The sedum flower heads outside my dining room window. We got about 4" of snow and it is going to be in the single digits today. Yesterday morning I went out to shovel the sidewalk for the mailman but that was enough of the cold for me.
I went through a bag of red pieces of less than a quarter yard and pulled all of the ones that read similar in color and value. I need to cut 4.5" squares from these and from some of my red yardage. It is hard to photograph red and they are all darker than they look here.
There were a few pieces too narrow for those squares but I need 2.5" strips too.
This is a little closer to the right color of red. I think I'm going to use the white with black prints as my light color in the quilt that I showed on my blog a couple days ago.
Last week I was choosing fabrics for my next Marcia Derse fabric quilt. I just realized 2 days ago that I'm using some of the Pantone Color of the Year 2019 which is Living Coral. I have many shades of coral in there as well as a couple orange and rust and one red/orange. I generally get bored making a quilt with too limited of a selection but I think I will be OK with this group.
Each block has 2 colors and the background fabric so I divided them into sets of 2 with some being both the warm color, some both green, and some mixed, coral/green.
My first pairing was all one of each color in the pair but I thought maybe that was just too predictable. Of course I can always change my mind midstream because I have more than I need of each of the fabrics. Hopefully I will get started on this soon.
I decided I need to be more organized this year so before I put away this baby quilt top for February I chose the border (plaid), backing (light print) and binding (narrow stripe). I even found a piece of batting close to the size I need. I will hang them all together on a hanger until I'm ready to finish it.
I have always wanted to make a quilt like the one on the left and recently found the same quilt (only larger) with a light background. I have the dies to cut all of the pieces so I think I need to do this one this year. The star is on point in both of these.
These are the 2 books that they are in, both from the 1990s.
Here is another quilt in a magazine that has the same star only straight instead of on point like the other two. I like it too but might get bored making it unless I do it with 30 or more different red fabrics.
I forgot to add this photo yesterday with the colorwash finish. I used all 2 yards of the backing fabric and had none left for the hanging sleeve. I looked through my green fabrics and thought this one looked great.
In one of the boxes in the basement I found these 16 flannel blocks and a bunch more 1.5" strips. I think I intended to make more blocks back in Dec. 2011 or maybe piano key borders, but at this point I just want to finish some things whatever size they are. I sewed this top while watching the 10 p.m. news last night.
Even after making several plaid and stripe flannel quilts the last 2 years I still have plenty of flannel fabric left so I'll sew on a 3-4" border and back it with flannel in Feb. I just gifted the last flannel baby quilt so this one will replace it.
I put the last hand stitches in the binding of this colorwash while I watched the 10 p.m. news last night. It finished at 40" x about 63". All of the fabrics are printed quilting cottons and the pieces are finished 2" x 4" rectangles.
Keeping with the floral/nature theme of the prints on the front, the back is beautiful large flowers and leaves.
The binding is a fabric from the early 1990s and is a black background with brown stylized flowers and tiny gray leaves.
Now my finishing for the month is over and I will tackle a bunch of paperwork and start some new quilts.
If I would get busy earlier in the day I would get more done. I thought maybe I had a chance of finishing this quilt but only got the quilting and trimming done. It is the largest colorwash I have quilted for quite a few years.
I love this backing fabric. I knew I would never cut it up in little pieces so it might as well go on the back of a quilt.
I have been devoting the first half of this month for finishing. Now the fun will begin as soon as the binding is done on this one. I have 3 quilts that I'm going to start cutting.
My red amaryllis flowers are fading fast and the next white ones are just opening. There are 4 more buds on this stalk.
And just because they make me so happy, here is a closer view of them.
This batik orphan block quilt is machine quilted with a medium size meander pattern.
It ended up 52.5" x 68".
The back is 4 strips of batik fabric leftover from other backings. I thought that was perfect for a quilt with so much variety on the front. I will wash this one to soften it up since the batiks on the back are unwashed fabric. I use Orvis soap, pure soap, not detergent to wash my quilts. Detergent scrubs the fabric but soap just cleans the fibers so it is kinder to quilting fabric. I think some quilt shops still sell it but I get mine at a farm supply store. It is a livestock soap so that is the department you need to look in.
