Still thinking..............

I spent a large part of the day yesterday gathering and packing things to take to the thrift shop in town.  What was on my mind though was still these fabrics.  I divided them by dark and light last night to check out an idea.

I thought maybe I would like to make another quilt similar to this one that I made in 2013.  In this one the angle is different in each block but I have a die for the block which would make them all the same angle.  I was thinking about cutting out a few pieces yesterday but just never got around to it.  If you want to see more like this, click on the Label Fractured quilt on the label list on the right sidebar. You can also click on the label at the bottom of each post.  On a cellphone to see the label links you may need to scroll to the bottom and click on View web version. 

Half way point................

The top 6 rows (of 12) are ready to sew now.  Then I can move the blocks up and design the bottom half.

I cut two more Bear Paw blocks and sewed one of them.  This one has the least contrast between the 2 fabrics in it.  After I sew the other one I can take the pink thread off the machine and change back to brown.

Marcia Derse has flannel fabric now and the prints are from a couple of her previous lines.  I didn't buy all of them, but just my favorites.  I'll mix these in with other flannels in my stash.  I'm hoping to make at least 4 flannel quilts this winter.  I may add to that when I cut up all of the scraps and make baby quilts with them.  

The chickens won............

The chickens will be the backing on this 16 patch quilt.  It's unlikely that I would make another quilt in the future that could use this fabric.  Now I have 2 ready for my longarm quilter.

I realized as I got more blocks on the design wall that there needs to be a double row of the spotted fabric all around the perimeter.

This is so much prettier than the camera wants to show you.  I still need 2 more rows at the bottom and I will start filling in the 9 patches today.

Here is yesterday's pink Bear Paw block.  I love the light fabric in this one.  I hope I can get two blocks cut today.

Fall has arrived here. It was only in the mid 60s yesterday and will be in the 60s for the next few days.  Unfortunately it will be partly cloudy all week too.

 

Layout preview................

I wanted to see how the layout was going to look, so I took one 9 patch block of each fabric combination and previewed them with the 2 alternate fabrics.  I figured out that I need to do 2 columns on each side with the spotted fabric plus one row top and bottom.  Then the floral fabric will fill in all of the center spaces.  I think it will be interesting close up.  I'm not sure about a distance view.

Downstairs I cut the batting for the 16 patch quilt and looked for backings.  From top to bottom they are 

Spider mums

Random dots

Chickens.

Do I want it serious and use the Spider Mums or fun and funky and use Random Dots or Chickens?

While I was down there I cut one more pink Bear Paw and sewed it last night.

Rain report:  from Thursday through Sunday we got 6.6" of rain.  This is the third time this summer we have gone almost a month with an inch or less of rain and then got caught in the ring of fire thunderstorms as the hot dome moved and got from 6" - 8" of rain.

Trying the layout.......................

Trying out the 2 favorite choices together: I think they work pretty well.  I was able to get 36 squares from the spotted fabric. I haven't cut the other one yet, but if I don't make any mis-cuts I think I will get 24 squares.

The busy print has rust color in it with brown in the spotted fabric. Even though they don't match exactly they coordinate pretty well.

I looked back through the brown bin and found another piece and this one is brown.  The problem though is the light color leaves; they are so much lighter than the ones in the rust color.  I could probably just fussy cut some squares from the darker areas if I need a few more pieces.

I got 15 more 9 patch blocks sewn and 2 of the 3 stratas.  When I ran out of bobbin thread I quit for the night.

I also pressed some of the pink fabrics and got one block cut out.  Maybe I'll get that sewn today.

 

Sewing some 9 patches....................

 24 nine patches are sewn so far, lots more to go.  I had pulled some fabrics to try as alternate blocks so here are three of them.  This one of cheetahs isn't too great. I think it is too light.

This is my favorite but I only have enough to cut 24 alternate blocks.  That would only make a quilt 36" x 48".

I have two pieces of this fabric so it is a strong contender if I do this layout.

I decided to turn the camera to simulate an on point setting.  That is nice too.

I also chose some pink fabrics for a future quilt.  What a change from the fall colors I have been working on for the last couple weeks.

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. 

Second quilt top finished in august 2026...........

This last quilt top for August was pressed and photographed yesterday morning.  It is 39.5" x 61.5".  When I started making the three inch 9 patches I had no quilt in mind.  I had been thinking about another quilt with the Economy block with more of the 90s florals and I wanted to add white and black to a quilt.  All of the ideas came together to make these 40 blocks.  I was happy to find another white with black print in my stash to use for sashing.  

I ended up cutting 15 floral fabrics for the large triangle corners of the blocks.

I also ended up cutting a few more 1.5" squares for the 9 patches to add a little more bright color to the quilt.

Last night I started looking for backing fabric for it.  I will need a little less than 2 yards.  There is enough of each of these 4 fabrics.  I probably have others that I could consider but I'd be happy to use one of these.

I'll do my monthly recap tomorrow.

Playing with blocks.......................

A few days ago I showed some fabric that might work as alternate blocks sprinkled through the new quilt I'm working on.  I tried these 3 yesterday.

This is the one I thought would be most likely to work.  The idea is to have a print that blends with the blocks, not one that stands out as "here I am".  The purpose of the blocks is to enlarge the quilt without having to piece more blocks.

This one is still a possibility but I think it might be too obvious.

I thought ths one was too busy but I kind of like it.  I can get 16 blocks for sure out of a yard of fabric and on some could get 20, depending on how wide that white selvage is.

Then it was time to layer 10 stratas, staggered by 1" (following lines on the cutting mat) and cut pieces for the next 20 blocks. I actually did that twice and got the last 20 cut also.

This is one block each of the first 20 blocks (there are 2 alike in every combination) which equals 1/4 of the quilt top.  The lightest block is in the top row and I think it is going to be fine with the darker blocks.

I sewed a lot of blocks last night, with just 6 left to sew today.  I have a lot of decisions to make.  Do I want a quilt 72" x 88" or do I want to make 2 smaller quilts (and piece a few more blocks)?  I could add in more blues and greens if I made more blocks. 

Last two..................

There was just one strip to cut yesterday to complete the stratas.

This is all 40-1/2 stratas, ready for me to decide which 16 patch to make.

I decided to look through my larger print brown fabrics to see if there was anything I would want to use for a few alternate blocks sprinkled through.  This photo shows 22" top to bottom.

This photos shows 1/2 yard of the fabric.

This photo shows 22" top to bottom.  I think this might be the best candidate.

This is showing 1/2 yard of the fabric.  I think this one might be good too.

I didn't get any farther on decisions because I was invited to a family dinner at my son's house and had 2 little boys to entertain us.  They are 15 months apart in age and the oldest just turned 4 last month.

More sorting fun....................

Here is the whole rack that I showed a portion of in yesterday's post.  Yesterday I sorted the reds, what fun, and there weren't any I wanted to get rid of.  To the right of them is the overflow of Brandon fabrics (which you can see the edge of on the right) and a couple Kaffe yarn dyed wovens.  There is a pile of fat quarters in front of the stack.  So  the second shelf from the top was sorted Saturday and the reds on Sunday.  The 2 unsorted shelves are the Philip Jacobs prints.  On the bottom shelf is Laurel Burch fabric on the left and in the 2 storage boxes are black and white batiks and red and black batiks.  The very top shelf has 2 groups of Robin Pickins fabric and 3 boxes of scraps sorted loosely by color.  Also up there in a plastic bag is the remainder of the Wishwell Weather Report fabric.

Last night I got the rest of the dark brown strips sewn on the 15 ten inch strips for the Kaffe zipper quilt.  Then I knitted for awhile while I watched a cute movie on Prime.  It was called Sheep Detectives.

We ended up with 2" of rain on Saturday, much needed to turn the grass green again.

 

A visitor...................

For those of you who read Nann's blog With Strings Attached, you know that her power was off yesterday from the big storm on Monday.  She contacted me to see if she could visit...we had been planning to do this some day.  We had lunch and a tour of my studios.  It's always fun to meet a blog friend in person.

She brought me a gift.  She goes to estate sales, etc, and gets the best bargains on fabric.  This batch has an African theme.  A couple pieces are long enough to use in a pieced backing.

This group is all Nancy Crow designs.  I have some of the same prints but there were different colorways here that I didn't have.  Oh, what fun I will have with these!

I made a few more of the 3" nine patches last night and have a few more ready to sew tonight.

What a great day!

Binding cut...................

I had the iron on to press some other fabrics so I pressed the binding fabric and got the 7 strips cut.

While I had the fabrics out for the Snail's Trail I also cut a 2.5" strip off the larger pieces.  I needed a few more so I pressed some more fabric and cut them and now have 80 strips, 80 different fabrics.  Maybe they will become a 16 patch when I need some mindless sewing.

While I was at it I cut a few more strips off some of the fabrics and there are 71 in this group.  There are duplicates of some fabrics.  I don't have a plan for these right now.

Pressing...........

I had to turn the iron on yesterday to press the binding fabric for the current finish so I paired the fabrics for the Snail's Trail and got 4 pairs pressed while I was at it.  Hopefully I'll get some blocks cut today.

While outside checking on my tomato plants I noticed some of the buds on the Tiger Lilies are turning orange.  It won't be long now for the first few blooms.

Thanks to a friend, I had blackberries on vanilla ice cream last night for dessert.  Yummy!

I got the binding strips cut yesterday so I hope to get the binding sewn on the quilt today.  Maybe I'll hand finish this one.