Sewing was interrupted..................

Someone is going to the far side of a neighboring state to see my great-grandchildren.  That means baking treats for them.  The chocolate chip cookies are delicious.

I also made shortbread and peanut butter cookies.  I had to test them too.  I need to know I'm sending them good treats.  That's my story..............

I did get started cutting the 4.5" squares for the double 4 patch blocks.

We have had 18 days in a row below 32 degrees, the average temperature for this date.  Thursday may get up to 32, but Friday is slated for high 30s.  Next week is all 30s and 40s.  I'll probably see someone in shorts and flip flops at the grocery store.  Yes, this is normal near Chicago.....   

My oldest child turns 65 today.  He has his Medicare card.....  This hardly seems possible.

Mindless sewing.....again...................

Yesterday was a PT day so I have to be watching the clock.

One thing I did get done during the day was to layer several stratas, staggered by 1" and cut 2.5" segments from them.  I had sewn the 2 strips together and did the pressing last week.

Last night's mindless sewing was making the 80 four patches which will be used in 40 double 4 patch blocks.  I need to cut the 4.5" squares now from the 4.5" strips.

Part of the reason I didn't get much done yesterday was because of this morning entertainment.  A few months ago I showed how the city had cut the top of this tree off and left this huge trunk standing.  They had actually cut off part of it before I realized what that noise outside was.

At this point they have a rope tied around the top of the trunk, the rope then went around a big branch in the tree in the neighbor's yard, and then tied to to the front loader. He is cutting around the base of it now and they pounded in wedges on the right side and pulled it over to the left, with a big thud.

Bye, bye, tree.  They cut the stump down lower and it looks to be maybe 12" tall, spray painted orange with and orange cone sitting on top of it.  I guess that is to remind the neighbors not to back over that way.  It was overcast so they didn't need to worry about the sun getting in the eyes of the man with the chainsaw.

 

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

I spent time outside doing more garden clean up and didn't get a lot done in the studio.  I found a little pile of batik triangle squares and since there were 4 matching of each, I made 20 little Broken Dishes blocks.  Sewn together these would make a placemat size piece.  I could just save them in the batik orphan block box and use them as filler blocks.  I'll press them and then decide what to do with them.

I also cut all of the Kaffe sewn strips into segments for 4 patches and sewed them together.  Another pile to press.

I brought the Tilda Whimsy quilt and binding strips up from the basement, but no progress there.  I have a flare up of my sciatic nerve that has me moving around to calm it down.

If you look to the left of the rocks, Chippy is back this year.  I only noticed chipmunks around my front porch last year.  This year they are back going for the birdseed.

The Redbuds are getting pinker by the day.

the Lenten Roses are larger.  All of the green leaves around the bricks are the invasive Bellflowers that are coming up everywhere.

All of my violets are in the backyard....except this little volunteer that showed up in the front flowerbed.

There are two volunteer Columbines in the front garden too.  This one is over by my mailbox, the other is by my Hydrangea bush.  I need to move this one because it will start leaning over the sidewalk and get trampled if I don't.

Sorting, stitching................

I still had the bin of my parents' photos on the dining room table since the day my cousins visited.  I decided they weren't going to sort themselves so I spent 3 hours yesterday, making some progress.  Most are from my mother's side of the family.  I sorted into piles of 3 generations, my brothers and me, great aunts and uncles and their families, and one pile of "who is this?".  I will need to go back through some of the piles again but for now I can put them back into the bin with labels inserted into each bag.

I got 39 four patches sewn last night and have 13 cut and ready to sew.

I think the snow will stay north of us today but we will get rain and about 45 degrees, another good day to stay inside.

I can see some peonies growing in the back garden and the first sighting of pink in the Redbud trees.  I hope we don't get another freeze.

 

Two quilt tops...........

Pink Hearts is sewn together and measures 60" x 77".  When I made the 3 pink quilts 2 years ago I thought I was low on pink fabric.  Only about 5 of these fabrics are new.  I used batiks and Kaffe fabrics in with my other pink quilting fabrics so I would have a good variety.  I think there are 44 different fabrics in this one.

Weather Report Snail's Trail is 60" x 84".  I have a large piece of the lighter blue fabric for the back of the quilt. 

I need to do the staystitching around the edge of both quilts before they get put on hangers to wait their turn for finishing.

I needed to cut more triangles for the next Bear Paw quilt.  I found a pile of light ones already cut so the new ones are mostly medium and dark fabrics.

I found a pile of squares also and sorted them last night.  I sewed the group of triangle squares here while watching the 3 hours of shows on TV.  I only have enough sewn for 6.5 blocks so I need to do a lot more cutting.

Layouts confirmed...........

This Snail's Trail ended up with a scrappy multicolor look.  I put up all of the blocks and only changed 3 of them before taking down the rows and clipping them for sewing today or tomorrow.

I didn't take a final photo of the heart quilt and just took it down column by column as I was ready to add them for webbing the top.  I have all of the seams sewn in one direction and 2 seams sewn the other direction.  9 more seams to sew.

If you read my post yesterday I mentioned making another scrappy batik Bear Paw quilt.  I have a head start already cut and in labeled boxes.

In the quilt I gifted shown yesterday the 4 larger squares in a block are the same.  This is the contents of the 2 boxes so there is more than enough variety to make a quilt with 20 blocks.  I like having a jump start into a new project.  I think I may have some triangle squares sewn too.  I'll look for them today.

 

Working on the "other" projects............

I wasn't ready to take the Bear Paw blocks off the design wall yet so I got out the dust mop and cleaned up all of the dust bunnies so I could use the floor for photos.  This older project is sewn together now and is in the 40" x 64" range right now.  I have lots of the fabrics that are in it so I could add borders.  I'll think about this for awhile.

Here are the true colors in that one.  It looks like a fall quilt and it does have rust and beige in it but it also has purple, not brown.  There is purple in the lightest fabric too.

I try to always sew the whole quilt top on the same sewing machine but this one was started in the 1990s and I'm not sure which machine it was started on.  I'll blame my mismatched points on the fact that it was sewn on 2 different machines.

Most of the corners were matched a little better.

Next it was time to look at the alternate block fabric choices with the 16 patches.  They look so different in a photo than in real life so I'll have to go back and forth from floor to photo to analyze what is working best.  I like the elephant fabric a lot but there isn't enough of it for all of the alternate squares.

 

Block number 3.............

Bear Paw block number three is sewn.  I love the leaf print in the large squares.  I think I have a little piece of every color that it came in.

Then I switched to working on the older project.  There was one panel sewn about 20 years ago so I'm continuing to piece panels the same size.  There are 4 of them on the design wall.

I moved the left panel to the top right in this photo.  

This is all of the rest of the parts that are sewn.  There are lots more of the triangle fabrics already cut and I have plenty of fabric to cut more strips for the 4 patches so we'll see if I can stick with this one making more pieces.  Meanwhile I'll start planning the next Bear Paw block.

In other wonderful news we got 1.15" inches of rain yesterday.  That was really an event since it was August 10th the last time we got that much rain in one day.  

Finally focused................

It took me a couple days after all of the packages were mailed to get focused on what needs to be done.  Since yesterday was a cooler day between 2 hot days it was time to get outside.  I planted 4 of the Sedums (that were in pots) along the front left side of my house.  They don't look like much now because they were all parts of plants but they should look good next year.

In the morning I went to the back garden and checked on the Sedums that I transplanted out there in May.  The blooms aren't as big as the ones in the front but I haven't watered them at all and I have watered the ones in the front a few times.

The Four o'clocks are going to seed now.  I was surprised that the seeds are black.  I'm going to let them drop and hope for a big bed of flowers next year.

I sewed more parts for my older project.  I can't find the piece that has been sewn so today is searching day.  I think this project is going to be small.  I have plenty of fabric so I can add big borders or make table runners.  There are 75 of each type of block in the piles.

I decided that I will finish a colorwash wallhanging before the end of the month.  Yesterday I pressed it and cut the backing and batting.  This morning I will baste it and hopefully get to the quilting by afternoon. That gives me one day to get the binding hand sewn.
 

No energy............

It was another beautiful day yesterday but I just couldn't get going on much.  I did sew 16 more 4 patches for an older project that I showed around a week ago.  I can see why I stalled on the project...no variety, just the same thing over and over.

I moved the lighter peach block in from the top left corner (as it was on yesterday's post) and moved a few other blocks and thought I was ready to sew.  I decided to give it one more day to be sure.

 

A few blocks.............

I was gone all morning yesterday and when I got home I needed to bake a requested treat for a family member.  Late in the day I got some 3" strips cut to make a couple more 16 patch blocks.

These are the bonus 4 patches made with the remainder of the strips.  Three of these fabrics are older Kaffe's and the wild one is a newer one.

There are still some batik fabric packs left in my pop-up shop as well as other items.  The shop will close midnight EST Sunday.

I found it!............

Off and on last week I was looking for the box with the Kaffe triangles in it and yesterday I found it!  Back in 2010 before I had a die cutter I rotary cut 6.5" squares and cut them in half diagonally.  I made at least 3 quilt tops (2 of them were sold) and I knew there were some leftover triangles.

It is hard to cut the squares exactly on the diagonal so there was always a little variance in the size of the triangles.  I decided to take the leftovers to my Studio die cutter and cut a 5" finished triangle out of them, 10 layers deep.  You can see there was very little waste.

I love having the corners already nipped off for me.

In another box I have 5" finished squares which will work with the triangle squares.

I made 3 more 16 patch blocks for that quilt.  I have a total of 32 now.  They are 10" finished so they work with all of the above too.

 There are some bonus 4 patches too and they are also 5" finished.

Double 4 patch top sewn........

The last 2 seams were sewn before noon yesterday.  It is 87" x 95".  I have a few leftover dark blocks that can go into my orphan block box for a someday quilt.

I moved this quilt to a different wall, different light bulbs and this is a little truer color than the photo yesterday.  I cropped the photo to look like the points are cut off.

Then I flipped the photo 180 degrees to see if I liked it any better.  I measured it after finishing the pressing and it is 45.5" wide and 48" tall without the points.

I figured I might as well flip the photo to a horizontal view too so here is horizontal view 1.....

and here is horizontal view 2.  If it ends up being a baby quilt it won't matter which way is up.