99 blocks on the wall.....................

After 2 hours at the design wall, this is the final layout for this 16 patch quilt.  There are 2 alike of each block except one and 18 of the alternate fabric blocks.

After lunch I went back down to the basement and took the blocks down in stacks and numbered them, ready for piecing the quilt top.

In the main floor studio I took the 71 extra strips and pulled out all of the duplicates and then paired them for a future quilt.  The 3 strips on top need a partner.  I need to cut a few more strips and they might be all greens and blues.  I had to get these stacked up and moved since they are on my sewing cabinet and I want to sew today.

First finish for September 2026................

The Snail's Trail block is easy to cut with a die and fun to piece.  This color scheme worked out well too.  The quilt finished at 58" x 83".

The backing fabric has tools in the print: hammer, wrenches, saw, and others.

In case you want to enlarge it and find the tools, this view is better.  Just click to enlarge the photo.

A lot of the fabrics in this quilt are from the 1990s and early 2000s.  I still had a good discount at a couple quilt shops during that time.

The camera has a hard time showing beige and gold correctly.  The third one down that looks like it has a blue background actually has a beige background.

There are 2 blocks alike in most most of the fabric combinations.

I have always loved the rich browns and golds, and the rust prints give it a bright touch.

The temperature and humidity are at comfortable levels now for 2 days.  I plan on opening all of the windows today.

 

Busy day......................

I started out the day making the backing for the Kaffe Zipper quilt.  I had 4 yards and had to do some creative cutting and sewing to piece the back.  There were 4 seams altogether.  I had one piece 1" x 3.75" left over.

Then I pressed the binding fabric and cut the needed 7 strips.  I got the binding sewn to the back and started the machine topstitching to finish it.  I decided to finish it today instead of pushing ahead while I was tired.

Today is supposed to be 78 degrees.  What a relief that is after all of those 90 degree days with tropical humidity.  The humidity will get down in the comfortable range by afternoon.

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

The Snail's Trail quilt was back from my longarm quilter so it was time to trim it and find a binding fabric.

I'm sure I bought this brown and black stripe with bindings in mind.  I think it looks great with the front of the quilt.

It's okay with the backing fabric too.  I need to press out the creases and cut 7 strips and get busy.

It is disappointing that Google Blogger has messed up leaving comments.  Several people emailed me yesterday when they could see the comments weren't going through.  I hope it is fixed today, but if not, my email address is on the right sidebar if you care to comment that way.  You may also have my comcast email address if I have answered your comment previously. 

A play day..................

Yesterday I couldn't decide what to work on so I didn't work on anything.  It's not that there wasn't anything lined up ready to work on, the heat is getting to me.  It got up to 93 yesterday with a dew point of 78 in the evening (tropical humidity).  I went to the grocery store in the middle of the morning for an ingredient for fudge that I needed to make for my out of state family.  There are 2 birthdays to celebrate so some of the family is traveling to see them and I'm sending cookies and fudge.  I did play with fabric, sorting my pink fabric.

Once it cools off I want to go through all of the quilts on my racks and in the closet of the guest bedroom.  I have that room closed off right now because I only have 2 window A/C units to cool the whole house.  I want to pull everything off the shelves and change the order when I put them back.  One of the racks (right) is my favorites plus baby quilts, the quilts hanging in the closet are also favorites and one rack (left) is quilts I will gift to others.

The cool nights we had last week got the tomatoes into ripening mode.  I'm still picking them early and letting them ripen inside.  Most of these are the golf ball size 4th of July variety.  The larger ones are Rutgers and Early Girl.  This is 3 days picking.

Added later:  If you are trying to leave a comment today, they don't seem to be loading.  I have tried leaving comments on other blogs and  the word publishing just sits there and never publishes.  I hope Google has this fixed by tomorrow.  I love hearing from my readers.

 

Working on two...............

I had errands to run in the morning before the heat became oppressive yesterday.  When I got to work this backing was the first project.  I have cut the pieces so maybe I'll get them sewn together today.

Next I cut 19 squares from the alternate block fabric.  I will have to design this quilt sideways on my double design wall in the basement.  It will have 99 blocks to make a top 72" x 88".

I braved the heat late in the afternoon and filled the birdfeeders and picked tomatoes.  Most of the tomatoes are up high on the plants now so the squirrels haven't bothered them lately but the birds are pecking holes in a few of them.

I have 71 extra strips that I cut when cutting for the 16 patch blocks in photo above.  There are duplicates of some that I cut when there was only a little fabric left and I could get another strip out of it.  I might add more blues and greens and make "the other 16 patch" quilt from them. It would be a smaller quilt and would be my mindless sewing while between planned projects. 

August 2026 monthly recap.......................

My only finish of the month is my elegant quilt for this year.  It is made of William Morris prints on the front and Jinny Beyer fabric on the back.  It is 62" x 76".  I decided the fabric called for a traditional quilt pattern and decided on Trip Around the World, one of my favorites to make. 

I completed two of the three quilt tops I started in August.  The one on the left is Zipper, a free Kaffe Fassett pattern by Free Spirit fabrics.  The pattern came in 2 versions, warm and cool and I chose the warm version.  The directions have you using a fat quarter pack in the order they are packaged, but I didn't have that and instead chose from my huge Kaffe collective stash.  The top is 60.5" x 81".  On the right is a quilt top that I made up as I sewed.  I didn't pre-plan anything but the 9 patches, to use up 2 trays of 1.5" squares.  It is 39.5" x 61".  It is a 4th quilt in a series to use my 1990-2000 floral fabrics.

There were 4 knitted dishcloths for the month.  I was able to find the Sugar 'n Cream Scrub Off yarn in a couple nice colors.  This lavender is the prettiest one of them.