Saving a block....................

If you read yesterday's post, you know I miscut a strip and was short one segment for a 16 patch block.  I briefly thought about just forgetting about that block, but I'm going for 120 blocks so I really needed it.  I don't like chunks cut out of my yardage.  I guess that is a leftover feeling from having worked at quilt shops and always having a clean edge on yardage.  I cut 2 squares out of each of the 2 fabrics and finished piecing the block.

I finished another dishcloth last night.  It is not as dark as it looks here, a much prettier red.

We got a tenth of an inch of rain yesterday and south of Interstate 80 they got 4" - 5".  We can watch the radar on Weatherbug on our phones and watch the storms split and fall apart as they approach us.  I really thought we were going to get a good amount of rain yesterday.

I will do my monthly recap as soon as I get a photo of the Kaffe quilt I finished in July.

More blocks for 16 patch quilt..............

I sewed 8 new combinations of Marcia Derse fabric yesterday morning.  There are 2 of each, so 16 new blocks.

I sewed and cut the next batch of stratas and when cutting into segments I made one miscut.  There is exactly enough for 2 blocks with only a small cut leftover.

I was able to salvage all but one combination by sewing the left over piece onto the miscut piece and recutting into 2.5".  On the left, the seam sewn, center, the seam pressed open, and right, a trimmed strip ready to use.  The 6th strata didn't have enough left at the end to sew on.

This is the 6 new combinations sewn yesterday afternoon.

When I was checking my porch pots, I noticed the Zinfin Doll Hydrangea blooms are starting to turn pink.

I also noticed a new bloom farther down the garden.  I had a plant last year that had these flowers on it and it didn't come up this year.  Now I know it self seeds since this one is across the row of pavers from where the original plant was.  There is another plant coming up in a crack between pavers that might be another of these.  I pulled out several handfuls of weeds but there are SO MANY more in this flower bed.

The other quilt..........

I have several quilt tops in progress, at all different stages, and I'm not sure any of them will be a finished top for this month.

Yesterday I decided to work on the Marcia Derse 16 patch and have this group ready to slice into segments to make blocks.

I pressed more fabric and cut more strips and got pairs sewn together.

I had PT in the morning instead of afternoon yesterday.  It is helping my sciatic problems but it's still undetermined if there is another problem in my lower back.  I have gone to 6 of 10 sessions now.

When I filled the bird feeders at sunset I noticed the Brown-eyed Susans are starting to bloom.  It should be a mass of yellow in a few days.

On the path back to the house, the Tiger Lilies are just finishing up their season and the Black-eyed Susans are in full bloom.

One more day of heat and humidity and the Canadian air should be headed this way.

 

Decision made..................

After a little thought yesterday I decided to use the 'chips' fabric and mix it in with 'gameboard'.  I just cut strips and cut squares from it.  No fussy cutting.  Here are 4 different cuts of it.

I added a few into the mix and I think it looks like it was meant to be.  Now I have the 150 blocks sewn and ready to arrange for the original size quilt I intended to make.  I will take these off the design wall and make piles of the different colors so I'll be ready later this week to work on it.

I got more strips cut for the Marcia Derse 16 patch quilt too.

Today is supposed to be the hottest and most humid day this week.  They are saying upper 70s later in the week but they have teased us before and it didn't happen.  I sure hope it is going to cool off and have a drop in the humidity. 

Some options....................

I don't have enough of the B&W fabric to make a quilt the size I had planned and I don't want to buy any more of it.  I searched through my stash and the one on the top left is similare in style but not scale.  The bottom left piece is another Brandon fabric and the 2 styles of "chips" run in vertical rows on the fabric.  I think I could only cut the lightest stripe into squares as a substitute to continue.  The other option is to make a smaller quilt with the squares I have already cut.

I even tried "onion rings" as alternate rows but it isn't as bold.  I will continue to contemplate on this project.  

I finished the binding on the Kaffe fabric quilt.  The design wall is in use right now so the portrait won't be taken until later this week.

Checking out an idea...................

This is the idea I had for the Kaffe rectangles and Brandon Mably's Gameboard fabric.  I have seen this done with different dimensions for the pieces and I think longer rectangles might look better, but this is what I have already cut, so I need to use it.  I only got 110 B&W squares out of the yard of fabric that I had.  I had figured I needed 150 for a quilt 54" x 75".  I have another of his black and white fabrics called Chips that I could possible mix into the outside edge blocks.  These pieces will come down off the design wall to play with next month.

I put the flannel baby quilt on the design wall for its portrait.  It is 39" square and has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.  It is quilted in a crosshatch pattern with ecru thread.

The backing is the same flannel fabric as the border.  I will consider this a baby boy quilt when I put it in the baby quilt pile, trying to keep a good balance between boy and girl.  I realize this one would be a nice girl quilt too so I might still end up short on boy quilts.

Here is an update on the sidewalk crack Tiger Lily.  Three more buds to open and then it gets pulled out.

This is the most blooms I have ever had on the yellow Coneflower.  There are a couple more to open.  Last year lots of the flowers were drying up before the rest of them bloomed.

If you look closely you will see buds forming on the Compact Flare Hydrangea.  It had a partial bloom last year.  There are several buds this year so I'm hopeful that I'll see the color range on them this year.

It was binding day......................

I had the binding sewn onto the flannel baby quilt before lunch time yesterday.  I need to take some blocks off the design wall before I can take its full portrait.

These are the blocks that need to be removed from the design wall.  I added the 4 new ones so I could take a photo of all 36 blocks (one of each combination of fabrics, two alike of each are sewn).  This wasn't necessarily the final layout but I have a photo of it now if I do want to start with this when I get the rest of the blocks sewn.

I got the binding sewn onto the Kaffe fabric quilt too and started the hand stitching.  I have one short side and 1/4 of a long side stitched so far.  I have thought of using this diagonal print stripe as a binding before but never seemed to have the right quilt for it.  I think it is looking good on this one.

We got a torrential downpour for 10 minutes yesterday and it was .55" in my rain gauge.  They said it would be up to 3" an hour and the storm was very long and skinny on radar so I knew it wasn't going to last very long.  The rain was blowing up the street in waves and there was a big puddle in the gravel driveway across the street.  Our grass is all green again after the rain we have received the last 2 1/2 weeks.

Another hot day..........

Yesterday I found a flannel binding fabric that was lightweight and the right color for this little flannel baby quilt.  I hope I will get it sewn on today.

A friend came over and was designing a quilt on my design wall.  She brought Subway sandwiches, yum!

I had another dishcloth more than half knitted so I finished it late yesterday afternoon.

That gave me permission to start another one (or two).

I cut the black and white squares for another idea I have.

The overnight temperatures are staying up in the mid to high 70s, some close to 80 and high 70s dew points, partially due to our cornfields (that surround our small towns) releasing moisture in the air.  

Quilting a small one..........

This flannel quilt has been ready for quilting for a couple weeks so I finally quilted it yesterday.  It will get trimmed today or tomorrow and then I'll look for binding.

I pressed the stratas yesterday and sliced off the segments for 8 blocks, 2 of each combination.  They aren't pressed so they can't go up on the design wall yet.  I have 72 blocks made now.  That would give me an 8 x 9 layout but that is too close to square.  I would rather have 7 x 11 or 8 x 10.  I could still add in squares from one of Marcia Derse panels and maybe even make it 9 x 11 (72" x 88")

After I filled the bird feeders I took this photo of the buds on the Brown-eyed Susan plants.  I am not very patient waiting for them to bloom.  It seems they have had buds for a long time.

The tallest tomato plants are the Sungold.  None of the tomatoes on them have ripened yet and the plants keep growing.  I gave the tomato plants a dose of fertilizer yesterday.  I hope it makes more tomatoes, not just more leaves.

I checked the cucumber plants that I gave to the neighbor girls and they have several blossoms on them.  I can't wait to see the first cucumbers.  I have 4 plants growing in the second pot and I'll probably keep it by my tomato plants.

LIttle progress...............

I spent a couple more hours cutting 2" squares of Kaffe collective fabrics yesterday morning and now have 5 stacks instead of 3 shown a couple days ago.  I had PT in the afternoon and afterwards sewed 4 more stratas of Marcia Derse fabrics for the 16 patch quilt.  I trimmed off sad looking branches on my tomato plants and pulled out some more of the Creeping Bellflower.

I know there is nothing exciting about showing the most recent dishcloth finish but this helps me keep a record of the colors I have used.

7 days of 90s now, and high, high humidity.  I was hoping for a cooler July after a hot June.

 

Choosing the binding................

A decision had to be made for the binding.  I chose 3 fabrics that I liked with the big rose backing fabric.

I narrowed it down to my two favorites.  Either one would work well so I had to decide which one to use.

This one is my choice and I got it cut but not sewn on yet.

Saturday there was one pile of 2" squares.  Now there are 3 piles.  More cutting to happen.

The sunlight was coming from the west and created a glow on the top of the Brown-eyed Susan plants, to the right of the bird feeder.  They are full of buds, almost ready to bloom.  There are about twice as many plants as last year and they are at least a foot taller. 

More cutting.......................

Almost all of the small pieces of Kaffe fabrics are now cut.  There is no project in mind, just prep for when the whim strikes.

This was the first 2 hours of cutting, in the morning yesterday, 2.5" squares and triangles.  I decide to not cut rectangles.

In the evening I spent another hour cutting 3.5" squares, 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles and 2" squares.  There is another group of fabric I need to cut into 2" squares so maybe that will be today's project.  I didn't feel like turning on the iron so I haven't cut the Marcia Derse 2.5" strips yet.

Well, its days are numbered now.  The Tiger Lily in the crack of the sidewalk has started to bloom.  The Maple tree will be removed too.  Probably about a week from now they will be gone.

There is one lonely Evening Primrose blooming in the back garden.  All of the rest of them bloomed over a month ago.

It's official now, all four volunteer plants are Sungold.  They all have at least one bunch of tomatoes growing on them.

 

Not much to show...................

There isn't much to show for yesterday but it was a busy day.  This is about an hour and a half's ironing.  The stack at the top is large enough for 3.5" squares or 3.5 x 6.5" rectangles.  The bottom stack is for 2.5" squares and 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles, and maybe some 2" squares  from the longer strips.

After lunch was my second PT session and it is helping.  I have a good therapist and she is training another person so I get to hear everything explained.  That doesn't mean I know the meaning of the terms, but I do like details.

I was feeling so good afterwards that I ran 2 errands that took up a good part of the afternoon.  Early last evening I filled the birdfeeders and cut down the Tree of Heaven.  Then I pulled out a bunch of the Creeping Bellflower that was past its prime.  We really only had a day and a half of lower humidity.  It was quite sticky out last evening.  Maybe rain today?  It looks promising......and the humidity is rising to oppressive with the worst to come next Wednesday.

Sorting.................

I negotiated a deal with my friend Mary, who visited yesterday and sent her home with some fabrics.  This is the third time they have visited me on the way home from WI. We sorted my large Kaffe scraps while she chose some for herself.  I wanted to separate out the narrow strips and small pieces that had made their way into the overflowing box and cut several size squares, 2" and 2.5" for sure and maybe one larger size.  I already have lots of 6.5" squares cut.  I need to check my 3" and 4" component boxes and see if I need to cut either of those sizes.

I pulled a few more Marcia Derse fabrics for the 16 patch blocks but haven't cut them yet.

I also sorted my green fabrics into types of green and this is the gray/green bunch.  I could easily pass on ever using them, but then I think about soft apricots and pinks with them and they might have possibilities.  I'm not sure I need to make 'that' quilt though.

This is just another view of the same fabrics.  Click on the photo for a closer look.