I have the final borders sewn on Sunlight in the Forest. You may or may not remember the inspiration quilt and name come from a quilt in Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Sweden. I only had 7 of the 15 fabrics he used in his quilt so I improvised with my Kaffe collective stash. It is 69" x 87" right now.
After the art quilters left I worked on the hand sewing of the binding on the purple quilt I quilted last week. I have 2 sides done now and a start on the third one.
Here is a view from my dining room window last week on one of the rainy days. The 2 red spots on the left are the short Asiatic lilies and the purple to the right is the compact Beebalm. There is a path made of bark that goes around the back of this tree. 2 of the Columbines are in front of the tree with their seed pods where the blooms had been. Diantus is in front too and had bloomed for almost 2 months and it will rebloom again.
I have had the borders cut for several days and just kept putting off the sewing part. Of course it didn't take long to sew them on. I have the second borders ready to put on too.
I mowed the grass in 2 sessions yesterday afternoon. It was a little hotter than I thought it would be.
It is black raspberry time again. I picked these 2 days ago and have been out to pick twice since then. I baked cookies for the art quilters so for my evening meal I had 3 cookies and a dish of ice cream with raspberries on top. They say life is short eat dessert first. Instead I took it one step farther and all I ate was dessert.
I want to show a couple more of the larger prints I am using for this next quilt. Here is a link to the photo of the quilt. I forget that not everyone reads my blog every day and they might not realize they only have to go back a couple days to see where I am starting it and see the inspiration.
There are many different parts to this print so every square looks different. I didn't fussy cut the spiral either. It just happened to be in the spot where I was cutting the 6.5" squares.
I always think of this one as a small print but it is really an assortment of small prints making up the design.
My porch pots have really filled in. The sweet potato vine should be draping over the edge soon.
The flowers on this Wild/Hardy Geranium are a deep red violet but I cannot get the camera to recognize that. I have tried different times of the day too.
For the fabrics that I am cutting into 9.5", 6.5", and 3.5" squares I cut a strip 9.5" wide across the fabric. Then I cut a 9.5" strip, a 6.5" strip and a 3.5" strip from that piece.
I am usually cutting 4 or more layers at the same time.
This is what one 9.5" strip yields. You can see that every square has different patterns in it. Some have lots of red flowers, some only have one or none.
Then I stack like sizes together in stacks of 10. The diagonal squares are a less than 10 pile. There are 40+ 3.5" squares, 20+ 6.5" squares, 10+ 9.5" squares and the 12.5" pile is less than 10. I am less than half way done cutting.
Then there is the pile of scraps, all narrower than 3.5".
I divide them into pieces wide enough to cut 2.5" squares for another project and less than 2.5" to add to my scrap box.
My pansies are still doing well in their pot.
The Evening Primrose is starting to bloom. Here is some info I found about it on the Internet:
Scientific Name: Oenothera fruticosa
Common Name: Sundrops, Narrowleaf
Evening Primrose
I know how hard it is to cut into large prints, to even decide HOW to cut them. This fabric had pieces fussy cut out of it when I was making the Seed Packet quilt. Now I'm going to use it in another quilt.
This current quilt project (shown yesterday on my blog) takes squares of 12.5", 9.5", 6.5" and 3.5". This photo shows two 6.5" squares cut from the same fabric. The advantage of the large prints is that you can get totally different motifs in the cuts but they will always go well together in the quilt.
Here is a batch of 3.5" squares all from the same fabric (Bekah). Rather than looking for several fabrics that have the same color groupings I can cut them all from the same fabric.
Here are three all from the same fabric (Brassica).
And again, 3.5" squares all from the same fabric......it is so advantageous to be able to cut the large prints for the variety of colors and designs needed for a quilt. It is certainly faster than looking for 4 different fabrics, pressing them and then cutting.
I hope I have convinced you to cut into the large prints in your stash. Don't leave those beauties for your estate sale!
I worked on the Seed Packet quilt all day while my 2 friends were here. I had only a few seams left to sew when they left and I sewed them last night. I can see a couple small squares that could be moved to a better place but for now they will stay where they are.
I thought my design walls were 84" tall but I can see that they are closer to 82" since the bottom row is bending out. The quilt top ended up at 68" x 83".
For inquiring minds, a refresher, here is the post where I show the inspiration quilt.
The backyard garden is now pink, yellow and orange. The Rudbeckia blooms are just opening and there will be a lot more yellow in a few days.
The front garden is overgrown and needs a lot of work. I am slowly tearing out an invasive plant. My 2 pots of begonias and a pot of Coleus add a lot of color.
The Swamp Milkweed is just to the right of the area in the photo above. This shot was taken looking down at the plant from the top. It is about 24" tall.
We got a nice rain storm yesterday afternoon, a little over 3/4" of rain and another storm around 9 p.m., another 8/10ths. It is more rain than I thought we would get. I won't need to water anything for a few days.
Now the vertical seams of the first five columns are sewn. After I took this photo I continued cutting small squares and need just three more. I have a lot of holey floral fabrics!
I was near the end of the second book in the series so I spent a few hours reading and finished "The Girl Who Played with Fire". My library doesn't have the third one on the shelf right now and that is probably good because I have other things I need to do. My 2 friends are coming to sew today. Thursday I will continue to clear off tables for the art quilters on Monday.
I decided that I could change the 2 rows of small squares into many configurations but in the end it really wouldn't make any difference how I had them. There could be many successful ways of finishing this quilt and I had to just make a decision and move on. Last night I got the first four columns sewn together. I need to still fussy cut 19 more squares.
I mowed the lawn while it was still low humidity yesterday. The heat rolls in Wednesday and it sounds like it will be here for several days. I have friends coming to sew Wednesday and Monday so basement cleaning will happen today.
I continued cutting small floral squares yesterday. I also decided to try the darkest ones at the edge like a light border and then a darker one. Below is the photo from yesterday where I had them as dark/light alternating. I liked this dark border when I'm looking at the design wall but I'm not sure again when I see it in a photo. In the book they used the dark as the first row around and then the light as the last border. However the dark flowers in the book quilt aren't as dark as mine.
The Marcia Derse fabric Drunkard's Path top is finished. I decided it won't have borders. It ended up at 48.5" x 69.5". It is mostly scraps from cutting this quilt with only a few extra fabrics added.
I made a slight miscalculation on how many small squares I need. I must have figured only a single row instead of a double row. In any case I need another 63 small fussy cut floral squares. I don't mind repeating fabrics. Some people making this quilt have used all different fabrics for every square. The inspiration for this quilt can be found here.
The tiger lilies are starting to bloom.
The Rudbeckia in front of the tiger lilies is almost ready to bloom.
I have lots and lots of green tomatoes but none on the big plants have turned color yet. I have 2 little bush tomatoes that had small tomatoes on them when I bought them. The squirrels have gotten 2 of them, I have eaten 2 that ripened and I have 2 more ready to eat. I also have 2 on the windowsill in the kitchen to ripen, well away from the squirrels' sharp little teeth.
A few days ago I mentioned the path through my yard, a shortcut for teenagers. My block is about 3-4 blocks long, no side streets so the kids cut through yards. Several people asked if it was a right of way and whether this was a normal practice. It isn't a right of way; it is my private property. I live in a small town and I guess the kids feel comfortable doing this. There is a pile of boards at the lot line with the neighbor. I asked my neighbor lady in her late 80s if they were her boards and she said yes she put them there to discourage kids cutting through. Well, they just step over them so that didn't work.
The binding is on....it is finished! It is 64" x 83". Here is the post with the book that the pattern is in. I didn't do the triangle border that Kathy has on her quilt. I used Kaffe Fassett yarn dyed woven stripes, Marcia Derse fabric for the background in each block and the border and an assortment of large prints, five which are around 20 years old. There are a few Australian prints and a couple newer prints also.
I had a 3 yard piece and a 2 yard piece of the brown butterfly backing fabric. I needed two 2 1/2 yard pieces so I was able to piece it to fit.
I think the randomly spaced straight line quilting looks great on it.
This orange print is one of the 20+ year old prints.
The brown border fabric looks so dark in the photos above. It is a warmer brown close up. It blends nicely with the colors in the blocks.
I made this quilt top in 2010 and have been trying to figure out a pieced border to go between 2 light colored batik borders. When my friend got here we played around with a few ideas and this was the favorite. Here is a post where I tried another idea. I have a lot more triangle squares to sew.
Before my friend left we put the Seed Packet squares back up on a design wall. I have lots of cutting to do for the 2 rows of small squares that border this. I can see a couple squares I want to move too.
Here is my weekly report on the wax coated Amaryllis bulb. It has gotten a little taller than I thought it would be.
It is getting ready to bloom and it looks like it will be red.
I layered 8 strip sets 1" apart preparing to cut 2.5" segments from them. Yes, you need a sharp blade for this.
Here are the 16 blocks all sewn but not pressed yet.
It was a great day to make soup yesterday, only in the 20s outside. I made pea soup in the crock pot with a ham bone added.
I got this X block top sewn together. For a recap, it is Marcia Derse fabrics for the background triangles, Kaffe Fassett yarn dyed stripes for the backgrounds and sashing strips, and large prints from many years and many different fabric companies for the X's. There is a triangle border on the quilt in the book but I really don't care for it so maybe this one is done at 56" x 74". It would look great thrown over a sofa in a room with a neutral color scheme.
