Changes.....................

All of the photos yesterday have the fabrics overlapped so you only see 2" of them, which is the width of the finished strip in the quilt.  Here is a full view of the wild card.

In this photo are 3 new pink prints and a purple to replace the 3rd from the left.

In this one the wild card is removed and another pink is in the center.  Still not quite right.

In this group one of the pinks has been removed and the orange swirly added, and then I switched the dotted and the large plaid with each other.  I'll have to look at these photos again today since I was tired last night when I got them all cropped and into the post.

I'm not sure.....................

I thought it might take between a half hour and an hour to find the fabrics to make this Zipper quilt.  It took me an hour to get from 12 fabrics to the 15 I needed and I'm still not sure I'm done.  This was the first group of 15 and I thought I might be done but when I saw the photo I didn't like the 3rd piece in from the left.  I think it is too dark.

 I had another purple to try and it is a little better, but I kept looking.

I changed several pieces for the third group.  I swapped positions of the second and fifth from the left and I like that much better.  I brought back in the first purple for the 3rd from left.  In the center I added a wild card and to the right of it I put in a different red.  What do you think of the wild card?  Do you think it will work or ruin the look?

This is the original group of Kaffe Collective fabrics used in the pattern.  I put in 2 yellows where they have one.  I think I ended up choosing only 3 of the originals.  I recognized most of the prints but didn't have them in these colors.

First quilt top completed in July 2026

Snail's trail is a finished top now, just 10 days from the first blocks being cut to finished sewing.  I will be looking for a backing today.  It is 60" x 84".  All regular printed cotton fabrics, no batik.  6.25 yards out of my brown/rust/gold stash.  While I was cutting for this one I also cut a 2.5" strip for a future quilt from the larger pieces.  

I went out to check on the tomato plants and found this big Rutgers tomato with 2 bites ouf of it, in the grass.  I put it back in the pot for the evil creature to see when it comes back for more.

The Tiger Lily plants in the shade garden have started blooming now.  They are about 4' tall and so are a lot of the Purple Coneflowers.

The Jack be Little Pumpkin plants are doing well so far.  I cut down some Peony plants and the Tree of Heaven while I was back there.

The Cucumber plants that I grew from seed are doing well so far.  The 2 little plants I bought are in a different pot and not doing so well.  I have already pulled out one of the plants and I'm not sure about the other one.

This is the other pot of plants that I started from seed.  I watered them after I took this photo.

One little volunteer Sunflower is blooming.

Today is predicted to be a cooler day but the humidity is still fairly high.  Out here in corn country, we have extra humidity produced by the cornfields.

Snail's Trail progress..................

I ended up only moving one block from the layout on the design wall and then I sewed those 4 rows together.

Late in the afternoon I designed the bottom 3 rows.  I had to stop and use the dust mop before I could lay the final row on the floor.

Last evening I decided to start sewing the bottom 3 rows together and this is how far I got.  Just one more seam and pressing it and it can have its portrait taken. 

In the garden, finally some color.  They are still orange so they have a few days ripening in the house.  The largest are about golf ball size.  The 2 tiniest ones are the Sun Sugar variety.  We have another day of 90s and then they are promising 80s and finally by the end of next week, high 70s.  I think the tomato plants will be very happy.

All blocks finished for 5 x 7 layout............................

The last 4 blocks are sewn now for the Snail's Trail quilt.  The dark fabric I originally chose for this block was too small to cover the die so I went back to the stash and found this one which  I like better than my first choice.

There are two blocks of each of these combinations.

This is one block each of the 18 fabric combinations.  It isn't the final layout of them.  I got started too late in the day to spend a lot of time moving them around.

Last blocks.....................

While I was in the basement doing laundry I decided to press the last eight fabrics for the Snail's Trail quilt.  There are enough pieces cut for 8 blocks.

Last night I sewed four of the blocks. There are two like this.

The other two are this combination.  I hope to sew the last 4 blocks today and figure out a layout with one of each of the combinations (half of the quilt).  I'm at the point of wondering if this quilt will be too boring with just these colors....or should I add greens and blues and make 12 more bocks for a 6 x 8 layout (72" x 96").

It was another hot steamy day yesterday and I should have watered the tomato and cucumber plants, but they were in the sun by the time I was ready to do it.  It will have to be done early this morning.

First finish for July 2026......................

Yes the flannel is back on the design boards and my photography wall is back.  You can see here I stand behind my longarm to take the photos.  I'm hoping to get the longarm working again soon.

The 'other 16 patch' (not the traditional 16 patch) is made of Marcia Derse fabrics.  The top was finished in March.  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting and it was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz in vertical parallel lines.

The backing is a wide back gifted to me by a friend when she realized she wasn't going to use it.  The binding is a blue stripe.  It is 61" x 79.5".

I always take some close up photos for my Instagram post.  This quilt is a mix of Marcia's fabrics spanning almost 20 years.

One of my favorite newer prints is in the center, the light background with 2 tone lines.

Many years ago Marcia had the graffiti print in the top right corner in one of her lines in yellow.  A few years ago she added a lot of new colorations of it.  I love this magenta version.

It was 91 yesterday with a feel like temperature of 99 so I only went out to check the back garden once.  There are 2 tomatoes starting to turn color on this 4th of July plant.

 

Busy.............................

 

My friends came back early yesterday morning to dig some more hostas and Lungwort/Pulmonaria.  They didn't get this Hosta though.  All of the ones I can see from my kitchen window are still there in the back garden.  One flower bed way over in the back corner had hostas overlapping each other and covering up some small ones.  Most of the Lungwort plants were along the front edge of the bed so I'm glad to see them removed.  I have dozens of them growing in other places.  After they left I got the hose out and watered all of the tomato and cucumber plants again.  With temperatures around 90 the dirt dries out fast in the pots.  Later in the day I did more cleaning in the basement and got some things back where they belong.  I also pressed all of the Snail's Trail blocks.  I didn't get any more fabric pressed or cut.

The Coleus plants are doing great this year.  I like the variety of colors and shapes of the leaves.

This is  my view from my mailbox which is near the corner of the driveway and garage, looking toward my front porch.  Since I have not been able to do much gardening it has become quite wild, but at least it is colorful.  I need to dig out a lot of this in the fall.

The odometer on my van reached another milestone yesterday.  It turned 74000 on Dec. 23, 2024.  I averaged 53 miles a month, a little over 600 miles a year.  The van is 22 years and 3 months old.

Four of eight new blocks.......................

Eight new blocks were sewn yesterday, these 4 and their duplicates.  I went down to press more fabric but ended up trying to put the basement back in order after the water seepage a week ago.  I still don't have the design walls up because I need to put clean flannel on them and it takes me a long time to get it done.

This is the assortment of fabrics so far.  The duplicates are in a stack on my sewing table.  I now have 28 of 36 blocks made.  I will need 35 for a 5 x 7 layout so I will be able to eliminate one block, whichever ends up being my least favorite.

The Sun Sugar tomato plant is about 2 feet above the 5' cage now.  It still hasn't filled out much.  There are several little groups of tomatoes but none have turned color yet.

This is in the late afternoon with the bright sun on the Purple Coneflowers.  This is the 3.5' - 4' tall prairie coneflower compared to a lot of the shorter plants available at garden centers.

This has been the best assortment of plants in my backyard hanging planters.  The last 2 years I probably didn't keep them watered enough and this year we have had more rain.

More of the Tiger Lily buds have bloomed.  I have a larger group of these by the birdfeeders but only one plant has bloomed back there so far.

Two new blocks.................

I got 8 more blocks cut and 4 of them are sewn.  Here is one of each of the new ones.

10 of the 20 sewn blocks with the duplicate blocks in a pile on my sewing cabinet.

Here are the combinations for the next 2 blocks.  I thought I might get more sewn but I did some gardening instead.  I cut off lower leaves on the tomato plants and some dead leaves on the cucumber plants.  Then I put some fertilizer spikes around the plants.  Last I turned on the hose and gave them all a good drink.  I also cleaned out the cement birdbath and filled it and filled the bird feeders.  It was more comfortable outside yesterday although still a little humid early in the day.

8 of 16 Snail's Trail blocks.........................

All of the blocks have been pressed now and this is one of each fabric combination.  There are 10 more combinations of 2 fabrics left to cut and sew.

This is the previously posted photo of all 18 combinations.  I didn't have much energy yesterday so I didn't get any more pressed to prepare for cutting.  I plan on cutting 4 more pairs today.

This collage shows the previous Snail's Trail quilts that I have made.  The one on the left was made in 2017 and I experimented with alternate plain blocks in 2 different fabrics.  The one in the center was made in 2019 and is also brown fabrics but paired with mostly beiges instead of gold and rust like I have in the newest project.  The one on the right was made in 2023 and is proof that this isn't just a masculine quilt block but could be made in any type of fabric.  These were cut with the 12" GO die.  I also have the 8" die but haven't used it yet.  

6 blocks times 2....................

Eight more fabrics got pressed yesterday and four new blocks were sewn.  Since there are two alike of every combination, I'll just show one of each from now on.  I will be able to design one half of the quilt and then repeat the same fabrics for each row for the second half, usually in a different order than the first rows.  The basement is warming up since we haven't had a cool spell so ironing the fabrics has to be done in short sessions, in this case 8 fabrics at a time.

As I go around the corner of the house on the way to the backyard I pass the Weigela bush with the red flowers.  There are always a few branches of stragglers after all of the rest of the bush is done blooming.

This is the latest start I have had for ripening tomatoes.  These are Rutgers which usually ripen after the 4th of July and Early Girl varieties.

These are on the second Rutgers plant.  

The Jack be Little pumpkin plants are growing.  These are the little decorative pumpkins.  I was too late to plant big ones.

The spotty rain showers missed us yesterday and there is a small chance of some rain today.  I think I'll be safe setting up my design walls again.  I have to put a clean flannel covering on one of them and then tip them upright.  It sounds easy but I'm short and the foam 4' x 7' sheets are tall.