This is the final layout of the Cascade quilt. I have sewn the blocks in the first 5 columns and have started sewing the columns together. I still have to sew the blocks in the last 5 rows which will take a few days
I did the layout of the Snail's Trail blocks so the plan is to sew the top together today so it can be in April's recap tomorrow.
I saw this new yarn and had to try it out in a dishcloth. The pattern inside the wrapper is for a bath mitt. It says it is 100% cotton.
The shaggy part is a little rougher than the other part but still is fairly soft because it is cotton.
Finally the red One Block Wonder is sewn together. This is probably the closest I have come to getting the camera to catch the true colors. There are lots of pink flowers and several orange fruits. The red is a soft red, not bright and glaring. I'll get it measured today and get the edges staystitched. The snow melted away with temperatures in the high 40s. Now we have a week with lots of rain coming. The 10 day prediction is cooler than normal. I think this will be one of the years of going straight from cold to hot without a nice spring.
I'm getting closer to the finish on this One Block Wonder and it is looking so much better. I sewed 2 of the last 4 columns yesterday. I hope to have it all sewn today. I also sewed the last 2 Snail's Trail blocks so I can decide on a layout of that one soon.
The Redbuds are starting to open and then this happened........................................................................................................................................................................................
Really? It snowed more after it was too dark to take a photo. I'm hoping the Redbuds blooms can survive. I have lived in this house 47 years and only one year did we get a hard freeze after the buds formed and they turned black.
While my friends were here I worked on 3 projects. The red OBW has only 4 more columns to sew. While I had the rest of it off the wall to be sewn together I took advantage of the empty side of the of the design wall to put more of my pickle insert blocks up. The colors are darker and more intense but the fluorescent lights made them washed out and the "pickle" acid green looks like yellow here. Mainly I wanted to see if I have to make some specific blocks or if I can place them randomly and not need to. I worked on my red Kaffe collective Cascade quilt too. All in all it was a fun day with a little accomplished on all three.
I had to pick the next 2 Jonquils that were blooming because if I don't the squirrels play "off with their heads" with them.
Yesterday was my live broadcast for my online Colorwash360 class again so a large portion of the day was concentrated on that. Late in the afternoon I noticed a crow flying up to my birdbath with something in his beak. He dunked it several times and then was breaking it and eating it. He came back a second time and went through the same procedure.
After the crow flew away I added some water to the birdbath and then got my camera to record the progress of the garden area. This is the earliest peonies and they are quite tall.
It takes awhile for the hostas to poke through and start growing. This is the first day for this group.
This is the 4th or 5th day for this group. Once they start showing they shoot up fast, a noticeable amount each day.
This is a favorite, shared with me by my sister in law. It is a really bright spot in this corner bed that gets a lot of shade.
This blooming Lungwort/Pulmonaria plant jumped over the rocks and is at the end of the path through my garden. I need to dig it up and move it elsewhere. It is in the edge of the grass and will get mowed over where it is. My 2 friends are coming over to sew today so it is going to be a fun day. Thanks everyone for your comments yesterday about my eye appointment results. I appreciate every one of them.
I decided I will do alternating plain and print triangles on the top and bottom edge. I only got part of 2 columns sewn and gave up and went to bed early. The trip to Chicago was heavy tollway traffic (2 hours) and I had never seen more people at the eye clinic. The wait was long. My 9:45 a.m. appointment ended up being 11:35. I was talking to another lady and found out we had the same appointment time. This is a clinic through the University of Illinois so it is a teaching hospital environment. I have one of the top doctors in the nation so it is worth the wait. They do an ultrasound on my eye to measure the remains of the tumor; the amount that is left after the radiation treatment (6 1/2 years ago) has shrunk it and made it inactive. They also watch to see that there isn't any secondary growth and check for swelling and fluid in the eye (which would mean I needed to have an injection to correct that). I'm happy to report that my eye is stable and didn't need any treatment and I go back in 6 months for the whole ordeal again. The stress of the day was very tiring so I'm happy to be back to a normal day today.
The red Kona cotton that I found Monday night turned out to be a shade too dark in the daylight. Then I went through the leftover fabrics from the "pickle" insert quilt and found one 5" strip that was almost an exact match. I cut a strip and then half equilateral triangles and placed them in the left position and triangles from the print in the right position and I think it is going to work OK. Several people mentioned using all plain red fill in triangles but I think that would be distracting and lead the eye to the top and bottom instead of the center where the real action is.
Sorry for the crooked shot. Next I put all of the edge blocks up on the design wall and played with the arrangement for awhile. Now I need to take them down one at a time, trim one corner off and sew on a triangle and return it to the wall. Then I will be able to start sewing the first 3 columns together. I sewed together more of the blocks for the "pickle" insert quilt too while I watched TV for an hour.
When I was out filling the bird feeders I picked the only Jonquil that was in bloom. It looks huge here but actually the vase is tiny.
I couldn't resist taking a Georgia O'Keefe view of the flower. I'm headed into Chicago today to the eye specialist for a checkup on the tumor in my eye and a health check on both eyes. The dilation won't wear off until late afternoon so I'm not sure what I will sew tonight.
The 6 columns at the left have been sewn together. I was getting ready to sew the triangles from the ends of the strips onto the top and bottom edges and found out I have all rights and no lefts so I decided to go ahead and sew and will have to unpick a few stitches if I do add triangles.
The only thing I could figure out to do was to look through my Kona cotton solids and see if I have a red close to the color in the quilt. This one looks good at night but I'll have to check it in the daylight. This means that all of the left triangles would be solid and the right ones would be the same prints as the quilt. The other option is to just trim off the points top and bottom which will make it a little shorter.
Meanwhile it was another beautiful day so I did a little more clean up in the backyard. The Brunnera plants are big now and full of little blue flowers.
I now have 72 blocks completely done, 21 pieced triangles that have points trimmed and 12 more paired and ready to sew for 105 total. I said yesterday that I was making 120 blocks but I re-figured and need 130.
I moved my sewing machine over to a higher table so I could stand and sew. I just brought 4 pieces at a time to the machine. The 4 columns on the left are sewn but not pressed. I now know that it will end up about 49" x 65". We had a sunny 77 degree day yesterday so I got the lawn mower out and mowed the front yard for the first time this season. It looks so much better evened off. The backyard won't need mowing for another week or two.
It was such a beautiful day yesterday that I went out and cleaned up the area north of my garage. I have some heavy pots there to empty but that will have to wait until another day. I trimmed points yesterday on 46 triangles.
Then I sewed the plain triangle onto all 46 of them. With the group I had already done I now have 65 of 120 sewn. Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. It is going to be a very warm one here, close to 80 degrees. That is very unusual. I remember many Easters as a child when it was too cold to wear my new spring outfit.
I cut 14 fabrics into 6.5" squares to start the border blocks. They will get one corner trimmed off and a triangle added after I make the decision which ones I am using and where they will be. I just lined up one of each on the right side and bottom edge to see if they are working. I'm not sure about the 3rd and 4th from the bottom on the right edge. I added some new fabrics that aren't in the center of the quilt top. The triangles are sewn on in the 2 columns on the left edge.
Of the 3 layouts I showed yesterday I chose the third layout as the one I will do. I haven't sewn any of the plain triangles onto the pieced triangles so I will play with the arrangement of them since they create a rectangle. I think I can sew about 2/3 of them randomly, then start playing with the layout and the last 1/3 will be pieced to perfect the layout. There are a lot of blocks to make since they finish at 6". Thursdays are the day I do my live broadcast for the Colorwash360 online class so I have a lot of research and prep time for that. Then after it is over I work on a project. Last night I sewed the triangles onto the other shape piece for one column of the Cascade quilt. I now have the pieces assembled for 2 of 9 columns. Now I need to spend some time today cutting the 44 squares that surround the center and trim one corner off each of them. It is going to be 50 degrees and windy today so that means it is a good day to cut and sew.
This is the layout that I saw that inspired this quilt with the "pickle" Kona cotton inserts. I only have 6 of the triangles trimmed at the insert fabric point so this is all I can show so far.
Of course I have to try some other layouts. I think this is pretty interesting.
For this layout you really need to see more blocks to see the double length line that the inserts will make. I sewed a little on other projects too yesterday. I really like having a choice of 3 or more projects to work on. I know that would drive some people crazy.
I took this photo from a different distance from the design wall and the colors are truer than the photos from the last few days. I have all of the spots filled in now with some new fabrics that I cut. I also replaced some of the triangles that I didn't like. Now I have to make the decision whether I will take off one vertical row so that it is a better rectangular shape. It will still get one row of squares added all around the perimeter. Blocks are 6" because that is the size of the GO! die I am using. After I get the triangles sewn on I will decide if any blocks need to be moved around. (Inspired by Cascade pattern by SpringLeaf Studios)
I took my camera outside to document the beginnings of spring growth. This is a Columbine. The leaves start out in a tight swirl and then spread out.
I have 3 clumps of Brunnera in one flower bed and another clump in a different area The blue flowers are tiny and are just starting to open.
The Lungwort/Pulmonaria has its pink and blue flowers. I have lots of this all over the back garden. I love the speckled leaves.
The dark leafed Coral Bell is getting bigger every day.
The Periwinkle Vinca has completely taken over the front flower bed. I really need to work on this but it seems a little overwhelming.
I still have to find some more fabrics for triangles. I added 2 new fabrics yesterday after I got all of the larger pieces on the design wall. There is a row of squares that will go around the whole thing with a triangle sewn on just one corner. You can search for Cascade by SpringLeaf Studios to see the pattern. Anne sells them on Etsy and Craftsy(Blueprint) and she also has a blog. My camera has given this a blue tone where in reality it has a lot of red orange and orange in it.
I now have "pickle" Kona cotton strips sewn into 66 triangle sets.
There was snow on the ground when I got up and this is the scene at 1 p.m., still snowing. It stopped for awhile around 3 and then there was more light snow later in the afternoon. I'm guessing there is about 3" on the ground but a town 25 miles northwest of us had 7".
This is about 4 p.m yesterday and the birds were all flocking to the feeders and below them. There is a mourning dove on the ground and a cardinal on the feeder at the right. The rest are sparrows, chickadees and junkos.
Other than walking out to pick up my newspapers early in the morning I spent the day inside, nice and warm and dry. I cut 2 more fabrics for the larger pieces in this quilt and got 2 more columns up on the design wall. I didn't get around to looking for more triangle fabric.
While I watched TV last night I sewed the "pickle" Kona solid between triangles. I still have to trim the tops into points. I have paired up the rest of the triangles laying there. The rest of these will be my TV sewing project all this week.
I started cutting for this quilt about 2 months ago but had to take it off the design wall when the art quilters were coming. I have to find a lot of different fabrics to try for the triangles because I'm not happy with all of the ones I have cut so far. This is inspired by the Cascade pattern by SpringLeaf Studios. The one on the pattern cover is greens and turquoise and very pretty. I wanted to try it in red, orange and pink.
I could see a little red glint in the sunshine in the backyard and grabbed my camera. I think it is a purple finch. It stayed for a long time eating under the feeders and drinking from the birdbath. I see them off and on but not as regular visitors to my feeders. Snow is predicted today, maybe up to 4". I wonder if it will happen......70 degrees predicted for Tuesday........crazy spring weather.
My 2 friends and I moved blocks and moved blocks and moved blocks until we reached this layout which is the final one and will be sewn.
I flipped the photo 180 degrees to see if it looks any better but it doesn't. I'm still not really liking this OBW that much but I'll go ahead and sew this at my leisure when I just need something to sew on while watching TV.
While my friends were here I cut a new quilt. The solid colors I used in my crazy pieced quilt HERE were still on the cutting table so I pulled out the stack of Jinny Beyer tone on tone prints from the early 1990s to go with them and added my new Kona cotton solid named Pickle. I hope to start sewing this over the weekend. I have another quilt cut that I haven't shown yet and I intended to get it up on the design wall but ran out of steam and played Spider Solitaire for an hour instead.
