I have cut 205 of the 208 half hexagons needed for my quilt. I found one more light fabric to cut the last 3 pieces.
I divided the pieces by darks and light/medium contrast.
The scraps left after cutting 5 half hexagons from a strip are an odd shape. I am going to find my parallelogram die to cut from these scraps and then I'll look for a pattern that can use them.
I decided to turn the drafting/cutting table sideways in the space so I can walk all the way around it. As you can see there is a drain in the floor there. With people coming to my studio to use my design walls I have to have something sitting over the drain because the floor slopes down all around it in about a 24" diameter.
This is what is currently on top of the table. I cut a quilt kit for a friend in the summer and while the fabric was out and pressed I cut off a strip of each to cut half hexagons. There are 4 of each of 20 fabrics there and my scraps from die cutting and some more beiges to add to the mix.
I can open out the large scraps and press the fold mark out and get one more half hexagon from each fabric for a total of 100. I need 208 half hexagons to make a quilt 58" x 79" which is close to the 60" x 80" that I'm usually working toward.
I have this pile of large scraps and quarter yards in the same general colors so I'll press them and do some more cutting today.
I chose the fabric for the cornerstones in my star quilt. I knew I wanted something a little darker than the sashing strips and that it should be a busy print like the fabrics in the stars.
I cut them and got them all sewn to the second sashing strip and then sewed them onto the blocks. Now it is time to go to the design wall and decide on the arrangement. Then I can sew the last sashing strips onto the end of row blocks and bottom row blocks.
I also got the seams sewn the other way on the last 3 postage stamp blocks. Here are this week's four blocks and now I have 48 finished blocks, 32 to go.
Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers!
I got 3 more postage stamp blocks sewn in one direction but didn't feel like turning on the iron. My plan is to make one block every other day or a total of 4 one week and 3 the next week so these will fill the quota for this week when I get them finished.
When I measured my drafting table I did an internet search and found out there was a mat that was just one inch shorter in both directions so basically it covers the whole top of the table.
It is similar to a mat that I have had for about 25 years and I hope it holds up as well as that one did.
I pressed all of the sashing strips on one side of the star blocks. I still haven't decided on a cornerstone fabric.
While I had the iron on I pressed the postage stamp block I sewed on Sunday.
I started quilting this African fabric quilt that I basted a couple months ago. I began with the ditch quilting on each side of the black sashing strips. I'm only going to do a little quilting each day so this one will take awhile.
The pink and white cactus has buds and one bloom.
I had friends over to sew yesterday and I got one table cleaned off and cut the rest of the sashing strips I needed for these 35 batik star blocks. Here is the last time you saw these blocks. I ran out of the first sashing fabric but found another batik that was a close match and this has been laying there for 2 1/2 years waiting for me to work on it again. I have the sashing sewn on one side of all 35 blocks and need to decide on a cornerstone fabric now.
Last night I got a postage stamp block designed and sewn. I plan on doing more of them this week.
I have more blooms on the cactus, only on one branch on this plant.
The white ones are so pretty.
Tonight my pop-up shop closes at 10 pm EST, last chance to visit it.
The sections are all sewn together now and tumbler edges trimmed. It finished at 72" x 89" so it was too tall to put up on the design wall in this position for its photo. I had to pin it back on sideways and then rotate the photo.
There is a large variety of flannels both yarn dyed wovens and prints, all from my scrap bin.
Another view.
In my indoor garden I have lots of blooms. This one was a piece that broke off of a plant and I replanted it. I thought it was from a red plant but now see that it is from my favorite pink one.
Here is the plant it came from. I didn't think it had any buds and surprise! Yesterday I saw one facing the window so I turned it around so maybe more buds will form.
My pop-up shop closes tomorrow night at 10 EST so if you want to visit it, do it soon.
All three sections are sewn so now I have to lay it on my 96" tables and figure out how much to trim off the tumbler sections. The points are cropped off in this photo but they are still there. I want to get it sewn so I can turn it the other way since it is laying on its side right now.
My pop-up shop closes Monday night at 10 pm EST so you still have time to visit it.
I got 4 of the 7 rows of rectangles sewn. Two more rows are at the sewing machine and one is stacked and pinned to the wall. I'll design the right side today.
I got a start on the packaging and preparing for mailing from my pop-up shop. More of that to do today.
This is the cactus that had so many buds. It only had one bloom last year and it is looking much better this year. It is a soft red color.
I found another of the champagne color cactus at W*lm*rt and decided I needed it. I had 2 small plants in this color and one of them died over the winter.
The pop-up shop is open to everyone now. Click here to visit.
My 2 friends came over yesterday and I decided to start this flannel quilt made from a lot of scraps that I cut into rectangles and tumblers last year. I counted 99 rectangles so I had an idea of how big I could make this. It will have another section of the rectangles at the right. I ended up with 13 leftover tumblers but had to cut some more rectangles after I decided it needed to be a little larger.
I'm all ready to design the rest of the quilt.
My pop-up shop opens at noon EST today for everyone on my email list (sign up on right side bar) so expect an email at that time with a password in it. It is case sensitive so if it is in all caps you must use all caps. Everyone else will have access to the shop tomorrow at noon EST. The shop closes on Monday at 10 p.m EST.
I finally got all of the yellow and black and white scraps together in 2 containers so I can make some more crazy pieced blocks. I think Sunday when I have 2 friends coming over would be a good time to work on it.
My next pop-up shop will open in a couple days for the people on my email list. The following day it will be open to everyone. I had lots of proofreading and photography to do yesterday. My email list sign up box is on my right side bar. If you view this on a smartphone scroll down to "view in Browser" or "view original post" or some similar wording and click on it. This will open my actual blog with my right sidebar showing.
The weather was nice yesterday although it was only 36 degrees. I had errands that were put on hold with the snow last week. I had an 8' fluorescent bulb burn out in the basement and had another fixture that hasn't had bulbs for almost a year so I bought 4 new bulbs 2 to a package. The rest of the day was spent on choosing items for the pop-up shop this week, doing the photography and writeups, figuring out prices and the next thing I knew it was time for bed. The fabric pieces above were on my cutting table and will be cut into 2.5" squares and 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles for my colorwash quilts.
The last and smallest of the colorwash wallhangings is finished. This one is 28" square.
The back is a purple batik so the binding is a dark purple batik on this one.
The first white cactus bloom is fully open. I have a couple other colors that should be open today.
My granddaughter gave me a blueberry scone mix for my birthday so I baked them last night in my ceramic scone dish.
I'm working on a quick pop-up shop this week.
I finished the hand stitching last night on this colorwash wallhanging. This batik binding was easy to hand stitch through. It's amazing the difference in the cloth from each of the fabric companies.
I have a purple and green mottled batik on the back. Now one more to trim and bind and I will have all of the colorwashes finished.
I eliminated the binding choice on the right in yesterday's post when I saw it in the daylight. It took me many trips back to look at the remaining 2 throughout the day and I finally decided on the black with green sprays. I have 2 sides hand stitched and part of a third side.
Thanks everyone for the warm birthday wishes yestereday. It was a very relaxing day. I played with fabric most of the day but didn't get around to anything serious until last night when I was trying to find a binding for this colorwash. I'm auditioning dark greens this time. The one on the left is black with green sprays of leaves and at night looked the most promising. I wanted to wait for daylight today though to check them out before I make a decision.
I did a lot of sorting and putting things away in the basement yesterday. I found this box which was buried under about 10" of "stuff". I knew it was down there somewhere. Go to this post for my first go around on the design wall with the Australian fabric equilateral triangles. The pile of scraps in front of the box is waiting to be cut. I think this is going to end up being a small quilt because I'm not too excited about it. Maybe I can make some horizontal rows of triangles and add strips of different Australian fabrics between them.
Today is my birthday (79 years) and it is one of the coldest ones I can remember. We are having the third coldest beginning of November on record. The coldest was 1991. I knew there was a cold one in the early 1990s because my husband insisted we had to go Christmas shopping that day. It was windy and freezing. It's funny the things that stay in my memory bank.
This was my design wall yesterday, my backdrop for the last live broadcast for this session of my Colorwash 360 class. I haven't decided which way is up yet for the 2 on the right. The one on the bottom right is just basted in this photo.
I took the basted one off the wall last night and quilted it while I watched my 3 hours of TV. After I trim it I have to find bindings for both of the small colorwashes.
Yesterday was a record breaking temperature day. It was the earliest date we had 7 degrees for a low since they started record keeping in Chicago, the lowest low temp in the morning and the lowest high temperature for the day. I think it got up to 16 or 17 degrees and the previous record was 28 degrees. Our normal temps for yesterday should be low 34 and high 50. I know this cold front has dropped deep into the south too.
This is the last colorwash that I basted. It is the one made from the kit we sold to this session of my Colorwash 360 online class. I used the same pieces of blue tape to hold down the backings of all 4 of the colorwashes. I threw the tape away now because I'm not going to be basting anything else for a couple weeks and it wouldn't be good that long.
This is the batik I chose for the back of this one.
My indoor garden is starting to bloom. This is the palest pink, almost white.
The larger plant here only had one bloom last year. It is loaded with buds this year. The small plant had 2 blooms last year and has 4 or 5 buds this year. You never know what you are going to get.
One branch of this red one has buds. They bloom quicker if I have them at my east window so I moved all of them over a week ago. I think I only have 15 cacti plants now. I had 30 at one time. I have given a couple to my daughter in law and a few just dried up over the summer.
