Sewing stratas.....................

Even though I'm not done cutting strips from the Marcia Derse fabric, I had to start sewing pairs together.  They all need pressing now before I can cut them into the segments for the blocks.

I like some pairs better than others, but the overall look is what I need to be concerned with.

These 24 stratas will produce 48 blocks (if I don't make any cutting mistakes) and that would only be a 48" x 64" quilt.  I have a large piece for backing that I scored on sale so I need to make it larger.

The porch pots are looking a little sad now that bugs have started chomping on the leaves.  I haven't see any bugs but so I'm not sure what kind is doing the damage.

The petunias have come back to life but the bugs are even eating holes in the petals.

I love the centers of the Coneflowers, especially when they are fresh and not starting to dry up.

A few of the Annabelle Hydrangea blooms are starting to turn lime green.

Our late afternoon rain was a fizzle yesterday, but some more storms came through later.  I'm hoping to see some water in the rain gauge this morning.

Cutting....................

A friend and I are making a Marcia Derse fabric quilt so while I have all of the fabrics out, I'm cutting 2.5" strips for a 16 patch.  I'm cutting duplicates of lots of them so I will have extras if I don't find enough variety for just one strip of each.  Each pair of fabrics makes 2 blocks so it is easy to figure how many strips you need.  If you are making 80 blocks you need 80 strips, with 2 strips paired making 2 blocks you will end up with 40 pairs, or in other words 2 blocks alike of each pair of fabrics.

I started putting the pieces for the other quilt up on a design wall but I'm not totally happy with the assortment of colors, so I'm cutting more fabrics to mix in.

I'm finally seeing little tomatoes in the top branches of my tomato plants.  The hot weather created tall skinny plants and now a few more normal days in the 82 to 85 range have the plants producing again.  There are still a couple 90s popping up in the future forecast. 

Outside.....................

It looked like there was a possibility of rain yesterday morning but I decided to water the tomato plants anyway.  There were some red ones so I invited my 4 year old neighbor girl to pick them for her family.  There were 3 red and one orange that needed a couple more days on the windowsill.  I picked a couple orange ones for my windowsill too.  We ended up getting .3" of rain by 2 p.m.  I'm hoping we will get some more later this week since this was the first measurable rain this month.

When I went out to check the rain gauge I noticed quite a few blooms on the Yellow Coneflower.

There were more of the shaggy center Red Coneflowers too.  There are lots of weeds in this flowerbed and now that it has rained I should be able to pull out a bunch of it.

Behind the red blooms is the pot with all of the leftover Coleus plants in it.  They were tiny and not looking so great when I planted them and they look great now.  I have a Lungwort plant there that somehow migrated from the back garden.

I had moved the garage pots out farther so they could catch some of the rain too.  Now they are back where they belong.

In the geranium pot are the wintered over plants from last year and 2 new $1.88 tiny plants from a big box store.  They are all blooming now, as well as the Begonias in the pot next to it.

 

A couple more layouts...............

In the comments yesterday my friend Mary G suggested turning 2 of the blocks in each set of 4 to make star blocks.  In this version dark stars are alternated with light stars.

This one is with all dark stars.  But wait, I have already made a Kaffe quilt with this layout but I think I don't think I made Broken Dishes blocks for it.

I made this one in 2022 and it isn't exactly the same but in my mind the layout was the same.  This one has double row stars and creates the same diagonals as the layout above.

I'm still leaning strongly toward saving the blocks for a potential border on a future Kaffe quilt, maybe a medallion quilt.

Thinking about layouts.....................

There are just 8 more Broken Dishes blocks waiting to be sewn so it is time to think about layouts  I have to try several to get an idea what i like best.

This one is pretty straight forward, 8 blocks across, 10 down for a 48" x 60" quilt.  It could have a border to increase the size.

Grouping them in 4s with either borders all around each block or sashing between blocks.  Estimating 1" borders or 2" sashing, it would be 58" x 72" and could still have a border added.

My brain isn't ready to figure out how many blocks across and how many down x the diagonal measurement right now.  I think I have a chart for that.  Set this way they look like Hourglass blocks instead of Broken Dishes.

The setting triangles could be half blocks or something spicy like onion rings, or one of the other black and white Brandon Mably prints.

So many ideas, and 120 blocks to work with.

I wonder if there are any other settings I could consider.  I could also save the blocks to use as a border around a quilt top.  I always hate having to make a pieced border when I have a top almost completed.  This way I could have the border first and make the center second.

New fabric....................

There is a new line of Marcia Derse fabric, just released.  I had to have a few new ones to mix in with my older lines.  The line is called Sketchbook 21.  Chris at Dye Candy Fabrics was the first to send an email that it was available so I ordered from her.

This is my favorite print in the new line.

And here is my second favorite.

I always love circle fabrics mixed into a project.

These 3 have possibilities so I didn't want to leave them behind.  I didn't get any of 3 of the new prints.  Maybe later.

The Yellow Coneflower is doing well.  There should be several flowers totally open in a couple days.

I got 21 more Broken Dishes blocks pieced last night and pressed the batch from 2 days ago.  Also I sewed all of the rest of the triangles into squares.  I think I will have 120 six inch blocks when all are sewn.

 

Still hot..................

It's been too hot for me to think about a new project so I'll just continue sewing these squares for Broken Dishes blocks.

With all that I sewed yesterday and Thursday, I have plenty to start sewing into blocks.  I pressed all of them so I would be ready for assembly last night and today.  I sewed 32 blocks last night and added them to the 39 already sewn.  They are 6" blocks.

I watered the tomato plants and then went to the front garden and watered the bushes.  This is the Zinfin Doll Hydrangea finally starting to bloom.  They will go from this green to white, then pink and lastly a raspberry color towards fall.

The Black-eyed Susan plants don't mind the hot sun.  These are the first blooms.

The second plant had a few blooms too.  These photos were taken in the bright sun so the greens have a yellow-green cast.

This Hosta that gets shade the earliest is still looking good, with many blooms.

I watch the weather on 2 different channels, WGN and ABC.  One says it will be 82 Monday and no 90s predicted for the rest of next week.  The other says 86 Monday and 90 both Tuesday and Wednesday.  How can they interpret it so differently?