Another quilt top....instead of another finish............

Quilt top #4 for August.  My progress in having more finished (17) than started (15) has shriveled up.  I'm glad I worked on this one though.  The stacks that I had pinned to the design wall for 8 months had me thinking it was going to be too dark and maybe depressing.  As it turns out it is plenty colorful, and even though deep toned, not too dark.  In person it has a darker tone than the photo, because the camera wants to emphasize contrast and is making a lot of the fabrics lighter than they are.  It is 54" x 72", close to the 50" x 70" size I like to make now.

It's time to show the cucumber plants again.  I planted 4 seeds in this pot and they all grew.  I made a trellis of sorts with green stakes and string and that seems to be working OK.  Did you notice the cucumber on the right side of the plant?

I think it needs to fatten up a little before I pick it.  The package said 3 - 5" and it is at least 5" now.

There are two teeny tiny 1" cucumbers starting but the other one has been 1" for over 3 weeks so I wonder if it is going to grow.

The Sedums are just starting to show color on their blooms.  I have had them at this stage by the end of July some years, so they are late.  

This plant that came up from seed from last year's plant (which isn't there this year) is still doing well.  I see about 3 more coming up in the cracks between the pavers but they don't have blooms although one has some small buds.  I will have to lift a paver or two to dig them out and try transplanting to another area.

 

Backings and assembly......................

I looked for a backing for the Hunter Star table runner and found another block for a table mat that could use the same backing.  Quilting time soon.

I finished the layout of the floral quilt and started sewing it together yesterday.  There were 8 vertical seams for the webbing, and now I have 6 of the 11 cross seams sewn.

I also got the backing pressed for the huge 16 patch made of Marcia Derse fabric while I had the iron on.  

My granddaughter sent me a photo of my great-grandson holding the fudge I made for him.  He looked pretty happy!  I know I'm happy, eating the fudge that I kept for myself.

Lots of little progress................

The next third of floral squares have been sorted and placed in the same order as the ones on the design wall (shown yesterday).  Now I need to decide if I will just shift the rows to the right so same fabrics don't line up from top to bottom in the quilt or will I mix up the fabrics in each row as I place them on the design wall.

As I was walking through the kitchen yesterday morning I noticed the dappled sunlight highlighting some of the tall flowers.  Here I go again with a photo that is similar to my current project.

I went through blocks in the batik orphan block box and found enough left over Hunter Star blocks to make a small table runner top, 12" x 24".  I sewed it together last night.

I also finished knitting a dishcloth last night.

Yesterday morning I made treats for my great-grandchildren who live at the far side of a neighboring state.  Their grandparents are going to visit them and celebrate 2 birthdays, a 9 year old and a 38 year old.  I asked the 9 year old what treat he would like and he said fudge.  The 38 year old chose chocolate chip cookies.  That of course gave me a little stash of each too.

Floral 6" squares...................

Way back in November I cut a lot of my floral fabrics in several shapes, planning to make 3 or 4 quilts.  I have had these squares pinned in stacks on the side of the main floor studio design wall ever since then.  Yesterday I decided to revisit this idea.  See this post for other quilts worked on with the floral fabrics.  One top was sewn, 30 stars have been sewn and I showed a layout or 3 on this post.  I took the stars down in rows and they are still stacked waiting to decide if I will put a very narrow sashing between them so I don't have to deal with matching the points exactly when the top is sewn.

So back to this quilt, I have 3 squares of each of the fabrics plus a few extras.  What is shown above is one of each of all of the prints, 36 of them.  I could design the next 2 sections, each with one of each print, sew it all together and have a quilt top 54" x 72".  This is mostly a celebration of 1990 -2000 floral fabrics since the largest percentage came from that era.  It won't be the most beautiful quilt I have ever made, but it is one that will make me happy, to see a little representation of a lot of the floral fabrics that I love so much.

We are still in the 70s with low dew points, almost unbelievable weather for August.  The Sandwich (DeKalb County) Fair starts Wednesday next week and the weather for all 5 days looks like it will stay in the 70s to possible low 80s which is perfect.  There is a possibility of rain one day in that period so we hope it will be light rain if it happens. 

Table mats finished.............

The two table runners are made from the same batch of fabric but the layouts aren't identical.  I decided to finish them alike in case someone needs a pair.  They are each 12" x 36".

The third table runner and mug rug are also made with the same group of fabrics.  The table runner is 12" x 29.75" and the mug rug is 7.5" x 8.25".

The backs are pretty enough to be used face up part of the time.

Yesterday afternoon I cut the batting and seamed the backing for the Marcia Derse 16 patch quilt so it is ready to go to the longarmer as soon as I press the backing.

 

A little stitching time................

I had an appointment in the middle of the morning yesterday and ran an errand while I was out.  I found a little time to work on the binding of this last table runner.

I have my first cucumber.  The package said 3 - 5" and this one is 6".   My grandson and his fiancé brought stuffed shells and sausage and while it was cooking we went out to check the garden.  I had totally missed this cucumber growing and I check the plant regularly.  There is another one that I can probably pick tomorrow.  I'm growing them for the neighbor girl since I'm not fond of cucumbers. 

 

Miscellany.................

Off and on all day yesterday I did a little hand stitching on the binding of table runner 2 and finished it last night.  One more to go; binding is sewn on, hand stitching needed.

I have looked into this project box 3 times lately, maybe it is time to make something from it.  The pile on the left has 173 batik squares.  Under the 57 wonky pieced blocks is another pile of 140 squares.  I did some calculations and I could make a 65" x 90" quilt from the pile of squares on the left plus the wonky pieced blocks.  If I used all of the squares in the box I could make a quilt 85" x 105".  I think the pile underneath on the right is duplicates of the pile on the left.  I like quilts made of all squares but I might get bored doing the layout on the larger size one.

I'm still thinking about the 6" Kaffe triangles and thought I would try some alternate fabrics to use with them.  This is option 1, a Brandon Mably plaid print.

Option 2 is the light plaid, same print as above.  I haven't checked to see how straight it is printed, and whether it would be a good candidate for die cutting.

The third option is also a Brandon Mably print.  

I spent about an hour outside in the nice cool weather yesterday morning cutting and pulling weeds and volunteer trees/bushes in the garden outside my dining room picture window.  One huge 4' tall weed was really bugging me and it had to go.

 

One down, 2 to go.............

The binding on the first table runner was finished by machine, not my best job.  It will have to be gifted to a non-sewist.

I changed my mind on the binding for the other 2 table runners.  This warm tone little stripe is better.  I got the binding sewn on both of them and started the hand sewing on one of them.

The lower humidity is finally here with a dew point of 55.  It sounds like it might go down from that in the next few days.  50's at night and windows open, finally!

 

Machine quilting.............................

It is getting toward the end of the month so I decided I need to get something finished.  I quilted this table runner and mug rug first, trimmed them, cut binding and finished the binding on the mug rug.

I don't think the quilting shows up much but I quilted both of the table runners like this one and I'll get them trimmed this morning and cut binding.  I have Warm and Natural batting in all of these and it can be quilted quite far apart so I ditch quilted the seams where the 4" blocks joined and no quilting within the blocks.

I'm still just getting small tomatoes and I don't know how our cool down will affect the plants.  I'm hoping they will like this weather better and grow larger fruit.

Quilt top #3 for August...................

The plaid and stripe quilt top is 40" x 48".  I ended up with 43 squares left over from the 2 trays of squares I showed on Monday.  These are all shirt weight yarn dyed wovens, not the heavier ones we sold in the 1990s called homespun.

I chose backings for the batik table runners.  This one will also be the binding on all three of the table runners.

This fabric will be the backing for the 2 table runners that are similar.

Yesterday was errand day, delivering some things to the local thrift shop and grocery shopping.  It's so nice to have temperatures in the 70s and low 80s and it looks like it will continue for 10 days.  Low 60s at night is a real treat with windows open.  They are even talking about 40s at night next week.

 

The rest of the blocks...............

I ended up making 30 blocks instead of 25 and this is the first 6 that were completed.

I kept matching fabrics and decided that 40" x 48" is still a good baby size quilt.

I decided on this layout of the blocks...until I was ready to sew.  Then I changed blocks 3 and 4 in column 1 with each other.  I sewed it together last night and will take its photo after pressing.

This is the fabric I thought about using on the back.

It's finally starting to cool off a little but the humidity hasn't dropped enough.  By Sunday it is supposed to go down to a wonderful level.

 

More blocks and a book.....................

Some blocks were sewn in the morning and some in the evening.  All together 12 more got pieced.  It's easier to photograph them in groups of 6.

There will be a lot of color in this little baby quilt.  I was thinking ahead to what I will use for backing and my thought now is to not use a plaid on the back.  I have a couple cute prints that I can decide between.

I got Kaffe Fassett's newest book in the mail yesterday.  If you have any of his previous books and liked a certain quilt but didn't care for the color, you may like this book better.  He has 3 versions of each quilt.  It is an interesting concept because it may make you like a quilt because of the color range.  I don't have a  favorite yet but I like the medallion quilt on the cover.

There was 1" of rain in the gauge when I checked yesterday morning.  Areas around us got a lot more but I'm happy with what we got.

 

Playing with plaid................

 My original idea was 16 patches with the plaid 2.5" squares but first I had to try another idea.  I was thinking dark Xs across the blocks.  It didn't do anything for me so I abandoned this idea.

Next I started pairing 2 values for 16 patch blocks to see how many I could make from the trays of squares.  I ended up with 26.  Since the blocks are going to be 8", 25 would make a quilt 40" square, perfect for a baby quilt.  If I did alternate blocks of either 4 patches or 8" squares I could double the yield but it would only make a quilt 48" x 64".  I think I would prefer another baby boy quilt.

I got 6 blocks sewn but not pressed yet.  The rest of the blocks are darker because I sewed the light ones first while I had light thread on the machine.

Several storms rolled through late yesterday afternoon into the evening.  The rain sounded heavy at times so I'll check the rain gauge this morning and hope for over an inch of rain.

What is next?..................

Over the years I have done cutting to prepare for undecided future projects.  I have shown these trays before...I just saw them on the shelf again yesterday.  They are 2.5" squares and there are as many as 16 of some of them, just a few of others.  I'm tempted right now to make 16 patches with them, the slow way, not strip piecing, but square by square.  Maybe I would alternate them with 4 patches, or maybe 8" squares.

The project box that really bugs me is the Kaffe fabric 6" finished triangles, overcutting that I did when making 4 other quilts.  I could cut a lot of light Kaffe fabrics into triangles to pair them with and do any layout that can be done with log cabin.

Here are three of the previous quilts made with these triangles.

The fourth quilt was the pinks paired with the charcoal gray and white dotted fabric.  That was the extent of my fiber therapy yesterday.

I checked the rain gauge yesterday morning and we only got 3/4" of rain from Saturday night through 7 a.m. yesterday.  A town 8 miles away got 3 1/2" and a little farther east got between 5 and 6".  They also had strong winds and storm damage and we didn't get any of that, so I am thankful for the little rain and calmer storms we got. 

MIndless sewing results..................

After I cut 2 more 4.5" sections off the strata, I cut the remaining strata into 1.5" strips.  Then adding 2 sections to the end of one of the table runner tops I had enough left to make a mug rug top about 7" x 8.5".  I had originally intended to make the table runners like the mug rug, but I came to my senses, remembered this was mindless, soothing sewing, and cut larger sections.  This table runner top is 12" x 30".

I had enough sections of strata to make 3 table runners the size I showed yesterday, but I decided instead to split the 3rd group and add half to each of 2 table runners.  They are now 12" x 36".  Now the only decision left on this pair is whether I back them with the same fabric in case the same person ends up with them and would like to flip them over and have backs matching, or use some of my smaller pieces of batik and make them different.

Late yesterday afternoon a local person posted on Instagram about the big storm that just blew through.  Others commented about large branches in the road.  In my neighborhood we got a gentle shower for less than 10 minutes, no wind.  Later however another storm rolled through and it sounded like a good rain.  I'll have to check the rain gauge this morning. 

More mindless sewing...........

My reaction to the hot weather?  Do more mindless sewing.  I am so tired of heat and humidity.

Last night I stacked the mindless sewing stratas, staggered every half inch so seams wouldn't be on top of other seams.  This is what is left after cutting off 2 sets of 4.5".

I decided on table runners and this is the first one I sewed.  It is 12" x 24".  Since there is more to cut, I could make a longer table runner.

This is the second one I sewed.  Same size as above with options to make it longer.

Today is supposed to be the hottest day of this heat spell, 90 feeling like 100 with the humidity.

Just a little mindless sewing...............

I did my tomato plant trimming yesterday morning before it got too hot.  There should be better air circulation now through the plants.

After lunch I decided to use some 1.5" batik strips in a bag that were left from a previous project.  Here is that project on this post in 2009.  (I quilted the quilt in 2016.)  There were 170 strips originally in the bag but over the years I have used some strips out of the bag for other projects.  The strips are all half width (20" approx.) and I used 60 so far for this group of stratas.  These will probably be used for table runners since I didn't make any table mats or runners last month.

I finally had windows open overnight for 2 nights while the temperature and humidity both dropped.  Now we are going back to a string of 90s.  This morning the dew point will start out at 60 around 1 a.m. and by 11 p.m. it will be around 74.  That is a big humidity change, in addition to being close to 90 degrees.  We won't get relief again until next Wednesday.