Still quilting..............

 I'm still quilting...9 blocks quilted, 6 to go, 3 small ones and 3 large ones.  I'll look for binding fabric this morning.

Tami at Thrift Shop Commando showed her Christmas pin collection.  That prompted me to pull out my mother's pin, also called a brooch on ebay.  I found it at 2 sites, one selling it for $54 and the other selling for $64.

The name Hollycraft is on the back of the trunk.  

I need to pin this onto something this year.

We had a big temperature drop late yesterday and it is going to be frigid today.  I'm glad I got the grocery shopping done.

Two layouts..................

I made 7 more blocks to go with one of the sample blocks and put these up on the design wall overlapped so the strips line up like they do on the Tapas pattern.

What I really wanted to see though was the 8 blocks in the alternate layout that I came up with.  I have 14 more stratas to sew in addition to the duplicates of the 7 new blocks.  One strata makes 2 blocks.  If I use this second layout I need to make 2 additional stratas.

I have had this wallhanging basted and ready to quilt on my Pfaff for about 2  months.  Last night I did the ditch quilting around the 2 border strips and all of the seam lines between blocks.

Then I quilted one block.  I can trim the edges and sew the binding and hanging sleeve on now since I have the borders quilted.  I think I have a fighting chance of finishing this one by midnight November 30th.

My new Amaryllis from my sister-in-law has a big fat bud growing.  I saved 3 other bulbs from last winter and have them in the garage (55 degrees) under a box for cool and dark for 8-10 weeks.  They were outside all summer on the east side of my house.  One of them was from the previous winter and I think I brought it in too soon last year because it only had leaves.  I will try to be more patient this year.

 

Sunday only project final blocks..............

I sewed the final group of triangle strips together last night.  Each row needs a half block and I needed 3 whole blocks.  I will play with the layout next Sunday.  I can't press any of these yet because I want seams to nest when I sew horizontal rows together.  It will be a challenge to get all of the blocks to stay on the design wall with their unpressed state.

I had a nagging feeling the the stripes were not going to line up properly if I followed the directions in the Tapas pattern.  I remember way back in my 65 year quilting career that I had done something like this before and it didn't match.  I made a sample strip set and cut it like the pattern says. Look at the center pink strip.

There are 2 kinds of triangle rulers, one with the point nipped off and the other one pointed.  Following the directions I would be cutting it like the one on the bottom which is my setting triangle ruler (and the only one large enough).

The one on the right is my second try with the tip nipped off and it matches.  Meanwhile I tried other layouts with the 2 sample blocks.  Making the samples I get 2 blocks alike out of one strata of strips.  In the quilt the same blocks would not be next to each other.

Then I took all 4 sample blocks and tried some layouts.  Maybe I would like this one better than the pattern.

If you missed the pattern in previous posts, here it is again.

I got 7 stratas sewn ready to press and cut into triangles today.  I will sew two triangles into a block and then play with the layout.

This is the first orange cactus bloom that was in a place I could get a photo.  With a picture window behind my plant stands it is hard to not get a glare while still letting in enough light to take a photo.

My favorite pink one is still blooming too.  I have never had so many of them all blooming at once.  One red, one white and 3 champagne are all still blooming by the other picture window.

 

#3 top sewn, #4 started.................

This top is sewn and staystitched on the edge, #3 of my series made with the Kaffe yarn dyed woven stripes.  I'll have to do a collage of the 3 of them that were sewn in November.This one ended up at 61" x 72.5".

Here is the photo from yesterday again so you can see some of the stripes closer.  I didn't have any true blue stripes; they are more toward teal/turquoise.

I have started sewing the print strip sets that will be added to a wider Kaffe stripe for the Tapas pattern.  This is quilt #4 with the stripes.  There will be at least one more quilt top with the stripes hopefully in December.  I'm still waffling between 2 choices for that quilt so maybe there will be 2 more.

 

Sewn, not pressed...........

The sewing of the quilt top was done at 11:15 last night so it was too late to press it and photograph it.  I really thought I would finish it earlier in the day and start sewing the next quilt top.  Since the end of the month is creeping closer I may look through my tops and see if I can get one more quilted this month.

It was another nice day yesterday and I looked around outside but decided there isn't anything left to do.  I will cut the hydrangeas back in the early spring.  One more nice day and then rain and chilly on Sunday.

 

The Other 16 Patch - stripes and shots...............

It is a finished top, pressed and edge staystitched.  It is 63" x 81".  I'll be measuring the larger yardage pieces that I have of both stripes and the wavy ikat fabrics I showed a few days ago.  I will use them as backings on this series of yarn dyed woven fabric quilts.

I pulled sets of 3 strips and used over half of the 1.5" strips of Kaffe collective fabrics that were cut many years ago.  It will take awhile to sew all of them into units and then sew together with the striped strip.

This is the next quilt up on the design wall.  I showed the inspiration quilt on this post.  I cut the strips for it on Wednesday and cut the strips into squares yesterday.  The one in the book is on point and it is square.  Square quilts don't fit rectangular bodies in my opinion and to make it useful I needed to make the quilt rectangular.  It was too much of a mind bender to change the shape on the on point layout so I decided on straight rows.  This one looks pretty boring after all of the red, orange, and gold I have been working with.

Started sewing it together...........

I moved 2 or 3 more blocks and then decided it was time to sew the top together.  I started it in the morning and then switched to laundry and pressing and cutting more fabrics.  I'm ready to sew the last vertical seam and then there will be 4 horizontal seams and it will be done.

I emptied all of my flower pots Monday and picked up fallen branches yesterday.  The weather has been so nice, mid 50s yesterday.  I think all of the outside work is done now.

I cut strips for 2 more quilts and this is one of them.  Now I need to pull the narrow strips of prints that complete each block.  I have a box of 1.5" Kaffe fabric strips to sort through.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers who celebrate it today.

 

Maybe final layout..........

In the early evening yesterday I thought I had the final layout after I added the last 5 blocks.  Then I took a photo and saw a block that needed to be moved.....5 times.  I think this may be the final layout.  I was hoping to sew it together last night but then decided to check it this morning to be sure it is ready to sew.

This was stamped on one of the strips that I cut.  I turned it over and used the other side.  I thought if I left it showing on the strip whoever ends up with this quilt might consider it a flaw.  I can read the Hand Woven Textiles but can't figure out the last word. (Click to enlarge.)

These 2 were in the very early Kaffe stripes (1990s) and this is what the beginning of the yardage looked like.  I want to throw these away but I can't just yet.

This is another group of Kaffe's early yarn dyed woven fabrics (not printed).  I have larger yardage of some in the top row so they may become a back of a quilt.  The ones in the bottom row are a thicker thread and more loosely woven.

I found one more of them later, such an unusual group of colors, yellow, lavender, and green.

I have reduced the amount of shot cottons and stripes on the top shelf.  This whole top shelf used to be packed with those 2 groups.  Now I have room for the Lille fabrics at the right.  I still need to put the other yarn dyed group up here and that will go on the left.

 

A good sewing day..........

All it took was a nice sunny day to get my energy back.  I pressed 20 fabrics and cut pieces for 3 quilts.  Last night while watching 2 hours of TV I sewed and pressed 10 new blocks.  I have taken the Sunday only project off the design wall and today I'll put all of the blocks for this quilt up.  I think I need 5 more blocks so I might get an idea what colors they should be.

My indoor garden is full of blooms.  This is 3 champagne color and one red Thanksgiving cacti.  These are by the east picture window.

Over by the west picture window my favorite pink one is still blooming.  Some of the flowers need to be picked off, or I can just wait and they will fall off.

This medium pink and the orange ones will be blooming later this week.  Only a couple buds on the pink but many buds on the orange.  I love my inside garden.

Progress on two...........

I sewed 5 more blocks and put 3 of them up on the design wall with the 15 I showed yesterday.  Then I cleared them off the design wall so I could continue on the other project.

I got 9 blocks of my Sunday only project assembled last night while watching 4 hours of TV.  I think the name of this one should be "Out of Control".  I'm just putting blocks on the wall as I make them, no layout decision yet.  At this point I'm thinking it could be 15 placemats.  I have lots more triangle strips left to sew into blocks of 8 strips.

We are going into another weather pattern, 40s all week instead of 20s.  10-14 day forecast, warmer than normal temperatures.  That will be nice.

More stripes..........

More cutting, more sewing in my quest to get all of the striped and shot cotton fabrics off my work table.  These 5 strip sets need to be cut into 2 sections and sewn into blocks today.

I added some blocks to the design wall.  It's obvious they need to moved around but they will be removed from the wall today so I can work on the Sunday only project.

 

8 blocks...............

Eight blocks are sewn for "the other 16 patch" quilt and 4 more are ready to press and make the final cut.  This one has stripe vs. solid shot cotton rather than light and dark like the other 2 of these that I have made.  With those the dark was at the top left corner of the block and with these a stripe is in that position.  I think it will be a pretty quilt but it will be a little more confusing to look at.  There are a lot more combinations to sew so it may look better when more is added.  If not, I may put a strip of shot cotton between each horizontal row.

On the design wall I still have the Sunday only blocks as well as these 8 new blocks.  This gives perspective of how big the blocks are.

We just have a light dusting of snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20s.  I'm glad we aren't in an area that gets the lake effect snow.

 

Sorting the stripes...............

This is the original fabric selection that I had put aside for the quilt in the book.  I decided I needed to pull out some of the wider stripes with red in them.

This is the updated group that is more similar to the one in the book but now I'm wondering if it is too perfectly matched and boring.  The three I pulled out are laying on the book.

I need to get the stripes off my work table so next I pulled 24 possible stripes for a 16 patch, "the other 16 patch" made with rectangles instead of squares.  I'm second guessing myself here too wondering if the variety from light to dark is too drastic.

This is my pile of shot cottons (one color one way, another color woven the other direction) that I will pair with the stripes.

This is a preliminary pairing.  I realize I don't have any medium or dark green shot cottons or any true blue.  At one time I bought a quarter yard pack of mostly reds, oranges, and shades of brown.  I'll probably pull some of the lightest solids and use another color twice.  Between the 2 quilts I have 60 fabrics to press before cutting.  12 of them will need two or three 6.5" strips, the rest are all one 2.5" strip per fabric.  I think I need to figure out one more shape to cut at the same time from those 48 pieces.

Still playing.........

After finishing a project (2 for this month) I have a hard time getting going again.  Yesterday I looked through project boxes and a couple more Kaffe quilt books.

One of my favorite quilts last year was a simple 9 patch, all 5 dark/4 light blocks.  See it here.

Sometime after I made that quilt I started making more 9 patches, this time with 5 light/4 dark.  I think continuing with these will be one of my mindless sewing projects while I watch TV this winter.

This piece has been around for a loooong time.  The outer row of blocks are not sewn on yet, just in the auditioning stage.  If they get sewn on another striped twig border will be added, wider than the last one.

This is a photo I found in my 2016 file, auditioning for the first stripe twig border.

I have a few more boxes to look through and maybe I'll get serious and prepare something for quilting.  Maybe a birthday week is supposed to be like this.

 

Winter arrives...................

Last year we waited to the end of December for the first snowfall but not this year. We had around an inch of snow yesterday which melted during the day.  Maybe more snow tonight.  This is the Sedums with snow caps.

Even the dainty Coral Bell stalks and blooms had snow on them.

Since I didn't sew at all yesterday I'll just show you some more photos of the Lille collection with Kaffe's colorations.  I grouped them by color for these photos.

I had enough of the lime green with sprays of blue flowers to use on the back of a quilt and I still have a couple yards of it.

I have the least amount and variety in the pink.  The pink on the far right is yardage and that is just two 5.5" squares of the other print on top of it.  I'm sure that was a good seller and didn't make it to sales like some of the other colors did.

Today I must get busy and get something done.