Signature quilts....

One of the ladies at the QOV sew-in yesterday was assembling some signature blocks into a quilt top.  More info about that can be found at our group's blog.

 Here is a finished top that they display at the Farmer's Markets and other locations.  If you are in the Aurora, IL area you may want to check out the locations mentioned on the blog.

Last night I started sewing the larger of the 2 Target log cabin quilt tops.  I took out the one dark block and stole a light block from the smaller quilt.  I will make one more bright block for that quilt.  I am sewing this together in the method that I have shown previously in a tutorial.

QOV sew in day in Batavia, IL

I spent part of the day yesterday trying out a new block and packing all of the things to take to our QOV sew in.

I found the block and technique in this book.  The blocks get trimmed to size after sewing which works  well when you have a lot of different people making the blocks.

I haven't trimmed the sections for the second block but I wanted to show that you get both red and blue pinwheels when the blocks go together.  I think this is similar to the little twister blocks that you cut out of a large piece of patchwork with a template.  The edge of these blocks are on the straight of grain.

4 Year Blogiversary............

I had to go back and check my archives; has it really been 4 years?  Yes it has, and I've loved every minute of it!  I hope you have too.

The 2 blocks above are the leftovers.  I finally made my decision.

I will have 2 quilts.  At this time I'll call them my winter quilt on the left and summer quilt on the right.  Both fabrics were favorites for the corner blocks and I couldn't just use one.  They give 2 totally different looks.  The one on the left will finish at 48" x 63" and the one on the right 33" x 48".  I'm thinking about a strip pieced border on the smaller one, with the stripes parallel to the edges to echo the rings in the blocks.

As for the leftover blocks, the one on the right will be a pocket on a tote bag.  I don't know what I'll do with the other one.  Maybe it will go into a quilt with all of the other leftover blocks that I have.  Thanks for playing along with me. Once again I think you can see there are many ways a quilt can be designed, so don't settle for one you don't like when it just takes a little time and patience to find a finish that you like.

Happy 4th of July to my American readers!!!

Garden Walk.........

While I was mowing the grass yesterday I noticed the lilies are blooming.  They face the street so I can't see them from the house.

The butterfly weed is blooming.  It is about 4' tall.  I have seen a couple Monarch butterflies going between this and the milk weed.  There is a bee on the side of the flower here.

The volunteer balloon flowers are growing right in the middle of the coral bells.

The hydrangea is planted right in front of the gas meter.  Actually it was here first and they put the meter on the outside of my house 2 years ago and amazingly didn't kill the bush.

Does anyone know what the white long tapered flower is?  It is an aggressive plant that sends roots across underground.  I have completely dug it out twice, or at least I thought I did.

This purple flower is in one of my pots.  I think it is a Cape Daisy.  It is such a vivid purple.  My tiger lilies have a couple weeks to go before they will bloom.

Progress................

I had to try this fabric for the corner squares just in case it worked.

Hmmm, I don't think so........  I'm pondering on the idea that maybe I should make 2 smaller quilts from these blocks and then I can use 2 of the auditioned fabrics.

Before I put that on the wall though I had to try 2 of the choices from this morning alternating.

I have lots of seeds for a new project.....of course something in this pile may get used in this quilt (or quilts).

It was finally time to pull out the box of 1.5" Kaffe fabric strips and get serious about the rest of the pieced sashing.  I has happy to see a little bag of partial length strips I could use up.

Here they are all grouped and ready to sew.  This will make 9 of the 10 needed and I have a little section of a previous strata that I can get the 10th one from.

 Tomorrow I'll just have garden photos as I try to finalize my plans for this quilt(s).

3 more auditioned......

Last night I cut squares from another colorway of the circles on beige shown yesterday.  This one is a little deeper toned gold.  At the bottom is another brown print with flowers.

This photo has the same print at the bottom but a different one in the squares at the top.  It also has 4 more sashing strips on the design wall.

I thought the dark brown yesterday looked depressing and darkened the quilt too much, just not the look I'm after.  I liked the beige with gray and lavender circles the best and realized that most of my choices were too plain and it really needed to be a busier print to not just jump and be the first thing you saw.  I want to thank you all for your comments and the reasons for your choices.  It helps me to see things that I am missing by being too close to the project.

I'm adding the photo in the book to this post so you can see that the corner squares need to be integrated into the design, not jump out at you.  Kaffe used little pinwheels and not the same fabrics in all of them either.  I want my corner squares to blend in more with the sashing strips too.  So now the question is, do any of the last 3 fit the bill?  2 of them are close, but I'm still not positive.  I have 10 more sashing strips to make and I need to have the corner squares chosen by the time they are done.  You know, the next quilt is calling me............

More choices............

The longer I looked at the green with dots yesterday the more I liked the look of a grid over green fabric so I cut another batch of squares to see more of it.

Of course I had to try a few more choices though.  This one has a very dark brown in a print called Aboriginal Dot.  You might be able to see the print if you click on the photo to enlarge it. 

I thought a lime green print might work so I pulled out the first one I saw and tried it.  Even if it was a solid lime, I don't think it would work because it emphasizes the yellow in the blocks.

The last choice of the day yesterday was a beige background with gray and lavender circles.  This one also gives a grid floating over the background look.    If I want it to look more like the one in the book, the red is probably the best choice because it joins the stripped sashing  where this beige one separates itself from the sashing and blocks and becomes a third element (but I like it).

I only got 5 more sashing strips made yesterday so I have a couple more days on this one.