Decision................

All of the blocks were finished and pressed yesterday morning so I had to make a decision on the layout.  I needed to clean off my work table.  I decided it will be sashing, but wider than I originally tried.  I was thinking 1" finished when I first showed the fabrics, but I decided yesterday that the blocks need a little more space between them.  Now I'm planning on 1.5" finished sashing.  I haven't decided if there will be cornerstones yet.  I'm putting this aside now and will work on something else, plus I'm still cleaning and organizing the basement.  I can't stand on the cement floor for too long so it has been a slow process.

I pulled a box off a shelf to look through it and found these diamonds in there.  I had to put diamond in the search box at the top left of this post to go back and see what quilt the scraps were from  This post tells all about it.

Last night I decided to try them next to each other.  I love busy quilts that make me look to see what the pattern is.  This would become a table runner if I decide on it.  I need to find the diamond template so I can cut half diamonds to fill in the edges.  If i continue with this as the project, I need to move a few around first.

I started another dishcloth last night with this 4 color yarn, white, lt. peach, coral, and brown.  I was glad I still had a couple balls of it  because they don't seem to be making any more of it.  I have enough of all of the variegated yarns to last my lifetime making dishcloths but I still search the internet occasionally to see if there are any new colors.  I don't find more than a couple shops carrying it; most is through resellers on Etsy and eBay and most of that is solid colors.

The rain all missed us yesterday so we had a dry out day before more hits this morning.  It looks like the heaviest will go south of us.

Not much...................

Some cutting was done in the morning to prepare for evening sewing.  Then at night it started thundering as another storm rolled through so I unplugged  my machine.  I did get the stripe triangles sewn on the last 4 nine patches.  At the left are the 2 new colors of floral triangles to surround all of the rest of the blocks.  Once they are all done I need to made the decision of the layout and size of quilt.

It was dark and dreary for much of the day with one rainstorm earlier in the afternoon.

Even my choice of yarn for a dishcloth is dark and dreary.  I think I need to start a second one in brighter colors.

Storms are predicted to continue through Sunday and then finally a dry day on Monday.  Chicago weather records have been broken again.  This is the wettest summer in the history of the records and summer isn't over yet.  Those of us in the farmland 60 miles west of Chicago have been in the abnormally dry or drought for 3 years and I think we're back to normal now.

 

Still thinking...................

 As I navigated the day's adventures, I was continually thinking about the project.  I have mentioned more than once that I have a short attention span, which means I get bored if I work too long on something.  So here is where I am now: top left is 20 finished 6" blocks, all pressed, top right 12 more finished blocks not pressed, bottom left 4 more waiting for floral corners (need to cut more) and 4 nine patches that I may or may not use in this project.

Here are my options.  If I used sashing with the 36 blocks I could make a baby quilt 42" square.  If I use alternate squares I'll have 72 blocks. 8 rows x 9 rows would not be a good proportion of a rectangular quilt at 48" x 54".  If I used 63 of the blocks (7 x 9) it would be 42" x 54".  If I use the extra 4 nine patches I would have 80 blocks, 48" x 60".  Since so many of my fabric options would work, I think the final decision will come down to what size I want the quilt to finish.

Now, how yesterday went.  We had a big severe storm going through around 9 a.m. and when I heard the weather person mention the next town over for radar detected rotation that could turn into a tornado, I headed for the basement.  Luckily it didn't turn into one and continued on its way.  We got 1.1" of rain, added to .75" a day and a half earlier.  More storms predicted for the next few days as we are in the "ring of fire" which sets up north of a heat dome and south of a cold front.

My longarm quilter came an hour later than we originally planned.  I did some more sorting and organizing in the basement and then sewed the floral triangles on the 12 blocks.

That was fun!.........................

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with an opinion on the auditioning yesterday  I especially enjoyed reading the explanations why the commenter liked the fabric.  Every fabric got some votes with the random line fabric getting the most.  I think it was pretty evenly divided between sashing and alternate blocks.  I didn't make any decision yet and just finished sewing round one on 8 more blocks last night.  One of the biggest surprises to me in my choices was the first one, the dotted ombre fabric.  Even if I don't use that in this quilt, I can see its possibilities now, especially using the darker edge as the border.  Who knows, it might end up on this quilt!  I need to press all of these centers and then sew on the floral corner triangles today.

This might be easier to look at than the first photo.

I already had plans to work on an area in the basement yesterday, you know I love cleaning.....  I have about 3/4 of it organized but still have some sorting to do.

I got the long seams sewn on the 2 backings and will meet with my longarm quilter today.  I hope it won't be raining when she comes.  The severe storm missed us yesterday by a few miles but we got 3/4" of much needed rain.  The overnight storm has a large hail prediction and I hope that missed us too (written at 11:30 last night).

One thing I have a hard time pitching is the old Hancock's catalogs that I have covering 2008 to early 2018.  They are really the history of what was available every year in that time period.  I'm usually trying to date an older fabric and especially the Kaffe Fassett collective fabrics. 

This is one two page spread of Kaffe Collective in the earliest 2008 catalog.  I plan on looking through all of them, little by little, to refresh my memory on some of the fabric lines. 

Sewing and auditioning................

I cut some more 3" triangles and sewed the floral triangles onto a few blocks and cut more quarter square triangles.  I got some of them sewn on but a few more to go.

Now the auditioning.  I was looking through my stash for white with black dots.  I have several yards of this one. This is the 22" width of it as it is folded like it comes off the bolt.  I have plenty to just cut the center lightest area for sashing strips.  Maybe the darker area could be used as borders.

I found a half yard of this multi-size dots on white.

I have a couple yards of this one with random lines.

I also tried that one for alternate blocks.

Then of course I had to try it with a zebra print.

Any opinions?

 

Sunday's progress...............

The first thing I did was assemble some more little 3" nine patches.  This is going to be a small project so I wanted to have at least 36 blocks to work with.

Nest I pressed the 9 patches that had the quarter square triangles sewn on and then I added 3" corners to 12 of the blocks.  As I work on this I'm realizing one block close up is really cute.  Several blocks at a distance look like gray instead of black (charcoal) and white stripe.  Seeing the blocks edge to edge is not great.

They are much better with space between them so sashing is definitely needed.  I haven't tried anything yet but I'm thinking white with small black dots might be nice.  I have lots of white with black prints to choose from so I'll be looking at them today.

Once again, all of the rain during the daytime hours missed my house.  I'm wondering if other parts of town got any rain.  A big storm was brewing at 10:30 last night and we finally we got some rain.  I'll check the rain gauges this morning.

Florals and stripes...........

The more I looked at the 9 patches with the stripes, the better I liked it so I went ahead and started sewing the quarter square triangles on.

Then I went down to the basement and looked for candidates for the 3" half square triangles.  I am checking here to see if they will all work.  I think the lightest ones on the top row may not have enough contrast.

I cut lots of the quarter square triangles and some of the floral half square triangles.  I finished the first 3 blocks and have 17 more blocks started.  After I press them and get some floral corners sewn on I will play with layout and see if I need sashing strips or another fabric cut in 6.5" squares to alternate with these blocks. 

First quilt top for August 2026................

I finished sewing and pressing this top by early afternoon yesterday.  As a comparison with the pattern photo, I'm not completely happy with my fabric selection.  Not comparing, it's OK.  I wish I could have found a lighter orange fabric for next to the yellows.  It is 60.5" x 81".

I knew I had some 6.5" squares of floral prints left from a previous quilt that I could use for a mock-up.  I cut one strip of quarter square triangles and laid them on the floral square and then laid the 9 patches on top of them.  This is the idea I had in mind when I found that charcoal and white stripe fabric.  I did like it with the stripe as as the alternating squares with the 9 patches on yesterday's post too.  I'll have to think about this one for a few days.

Two more seams.................

I finished sewing all of the B blocks and then sewed 2 blocks together for 7 long rows.  In the afternoon I started sewing rows together and continued later in the evening and got 4 out of 6 sewn.

While I was in the basement in the morning I was looking for one particular stripe which I didn't find.  I saw this charcoal and white stripe and thought it might work as quarter square triangles around the little 3" nine patches as the first found in Economy blocks.  I think it would also look good just as alternate squares with them.

This is what the stripe would look like as the quarter square triangles.  The final round of the block would be 3" half square triangles of floral fabrics.  This idea is just in the early stages and I may keep looking for the stripe I have in mind.

I got sidetracked for a couple hours reorganizing the  rack that houses my flannel fabrics.  I have one huge blanket box of just scraps and large chunks.  Maybe when the basement cools off in the fall I can spend a day pressing the scraps and do some die cutting.  Flannel quilts are a favorite here in northern Illinois.

Good progress...............

I finished piecing all 8 of the Block A and 2 of the Block B.  I pinned 4 of them up on the design wall to get an idea whether my fabric choices worked.

A couple pinks could have been a little lighter, but overall I'm happy with it.  I'll finish sewing the last 4 B blocks today and get the 2 sections of each row sewn together.  Then I can press all of the seams before I add the rows to each other.  With a little luck I may be able to finish it today,

The rain fizzled out yesterday.  I haven't checked the rain gauges but I don't expect to find much in them.  

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

I decided to go with the wildcard fabric staggered.  I stacked all of the pieces for 8 block A and layered them on a cover of a plastic bin so I could carry them up the stairs.

I did the same for 6 block B.  Now I have some sewing set up for a couple days.

Since I was not using fat quarters, but instead cut a 10" strip selvage to selvage, I had room to cut 2 more stacks of each group.  These are stacks of 5 pieces in the order they would be sewn.  Maybe I can use them on the back of the quilt.

Last night's sewing, this far on 8 blocks, about 1/3 of the total piecing of the 14 blocks.

In the afternoon I tackled the big project, cutting batting off the roll and trimming it to the correct length, and cutting 2 lengths of backing fabric for each of these quilts.  I still need to sew the seam in the backings.

Every year I think I'm going to make a Christmas quilt in July.  I had planned to make one with the die cut large half hexagons and had cut strips off many fabrics.  For the ones that have a one way design I cut a strip tall enough to cut the pieces in the other direction.  I even have a large enough piece of that red and green paisley for the back of the quilt.  I know I cut these strips before the big shut down in 2020 in March.  I was cutting one day when my 2 friends were over here sewing.  So, for one more year I have missed the Christmas in July project.  One part of me says still make it, the other part says what's the point when I don't know anyone who needs a Christmas quilt (however it would look good draped across the bench in front of my fireplace).  Pros and cons, I would like to see what it looks like, and I think it will be pretty, but my life is different since I injured my leg 2 years ago with the off and on pain.  This is definitely a design wall project.  Who would have thought I still have many quilts I want to make and I'm in my mid-80s.  I don't think I ever thought that far ahead to how long I would still be quiltmaking.

Pieces cut....................

All of the strips were pressed and cut into segments yesterday.  There are 2 blocks in the Kaffe zipper quilt so I laid out 1 of each.  My wild card fabric is at the exact center and this is how they would be sewn together.  That would made a stripe of it from top to bottom 2 places in the quilt.

I wasn't sure I wanted that so I rearranged 3 of the fabrics to stagger it.  I'm leaning toward this version but haven't made the final decision.  I think this way it might cause more attention to that fabric than the version above.  I have to continue looking at the photos.

Meanwhile I started sewing some sections that won't be affected by that decision.  I can sew more today while I contemplate it.

I had letters to mail so I went grocery shopping while I was out.  It was 82 degrees with moderate humidity.  Today more humidity predicted.  Rain expected tomorrow into Thursday.  

 

More sorting fun....................

Here is the whole rack that I showed a portion of in yesterday's post.  Yesterday I sorted the reds, what fun, and there weren't any I wanted to get rid of.  To the right of them is the overflow of Brandon fabrics (which you can see the edge of on the right) and a couple Kaffe yarn dyed wovens.  There is a pile of fat quarters in front of the stack.  So  the second shelf from the top was sorted Saturday and the reds on Sunday.  The 2 unsorted shelves are the Philip Jacobs prints.  On the bottom shelf is Laurel Burch fabric on the left and in the 2 storage boxes are black and white batiks and red and black batiks.  The very top shelf has 2 groups of Robin Pickins fabric and 3 boxes of scraps sorted loosely by color.  Also up there in a plastic bag is the remainder of the Wishwell Weather Report fabric.

Last night I got the rest of the dark brown strips sewn on the 15 ten inch strips for the Kaffe zipper quilt.  Then I knitted for awhile while I watched a cute movie on Prime.  It was called Sheep Detectives.

We ended up with 2" of rain on Saturday, much needed to turn the grass green again.

 

Keeping busy..................

While I was waiting for clothes in the dryer I took down all of the fabric on the top shelf and reorganized it.  I found a few more pieces in other places that belong on that shelf too.  It is a miscellaneous group.  The 2 lower shelves are mostly Philip Jacobs fabrics.  I started organizing it by color a few months ago and never finished.

We finally got some rain yesterday.  I checked it around 9 a.m. and there was 1.75" in the rain gauge.  It rained a little more after that so I'll check the gauge again this morning.  It stayed in the 60s most of the day so it was a perfect day to bake ginger cookies.

Last night I got started on the Kaffe zipper quilt.  I have the brown strip sewn on 7 of the 15 pieces so far.

  

 

July 2026 monthly recap.........................

 Two favorites were finished in July.  The "Other 16 Patch" was made with Marcia Derse fabrics, front, back, and binding.  On this one I staggered the blocks by using half blocks at top and bottom in every other column.  I think I like it better than the first few I made with the blocks in rows both horizontally and vertically.  This one is 61" x 79.5".

The floral stars was in a time out for a year and half and then I made final decisions to get the top sewn together.  A large percentage of the prints are from the 1990s and I have a huge collection of them in my stash.  This is the third quilt this year from that bin.  I even had a backing fabric from the same time period.  This quilt measures 66" x 78".  Both of these quilts were longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

The Snail's Trail quilt top was fun to make.  It is an easy block, in this case cut with a GO die.  The blocks are 12" for a top that finished at 60" x 84".  I have a backing chosen so it will be next in line to be quilted.

On the right is my Trip Around the World top made with William Morris prints.  It is 63" x 77".  I have the backing chosen for this one too so it may get finished in August.

I was playing around a bit with my knitting.  I used lots of ends of balls of yarn for the 3 coaster size pieces.  I decided to use a straight knitting pattern for the pink one instead of the diagonal knit that I usually do.  That makes 30 regular size dishcloths for the year so far.

Just under the wire for July................

Top finished at 4:30 p.m. July 31.  Seven weeks procrastinating to cut and sew the border on, 1.5 hours to cut, sew, press and photograph it.

Monthly recap tomorrow.

 

A little cutting....................

I had to turn on the iron yesterday to press the Aboriginal Dot fabric.  All 15 strips are cut now so I can start sewing on this project.  While the iron was on, the 13 little 9 patches got pressed too.

The Zinfin Doll Hydrangea blooms are just starting to turn pink.  I hope we get the rain they are predicting for this afternoon through tomorrow.  Otherwise I will have to start watering this bush.

There is one tiny Tiger Lily in the front flower bed.  I'll have to dig it out because it is right next to the sidewalk and keeps falling in that direction.

I have one more day (today) to get the borders cut and sewn on the William Morris TAW if I want it included in my July recap.  It will probably just take me an hour; I just need to do it.