Partially sewn............

It is on its side on the design wall because this is the way I was working on it in the design stage.

The left side is webbed together in rows with 8 more pieces to sew on before I sew the seams in the other direction.  It should only end up about 48" x 60".  It would probably look good with a 2" light print border all around so the dark zigzags would be floating.  

Other options in making this could have been light zig zags with dark diamonds and oriented the opposite direction with either of the colorations.  So basically it is one design, 4 options.  I know I have to make one in the other orientation out of different group of fabrics.

I raked off 2 garden area in the backyard yesterday and found a few peonies peeking out of the ground the the tips of one Hosta.  Also the Jonquil leaves were under all of it.

Changed layout..............

Yesterday morning I decided to go back to one of the layouts I showed in my first post about these blocks. (second collage, layout on the right).  I took this photo late in the afternoon with the sunshine on the bottom row.

Then I decided to turn it on its side and add the top row to the ends of the existing rows.  It looks like electrical current going ZAP!  I made the last 2 blocks last night but didn't photograph it again because I was going to rearrange a few blocks.  This photo was taken in late afternoon daylight without turning on my lights so the next photo should be better.

It got up to 62 degrees yesterday so I went outside and cut all of the old Sedum flower stalks and did a little raking. Today is supposed to be warm too and then rain off and on for 4 days so I'll do a little more outside work.

I finished the day cutting that last batch of pinks and sewing the corners on.  I found that heart fabric and had to add it.  As soon as I finish tweaking the half rectangle Kaffe quilt I will sew it and then I can get back to the layout of the pink blocks.

Playing..............

I made 12 more half rectangle blocks yesterday.  The other 6 face the opposite direction and were already up on my design wall when I took this photo.

The bottom half is all up on the wall and 1 plus a part of a row for the top half is up there.  One more complete row needs to be added to the top.  The farther I go on this project the more undecided I am if I even like it.  I can dismantle it and just do another design with the blocks. It is going to shrink 7.5" in width if I sew it and it will shrink 5.5" in height after the last row is added to the top and sewn.

My white cactus is really putting on a show with so many blooms at once and 3 buds ready to open today or tomorrow.

The orange one below it has several more buds too.

One fully opened bloom with buds in the background.

The pale pink on the shelf below the orange has 2 buds, one of which is at the first joint back from the tip.  I had several like that this year with one of them about 3 joints back.

Pink sewing...........

I sewed the corners on all of the elongated hexagon pieces that were cut.  Then I went searching for pinks for another 5 blocks.  I think I have a good selection ready to cut.

Speaking of pink, this bloom looks like a pink ballerina.  There were only 3 buds on this tiny cactus and this is bloom #2.

There are several buds on the orange cactus, 3 shown here.  This side of the plant didn't have any buds when the other side of it was blooming a few weeks ago. 

More cutting for 2 projects..........

Playing with 2 again.  I sewed more of the half rectangle blocks and filled them in on the design wall.  I'm not sure I'll stay with the 3 diamonds in the corners (look at bottom right corner).  I'll need to move it down the wall so I can get the top row on and I'm not quite ready to do that yet.

I had enough of the pink dot to cut corners for 17-1/2 more blocks so I'm probably going to make the quilt 4 x 6 blocks (32" x 48") instead of 5 x 7 blocks.  The other option is 5 x 5 blocks (40" x 40").  Either size is plenty big for a baby's tummy time quilt.

Exciting mail 2 days in a row.

My blogger friend Patty sent me one of the project bags she makes.  The color is way off in my photo so go to her blog to see how it really looks.  I told her I wanted to make some of these too and she sent me a link to the video and then she sent me this one so I can really see how it is made.  It is so pretty and already in use.

The next day I received a package from Belgium from a reader.  I did some critiquing on something she was making and she wanted to send me a treat.

I haven't checked out the candy bars yet.  I love the tin with hinged lid that the cookies are in.

The cookies are about 1/8" thick and super crispy, just the way I like them.

This was the wrapper around one kind.  No artificial stuff, just ingredients I have heard of: flour, sugar, butter, eggs.  I decided to eat dessert first for lunch yesterday.  Yummy!

Working on pink..........

More variety of pinks were cut yesterday and I found a white with pink dots for the corner triangles.  The problem is I won't have enough of it for 35 blocks so either I will make it smaller than planned or add plain white for the rest of the corners.

Here is a closer view of some of the new fabrics and the triangle fabric.

Some of the fabrics are dark pink, some very light pink.  

I have quite a few more light pinks to cut, or eliminate.  I have some pink batiks that I could add too so I need to make a decision.  I will cut all of the rest of the white with pink dots into triangles today and see how many blocks I can make.
 

A side trip......

 I went to the basement to do some laundry and cut some more half rectangles.  While down there I decided to cut some pink elongated hexagon pieces for my next baby quilt.  The X and O blocks will be 8" finished and my preliminary plan is to make 35 blocks for a 5 x 7 setting (40" x 56").  I started with Kaffe collective pinks because I was already working with that group for my half rectangles.  I have about 25 other pinks ready to cut.  I may have to use white solid for the triangles if I don't find a really light pink print.  I started out with all of the fabrics mixed.

I didn't have 4 of every fabric cut but I was able to do a mock-up that is pretty well matched.  I think the design looks softer with the fabrics mixed and more distinct as a pattern with matched fabrics.

Now I need to get back to cutting more half rectangles.

Happy St. Patrick's day!