The shrinking colorwash................

Since the squares were 1.5" cut size, they lose 1/3 of their size when sewing them together.

Now shrinking in the other direction.  This little colorwash took me over two hours to sew, going slowly, matching each seam.

The corners were matching well until I got to the next to last seam.  I will have to pick it off and try again.

The sewn piece is laying on the same mat that the pieces were on the last few days.  It was 18" of cut squares, and after sewing and pressing I expect this to be 12.5".  The light/dark contrast is distorted by the camera and I think the transition between colors is better looking at it in person.

Even though I designed it as in the photo above, I think I like it flipped 180 degrees better.  I'll  take a better photo after I correct that one seam and press it.

 

Three variations......................

I cut reds and a few yellow, gold squares yesterday.  At 9:30 last night I thought I was done for the night playing with the layout of this mini colorwash.

Then I started adding a few pieces and took this picture to see if I was done.  On the right side I didn't like the way green met the orange.

I changed out a few pieces and kept at it until I had this layout.  I think it is ready to sew but I'll look at it again this morning to be sure.  I actually did change one piece after I took this photo.

In the afternoon I dug out some dandelions that were in my front garden.  Today I might dig out the white violets.

 

Trial colorwash...........................

By doing a trial layout of the 1.5" squares I can judge whether I have enough of each color cut.  I knew there weren't enough in the red before I started.  This layout is 11 x 11 and I wanted 12 x 12.

I analyzed where the problems were and moved the left and bottom rows out.  Then I started playing with a rearrangement.  I will cut reds today and figure out what else I need.

I spent over an hour outside yesterday breaking off all of the dead coneflower stalks and other stalks that were littering the back garden.  I also realized I hadn't trimmed the Annabelle Hydrangea in front of the house last fall.  it got up to 82.  We have had the most 80+ days for the beginning of a year up to this date in Chicago's history of weather records.  The closest contender was 2012 which had one of the hottest and driest summers in the records.  I hate to think we are headed for one of those again.

One decision made................

After a little prodding by a friend I realized I didn't want to find separator strips like I used on the original quilt I made 10 years ago.  Last night I sewed the three sections together.  After trimming the side points it will be about 46" x 62".  I'm thinking about adding a border, but we shall see how long that takes.

 I also cut 1.5" purple squares yesterday and added them to the few that were cut previously.  

It was warm enough to open all of the windows yesterday and low humidity.  We had a 1 minute thunder and rain drops in the middle of the afternoon, and then it was sunny again.

Not much inspiration............

I put this medallion piece back up on the design wall and tried a few pieces for continuing borders, trying to figure out if it needs medium or dark or bright fabric.  I have a box full of 4" Broken Dishes blocks that might get used for a border.

I also have the other Maria Derse tall triangles quit top in progress that needs a decision on the insert strip fabric.  I think this one will come down and that one will go up on the wall.

I cut 20+ more green fabrics in 1.5" squares but I see I need more mediums.  I'll look for those today as well as purples.

I got a new color of yarn for dishcloths.  It's a little more toward turquoise than others I have used.

We got up to mid 50s yesterday and now they say high 70s for today.  They originally said we would have 4 dry days but now there is rain in the forecast again a couple times.

  

 

Slow day................

I didn't have anything lined up to sew, so I sorted the 1.5" batik squares by color and value so I could check on my inventory.  Red, orange and yellow filled one tray.

Another tray was all blue and turquoise, and it looks like it is mostly turquoise.

This assortment was pulled from one box of batik scraps to do more cutting today.

Here are the remaining squares waiting to be sorted.  It looks like I need to cut some more purple and green.

It was chilly and breezy yesterday so I spent the day inside relaxing.  The overnight into this morning was predicted to get down to the high 20s.  Later this week we will be in high 60s and 70s for a few days.

 

Doing some cutting..................

A lot of small pieces of batik fabric are now cut into 2" squares.  Most of these are from previous cutting sessions but new ones were added.

I also added to the 1.5" squares.  I made a lot of 9 patches from this collection over a year ago.  I mostly used the ones that aren't good for colorwash.  I will continue with some cutting while I make decisions on some other projects in progress.

We got 3/4" of rain from the storm Friday night.  My rain gauge collections for the month total 4.25".  Now we have a few dry days in a row, although some of them will be in the 40s and low 50s.