Another quilt top....instead of another finish............

Quilt top #4 for August.  My progress in having more finished (17) than started (15) has shriveled up.  I'm glad I worked on this one though.  The stacks that I had pinned to the design wall for 8 months had me thinking it was going to be too dark and maybe depressing.  As it turns out it is plenty colorful, and even though deep toned, not too dark.  In person it has a darker tone than the photo, because the camera wants to emphasize contrast and is making a lot of the fabrics lighter than they are.  It is 54" x 72", close to the 50" x 70" size I like to make now.

It's time to show the cucumber plants again.  I planted 4 seeds in this pot and they all grew.  I made a trellis of sorts with green stakes and string and that seems to be working OK.  Did you notice the cucumber on the right side of the plant?

I think it needs to fatten up a little before I pick it.  The package said 3 - 5" and it is at least 5" now.

There are two teeny tiny 1" cucumbers starting but the other one has been 1" for over 3 weeks so I wonder if it is going to grow.

The Sedums are just starting to show color on their blooms.  I have had them at this stage by the end of July some years, so they are late.  

This plant that came up from seed from last year's plant (which isn't there this year) is still doing well.  I see about 3 more coming up in the cracks between the pavers but they don't have blooms although one has some small buds.  I will have to lift a paver or two to dig them out and try transplanting to another area.

 

3 more paws.............

After raking leaves and mowing the side yard to chop up some leaves I made some more Bear Paw blocks.

I have used up most of the 2 triangle squares that had good contrast so I'll be cutting more this week.

The blocks are 14" so it won't take a lot of them for a throw quilt.  4 across will be 56" if I don't use sashing between them.

This is what they will look like edge to edge.  I think a little 1" sashing might be nice. 

A little sewing............

I was going through the piles of leftover blocks and other scrappy blocks and found enough the same size to make a little 36" x 48" quilt top.  I think I'll add a border so it is more of a couch size quilt.

I moved my cement birdbath to its winter location yesterday.  I also pulled all of the tomato plants and stacked the cages.  I am a little closer to having all of the outside work done.

First February finish......

I used 9 different fabrics in the binding for this quilt.  I was able to match up greens and blues to the areas in those colors.  This one ended up 59" x 76.5" so it is a nice size couch quilt.

The inspiration for this quilt was "Crossroads" in "Colorful Quilts" by Amy Walsh and Janine Burke from Blue Underground Studios.  I have to admit though that I didn't follow the cutting directions in the book.  I just sliced through the squares randomly.

I took it off the design wall and them remembered I hadn't shown the backing and I'm going to try to remember that for all of my quilts this year.  I hung it back up, not quite as straight but it does show the backing fabric which I got on sale.

Scrappy quilts.........

Today I am linking to the monthly Scraptastic Tuesday.  There are lots of other bloggers linked so if you like scrap quilts, check them out too.  

If you have been reading my blog for very long you know I use lots of different fabrics in each quilt.  I get bored if there are too few choices in the quilt. 

One of my favorite scrap projects is my colorwash quilts.  These two are made with 2" squares, however I work with 2.5" and 1.5" squares too.  I start out cutting the largest squares from my scraps, then go down in size as the scrap becomes smaller until I have cut it all up.

I made the top piece last night and the bottom one a few months ago.

Here is a link to more colorwash pieces that I have made.

I think the back is pretty neat too. 

This is part of my collection of 2.5" squares.  I store them in the disposable aluminum cookie sheets and they nest together.  I can stack more than 20 trays in one large storage bin.  There is a photo on this post. 

Colorwash is achieved through separating values and here is a post that simplifies the sorting.

Cleaning up......

I need to clear off my design walls so I started sewing some tops together.   I left the edges of the 8' wide design wall in the picture so you can see this quilt is big.  I'm contemplating adding to 2 sides to make it into a more rectangular shape.

I have been making the blocks for this quilt when I go to the twice monthly sewing day.  I decided to stop this one at 52" x 60".  It is mostly Brandon Mably fabric with a few Kaffe and Philip Jacobs fabrics added.  For this one you pair 2 fabrics and cut one 2.5" strip of each.  Cut four 8" pieces from each strip, take one piece of each and slice it down the middle lengthwise.  That will make 2 blocks that look so different that you won't notice you have 2 blocks of the same fabrics in the quilt.

I have continued making 6" blocks with the leftovers from the plaid/stripe log cabin quilt.  I have cut the scraps into 2.5" squares, 4.5" squares and 2.5" x 6.5" rectangles.  Every block is pieced the same.  I might use these in the pieced backing of the log cabin quilt because they aren't very attractive together.

The second double Amaryllis flower has bloomed.  I think there might be a third one now.  It is a pretty small bud so I'll be patient and see if it develops into a flower.

Yes I did! Sew, that is................

I finished sewing these blocks together.  I had cut them out over a month ago.  I showed this as one of the ways to use the rectangle squares at my scrap class.  It is a tessellating design.  The dark shapes are 4 pieces of the same fabric, and the light ones are 4 different fabrics and are formed when 4 blocks come together.  I didn't get this sewn together as a top yet.  It will finish at 32.5" x 48.5".

I chose the fabric for the setting triangles and got this top sewn together.  It measures 36.5" x 43.5".  Both of these quilts are made from the same block, with the zig zag being scrappy instead of a controlled group of fabrics.

This is what the setting triangle fabric looks like as it is rolled off the bolt.

In the garden the tiger lily buds are just starting to turn orange.  They will be blooming earlier this year than they did last year.