Turning on the iron..............

I knew it would take a while to press 81 blocks plus iron a few other things piled on the ironing table, so I started a load of laundry and spent a couple hours in the basement.  I have the blocks sorted into 2 piles since there are 2 alike of each combination except the one at the bottom.  I will be designing half of the quilt with one pile when I get around to it.

I got this quilt back from my longarm quilter so I trimmed it and then cut the binding strips, the same fabric as the border.

Last night I prepared the binding and got it sewn onto the quilt.  I'm going to hand finish this one because this William Morris fabric quilt is special.

It was a beautiful day yesterday with lower humidity by afternoon. Today sounds even better with a few degrees cooler and dew points in the high 50s, low 60s.  That's a big change from the 71-76 dew points last week.

Playing with blocks.......................

A few days ago I showed some fabric that might work as alternate blocks sprinkled through the new quilt I'm working on.  I tried these 3 yesterday.

This is the one I thought would be most likely to work.  The idea is to have a print that blends with the blocks, not one that stands out as "here I am".  The purpose of the blocks is to enlarge the quilt without having to piece more blocks.

This one is still a possibility but I think it might be too obvious.

I thought ths one was too busy but I kind of like it.  I can get 16 blocks for sure out of a yard of fabric and on some could get 20, depending on how wide that white selvage is.

Then it was time to layer 10 stratas, staggered by 1" (following lines on the cutting mat) and cut pieces for the next 20 blocks. I actually did that twice and got the last 20 cut also.

This is one block each of the first 20 blocks (there are 2 alike in every combination) which equals 1/4 of the quilt top.  The lightest block is in the top row and I think it is going to be fine with the darker blocks.

I sewed a lot of blocks last night, with just 6 left to sew today.  I have a lot of decisions to make.  Do I want a quilt 72" x 88" or do I want to make 2 smaller quilts (and piece a few more blocks)?  I could add in more blues and greens if I made more blocks. 

20 more blocks.....................

I didn't get to the sewing machine until quite late so I was out of steam and didn't even get them up on the design wall.

This is the lightest block in the bunch and I hope it plays nice with the rest.

I had an appointment at the pain clinic in the middle of the morning yesterday so I didn't get anything done before lunchtime.  In the afternoon I had a couple phone calls and then filled the bird feeders and watered the tomato and cucumber plants.  The weather was beautiful and I had all of the windows open.

Today I should be able to spend more time on my quilt.

Blocks started.................

Yesterday I made the decision to make the traditional 16 patch blocks with my stratas.  I pressed all of the stratas and cut enough pieces to make 20 blocks, 2 each of the ones in this photo.  I'm happy with the way it is looking so far.  Today I'll cut 20 more and lay out some of these blocks on the fabrics I showed yesterday for possible alternate blocks.  

Today is supposed to be the best day of the week for low humidity.  I hope the prediction is right because I would like windows open. 

Last two..................

There was just one strip to cut yesterday to complete the stratas.

This is all 40-1/2 stratas, ready for me to decide which 16 patch to make.

I decided to look through my larger print brown fabrics to see if there was anything I would want to use for a few alternate blocks sprinkled through.  This photo shows 22" top to bottom.

This photos shows 1/2 yard of the fabric.

This photo shows 22" top to bottom.  I think this might be the best candidate.

This is showing 1/2 yard of the fabric.  I think this one might be good too.

I didn't get any farther on decisions because I was invited to a family dinner at my son's house and had 2 little boys to entertain us.  They are 15 months apart in age and the oldest just turned 4 last month.

Almost done..................

Ten more stratas are sewn for a total of 39-1/2.  There was a cut out of one of the fabrics so I could only make a half length strata from that combination.

This is one more pair but I decided it's a toss up which one is the light and which is the dark.  There are too many spots of the black background compared to the amount of lighter color leaves.  I'll look through some more fabrics today.  Right now I have 80 different fabrics in the sewn stratas.

I folded over the stack of the first 30 combinations to move it on my table and I had to take a photo of the edges.

We saw blue skies and white clouds yesterday after many dreary overcast days.  Today should have some sunshine too with a partly sunny forecast.

 

In my happy place.............

I love having nice long seams to sew at night while I watch TV.  This is the second set of 10 stratas that I finished early in the day yesterday.  They were started the night before.

This is the third set of 10 stratas which I sewed last night.  I have one more set of 10 to sew today.  Then I have to decide if it will be a traditional 16 patch block or the "other 16 patch" which is 16 rectangles per block.

I need to clean off a table and baste one of my small quilts so I can quilt it on my Pfaff.  I have 2 that I would like to finish this month.

The rain mostly missed us yesterday after an early shower.  It looks like we will have a little lower humidity and temperature today.