This and that day........

I had a hard time sticking with anything yesterday.  It was a rainy gloomy day and I couldn't get motivated.  I did sew the rest of the duplicate 16 patch blocks and put them up on the design wall.  Every time I make a diagonal layout quilt I say I'm not going to do another one, but right on the heels of the Diagonal Madness quilt I have this one up as a diagonal layout again.  I need to make 9 more blocks to make it into a rectangular quilt.  I thought about leaving it square and using it as a tablecloth in my red kitchen.  The only problem with that is that I already have 2 tablecloths and don't need a third one.

I sewed 2 of the long rows last night and the bottom right corner.   My 2 friends and I had fun yesterday catching up on 58 years of our lives as well as '3 heads are better than 1 or 2' when figuring out a lot of the details of our years together in 5th -7th grade.  We went to the old grade school, now used for many other purposes, all education related.  The new school has been built less than a quarter of a mile away.  The people working in the building were all so nice to us and let us explore the classrooms and the community room.  They even seemed to enjoy three elderly women reminiscing their childhoods.  We went by the apt. building our Ohio friend had lived in and past the farmhouse my other friend lived in.  My old house has been torn down.  It was a wonderful day!

A sewing day...

The after effects of the headache were gone by noon so I decided I should sew.  I got all of the setting triangles cut and 8 rows sewn on this one.  It is pretty boring sewing a diagonal layout but easy to keep track of which row you are on when sewing 2 rows at a time.  I have decided to add the 9 patch border. I will have to figure out what size to cut the squares after I get this all sewn and trim the oversized section of setting triangles.  I would rather cut the setting triangles too big and trim afterwards than have them barely fitting.

I switched over to sewing the blocks together into a top on this one when I got tired of diagonal rows.

Today a grade school friend from Ohio is going to meet my other childhood friend and I for lunch.  We have set up the date a couple times and it didn't work out but this time it's going to happen.  I haven't seen her since 7th grade so it's pretty exciting.

Saturday things..

I got up with a headache yesterday but it didn't get really bad until around noon.  I worked 2 hours at the quilt shop in the morning and visited Dad later in the afternoon.  Otherwise I didn't do anything except look through a stack of fabric, nap and play Spider Solitaire.

This is the newest bloom on the fourth cacti plant.  There are 2 more plants with buds, one orange and one that is some shade of  pink.

16 more blocks, frosty morning.......

The greens go from almost a lime to mossy green in various values and the photo doesn't capture that.  I love the corals in the warm color prints.  I sewed the last 16 blocks and put all of the blocks on the design wall while watching 2 hours of TV last night.  This would have been easier if I had 24 fabrics instead of 12 because it is hard to not have 2 alike coming together.  I think this is the final layout.....

I took this photo from the bedroom window, my maple tree in the back yard.

I had to get a photo of the burning bush.  It is past its prime and the leaves are starting to dry out.  You can see my maple tree in the background as well as the bare redbud tree and my neighbors' garage.

Yesterday morning was still frosty at 9 a.m.

Goldmound spirea in autumn colors.

The hosta has turned yellow, the columbine is still green and the sedum has red flowers.  So much beauty in nature.

I will be working at Quilter's Heart again this morning.  There is a lot of fabric still left and a great time to buy quilt backing at 40% off.

Something new.........

My friends and I had a great time yesterday talking and eating and talking some more.  I hadn't seen a couple of them for over a year.  They left around 3:30 so by 6 p.m. I was ready to do something on my clean cutting tables.  I have had these 12 fabrics chosen for a project for about 4 months, all pressed and ready to cut into.

This is the original pattern I had for this project.  I made a small quilt with the original directions a few years ago.  I have used many different measurements for the center square.  I used 7" centers and 4.25" strips for this tutorial.

It took about 45 minutes to cut all of the pieces for 24 blocks and 2 hours to sew them to this stage of the project. The next step is why I call it Stack and Slash.  

I decided to stack 4 blocks  dark/light/dark/light and slice them all at once. I also worked at the corner of a table so I could stand on one side for this first cut and.......

on another side for the second cut.  I am putting the 2.25" mark of the ruler on the seamline of the center square and the outside strip.

After cutting.

Then I shuffled the pieces like we do in so many of the stack and slash quilts.  This gives me 4 blocks with the same 8 fabrics but the position changes for each color.

After I had 2 sets of them cut and sewn I put the resulting 8 blocks on the wall.  There will be a lot more variety as I get the next 4 stacks slashed and sewn.  I would be bored to tears working with just 12 fabrics if this wasn't a fast quilt.  As it is it will probably be done tomorrow.

As for my friends' opinion on the quilt yesterday, they liked the 9 patch border too so I may add it to that quilt.

My final layout.......

I changed out the light lavender 4 patch squares that were in the far left row and cut some more plain squares for a better match to fill into the rows that have 9 squares in them.  Now I have to decide on setting triangles.  I mentioned before that this was inspired by the Diagonal Madness quilt in one of the Kaffe books.

His is deeper toned and then has the added border of 9 patches.  As much as I like the border, I'm not sure I'll put it on mine.  I just wanted a fast, instant gratification quilt made of spare parts that were already sewn.  I'll think about it and see what my company today says about it.  My former co-workers from the quilt shop in Batavia are coming over.  I left the job up there 11 years ago and we try to get together at least once a year.