Finished..........(second post today)..........

The binding was cut and sewn on by 4 p.m. today so I had time to go down and photograph it.

This quilt is made of floral fabrics that are mostly from the 1990s, with a few newer ones added in for variety.  They are 6" squares and really show off the beauty of the florals.

This is the binding fabric, black, brown and green.  I picked it because it went best with the back.  I had other choices that I liked with the front but not the back.

The back is one of my favorite floral fabrics and I had been saving it for borders or a back since I had a large piece of it.

I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and it was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz. 

It is 52.5" x 71".

Of all of the photos I have shown of this purple and green double 4 patch, I think this is the truest color.  I did end up taking out the dark block that was in the wrong place and replaced it with a light one.  It is 56" x 80".

 

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

The top half of the quilt is folded up so I would have room to design the bottom half.  The blocks on the bottom aren't sewn in this photo.  I changed one because I had a light block where a dark block was supposed to go.

I finished sewing the top at 10 last night and even though the last seams haven't been pressed, I wanted to check it out and make sure I didn't have any blocks turned wrong.  Now seeing the photo I can see I have one dark block where a light one should be.  I'm not sure I'll change it.

These are the 4 leftover blocks.  

The second flower has opened, one more to go.  There is also another bud stalk growing so I have hopes of more blooms.

I chose a binding fabric for the quilt I trimmed.  I need to press it today so I can cut the strips.

 

On the design wall..................

I finally got to the design wall with half of the blocks and created the layout of the top half of the quilt.  I have enough blocks to do a 7 x 10 layout which will yield a top 56" x 80".  That is pretty close to the 60" x 80" that I like.  I started sewing this together last night and will design the bottom half today.  It isn't quite as bright as the photo shows.

The first Amaryllis flower has opened and it is white with red edging on the petals.  I should have a second flower today.

Here is the cute pot the Amaryllis is planted in.  

Two quilts came home yesterday.  Late yesterday afternoon I got this one trimmed and now I need to find a binding fabric.  This one will be done all by machine.

 

Blocks are ready..........

 

I really thought I was going to have blocks up on the design wall yesterday.  I pressed the final batch, sorted them into 2 piles with one light block and one dark block of each combination in it.  Then I took other projects off the design wall to make enough space to design the top half of the quilt.  That was it, no more ambition to get anything done. I'm going to blame the cold weather for it.  We got up to 17 degrees yesterday, a couple degrees higher than they predicted.  We have had sunshine for 2 days in a row, producing a month with higher than average sunshine.  I think that happened in January last year too and then February had lots of overcast days.

While I was in the basement I put away the nine red and black batik fabrics.  They are also Bali batiks from the 1990s, like the black and white ones are.

Onto the last blocks...............

I pressed all of the sewn strips and all 52 of the previously made blocks.  Then it was time last night to sew 18 more blocks.  The bottom 2 were cut from 2 fat eighths so there are only 2 of them, not 4 like the rest.

I cut the last 2 sets of strips.  I changed the green from what I showed yesterday.  The purple one is the one I called the wild card yesterday.  I was able to cut the wide strip along the darkest edge of the fabric and the narrow strip has all of the colors in it.  I'll get this one pressed and sewn into blocks today and then I can go to the design wall.

So how many blocks will I end up with?  I was going for 63 but there will be 52 + 18 + 4 by the time I'm done.  This will give the option of leaving out some of the blocks that don't play well with the others.

It was 5 degrees at 11 p.m. yesterday and still going down.  The next 4 nights are going to be in the single digits too.  Monday and Tuesday we may get up to 30 in the daytime, which is close to our normal high temperature for this time of year.  I have worn my heaviest winter coat more times already this year than I had in the last 4 years.

Slowly, getting there............

Strips were cut, seams were sewn, but I stopped at the point where I have to turn on the iron.  I counted blocks and need to choose one more pair to achieve 63 blocks for a throw size quilt, 56" x 72".

This purple is kind of a wild card.  It has purple, green, red, and orange.  The green fabric above it is a possible pairing for it.  I can make blocks from these 2 and if I don't like them, I'll just choose 2 more fabrics.

The Amaryllis that I received the third week of November has grown to over 24" tall and the bud stalk is finally getting ready to bloom.

This isn't a great photo, but it shows that there should be 3 blooms.  I can't see any color yet so I'm not sure what they will be.  I hope I'll be able to show some blooms before the week is over.

And lastly, my calming activity while watching the evening news.

 

16 more................

16 more blocks are ready to join the first 36.  There are some strange greens in this batch so I hope they will play well with the others.  I didn't get the new fabric I pulled cut into strips yet.  I did get it pressed so I should get the cutting done today.

These 4 blocks are low contrast so I hope they will work in the quilt.  If not, they will become a table mat.

We're back below zero again this morning and won't get up to 20 until Saturday.  We only got a little over an inch of snow but Chicago had lake effect snow and had up to 10" in some areas.  It looks like the extreme cold is moving south today and that's not good news for the areas that have lost power with the big storm. 

Sewing more strips................

After I sewed all of the purple/green strips, I moved onto the brown/gold orange/yellow group.  I have all but 2 sewn together.

Yesterday morning I played with an alternate layout, random rather than all 4 matched squares together.

Here are the 2 layouts side by side, the one on the left, the original layout of all 4 alike together as a group, and on the right, a random layout of the same blocks.  Why would I choose one over the other?  It is a matter of what size quilt I want to make.  The group of 4 together creates a 16" block so multiplying a multiple of 16" might not work out to a size I like.  On the other hand, a random layout is an 8" block and the layout can be an uneven number of blocks in both directions if I want.  This gives me more possibilities for the quilt's dimensions.  I prefer the random layout.  I made 2 quilts with this pattern in 2010 and 2008.  I used the random layouts with them.

I decided to look in my bin of batik quarter yard or less bin for more purple and green.

I pulled these out and will press them and cut a 2.5" and a 4.5" strip from each of them.

More blocks........................

 

Yesterday morning I cut the 4.5" squares for all 6 combinations and last night I sewed the 24 blocks.

It was -7 when I checked yesterday morning and we never got above 0 all day.   I had to go out to PT and with the sun shining it didn't feel as cold as I expected.

Today is starting out in the minus degrees too but we will get above 0 today. 

I went through the new pile of strips I found in the basement and there were 3 more greens and purples.  This will make 12 more blocks.  

Now I have to decide how to pair the rest of the fabrics and whether they are all going to look good together in one big quilt.  I could easily pull some green and purple batiks off my shelves and make more for this first group.

Continuing on...............

The 4 patches for 24 more blocks are sewn and just waiting for me to cut the 4.5" squares to go with them.

I was pretty sure there was another box in the basement with more pairs of the 2.5" and 4.5" strips.  I knew where it was (yes, really!!) so I retrieved them and counted 36, which will make 72 blocks.  So far I have only sewn the purple/green combinations.  If I sew all of these plus the ones left from the first group I showed a few days ago, I will have 138 eight inch blocks of miscellaneous colors.  That should give me enough TV sewing for a few nights.

I have been thinking about the 30 twelve inch floral star blocks and how boring it will be to just sew them in rows (maybe with sashing).  I just think I should do something else with them.

This is a quilt I made in 2009 with 16" and 8" stars, 4 patches and 8" squares of several of the fabrics in the stars.  I have always loved this one and don't even have a photo of the whole quilt.  It was a gift for my daughter.

I did take a couple detail shots before I mailed it to her.  If I do something like this with those 20 blocks, I think it would be a lot more interesting and I have plenty of floral fabrics to work with.

 

Accomplishing a lot..............

This photo shows the small amount of progress on adding to this top.  The column on the far left is all loose pieces, only one block of it is sewn.  With lefts and rights, it is confusing to pick up the right piece the first time.  I got a bunch more pieces cut so now I have a better variety and it should go faster now.

Yesterday afternoon I pieced backs for 2 quilts that I'm ready to send out for quilting.  I also cut the batting to size for one of them.

I started sewing some blocks from the stratas I made the night before.  This is 12 blocks.  I don't usually place the 4 alike together like this.  Right now I'm just making blocks, no plan in mind.  I'm sure a plan will pop up eventually.

There is a right and wrong side to batiks, contrary to popular belief that both sides are the same.  I agree you can use either side you want, but I prefer the right side.  The right side has clean edges on the motifs, the wrong side is slightly uneven.  Also on the wrong side there are usually little dots of the dark color in the motifs.  Above, right side on the left, wrong side on the right.  Click on photos to enlarge.  Feel free to disagree with me but I'll always scrutinize both sides and use them right side up.  There are some batiks however that don't have clear outlines on either side and I don't like them as well as the crisp designs.  Hoffman batiks have always been my favorites.

Batik strips.................

I opened a drawer....and there were these matched 4.5" strips and 2.5" strips.  I knew they would work for double 4 patch blocks.  I have been needing a mindless sewing project for TV time.

I pulled all of the purple and green sets and started sewing the 2.5" strips together.  Each pair of fabrics will make 4 blocks, 2 dark and 2 light.

I retrieved the bag with half rectangle triangles for yesterday's project and found there were 20 in the bag, but they all faced the same direction.  I need both lefts and rights so I need to cut 20 that face the other direction.

 

Die cutting...............

I went through the small pieces of Wishwell Weather Report fabric to cut some half rectangle triangles for enlarging a quilt top.  There are 44 pieces in these piles.

I will need 20 of them to add one column of blocks on a side, and I'm doing both sides, needing 40 of them.  I have a little bag of leftover triangles from when I made the top, but it was in the basement when I was writing this post and I didn't want to go down there to get it.  I don't think there are more than a dozen pieces in the bag.  I still have a layer cake of this fabric line so I can pull out all of the light fabrics from it.  I want to add a double row across the top which will take 64 pieces.  This top is only 41" x 59.5" right now and adding these planned columns and rows will increase it to 47" x 71.5".  That is close to the 50" x 70" size that I like to make.  I could increase it to 50" with one more column.  I'll just do more cutting and then decide.

It was -2 yesterday morning and it got up 7 degrees by 1:45 p.m. when I had to leave to go to PT.  Wednesday will be our heat wave at 30 degrees and then back to the deep freeze. 

Little things.........................

These 2 little mats have been sitting in my studio waiting for the stitching around the edge for at least 6 months.  All it takes is changing to a topstitching needle and filling a bobbin with the heavier thread.  I kept avoiding doing that.  Finally last night I got them done.  They have one layer of batting and one layer of a stiff heavier interfacing (not as heavy as Peltex).

The backs are Kaffe fabrics too.

They are close to 8.5" x 11", one a tiny bit larger than the other.

There was one more top already pieced so I cut the batting and interfacing but haven't found a back for it yet.  It will be quilted and then edged with a close zig zag like the other two.

We are in for a cold week, some days below 10 degrees.

Finished!...............

I didn't want to deal with keeping pink checks or plaid straight for binding so I used the gray one that had enough yardage.  This flannel baby quilt is 32" x 40".

This little quilt has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it.  I used white thread to quilt it on my Pfaff 7570.

This pile of mail that I have received in 9 days is 19 solicitations for money.  There is even 2 from each of 2 organizations, like I didn't react soon enough so I need a 'reminder'.  Obviously some charity sold my address to some data base that other groups can access.  I have never even heard of half of these organizations.  I feel obligated to open them and pull out magnets, special "coins", and any other object that shouldn't go into paper recycling.  I'm sure some of you are experiencing this same dilemma.

Machine quilting again..................

The machine ditch quilting is done on this flannel baby quilt now.  The squares are 4" and that is the recommended maximum space with Hobbs 80/20 batting.

The backing is a cute diagonal plaid.  I haven't decided on binding yet but will look for it today.

It's going to be cold over the weekend so I'm glad I don't have anywhere to go.