of the remaining sewn squares.  I think there will be around 85 of them.

More parts department finds:  Last year I started sewing 2" strips together and the plan is blocks like the blue one.  I only have enough prepared for 4 blocks but I put them in a project box with a note of what I'm doing.  That is progress....adding the note.

In the same project box were stratas of batiks sewn but none cut for blocks.  I think I was planning something different with these.  Again, there aren't very many of them but I decided it was a good idea to keep them all together in a safe place.

The last box I opened was the Kaffe small scraps and some blocks.  Here is a post that shows some of the blocks from last September.  I'll definitely work on this one soon.

This is a long neglected wall hanging.  It is taped to the table, ready for hand basting, to prepare for ditch quilting.  It has been ready for a couple months and I finally did the first 3 lines of basting.  I took this photo before I started the stitching.  Maybe I'll finish it today.

What is in the project boxes........

You will have to humor me, I need to have this post to come back to later.  There may be a second post like this.  I'm starting to search through the boxes to see what I have in the parts department.  Box 1 had these 3" batik 9 patches and 4" 16 patches.  There aren't enough to make anything other than table runners at this point.  I'm having discussions with myself on what I want to make more of, and what I will settle as a small project.

Box 2: I made these blocks from the Kaffe yarn dyed woven stripes many years ago.  Again there aren't enough to make a decent size project.  I think maybe I can convince myself to make a few more blocks later this year.

Box 3 has squares and rectangles and assorted scraps of the neutral batiks from which I have made 6 quilts and tops.  I do have a few yardage pieces of these too.  This won't be tackled soon but it is possible I'll make one more quilt with them.

Box 4 has 301 four and a half inch batik 9 patches.  This is 3/4 of a batch of blocks and I have already made one quilt top with the other 1/4.  There are 3 alike of each combination of 99 of them and 4 of one of them.  It is pretty likely I'll do something with these.

I only sewed 24 more of the flannel squares.  Total now, 54 + 58 + 51 + 24.  I still need to cut more light triangles to match up with the rest of the dark triangles.

Northern Texas got more snow that we got here in Northern Illinois yesterday.  They have predicted snow for Sunday and the first forecast was up to 3"; now it is a trace or mixed precipitation.  We have maybe had a total of 4" from 4 storms so far this winter.  Normal would be over 12" by now.

I'm not looking forward to shoveling the sidewalk so I guess I should be celebrating.

Another day of triangles.........

Yesterday morning I paired lights with dark for more flannel triangle squares.

I got 51 of them sewn last night.  Now my totals are 54 + 58 + 51.  I still have a bunch to sew from the morning pairing.

This is the assortment cut so far of dark squares for the Plaid-ish quilt.  I have 60 of 80 cut, 20 to go.  I'Il probably overcut since I'm not sure the ones with red in them will work because all of the mediums are red/pink/orange.  I also have most of one of the other shapes cut.

This is the last group of tomatoes from my summer garden.  I don't know whether they will continue ripening or be edible but I'm giving them a chance.  All of the ones that ripened from October through December were delicious. 

More flannel triangles.............

Last night's sewing yielded 58 flannel  2" finished triangle squares.  There is one more light fabric that I cut that didn't get used yet.  I think I need to check the flannel scrap bin one more time for light fabrics.  I probably will have to go to yardage before I'm done.  So now I have 54 + 58 squares sewn.

Every year I'm amazed at how fast the daylight each day is extended after the shortest day in December.  I'm going to have to reset the starting time for my little trees because they are coming on while it's still light outside.

Late yesterday afternoon I was walking past an east window and saw a golden glow on all of the trees a few blocks away.  I guess the sunlight was hitting the trees just right and it looked like fall instead of winter.

 Then I went to a west window and the sky was pink and blue.  By the time I grabbed my camera the colors had intensified.  I usually can't capture the deep color but I got it this time.

 

Triangle sewing........

Last year when I was finishing my flannel quilt production I cut a lot of 2" finished triangles.  Most were dark so yesterday I looked for some light scraps to cut more triangles.  I got 54 sewn while watching TV last night.

There are lots more dark triangles waiting for their partner.  I'll look for some more light fabrics today.

I had also cut a lot of floral triangles from waste areas when cutting for my quarter square triangle last year.  I needed to cut light ones, so while I had the triangle die out, I looked for light scraps and cut a batch of them too.  This should give me some night sewing for the rest of the week.

While I had the iron on, I pressed fabrics for the Plaid-ish quilt too and got some pieces cut.  I'll get more done on that today.

Catching up..............

I'm getting a slow start to my projects in this new year.  I had to do some catch-up, grocery shopping and laundry.

I'm looking for the dies that will cut some of the pieces of the Plaid-ish quilt.  One of them is a 5" square.  I'll get some fabrics pressed today and start cutting.  Some of the shapes will have to be rotary cut.  My right shoulder has been bothering me so I won't be doing a lot of cutting any one day.

I did some reorganizing of computer folders too and I enjoy doing that.

Last night I got a few rows knit on a dishcloth.  There will be some good TV tonight, new shows, so I need to get to the sewing stage on something.  It may be just creating parts to use later rather than any one project.  I'm really not very organized yet this new year.  I worked so hard last year getting a lot of my older quilt tops quilted.  I'm down to 27 tops now and they are mostly small ones. 

Sorting by value...........

As I was dividing the Kaffe scraps into dark, medium and light for the Plaid-ish quilt I decided the mediums will all be pinks, reds, or oranges. Because so many of Kaffe's fabrics are multicolor, a lot of them got eliminated from the selections. I didn't get all the way to the bottom of the bin.  I will look at the sizes I need to cut and decide how many of these I really need.

As I work on the Plaid-ish quilt I'll decide if any need to be removed, or if I need  more.

I might be able to add a medium purple to the red, orange, pink group.  I may need to remove the darkest reds.  Time will tell.

The dark ones with red in them may need to be removed.  I'll only know when I get some pieces cut and can lay out some blocks.

If you want to see the designer's finished quilt, you can search for Plaid-ish quilt and click on the Kitchen Table Quilting link to the tutorial.  My quilt will be a little deeper toned if I stay with the red group for my mediums.  I'll make decisions as I play with the cut pieces.