Continuing on...............

The 4 patches for 24 more blocks are sewn and just waiting for me to cut the 4.5" squares to go with them.

I was pretty sure there was another box in the basement with more pairs of the 2.5" and 4.5" strips.  I knew where it was (yes, really!!) so I retrieved them and counted 36, which will make 72 blocks.  So far I have only sewn the purple/green combinations.  If I sew all of these plus the ones left from the first group I showed a few days ago, I will have 138 eight inch blocks of miscellaneous colors.  That should give me enough TV sewing for a few nights.

I have been thinking about the 30 twelve inch floral star blocks and how boring it will be to just sew them in rows (maybe with sashing).  I just think I should do something else with them.

This is a quilt I made in 2009 with 16" and 8" stars, 4 patches and 8" squares of several of the fabrics in the stars.  I have always loved this one and don't even have a photo of the whole quilt.  It was a gift for my daughter.

I did take a couple detail shots before I mailed it to her.  If I do something like this with those 20 blocks, I think it would be a lot more interesting and I have plenty of floral fabrics to work with.

 

Accomplishing a lot..............

This photo shows the small amount of progress on adding to this top.  The column on the far left is all loose pieces, only one block of it is sewn.  With lefts and rights, it is confusing to pick up the right piece the first time.  I got a bunch more pieces cut so now I have a better variety and it should go faster now.

Yesterday afternoon I pieced backs for 2 quilts that I'm ready to send out for quilting.  I also cut the batting to size for one of them.

I started sewing some blocks from the stratas I made the night before.  This is 12 blocks.  I don't usually place the 4 alike together like this.  Right now I'm just making blocks, no plan in mind.  I'm sure a plan will pop up eventually.

There is a right and wrong side to batiks, contrary to popular belief that both sides are the same.  I agree you can use either side you want, but I prefer the right side.  The right side has clean edges on the motifs, the wrong side is slightly uneven.  Also on the wrong side there are usually little dots of the dark color in the motifs.  Above, right side on the left, wrong side on the right.  Click on photos to enlarge.  Feel free to disagree with me but I'll always scrutinize both sides and use them right side up.  There are some batiks however that don't have clear outlines on either side and I don't like them as well as the crisp designs.  Hoffman batiks have always been my favorites.

Batik strips.................

I opened a drawer....and there were these matched 4.5" strips and 2.5" strips.  I knew they would work for double 4 patch blocks.  I have been needing a mindless sewing project for TV time.

I pulled all of the purple and green sets and started sewing the 2.5" strips together.  Each pair of fabrics will make 4 blocks, 2 dark and 2 light.

I retrieved the bag with half rectangle triangles for yesterday's project and found there were 20 in the bag, but they all faced the same direction.  I need both lefts and rights so I need to cut 20 that face the other direction.

 

Die cutting...............

I went through the small pieces of Wishwell Weather Report fabric to cut some half rectangle triangles for enlarging a quilt top.  There are 44 pieces in these piles.

I will need 20 of them to add one column of blocks on a side, and I'm doing both sides, needing 40 of them.  I have a little bag of leftover triangles from when I made the top, but it was in the basement when I was writing this post and I didn't want to go down there to get it.  I don't think there are more than a dozen pieces in the bag.  I still have a layer cake of this fabric line so I can pull out all of the light fabrics from it.  I want to add a double row across the top which will take 64 pieces.  This top is only 41" x 59.5" right now and adding these planned columns and rows will increase it to 47" x 71.5".  That is close to the 50" x 70" size that I like to make.  I could increase it to 50" with one more column.  I'll just do more cutting and then decide.

It was -2 yesterday morning and it got up 7 degrees by 1:45 p.m. when I had to leave to go to PT.  Wednesday will be our heat wave at 30 degrees and then back to the deep freeze. 

Little things.........................

These 2 little mats have been sitting in my studio waiting for the stitching around the edge for at least 6 months.  All it takes is changing to a topstitching needle and filling a bobbin with the heavier thread.  I kept avoiding doing that.  Finally last night I got them done.  They have one layer of batting and one layer of a stiff heavier interfacing (not as heavy as Peltex).

The backs are Kaffe fabrics too.

They are close to 8.5" x 11", one a tiny bit larger than the other.

There was one more top already pieced so I cut the batting and interfacing but haven't found a back for it yet.  It will be quilted and then edged with a close zig zag like the other two.

We are in for a cold week, some days below 10 degrees.

Finished!...............

I didn't want to deal with keeping pink checks or plaid straight for binding so I used the gray one that had enough yardage.  This flannel baby quilt is 32" x 40".

This little quilt has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.  I used white thread to quilt it on my Pfaff 7570.

This pile of mail that I have received in 9 days is 19 solicitations for money.  There is even 2 from each of 2 organizations, like I didn't react soon enough so I need a 'reminder'.  Obviously some charity sold my address to some data base that other groups can access.  I have never even heard of half of these organizations.  I feel obligated to open them and pull out magnets, special "coins", and any other object that shouldn't go into paper recycling.  I'm sure some of you are experiencing this same dilemma.

Machine quilting again..................

The machine ditch quilting is done on this flannel baby quilt now.  The squares are 4" and that is the recommended maximum space with Hobbs 80/20 batting.

The backing is a cute diagonal plaid.  I haven't decided on binding yet but will look for it today.

It's going to be cold over the weekend so I'm glad I don't have anywhere to go.