Making blocks.....................

I started sewing some blocks together last night and had to stop when I ran out of large pieced blocks.  I think I am going to like it with the fabrics I'm using.  I want to add a few more dark fabrics though so I don't get bored with the same fabrics over and over.

I sewed some more large blocks after I took the photo above.

They are made in sets of 4 so there are 4 center pieces the same shape.  I'm trying to make as many different size centers as I can in the 9 sets of 4.

I have been seeing macramé again in decorating.  I'm wondering if macramé jewelry will come back in fashion too.  I bought these from an artist back in the 1970s. 

Starting the large blocks...........

I worked on the larger pieced blocks for my new project last night.

Here are some large and small blocks together.  I hope to be able to show the block set up tomorrow.

I had one more treat to bake yesterday morning for the family.  I delivered all of the treats to the person who is travelling.  Of course I kept a few for myself.  A few got stashed in the freezer so I'm set for a couple weeks.

I have given up on the idea of quilting a large quilt this month.  I think the Charley in the Forest quilt top will have to be on stage by itself in my monthly recap.

Sewing again............

I had enough pieces cut Sunday to start making the pieced blocks for the Karla Alexander quilt called The Square Within (in her Color Shuffle book).  These are the smaller of the 2 pieced blocks.

This is another group I made after I took the above photo.

The idea is to have many different sizes of the center piece in the block.  I have made 12 of 36 in the small category.  Then I will do the same thing with the larger cut pieces for another 36 blocks.

Someone in the family is going to visit the 3 great-grands that live a distance from here so I started baking.  These are the shortbread cookies.

Then later in the day I baked chocolate chip cookies.  It was in the 40s yesterday morning and 61 degrees in the house when I got up.  I don't want to turn on the heat yet because it is going to go up to the 70s starting Friday.  With the natural gas prices at an extreme high I can get by with baking and wearing flannel shirts to keep warm.

Started cutting........

This probably doesn't look much different from yesterday's photo but these are cut pieces for the new quilt.  I'm about halfway through cutting.  I need to add a few fabrics because I'm short one dark fabric and one light fabric here.  I think I might make mine one row longer than the one in the book.

I also got the two 86" long backing panels cut but didn't get them pressed or seamed yet.  I think I may be avoiding it.  Not fun.  Maybe if I took the piles off the ironing table my attitude would change.

We are having some pretty chilly weather right now so the Sedums are starting to turn to their darker fall color.

Here is a view from the other side.  It was a dreary day so the photo is a little dark.  The plant on the right is a different variety than the others so its flowers are a little bit different color.

I realized yesterday that Blogger had dropped my main email address for sending comments to my inbox.  I have them sent to 2 emails so I can catch when this happens.  I was able to go back in and add my main email back in but I wish they would leave well enough alone and not mess with our settings. 

Sunday sewing............

Early in the day yesterday I sewed the 15th LeMoyne Star block.  It was already cut so that didn't take long.

I opened the Sunday only project box and I only had 8 sets of fabric ready to sew.  I'm down to a very small variety of triangles so I need to do some cutting.  I added plaids the last 2 weeks.  I might add batiks because I have a small stack already cut.

I still had some time and energy left (I could have run the vacuum cleaner....no, I couldn't) so I cut strips off of the first pull of fabrics for the next quilt.  Rather than take big yardage pieces to the ironing table I decided to cut strips 1/4" wider than I needed and then ironed the those strips.  Now I'm ready to start cutting pieces from the strips.  First though I really need to get a backing fabric pressed and the seam sewn.  The end of the month is creeping up.

3 more blocks.............

I cut 4 new LeMoyne Star blocks but only got 3 sewn.  The yellow fabric in the bottom right is a really old Kaffe fabric.  When I get the 4th one sewn I will have 15 blocks.  I will start looking for another block to alternate with them.  

I may have to make a few more blocks. 30 blocks would be a 5 x 6 layout and I think I would prefer a 5 x 7 layout.  Now I can work on putting away some of the red and yellow fabrics.  I'm thinking the alternate blocks might be different colors.  Still simmering.....not sure yet....

Sorting fabric, 2 more blocks............

I have a few days of sorting fabric and getting it all put away in its proper place.  While I was working on that yesterday I chose 4 more fabrics for the LeMoyne Star blocks.  I want to add some purples into the red side of blocks. This purple has a red-orange with it in the print.  I have a few more candidates chosen and hope to cut them today.  

I really need to think about quilting something this month.  I have the top chosen, batting cut and the backing fabric is waiting to be ironed.  It is the only 16 patch that I set on point.

 I brought a couple stripes upstairs to see if they might work as a border for the log cabin quilt.  The blocks right now would make a 42" x 56" quilt, a little small for an adult quilt and to me it doesn't look like a child's quilt.  I could add a 5" border for a 52" x 66" quilt or I could make another 32 blocks for a 56" x 70" quilt and still add a striped border.  I could continue making blocks in between other projects, or I could assign a day to it like I did for my Sunday only project.  Another option would be to add another round of strips on every block which would change them from 7" blocks to 9" blocks.  Too much to think about right now.  I will continue to work on getting all of the leftover fabrics from the last 3 projects put away.

Charley in the Forest................

 

I have decided the name of this quilt top is Charley in the Forest.  I am pleased with how it turned out and don't think I will act on my original thought of adding a border of more Charley Harper fabric.  It is 67" x 89".  A big thanks goes to Anne at Springleaf Studios for making her Arboretum quilt and sharing fabric measurements and her thoughts when making her quilt.

I just had to add blocks of different sizes like I have done on several quilts in the past.  When I decided the Charley Harper fabrics might work into this quilt, I was pleased to see the colors went well with the Kaffe Fassett collective fabrics.

I have piles and piles of Kaffe fabrics to put away.  I decided to make some more LeMoyne star blocks while I still have some reds and yellows out (from making Arboretum blocks).  The red fabric in both of these is from the same fabric.  I just had to do some creative cutting.  I have 9 blocks made now.  I'm thinking about alternating them with some other block...to be decided.

My little toe on my right foot met the corner of a piece of wood furniture yesterday morning.  I think I will probably lose the toenail on this one.  I took a pain killer at noon and tested how much it hurt by walking outside and filling the bird feeders in the late afternoon.  I decided it was probably going to hurt more the second day so I mowed the lawn while it was tolerable. 

My newest great-grandson came home yesterday.  He spent 83 days in the NICU.  He weighed just under 3 lbs. when he was born at the beginning of July and weighs almost 8 1/2 lbs. now.  

Playing around............

I turned the iron on....pressed the newest 10 log cabin blocks....pressed the Arboretum quilt top.

Then I counted the log cabin blocks and there are 50 just like I thought there were.

I decided to play a little with them on the design wall.

This would only be 42" x 56" if I sewed it now.  I have thought about using a stripe for a border to simulate a piano key border.

After doing the layout above I decided to turn some blocks and make another layout.  There has to be an even number of blocks to do this layout whereas the layout above is used with an uneven number of blocks in one or both directions.

On the next trip into the studio I changed every other block to the opposite dark/light centers.

There are hundreds of layouts you can do with log cabin blocks.  If you sewed them with the traditional value changes they are basically like a block made of 2 contrasting triangles.

Below are some quilts and quilt tops that I have made previously.  One is all Kaffe fabrics, one is Kaffe and batik, and the other 3 are all batik fabrics.

 

Playing with stash............

I finished sewing the Arboretum quilt top together but just couldn't turn on the iron.  Why? Because I have several things lined up to iron and it just wasn't the right day to do it.

Instead I started looking for fabrics for the next in line to be cut.  Which one?

I showed this photo from a Karla Alexander book (Color Shuffle) and so many of you were encouraging that yes, I should make my version of it after looking at it for 13 years and stopping for hours analyzing the pattern and the fabrics in it.  The photo above is some fabrics that are in the quilt in the book.  I had the yellow version of one that is pink in the book.  Second from the left in the light fabrics probably isn't the one in the book but I like it in there anyway.

Here are some additional light fabrics that I think will work in it.  There are only 6 light and 6 dark fabrics called for in the directions but you know I can't make a quilt with just 12 fabrics.

Here are 7 additional dark fabrics and a light fabric.  I'm not sure the light lavender will stay.  In the book all of the lights are yellow, pink and lt. green.  There are a couple of fabrics in the original quilt that I'm going to keep looking for.  I haven't been diligent about putting away fabrics for the last 6 months so I could find them in a pile, or maybe I don't have them.  And that is how I got through a very hot humid day.

View from the sewing chair............

I pressed the sections that were sewn and then got them all sewn together.  There are 4 more rows to be attached at the bottom.

I got those 2 sections assembled but haven't sewn the long seam to attach them together.

I cut some more light pieces and finished the final 5 blocks from Sunday.

Here are all 10 of them together.  Now I have at least 50 blocks sewn.  I'll press these and then count to see how many total.

We got a half inch of rain Sunday night around 11 p.m.  Today is supposed to get really hot and humid and then by tomorrow night a cool down will be here.  One night might get down to the high 40s.  Sounds good to me.

 

In reverse order..................

Starting with evening sewing, the Sunday only project has 14 new strips.  They are on the wall in no particular order as that will be figured out when I get all of the strips sewn.  I had 112 strips sewn previously so I have 126 sewn now.  Here is a link to last week's post if you want more info about the project.

Earlier in the day I sewed 5 new scrappy log cabin blocks and started 5 more.  I need to cut more light strips before I can continue.  I think I have 45 seven inch blocks now.

Even earlier in the day I moved a few blocks and then sewed the next 2 row section and then sewed the individual row above the last 4 rows.  I pinned them up on the wall overlapped slightly so I could move the remaining blocks up and get the bottom row off the floor.  I'm happy with the bottom 4 rows so hopefully I will get them sewn today or tomorrow.  Then I need to press all of the sections and sew the sections together.  I am hoping to have the top together by the end of the month.  I was thinking about a Charley Harper pieced border to make it twin bed size but I'm not sure now.  To be continued.............

 

Filled in......................

All of the spaces are filled in but I can see a few blocks I want to move to different positions.  The blocks on the right are some I pulled out when I put in the last batch of Charley Harper blocks.

These are the new ones I worked in last night.  Now I just have to play with the arrangement a little more and then I can start sewing sections together.

The Dianthus in the back garden is having one more cycle of blooming before winter.

There are a few new Coneflower blooms.

This is what most of the Coneflowers look like.  The Goldfinches have been busy eating the seeds in several of the centers.

Two of the Lenten roses have sent up new shoots of brighter green leaves.  The third plant which is the one that bloomed this year, is to the right back in the shadow behind some ferns.  It was the largest of the 3 plants to start out and it didn't send up any new leaves.  I hope all three will bloom next year.

Some great mail............

About a week ago I got an email from Fabricworm that there was a sale on some of the Charley Harper fabric.  I decided I should check it out and see if there were any that I didn't have that I might want in the Arboretum quilt.  I found a few..........

I found some nice ones with background colors that will work really well.  The bottom right is bears behind birches.  I wasn't sure about that one but bears do climb trees and I thought the birches might be a nice addition.  

Two of my good friends came to visit yesterday morning and we had a nice outside visit for over 2 hours.  I sent a few plants home with them since he is a gardener.  I gave her this quilt that she had admired when I finished it last year.  It was so good to see them while the weather was still nice and my gardens were looking so good.

The Zinfin Doll Hydrangea is getting close to its raspberry color.

I'm wondering how big this bush will be next year.  This is its second year in my garden and the branches are still close to the ground.  I hope it is going to get taller and not just spread out in diameter.

I especially like the blooms that are two toned.

I had one large shallow pot and 4 smaller pots with Pansies in them this year.  They don't like hot weather so a lot of the plants had died.  And then there were the chipmunks or squirrels digging in the pots.  I finally took all of the live plants were left and put them all in the big pot.  There are still a few nice blooms.