I was at the repair place until almost noon. Brakes are silent now and they didn't charge for fixing them. It has only been 6 months since they did the original brake job.
I spent a few more hours listing some more items for sale on my Wandaful blog. Then I got busy cutting batting for some small items that I have been working on. It has turned cold again so I didn't work outside at all.
I am disappointed that I didn't get another quilt quilted this month but I just couldn't decide which one to do.
I needed to take some photos of quilts yesterday so I took down the colorwash that has been on the design wall for over a week. I got up with a headache yesterday morning. Storms had rolled through after midnight with thunder that woke me. I didn't get much accomplished beyond listing some items for sale on my Wandaful blog. I was in bed early compared to my normal late schedule. This morning I'm taking my car into the repair shop to fix the shrieking brakes so I'll take a quilting book to read.
In March I drew two triangle quilts on graph paper while I watched TV. I wanted one more orderly and one a little wilder in design. Above is Triangles # 1 with its drawing. I ended up turning it a quarter turn to the right and left off the last row of triangles around the perimeter.
This is the wild one...Triangles #2. When I draw out a quilt it usually looks interesting on paper but when I make it with fabric, it sometimes loses its appeal. In this case I think both of them turned out rather nice.
I didn't sew a stitch yesterday. I did laundry and looked through quilts and quilt tops to offer for sale. I have had several inquiries lately about new items for sale. For the new readers, I have a link on my right side bar for my blogshop, Wandaful Quilts. I haven't listed anything new for quite awhile. I will start listing today with small finished pieces. I should have the first batch on there by noon Central Standard Time. Hopefully I will get some quilt tops listed by the end of the day. I have to do a lot of measuring and checking to see if I need a new photo or if my previously posted one is good.
My new quilted tablecloth looks great turned diagonally on the table.
Now I think I need to make some more accessories for the kitchen from the same fabric line that I used on the border.
It will look great flipped over too with that big polka dot print on the back facing up.
My two friends came over yesterday to sew and I worked on Triangles #2. I made the last 2 sections and then got it all sewn together. It measures 49.5" x 70" right now. Here is the previous post with the drawing that I worked from.
Thank you to all that took time to comment yesterday. I enjoyed all of the comments and the voting for your choice of orientation of my little wallhanging. I'm still undecided but it will be #2 or #3 and I'm leaning toward #3. The overwhelming choice from my readers was #2 with #3 in second place. I could revise my thoughts about the quilting and put a hanging sleeve on both top and bottom and then it could be displayed as #2 or #3.
I finished hand sewing the binding on the tablecloth last night. I'll take a photo of it on the table today in the daylight and a full view on a design wall.
I want to quilt this small piece and the orientation of it will affect the way I will quilt it. If you have any strong opinions of which way is up please leave me a comment. They are top row left to right #1 and #2. The second row left to right is #3 and #4.
I did the binding all by machine since I'm considering this a baby quilt. I used the same fabric as the outer border since I already had some strips cut that I had used in the auditioning for sashing.
I also got the binding sewn on the tablecloth and have one side hand stitched. I didn't have enough of the corner black with white dots to use for binding so I cut strips from a fabric with smaller dots.
The Jack-in-the-Pulpit did something strange this year. There are blooms already and hardly any leaves have come up yet. Usually there are lots of leaves first. I also have the dark version and they haven't even poked out of the ground yet.
I cut batting for several projects yesterday. Then it was time to quilt something. I looked for projects with backings that were ready too.
I did organic straight line quilting, free hand and nice and wobbly.
Here is an even closer look. This quilt is kind of stiff with all of this quilting so I'm hoping it will soften when washed. I got it trimmed and the binding sewn on but not finished.
I decided to quilt another one that had the backing ready. I made this top in February last year and it is a tablecloth for my kitchen. I used Thermore batting which is a very lightweight and flat polyester batting.
I crossed over and the world didn't come to an end. No quilting police showed up at my door.
This is the same spot on the front of the quilt. I was using red thread and I really couldn't see where I had already stitched when I was on the red and white prints.
I sewed more sections for the triangle quilt #2. All that is left are two sections made with 4" triangle squares. I need 42 and only have 17 sewn so I will be cutting more today.
Here is a reminder of my plan for the quilt. It is on a 48" wide design wall so you can see it is a little wider than the wall. It would be about 50" x 70" if I make it like the drawing.
I finished designing by adding the squares at the top and bottom of every other row.
When I got to the computer I experimented with the orientation of it.
Many times I have turned my art upside down after piecing it and I'm almost inclined to do so with this one.
I'll take one more look at it today and see if I want to change anything and then it will be time to sew it together.
Last night I sewed some more of the 6" triangle squares. Now if I could just find the box with the 4" squares in it I could work on the quilt.
It rained again yesterday afternoon. The Redbuds are blooming in the rain. This is the view to the left from my kitchen window.
This is the view to the right from the same window.
Normally all of the pieces are already cut when I start a colorwash. They are laid out in trays by color and value. In this case however I'm using a new smaller rectangle and finishing the cutting as I design and it is going S.L.O.W.
I cut for over 2 hours and this is where I was by 4 p.m. yesterday.
This is the photo from 2 days ago for contrast. I have enlarged the yellow/orange area and filled in more of the green area. Last night I worked on it a little longer and am almost done. I need to fill in with the 2" squares on the top and bottom.
My sewing while I watched TV was more strip sets for the project I showed yesterday.
I took photos of some more signs of spring. It looks like I will have a whole bouquet from this bunch. We finally got some rain yesterday afternoon and you can see in this "before" photo we needed it.
The Pulmonaria/Lungwort continues to fill in at the base of an old Redbud tree.
On March 19th I showed all of the pieces of mindless sewing that resided in drawers in my studio. For the last 3 days I have been trimming them into even widths. I put them back up on the design wall in rows of the same width strips.
This is the photo that I posted in March. Now that they are trimmed I'm not sure if I'm going to do a wallhanging like this. They can stay up on the design wall until I decide.
I have two Redbud trees that planted themselves near my driveway. I think this might be about a 10 year growth. I was admiring all of the pinkness as I mowed the grass.
The flowers aren't open on the ones in the backyard but one of these two trees has started blooming.
I wish they could bloom all summer.
This is a section of day lilies that I have dug out twice. Last fall I thought I had it down to three plants. I guess I was wrong. I need to dig some of them out again so I can get to my spigot.
This is how I started out yesterday morning with the last 5 rows added to what I showed yesterday. This was started last year and then taken down off the design wall when I had company coming to use the walls.
I cut a lot more pieces and started working them into it. I have a long way to go yet but I think it looks better already. I have moved the darkest blue at the bottom down one row and am filling in with more mediums. I have also worked with the green section.
I worked outside yesterday for awhile until it got too hot. Now it is predicted to cool off today so I hope to mow the grass this morning.
I keep thinking my Christmas cactus are done blooming but yesterday morning I saw this bloom.
Then I noticed on the next shelf down that this one has 3 buds.
Last night I just wanted to relax while watching TV so I made some crazy pieced blocks. I used some small centers which I had made earlier and just added more strips to them.
I think I completed 6 or 7 altogether but I had already taken some down to the basement before I grabbed my camera.
I couldn't resist this spring cactus at my local W*lm*rt store. I have 3 spring plants already but they are sickly and have never bloomed so I'm going to toss them and hope I can keep this one alive.
I cleared the leaves off another area of my big backyard garden and I have hostas and Jack-in-the-Pulpit coming up. The coneflowers are starting to grow too.
I sewed some of the parts together for Triangles #2. Then I went outside and starting digging out the roots of volunteer trees and bushes. I had been just cutting off the trees and it left a little stump that I kept tripping over, not just one but several. I also tore out a bunch of the periwinkle vinca. It has taken over my front flower bed.
I was too tired last night to think about anything so I pulled out the box of clipped rows of this colorwash and started putting it back up on the design wall. There are 5 more rows left in the box. This one has the little 1.5" x 3" finished rectangles and I haven't cut a full selection of them yet. That is why I didn't get it finished last year. Now I can cut the 6" triangles that I need and also cut the rectangles while I have the fabric out.
Yesterday I alternated between working in the gardens and creating the sections for Triangles #2. I can only take digging and raking for a little while and then I need to do something else. I need to find the box with the 4" triangle squares in it now to finish making sections.
The violets are still tiny. In a couple weeks they will be big bushy plants with flowers on long stems. Then I will pick a bouquet for my little red pitcher.
I unpicked the 2 side rows that I showed yesterday and put the top up on the design wall sideways. It's done! It's a wallhanging instead of a lap quilt now. I think it should be quilted in diagonal lines with uneven spacing. It is 60.5" x 48".
I have had lots of new people commenting on my triangle quilt but unfortunately most of you are No Reply commenters so I can't reply to you. If you enable your email address in your profile, you will hear back from the bloggers where you comment.
My two friends came over yesterday to sew and they helped me put the new rails on my longarm table. Now finishing quilts will be a little more pleasant.
I only know of one year that Hoffman batiks had a mark like a selvage. It was 1993 and it was stamped only at the beginning of each bolt. I need to use these in a quilt this year and stop storing them.
I have been going through my old Quilter's Newsletter magazines and am contemplating tossing them into the recycling. I have a few issues from 1971, the year it started and around 1973 I started subscribing. I think I have more than 20 years of issues. In the beginning all of the photos were printed in black and white. In the middle of 1974 some covers became 2 tone and in the middle of 1975 just the covers (and the inside of the cover) were full color photos but the contents were black and white with sometimes one color added on a page (but no color photos inside).
In the September 1975 issue there was a full page color ad for Ely and Walker fabric, the only color ad that year. I remember how excited I was to find the Ely and Walker quadriga cloth in a quilt store in Wisconsin. Up to this time I was using dressmaking scraps and old jeans for my quilts. Now there were "real" quilt fabrics available, reproduction prints from long ago textiles.
This was at the time of the Bi-centennial and the revival of quilting. I began teaching quiltmaking in 1976. VIP and Peter Pan fabrics started concentrating on fabrics for quilting in the next few years.
I have one lonely Jonquil bloom on the south side of my house.
The Lungwort/Pulmonaria gives me some color in the backyard.
