Starting a new one................

 I took the stack of 2.5" strips that were cut at the same time as I cut for the brown/gold Snail's Trail and paired darks and lights.  I added some blues and greens into the mix for a woodsy nature pallete.  I'm not sure if they will be a 16 patch quilt or 'the other 16 patch' with rectangular shapes.

This is what the groups looked like (dark/light) before I started pairing them.

After I sewed 20 of the 40 pairs I did one more cut and sewed 9 of them together.

I made a collage of all of the "other 16 patch" quilts I have made.  I ran the blocks vertical in some and horizontal in others.  In 2 of them I added half blocks to break up the rows of blocks. 

The remaining 1.5" floral squares are off the trays and in a snack size ziploc.  I'm officially done with them.

We got another inch of rain from midnight yesterday until mid-morning.  The rain later in the day was just a dribble in the bottom of the rain gauge.  One more day with possible rain and then 2 dry days.

Decision................

All of the blocks were finished and pressed yesterday morning so I had to make a decision on the layout.  I needed to clean off my work table.  I decided it will be sashing, but wider than I originally tried.  I was thinking 1" finished when I first showed the fabrics, but I decided yesterday that the blocks need a little more space between them.  Now I'm planning on 1.5" finished sashing.  I haven't decided if there will be cornerstones yet.  I'm putting this aside now and will work on something else, plus I'm still cleaning and organizing the basement.  I can't stand on the cement floor for too long so it has been a slow process.

I pulled a box off a shelf to look through it and found these diamonds in there.  I had to put diamond in the search box at the top left of this post to go back and see what quilt the scraps were from  This post tells all about it.

Last night I decided to try them next to each other.  I love busy quilts that make me look to see what the pattern is.  This would become a table runner if I decide on it.  I need to find the diamond template so I can cut half diamonds to fill in the edges.  If i continue with this as the project, I need to move a few around first.

I started another dishcloth last night with this 4 color yarn, white, lt. peach, coral, and brown.  I was glad I still had a couple balls of it  because they don't seem to be making any more of it.  I have enough of all of the variegated yarns to last my lifetime making dishcloths but I still search the internet occasionally to see if there are any new colors.  I don't find more than a couple shops carrying it; most is through resellers on Etsy and eBay and most of that is solid colors.

The rain all missed us yesterday so we had a dry out day before more hits this morning.  It looks like the heaviest will go south of us.

Not much...................

Some cutting was done in the morning to prepare for evening sewing.  Then at night it started thundering as another storm rolled through so I unplugged  my machine.  I did get the stripe triangles sewn on the last 4 nine patches.  At the left are the 2 new colors of floral triangles to surround all of the rest of the blocks.  Once they are all done I need to made the decision of the layout and size of quilt.

It was dark and dreary for much of the day with one rainstorm earlier in the afternoon.

Even my choice of yarn for a dishcloth is dark and dreary.  I think I need to start a second one in brighter colors.

Storms are predicted to continue through Sunday and then finally a dry day on Monday.  Chicago weather records have been broken again.  This is the wettest summer in the history of the records and summer isn't over yet.  Those of us in the farmland 60 miles west of Chicago have been in the abnormally dry or drought for 3 years and I think we're back to normal now.

 

Still thinking...................

 As I navigated the day's adventures, I was continually thinking about the project.  I have mentioned more than once that I have a short attention span, which means I get bored if I work too long on something.  So here is where I am now: top left is 20 finished 6" blocks, all pressed, top right 12 more finished blocks not pressed, bottom left 4 more waiting for floral corners (need to cut more) and 4 nine patches that I may or may not use in this project.

Here are my options.  If I used sashing with the 36 blocks I could make a baby quilt 42" square.  If I use alternate squares I'll have 72 blocks. 8 rows x 9 rows would not be a good proportion of a rectangular quilt at 48" x 54".  If I used 63 of the blocks (7 x 9) it would be 42" x 54".  If I use the extra 4 nine patches I would have 80 blocks, 48" x 60".  Since so many of my fabric options would work, I think the final decision will come down to what size I want the quilt to finish.

Now, how yesterday went.  We had a big severe storm going through around 9 a.m. and when I heard the weather person mention the next town over for radar detected rotation that could turn into a tornado, I headed for the basement.  Luckily it didn't turn into one and continued on its way.  We got 1.1" of rain, added to .75" a day and a half earlier.  More storms predicted for the next few days as we are in the "ring of fire" which sets up north of a heat dome and south of a cold front.

My longarm quilter came an hour later than we originally planned.  I did some more sorting and organizing in the basement and then sewed the floral triangles on the 12 blocks.

That was fun!.........................

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with an opinion on the auditioning yesterday  I especially enjoyed reading the explanations why the commenter liked the fabric.  Every fabric got some votes with the random line fabric getting the most.  I think it was pretty evenly divided between sashing and alternate blocks.  I didn't make any decision yet and just finished sewing round one on 8 more blocks last night.  One of the biggest surprises to me in my choices was the first one, the dotted ombre fabric.  Even if I don't use that in this quilt, I can see its possibilities now, especially using the darker edge as the border.  Who knows, it might end up on this quilt!  I need to press all of these centers and then sew on the floral corner triangles today.

This might be easier to look at than the first photo.

I already had plans to work on an area in the basement yesterday, you know I love cleaning.....  I have about 3/4 of it organized but still have some sorting to do.

I got the long seams sewn on the 2 backings and will meet with my longarm quilter today.  I hope it won't be raining when she comes.  The severe storm missed us yesterday by a few miles but we got 3/4" of much needed rain.  The overnight storm has a large hail prediction and I hope that missed us too (written at 11:30 last night).

One thing I have a hard time pitching is the old Hancock's catalogs that I have covering 2008 to early 2018.  They are really the history of what was available every year in that time period.  I'm usually trying to date an older fabric and especially the Kaffe Fassett collective fabrics. 

This is one two page spread of Kaffe Collective in the earliest 2008 catalog.  I plan on looking through all of them, little by little, to refresh my memory on some of the fabric lines. 

Sewing and auditioning................

I cut some more 3" triangles and sewed the floral triangles onto a few blocks and cut more quarter square triangles.  I got some of them sewn on but a few more to go.

Now the auditioning.  I was looking through my stash for white with black dots.  I have several yards of this one. This is the 22" width of it as it is folded like it comes off the bolt.  I have plenty to just cut the center lightest area for sashing strips.  Maybe the darker area could be used as borders.

I found a half yard of this multi-size dots on white.

I have a couple yards of this one with random lines.

I also tried that one for alternate blocks.

Then of course I had to try it with a zebra print.

Any opinions?

 

Sunday's progress...............

The first thing I did was assemble some more little 3" nine patches.  This is going to be a small project so I wanted to have at least 36 blocks to work with.

Nest I pressed the 9 patches that had the quarter square triangles sewn on and then I added 3" corners to 12 of the blocks.  As I work on this I'm realizing one block close up is really cute.  Several blocks at a distance look like gray instead of black (charcoal) and white stripe.  Seeing the blocks edge to edge is not great.

They are much better with space between them so sashing is definitely needed.  I haven't tried anything yet but I'm thinking white with small black dots might be nice.  I have lots of white with black prints to choose from so I'll be looking at them today.

Once again, all of the rain during the daytime hours missed my house.  I'm wondering if other parts of town got any rain.  A big storm was brewing at 10:30 last night and we finally we got some rain.  I'll check the rain gauges this morning.