A busy day...............

As I started sorting pieces I'm trying to decide how to divide them up for storage in the project box.  Also is a strip 3" or shorter a chunk instead of a strip?

While I was in the basement doing a load of laundry, I pressed the binding fabric for this quilt and cut the 7 strips needed.  Maybe I'll get it sewn onto the quilt today.

When I went out to get the mail, I noticed the Weigela bushes are in bloom.  There is a Redbud tree growing right next to it on the back side of these 2 bushes.

I know you wanted to see a closer view of the blooms.  These pink ones and my red one are the only ones left now.  The pale pink one had been struggling so I had it cut down.  The red one blooms later.

One Lenten Rose bloom was facing up instead of hanging down like the rest of the blooms so I had to have a photo of it.

There was some chocolate chip cookie dough in the refrigerator so I did some baking last night.  Also did some testing.  They passed the test.

 

I need to do some sorting.......................

I'm going to start a major sorting session in my studio.  The box of large Kaffe collective scraps is overflowing.

For the last several months I have been just piling smaller scraps on top of the project boxes on the shelves behind my sewing cabinet.

There were  2 boxes full on those shelves.  The one on the left is all pieced parts and the one on the right is small Kaffe collective scraps.  I think I'll start with the small scraps first and separate all of the strips from the odd shaped scraps.  I hope this is a one day project so I can get started working on a some WIPs. 

April 2026 Monthly recap................

There were 2 finishes in April.  The batik Double 4 Patch was nice mindless sewing with strips cut many years ago.  I had to cut a few new strips to get the number of blocks I wanted.  I had a favorite purple batik waiting to be a backing for the right quilt.  It is 55" x 78.5".  The Diamond quilt, made with Wishwell Weather Report fabric was just needing to have a few more rows added to create a 47" x 71" quilt and then it was off to my longarm quilter, Robin Diaz.

I made 3 quilt tops.  I usually resize them to be the right proportion related to each other but the 2 little tops just wanted to be larger in this collage.  The top on the left is Kaleidoscope blocks made with Marcia Derse fabric and it is 51.5" x 72".  The 2 colorwash tops are just 12.25" square.  I had one more top made with Marcia Derse fabric close to the finish line so it will be a finish for next month.

I finished knitting 4 dishcloths.

I made a table runner top but it will wait for a finish to be show in the recap.
 

Blooming....................

I was so happy to see these 2 large Columbine plants at the front of my house.  The mother plant was a little bit farther forward, and last year a whole batch of new plants came up where seeds had fallen the year before.  A lot of the little plants died with the hot dry summer last year but I continued to water the area now and then.  I have a wide overhang on my roof so this area doesn't get much rain.

On the other side of the porch there is a plant that came up last year.  I planned on moving it but never got around to it.  It's between the porch and the Zinfin Doll Hydrangea.

The other plant that came up last year is in the corner of the sidewalk and the driveway.  I really need to move this one because it hangs over the sidewalk later in the season.

I didn't sew yesterday, did some knitting and worked on cleaning off the cutting table.  I have some computer work to do today and I should be able to get my monthly recap post ready for tomorrow.

 

Mindless sewing...................

As I was cleaning off the sewing table, I decided to sew some 9 patches from the 1.5" squares that aren't suitable for colorwash.

l knew I had some the same size (in a project box) that I sewed last year.  Now I see I have sewn 2 different kinds.  This batch with 5 dark squares has 44 blocks in it.  I will probably press the 8 new blocks and put them with the 44, back into the project box for now.

I had other tasks during the day, packing a box to ship and running a couple errands.
  

 

Sewing after the storms............

Noisy storms passed through early in the day followed by very strong winds.  I had the machine unplugged.  We got .6" of rain before 2 p.m.  There was a little more rain in the evening so I'll check the rain gauge again this morning.

I got this little colorwash sewn in spite of the interruptions.

Here are the two for comparison.  The top one has a yellow center and the bottom one, white or cream background light fabrics.  Working with the 1.5" squares has its challenges since I'm seeing the whole square when designing it and seeing only 2/3 of each square when it is sewn together.  There are pieces I can see that could be changed in both, but they won't be.  The are ready to be quilted and finished.

While it was storming and dark out I continued on my mission of going through piles and putting things where they belong.  Today I need to tackle the die cutter area.

 

Three hours of tweaking...................

I needed to cut a couple  more pink to lavender fabrics to fill in the last 2 spots on this new mini colorwash.  Then I started the serious tweaking, 3 hours of it.  At the left is after I put in the 2 pink pieces and then I started working on the light lavender area in the top center.  At the right is the final result.

Then I started working on the top right in the blue and turquoise area and the lower right side where green met brown.  I wasn't happy with the straight line between brown and green in the 3 versions above and I finally got it to a place where I was happier with it.  The three photos in the top collage were all taken in daylight from west windows.  This photo was taken with overhead lights at night.

I got the pieces webbed in one direction by 11 last night.

The rest of my day was spent with a load of laundry and putting away lots of things that have been lurking in piles for too long.  I have lots more of that to do in the next week.

Finished plus new................

This 12.25" colorwash has been pressed and is up on the design wall for its portrait.  I'm happy with it, so now I need to quilt it and finish it.

I started to clean off my table but then decided to start designing another 12" one.  I cut a bunch of brown and rust (which aren't in the first one) and this one doesn't have any yellow in the center.  It needs some serious tweaking but it is a good start.  I need to do some more cutting too.

It's really hard to get a smooth transition in a small colorwash.  12 x 12 layout is the smallest that seems to work for me but it's much easier to do a 16 x 16 layout.  I have made a lot of them in 15, 16, and 17 squares in both directions.

The shrinking colorwash................

Since the squares were 1.5" cut size, they lose 1/3 of their size when sewing them together.

Now shrinking in the other direction.  This little colorwash took me over two hours to sew, going slowly, matching each seam.

The corners were matching well until I got to the next to last seam.  I will have to pick it off and try again.

The sewn piece is laying on the same mat that the pieces were on the last few days.  It was 18" of cut squares, and after sewing and pressing I expect this to be 12.5".  The light/dark contrast is distorted by the camera and I think the transition between colors is better looking at it in person.

Even though I designed it as in the photo above, I think I like it flipped 180 degrees better.  I'll  take a better photo after I correct that one seam and press it.

 

Three variations......................

I cut reds and a few yellow, gold squares yesterday.  At 9:30 last night I thought I was done for the night playing with the layout of this mini colorwash.

Then I started adding a few pieces and took this picture to see if I was done.  On the right side I didn't like the way green met the orange.

I changed out a few pieces and kept at it until I had this layout.  I think it is ready to sew but I'll look at it again this morning to be sure.  I actually did change one piece after I took this photo.

In the afternoon I dug out some dandelions that were in my front garden.  Today I might dig out the white violets.

 

Trial colorwash...........................

By doing a trial layout of the 1.5" squares I can judge whether I have enough of each color cut.  I knew there weren't enough in the red before I started.  This layout is 11 x 11 and I wanted 12 x 12.

I analyzed where the problems were and moved the left and bottom rows out.  Then I started playing with a rearrangement.  I will cut reds today and figure out what else I need.

I spent over an hour outside yesterday breaking off all of the dead coneflower stalks and other stalks that were littering the back garden.  I also realized I hadn't trimmed the Annabelle Hydrangea in front of the house last fall.  it got up to 82.  We have had the most 80+ days for the beginning of a year up to this date in Chicago's history of weather records.  The closest contender was 2012 which had one of the hottest and driest summers in the records.  I hate to think we are headed for one of those again.

One decision made................

After a little prodding by a friend I realized I didn't want to find separator strips like I used on the original quilt I made 10 years ago.  Last night I sewed the three sections together.  After trimming the side points it will be about 46" x 62".  I'm thinking about adding a border, but we shall see how long that takes.

 I also cut 1.5" purple squares yesterday and added them to the few that were cut previously.  

It was warm enough to open all of the windows yesterday and low humidity.  We had a 1 minute thunder and rain drops in the middle of the afternoon, and then it was sunny again.

Not much inspiration............

I put this medallion piece back up on the design wall and tried a few pieces for continuing borders, trying to figure out if it needs medium or dark or bright fabric.  I have a box full of 4" Broken Dishes blocks that might get used for a border.

I also have the other Maria Derse tall triangles quit top in progress that needs a decision on the insert strip fabric.  I think this one will come down and that one will go up on the wall.

I cut 20+ more green fabrics in 1.5" squares but I see I need more mediums.  I'll look for those today as well as purples.

I got a new color of yarn for dishcloths.  It's a little more toward turquoise than others I have used.

We got up to mid 50s yesterday and now they say high 70s for today.  They originally said we would have 4 dry days but now there is rain in the forecast again a couple times.

  

 

Slow day................

I didn't have anything lined up to sew, so I sorted the 1.5" batik squares by color and value so I could check on my inventory.  Red, orange and yellow filled one tray.

Another tray was all blue and turquoise, and it looks like it is mostly turquoise.

This assortment was pulled from one box of batik scraps to do more cutting today.

Here are the remaining squares waiting to be sorted.  It looks like I need to cut some more purple and green.

It was chilly and breezy yesterday so I spent the day inside relaxing.  The overnight into this morning was predicted to get down to the high 20s.  Later this week we will be in high 60s and 70s for a few days.

 

Doing some cutting..................

A lot of small pieces of batik fabric are now cut into 2" squares.  Most of these are from previous cutting sessions but new ones were added.

I also added to the 1.5" squares.  I made a lot of 9 patches from this collection over a year ago.  I mostly used the ones that aren't good for colorwash.  I will continue with some cutting while I make decisions on some other projects in progress.

We got 3/4" of rain from the storm Friday night.  My rain gauge collections for the month total 4.25".  Now we have a few dry days in a row, although some of them will be in the 40s and low 50s.

 

Finish # 2 for April 2026.................

This quilt wasn't even on the radar for this year.  When I discovered the drawer with 2.5" and 4.5" strips (cut many years ago), I started sorting them and realized I had almost enough in these 2 colors for a quilt.  I think I cut a few new strips to get to a nice number of blocks.

The backing is one of my favorite purple batiks, and I must have gotten it on sale because I had 5 yards of it.  The binding is a purple batik irregular stripe.  It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.  It is 55" x 78.5".

It was a beautiful day yesterday, sunny and nice blue sky.  The Redbuds are fully blooming ahead of schedule because of so many 80 degrees days in a row.  I expect to see a lot of petals on the ground this morning because we were in a severe storm area for several hours last night starting a little after 7.  Regular programs were stopped and weather people were on the air for over 3 1/2 hours because there were several tornado watches and warnings.  I'll have to catch the shows I normally watch on one of my streaming channels.

Violets are plentiful in the grass this year.  They have been in my backyard for many years so I was surprised how many of the white ones showed up in my front garden this year.  Last year it was a Lungwort that mysteriously showed up in the front, now this year it is violets.  Once again, my nature photo matches the quilt in the post.

Purple/green Double 4 Patch.................

While in the basement doing laundry I trimmed the purple and green batik Double 4 Patch quilt.  I searched for a binding and cut the 7 strips I needed.

I chose the binding that looked best with the backing fabric since there were many shades of purple on the front and fewer in this batik fabric.

Machine finishing the binding was my choice for this quilt.  I have 19 needle positions on my Pfaff so I moved the needle 2 to the right and I lead the folded edge of the binding through the center opening of the presser foot.  I usually change to a 3 length for the topstitching.

And....it was finished at 10:45 last night.  Photos today.