Tuesday nights are my 3 hour TV session so I was pretty sure I would be able to finish sewing my Kaffe colorwash #2 in that amount of time. I had 4 rows left to sew on to have it all webbed in one direction.
I got all 16 seams sewn the other direction by 10 p.m. Then I had to press it and do the staystitching around the edge. By 10:30 p.m. it was back up to the studio to have its picture taken. It is 34" square. I have even chosen my backing fabric.
I'm itching to create something else on my main floor studio design wall so it was time to take down the pieces and start sewing the Pure Kaffe Colorwash #2. I have 4 more rows to sew on and the seams one way will be done.
As we get closer to winter I will spend more time at night in the main floor studio. The lighting is good in there so I can do photography there too.
I decided on a medium size meander for the quilting on this strippy baby quilt. I used SoFine thread so it barely shows.
I love the cheery Brandon Mably print on the back.
It finished at 39" x 51.25".
I didn't like the backing fabric for the binding so I looked for another print and found this diagonal plaid also by Brandon Mably.
While I still had the roll of batting out I cut a piece for this Laurel Burch fabric baby quilt. I did organic straight line quilting on it.
I got it trimmed and bound too It is 53.25" x 54".
I had three pieces of Laurel Burch flannel but not enough of any one of them so I used all three and pieced the back.
Both of these will go through the washer and dryer so they are ready to gift whenever some babies are born.
Last week was so busy that I just ran out of steam yesterday. I finally forced myself to go down to the basement and clean off a table so I could cut some batting. Then I had to clean off the long arm table. I had piled a lot of things on it when I went to NC in August and had plastic over the whole thing. I pressed the backing fabric and loaded it and then got the other 2 layers on there. I hope I have renewed energy today to get it quilted and trimmed.
I was playing catch-up yesterday with errands and laundry so no sewing happened. I did get the baby quilt top trimmed straight on the sides and chose a nice bright backing for it. I have enough of it to use for binding too. That decision will be made after quilting.
l had two appointments the last 2 days so I haven't had a lot of time to sew. I did sew last night though. I decided on the order of the strip sets I showed a couple days ago and sewed them all together. I didn't feel like turning on the iron though so I couldn't trim the sides yet. I think it will come out about 41" x 51" which is a nice baby quilt size. I'll press it and trim it today and pick a backing fabric for it.
I'm still choosing fabrics for this quilt. I thought there were only 6 fabrics in it because that is what is pictured at the bottom of the page but after looking at the quilt I can see there are 8 fabrics. I have 12 here and I haven't decided if the last one in the bottom row will stay. That gold color is kinda jarring. I will continue to look as I clean up that end of the basement.
I sewed these strip sets back in November 2016 mostly Kaffe fabrics 1.5" wide strips.
They have been waiting to be used for almost 2 years and I'm contemplating just sewing them together and making a baby quilt with them. There is one short strip in there but I can fix that easily. I just plopped them up on the design wall and may rearrange them. I have been trying to put away lots of things in the basement and while doing that I discover things that sidetrack me....but I'm making progress on the clean up.
I had a long list of errands so the day flew by yesterday. I needed a sewing fix so I grabbed the box of small squares and made 2 little pieces. The one on the left is 1" finished squares and the right is 1.5" finished squares, all Kaffe collective fabrics. It was just an odd assortment of squares cut from scraps last spring.
Would you believe I spent another 2 hours yesterday moving pieces and cutting a couple new squares? It is really ready to sew now. The photo on the left is as it was when I had done a week of tweaking but knew I wanted to add a row on the right and a row on the bottom. 3 days of more tweaking later and it is going to be sewn. The photo on the right is my insurance in case I have a question about where a piece goes when I am sewing. You know, when you drop a piece on the floor and pick it up and say now which way was this one turned?
I finished knitting a dishcloth last night in a new color of yarn, Azalea. It is really pretty and I will keep this one.
I spent another 3 hours refining this pure Kaffe colorwash yesterday. I cut 5 new pieces for it and rearranged a few others. I ended up with 3 pieces with wrong sides up in the center and darkened the top right corner.
I decided to flip the photo 180 degrees and see if I liked it better that way. No decision made there. A fairly dark binding is needed on this one since there aren't very many really dark fabrics in the Kaffe collection. If I had added some Brandon and Philip (the collective) I could have gotten the edges darker.
Well, it looks better after spending a whole day refining it.
Below is yesterday's photo on the left and today's photo on the right. I can still see a few areas to refine and it looks smoother in person than in a photo.
I have been working on another Kaffe Fassett fabric colorwash and showed it to my online class students yesterday in our live session. I"m not done tweaking it yet but wanted them to see it at this stage. There aren't any Brandon or Philip fabrics in it so it is not the Kaffe collective, just pure Kaffe.
I have started adding a row to the right and a row on the bottom. I need to cut more pieces before I continue. It still needs a lot of tweaking too.
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Just out of curiosity I decided to see if I had all 6 of the fabrics that were used in this quilt that I showed a few days ago (click photo for a larger view). I had 3 of the 6 in the same colorway that was in the quilt.
I have the fish print in the blue and black backgrounds but not the red that they used. There is one more print and I thought I had it but haven't found it in the red. I have it in black. More playtime is needed.
l am SO happy that all 182 blocks are sewn. I haven't pressed them yet but I think that will wait. I'm ready to put them in a box for awhile and work on something colorful. I really would like to finish a quilt this month too so maybe that will be next.....but maybe I need to choose some fabric for a quilt first.
I decided I have to finish sewing all of the neutral 16 patches before I can start a new quilt. I sewed 22 last night and there are parts for 6 more blocks laying on top. I think I have 152 sewn altogether now with 30 left to sew. I have to slice the last batch of stratas into 2.5" segments next. Tonight is my 3 hour TV night so I should be able to finish them.
In some down time yesterday I was looking through a magazine and saw this quilt made with just 6 fabrics in the Kaffe collective line. Some of the prints are large and every cut looks different so it gives the appearance of having more fabrics in it. What caught my eye though was the bricks placed vertically in the quilt. I placed them horizontal like a real brick wall in my neutral bricks quilt. I have done colorwash with the vertical placement but not with random fabrics like this. I like this vertical placement and may have to try it but I doubt I could do it with only 6 fabrics.
I spent a day yesterday just doing clean up in the basement and outside. I noticed the last few blooms that have survived the cold nights. This is the invasive bell flower that grows about 18" tall. This little guy is about 6" tall with 3 blooms and buds.
I was trying to decide if this plant was a Coreopsis and then It had one lonely bloom to tell me that yes, it is Coreopsis.
The Dianthus is a hardy little plant with blooms among the fallen leaves.
The flowers are tiny on the Veronica but it is still blooming. I was a little disappointed that it flopped over this year and was covering the 2 Coral Bells.
I had picked one of the last Geranium blooms and have some of the last tomatoes finishing ripening on the windowsill. We are still having below normal daytime temperatures with frosty nights.
I have layered 10 stratas on my cutting mat with each one lined up with a different line of the mat.
The first cut is to straighten the beginning edge.
Then I line up the ruler to make the first slice which is 1/4 of ten 16 patches.
Ready to make the second slice for all 10 blocks. All of this info is covered in my 16 patch tutorial which is available as a PDF in the Free Resources section of my website, https://exuberantcolor.com
I was able to get 12 blocks sewn while I watched an hour of TV last night.
I had so many piles around my Accuquilt Studio cutter that it had to be clean up day yesterday. The Marcia Derse scraps were cut into 2" x 3.5" rectangles and 2" squares with a small pile left over that were too narrow to cut. About 5 cranks through with my GO adapter and dies and I have 54 rectangles and 21 squares for the ends of rows.
The geraniums had the last few blooms after all of the rain we have had. Frost and freeze warnings for our county were on the weather report.
I'm sure I will be dumping these 2 pots after the 2 cold nights. I took in the pot that still looks great and hope to be able to put it back out in a couple days. I also covered the tomato plants but they still might not survive.
I had so much fun sewing the neutral 16 patch blocks that I sliced another batch of stratas and sewed another 20 blocks last night. So....I had 74 sewn a month ago, 24 two nights ago and 20 last night for a total of.....118 blocks. That is all of the unique strip sets which produced 2 blocks each. Now if I sew the rest they are duplicates of ones I have already made. If I made just 2 more blocks I could have a 10 x 12 layout which would be 80" x 96". Or I could keep sewing and have a top 96" x 112" (168 blocks). I like making the blocks but I don't know if I want to sew together a top that large.
The Goldfinches are here eating coneflower seeds now. I tried to get a good photo but they were all blurry. It was a gloomy and rainy day which didn't help.
Tuesday night is a TV night for me so I needed a project that was ready to sew. I completed 24 more blocks to add to the 74 I had previously sewn. There are two blocks of each fabric combination.
One more overly warm day and then we will have a big drop in temperature by tomorrow night and I'm looking forward to it.
I have always liked this quilt on the back of a quilt book. It uses Marcia Derse fabrics and at first glance I thought the rows were just made from one fabric each but after looking closer there is more than one fabric in each. I have a great love for zig zag quilts anyway and this might be a fun one for me to make. I wouldn't use the same fabrics but would use the shapes and sizes from the book.
This is the front cover. I have had the book propped open so many times that the cover wouldn't lay flat for the photo so you are seeing my fluorescent light bulb reflected on the cover. I think I should choose some fabrics for the quilt before I put the big bin of Marcia Derse fabrics away.
It was a warm humid day yesterday and we have had over 2" of rain lately so the birds were going crazy taking turns in the bird bath. There were robins here before I could grab my camera.
The tree across the street is starting to turn color. Some years the leaves are too dry and it isn't as pretty. I think this year we might have a chance for it to totally turn color.
For those who asked, the Route 66 museum is in Plainfield IL. I think it is only open for parties and with a reservation, not as a business open all of the time.
We were entertained by the old time juke box with the record player inside playing tunes from the 1950s.
This was typical band equipment of the late 1950s, the era of Elvis Presley and many others.
There was one section of Howard Johnson memorabilia.
The owners of the museum traveled through many states checking out antique stores for all of the signs and thermometers on all of the walls.
I'm surprised this cardboard sign survived all of this time in such good condition.
Remember the photos enlarge if you click on them so you can see closer details.
I'm without a car for a couple days while I get the air conditioning fixed in it so I should get a lot done at home. It is supposed to be in the 80s again for 2 days after cool rainy days last week.
Just out of curiosity I decided to see if I had all 6 of the fabrics that were used in this quilt that I showed a few days ago (click photo for a larger view). I had 3 of the 6 in the same colorway that was in the quilt.
I have the fish print in the blue and black backgrounds but not the red that they used. There is one more print and I thought I had it but haven't found it in the red. I have it in black. More playtime is needed.
