Just playing with layouts............

I sewed some more triangle blocks and then started playing with pieces for layouts.  None of these are sewn together.

The positive negative layout in a quilt would give me the opportunity to have all seams nesting if I'm careful with my pressing.

Since they are all loose pieces and my sewing cabinet is piled with odds and ends I couldn't put 4 blocks together to see how they will look.

I'll do lots more sewing on this before I make any decisions.

To keep the light edges always touching a dark edge the 4 patches go in 2 different directions.  

The big snowstorm hitting Iowa starting yesterday is going to miss us.  We are actually getting a little lake effect snow from Lake Michigan 60 miles away.

My oldest great-grandson turns 8 today.  I wonder if he wished for a snowstorm for his birthday because where he lives they should have gotten quite a bit of snow.

Mindless sewing..........

I finally found the 3" quarter square blocks I sewed a couple months ago.  There were also enough pieces to piece 30 more blocks.  To continue I need to cut some more light triangles.

I also sewed one set of 2" strips 45" long to cut for 16 patches.  Maybe I should make a little Valentine mat with them and some of the Valentine theme fabric that I have.  Next I sewed one more batch of 24 matching half square triangle blocks.

I started cutting 4" flannel tumbler shapes but have a lot more to do before I can design and sew that quilt.

Carol, you are a no reply commenter, and yesterday you asked for info on the last quilt in my post yesterday.  If you go to the right side bar on my blog and click on Tutorials I have a post titled "something new" for Stack and Slash with tips of how I make the blocks.  I don't give exact measurements but show how I stack 4 blocks to cut at once and shuffle the layers and sew.  Some people cut every block individually but I streamlined the method for a workshop.

2 quilt tops............

The final seam was sewn and pressed.  I will have another photo of this flannel tumbler quilt top after I trim the points off the sides.  It should finish about 71" x 90". I used my 9" Studio tumbler die to cut the blocks.

This flannel quilt top is finished.  I used a 4.5" x 8.5" die to cut the pieces.  This top finished at 56" x 76".  Most of these fabrics were used in another quilt I finished in 2013.  That quilt had more dark fabrics in it than this one.   It is shown below.

Lots of rows sewn.........

I always think I am going to get more sewn than I can really accomplish.  Three and a half hours of sewing and I have one section of 4 rows and 4 sections of 2 row and the last 2 rows at the top aren't sewn together yet.

Some of the burgundy rectangles look like solids in the distance view but here you can see there is a pattern.  Also the stripe barely shows up in the photo above.

One of the fabrics looks like a hand dyed pattern with pink and orange in some of the pieces and more burgundy in others with the same periwinkle blue in all of them.

We had an icy drizzle Saturday night and it coated everything with a layer of ice.  The snow on the ground is like a mirror when the sun shines on it.  It was 5 degrees yesterday morning and it got up to 33 but I decided to order my groceries for delivery and stay in.  

Another flannel quilt designed...........

I got the 2 halves of the flannel tumbler pressed yesterday but haven't sewn the last seam yet.  I cut the rectangles for this flannel quilt on Sunday.  Since the design wall was empty I decided to design this one yesterday.  I still have some 4.5" squares to cut to fill in on the left side.  Then I can start sewing.  I made a quilt like this with Kaffe fabrics shown on this post.

I have another quilt lined up too.  I will use these 2.5" strips to make 16 patches.  I like that width of strip because I can get 2 blocks out of each pair of fabrics.  

I have some 2" strips cut more than 10 years ago that I am thinking of making a 16 patch with.  There are 2 strips of each fabric so I think I can get 5 blocks out of a full width group of 4 two inch strips.  Since the blocks will only be 6" finished that one will take a long time to sew.

I also have another flannel quilt ready to be cut with 4" tumblers.  It will have a lot of the same fabrics as the 9" tumbler quilt.

 

Bottom 5 rows sewn..........

The bottom 5 rows are sewn for the flannel tumbler quilt. The top is still folded in half above it.  I decided to press the halves before I sew the last seam.  Last night I realized I had to stop at 10 rows for length (90") so that the bottom row would start with a wide edge of the tumbler at the bottom.  The top row has the wide edge at the top so when I get ready to trim the sides the top and bottom match when I fold it in half.

I thought I would show some more orphan blocks. This batch is all made of batik.  There are many sizes and colors and the box is bulging.

I pulled all of the 16 patch blocks out and put them on the design wall so I could analyze the group.  I'm sure some of them will be in the next batik orphan block quilt.

The third box has blocks made with solids or regular quilting cottons.  Some of the blocks have batik and regular cottons.  I'm not sure there are enough that actually look good together in this box.

There were 16 patch blocks in this third box too.  I'm not ready to make another orphan block quilt right now but I may put blocks up on the design walls in the basement when I'm between projects.

 

The next 5 rows............

I folded the first 5 rows in half and hung it as high as I could reach on the design wall.  Then I designed the next 5 rows.  I will look at it again this morning and see if I want to move anything.  It would be 90" long if I stop at 10 rows.

Out of the remaining pieces I chose 11 more tumblers in case I want to add the 11th row for a 99" length.  I didn't want to pin this row of  pieces on last night because they would have covered the baseboard heating vents.

I looked through the remaining Kaffe orphan blocks last night.  They are bright colors compared to the soft red/pink/blue blocks I used in my finished quilt.

Here are a few more of the blocks.  I probably have enough blocks to make another quilt about the same size as the one I just finished.

I found these little 2 serving pies on my last grocery run.  I baked it and ate half so far.  I'll have the second half today.