Playing with triangles....................

I should have been working on the finishing of the Marcia Derse fabric table runner.  Instead I did my grocery shopping and then went back out to get birdseed that was on sale for a couple more days.

Last night I didn't want to go down to the basement where the table runner parts are waiting for me so I made a few more of the Kaleidoscope blocks.  I need to cut some more corner triangles before I can finish any more blocks.  I'll take these down to the ironing table today and press them and while I'm down there, cut the triangles.

Here is the whole design wall.  I started designing the part at the top on a design wall in the basement but I decided I would rather work on it in the main floor studio.  My friend and I both wanted to remake a quilt that we both had made and both had gifted to someone.  Here is the post with its finish in late 2016.  I made the first one with a tall triangle template but I'm making this one with die cut pieces, a little shorter than the triangles in the original quilt.  This quilt will be much smaller than the original.

When I brought the triangles upstairs they weren't sorted so I took time to do that yesterday.  I have gotten a couple new MD fabrics since I was working on this last year so maybe I'll cut a few triangles from them too.

 

Something new.................

This project has been on one of the design walls in the basement for about 8 months.  Here is the post where more of the layout is shown.  I decided it was time to start sewing some of the blocks to see if it would be an enjoyable project.  I need to cut a lot more of the light prints.  These are all Marcia Derse fabrics.

This is how the center of the first block turned out after 3 tries at it.  That is about 1/16" of an inch off.

The second block turned out better.  I used to make a lot of Kaleidoscope quilts so I know I can match the centers.

Another new orange cacti bloom yesterday.  They make me so happy.

The dark rose one is fully opened now.  I think I see a bud on the pale pink one so I'm hoping for one more bloom at this east window.

It was 70s early in the day yesterday and 36 at bedtime.  It was going down from there through the night.  All of the severe storms with hail stayed south of us.

Third finished quilt in March 2026........

This is another quilt made with mostly 1990s floral fabrics, with a few newer ones worked in.  I also added Kaffe Fassett Spot fabric. It is made of Hourglass blocks with rectangles used as the border.

It is 53" x 64.5".

I bought the 59" wide black and white fabric many years ago.  It was nice to not have to piece a backing.  The quilt has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.  It was quilted by Robin Diaz.

This finished quilt top is made with all Marcia Derse fabric, from many years of her collections.  There are 35 different fabrics in the quilt top.

After pressing and photographing, I did the staystitching around the perimeter.

It is 63.5" x 80".

Top sewn and binding on another.................

This top is sewn but needs its final pressing so I'll do that today and then photograph it.

After that was done I sewed the binding on the floral hourglass quilt.  I was happy I had more of the same fabric I used for binding on the other 1990s floral quilt.

You can see the print better in this photo.  It will be machine finished so I hope to get it done today too.

My two cacti plants by the east picture window are finally blooming.  This is the third time for the white with pink edging, but just one bloom each of the last 2 times.  The other is the dark rose color and it isn't opened fully yet.

I checked the orange one again, by the west picture window and there are 2 more buds and another bloom.  I would have been disappointed it this one didn't bloom a second time because it always has in previous years.  I turned the pot around so I can enjoy the blooms more.  They were originally facing the window.

12 blocks and sewing columns....................

The last 6 blocks have been pressed and trimmed and have joined the first six on the design wall.  I have several thoughts about these blocks.  First I thought they would be nice sewn together like this as the center of a medallion quilt. But then, the  more I looked at it, I wondered how they would look with sashing between them and a wide border all around.  I removed them as stacked columns so I could use the design wall for my other project.

I went down to the basement, looked one last time at the layout of this 'other 16 patch' and moved 2 blocks.  Then I stacked, clipped, and numbered the columns and brought them up to the main floor for my evening sewing.  I have 5 of the 7 columns sewn, 4 on the wall sewn to each other and #5 sewn and laying on my sewing cabinet.  Tuesday nights there are 6 TV shows I want to watch, so I watch 3 live and the other 3 are recorded to watch tomorrow night.

This has been fun working on two projects made with Marcia Derse fabrics.

More blocks and a layout................

I finished the 5 blocks I showed in progress yesterday and added them to the one left over from the table runner.

Last night I didn't have anything else lined up to sew, so I made 6 more blocks.  I will get them pressed and trimmed today and add them to the other 6.  They will all finish at 8".

While I was in the basement doing laundry I decided i needed to get the Marcia Derse fabric blocks up on the design wall.  I was a little disappointed with the result.  There were 2 blocks left over.

I took out the two lightest blocks and put in the two left over blocks.  It was a little better but I knew I wanted to move a few blocks.

I moved most of the darker blocks to the top and bottom with the lighter ones in the middle.  I'm still not positive it's the final layout so I didn't start sewing it together yet.  As I'm looking at the photos I think I like the second layout better but in person, I like the third layout best. 

 

My choice..................................

 My choice for the sashing and borders was the busy print.  Surprised?  I love busy quilts.  The binding will cover the outer edge so the borders won't look quite as wide when it is finished.  I'm not sure what color will go on the back but I'm thinking a red binding might be nice.  I ended up just using 4 blocks instead of all 5.  I didn't want to piece the long border strips.  It is 43" long.

I was going to sort and bag all of the rest of the scraps, but they told me they wanted to be sewn into blocks.  The largest ones are about 8" on the longest side.  I will will probably sew on some more strips today. 

From my kitchen window I noticed the Forsythia bush had a few blooms so I took my camera out and looked for more signs of spring.  This bush is an ugly shape, an old bush chopped off many times, but I leave it there because the birds love to fly back and forth from the bush to the bird feeders.

The Lenten Roses are small but they have their first flowers.  Last year's leaves are huge and dead so I need to get out there and clip some off so I can rake the leaves out of the bed.

The lilies are always one of the first plants to come up.  Lots of raking needed here too.

One Coral Bell plant has its first green leaves.  This plant gets huge by the middle of the summer and spreads a lot too.  I think I'll dig some out and put it in pots.  I might put one of them in my front garden.

I saw several Peony plants starting to grow and this was the most colorful one.  Somehow I missed cutting the leaves off this one last fall.

It got up to 78 yesterday, a little more than the high 60s that I was expecting.  It was still 67 at 11 last night.  Today the temperature will start dropping to 40s by mid-afternoon and tomorrow.  It might get down below freezing Monday night so I won't do any raking of leaves yet.