Cut, sew, cut.............

I needed to get the Plaid-ish pieces off the design wall so I sewed 3 of the 4 blocks, then sewed 3 more dark blocks.  After that I cut more pieces so I can  make more medium color blocks.  I only had about a third of the medium color pieces cut after an hour.

Last night I pressed all of the sewn blocks for the flannel quilt and did a trial layout.  I can see that about half of the rectangles that are already cut are too dark for this quilt so I'll cut some more light and medium values today.  I won't know if this layout is working until I remove and replace the dark rectangles.  I also need to get the rest of the triangles sewn into blocks.  These 2 projects may make it to the quilt top stage by the end of the month if I don't get sidetracked.

 

Taking count..........

 It was an errand day yesterday, in addition to baking a batch of cookies.  I didn't get much sewing done so I did counting instead.

Single columns of flannel triangles.  The original quilt I designed (shown on Monday's post) has 7 of these.

9 Double columns - most would be like this because I have 8 in most of the sets of triangle squares.  In my original quilt I have only 4 of these so I can add one more strip to 5 of them to make triple columns.

I only have 4 of the triple column blocks sewn and there were 14 of them in the original quilt.  I don't have to follow the layout of the original exactly but I thought I would start out doing that.

I have lots more to sew into blocks so I'll concentrate on the triple column blocks.

I brought the box of flannel rectangles up to the main floor studio so I can check out the colors.  When I put the flannel blocks on the design wall they don't want to stick.  I think it is because the seams on the pieced blocks want to curl a little.  I'm going to have to pin some of the non-sticking ones which will slow down the design time.

Plaid-ish mock-up.............

I cut enough pieces to make a mock-up of all three blocks that are in the Plaid-ish quilt.  The medium value blocks are in both vertical and horizontal positions.  Red/pink/orange is my medium color for my version of the quilt and I needed to be sure there was enough contrast between the dark and medium fabrics.  I think it is going to work so now I have a lot more cutting to do.

I only got 2 blocks sewn of the flannel triangles.  I baked one batch of cookies and mixed the dough for another batch that needed to be refrigerated.  

We are expecting the coldest temperature of the season early this morning and then a warm up will start.  We will be above freezing for 3 days.

 

Several things.........

First in the morning yesterday I made a couple new labels for boxes of pieces and parts. These are all strips, triangles and scraps.  They are on the highest shelves because I will be looking in them the least.  This is the top 3 shelves of a 7 shelf bookcase.

I put the pieces for one of the 20 dark blocks in Plaid-ish up on the design wall.  I have more than half of the pieces cut for those 20 blocks.

Last night's full moon is called the Wolf Moon.  I took this photo before dark, not knowing if I could get a good photo after dark.

This photo was a little trickier.  My phone told me to hold the phone steady and it took a couple seconds before the shutter closed.  I think I didn't hold it still enough but after trying 3 more times I decided this was the best of the four.  We had another half inch of snow on Sunday morning.  Now they are saying we will get another half inch early this morning.  It was 7 degrees yesterday morning and is predicted to be colder this morning.

I started sewing triangles into blocks last night.   

Here are a few more blocks plus pieces left to sew into blocks.  I showed a quilt yesterday that is what I'm prepping for.  

Discoveries and an idea..........

My post today will be in reverse order to explain how I get ideas.

This is sewing from 2 nights, 82 blocks.  (total number from several days = 269).  As I was sewing them, I was considering an all triangle square center of a baby quilt.  I was trying to decide if all of the ones with the same 2 fabrics would be grouped together or if I would spread them out in a random grouping.  Then I started thinking about how else I could use them: a small center with a border around it and then another round of triangle squares and a final border.  Then......I thought about one of the boxes I found in the basement earlier in the day.

The top box is the one I am talking about, with 4.5" squares and 4.5" x 8.5" rectangles.  Then I remembered a quilt top I have made fairly recently.

What if I used the triangles to make a quilt top similar to this one (which is Marcia Derse fabric)?  The larger rectangles are already the right size and I would just need to cut the narrow rectangles.  I could use this as my master plan but change the layout if I thought it needed to be changed.

This solidifies my idea that keeping busy and making pieces for the parts department keeps the designing mind active.

So, back to yesterday morning, I found these 2 boxes on one shelf below the boxes of flannel pieces.  I have used some of the Kaffe flying geese in another quilt top...one I can't decide if it is finished or needs more (like a calming border).

I have LOTS of drawers and boxes full of strips, all labeled.  When I have a project in mind that will use strips, I usually search through the boxes and drawers to see if I can use the strips in them or would be better off cutting new strips.

I need to keep looking to see what I have missed.  I have about a dozen project boxes I haven't looked in yet.

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.