20 combinations.......

I have 20 combinations sewn.  There are 2 blocks of each combination except one which wasn't full width strips.  I have to choose 12 more combinations of 2 to get my 63 blocks which will make a quilt approximately 56" x 72".  I think that will be a good couch throw size.  I need to put some blocks with darker darks next to that dark block in the top row.  Then it won't stand out so much.

I went out in the morning to capture the image of my jungle.  Some weeds are taller than I am.  The purple coneflowers are anywhere from 3' to 5' tall.  The squirrels knocked over the sunflower (a volunteer from seed that falls from the feeder) but it decided to bloom anyway.

At 8:30 last night I noticed the sky had an apricot glow and here is the same garden with the glow bouncing off of it.

I have been pulling weeds by these 3 hostas but there is a volunteer oak tree there and lots of redbud shoots from the tree close by.  More work is needed to neaten it up.

I'm glad I was able to capture the weird color caused by the glow from the sky.

16 patch progress...........

I sewed a few more of the 16 patch blocks yesterday.  4 of these are new, 3 I had shown before.

Several sets are sewn and ready to slice to make the blocks.  I have to turn the iron on today to press fabric for a church project and to iron all of my blouses.  Luckily the basement is cool because we're in for a hot weekend.

Here are some more of my little troll friends.

And some more......

Seeing stars.........

This is the other project I was working on Tuesday when my friends came over.  I add the sashing strips to the left and cornerstone and sashing strip to top of every block and then go to the design wall.

After I have made a decision of the order of the blocks I will know which ones need a right side strip and which ones need a bottom strip.  Only one block ends up with strips all around, the bottom right.

Now I have the right and bottom strips sewn on and I'm ready to assemble the quilt top (except I ran out of energy).

I hung a piece of fabric to the right and then cropped it into a border width with my camera software.  This white and black print has some green in it too.

I meant to post this photo yesterday with the red/white/blue hair.  Just 2 more of my trolls.  I only bought ones that were strange.  I figured they would be the only ones that might be worth more at a later date.

Independence day and anniversary.........

Happy 4th of July, Independence Day to my US friends.  Also it is my 6th anniversary of starting my blog.  I wasn't sure I would have enough to say.....and I guess I do!

I have the border sewn on this quilt now.

I also finished the border on this one while my friends were at my house Tuesday.  This one will have a wild large print on the back.

One of my friends brought this yummy pie to bake on Tues.  It has several kinds of berries and rhubarb in it.  I was going to take a photo before we cut into it.... but we couldn't wait to eat it.

I chose some more fabrics for the current 16 patch quilt. 

Yesterday was a day of gentle summer rain and nice cool temperatures.  It was a good day to sew and read and I finished the current book, the last of the V.I. Warshawski series.

16 patch tutorial.......

 I am using 2.5" strips of batik which doesn't have wide selvages so I can get 2 blocks out of every 2 strips sewn together.  You need enough contrast between the 2 strips that you know which one is the light fabric and which is the dark fabric of the pair.  Sew 2 strips, press the seam toward the dark fabric and then cut it into 2 equal pieces as shown. 

Sew them together and press the seam toward the dark fabric.

Slice it into 2.5" segments.  You should be able to get 8 (4 for each block) from batiks.

Flip strips 2 and 4 so colors alternate.  Make sure that every block has the light fabric in the upper left corner (very important).

Sew seams to make a block and press seams all in the same direction.

The last seams sewn in the blocks should be in a vertical position all through the quilt top.  Vertical seams on the top row go in one direction and row two in the opposite direction.  The crosswise seams will alternate direction automatically because they are all pressed to the dark.

You will probably need to enlarge this last photo by clicking on it to clearly see that seams are going opposing directions at every intersection in both directions.

Planning some borders............

I was showing my art quilter friends that I am going to put borders on both of these quilts so the pattern will float on the background.

While looking for things for the garage sale I ran across these templates.  Some of you may never have had the pleasure of meeting Doreen Speckman, the person who named 2 block shapes Peaky and Spike.

Doreen designed many blocks using these shapes.  This sheet of patterns was included in the package with the templates.

I designed this quilt in one of her workshops.  She gave us sheets of block drawings and we cut them out and played with layouts and then glued the block drawings onto a sheet of paper.  When we got home we made photocopies of the page and then got out our marker pens and tried different colorways.  This was back in the late 1980s or early 1990s.  Doreen passed away at a very young age but she will never be forgotten by those of us who were lucky enough to meet her and hear her lectures and take her workshops.

 

I hope to have my tutorial ready for tomorrow's post.  I have a couple friends coming over today to sew, more relaxing fun.

Something new.......

I thought maybe I should do a tutorial on how to plan a 16 patch so that seams are all going in opposing directions when you are ready to sew blocks together into the top.

I chose a few fabrics to get started with.  I have about a thousand 2.5" strips to choose from.  I have been cutting a strip off every batik that I get out for every quilt that I make.  The blue strips that I pulled to make the last quilt hardly made a dent in the drawers full of strips.

Just to prove I did sew something, here they are with the first seam sewn in all of the pairs.

The art quilters are coming today.  The weather is supposed to be beautiful.