3 more blocks...............

It was a low key day yesterday.  I sewed the bottom 3 blocks last night.  I also cut several more large center squares and paired all of the fabrics for 12 more blocks so they are ready to sew tonight.

Once again we just got a bare covering of snow on the grassy areas overnight Saturday and yesterday morning.  The end of actual winter is just a week away and we got off easy this year. 

Top sewn, border auditions started...........

My Canon camera likes to make blue predominant, my Android phone likes to show warmer tones as predominant. (See IG photo @exuberantcolor if you have an IG account).  The quilt top is somewhere between the 2 and very pretty if I say so myself.  It is 48" x 64" now and I intended to add a border to this one.  (sorry the bottom of the quilt is cut off by the bar on my longarm machine).

I ordered 2 fabrics from an ebay seller (at a really good price) that I thought might work for borders on Wednesday and I received them yesterday.  I hung them both next to the top (close ups are following) to see what I thought.  The one on the left makes the top yell "I've Been Framed!" and the one on the right blends in and is hardly noticeable as a border.

I knew a black background print would give me good contrast, but it is a REALLY BIG contrast.

One of the suggestions by many of the top quilt artists is that the border should be an integral part of the overall design of the quilt, not just something plopped on the edge to make the quilt larger.  I have to decide which way to go but that won't be today.  It needs a time out for a couple days.  I intend the border to be wide so that is why I show it as wide borders.

Last night I switched to the other Australian fabric quilt that is mostly cut.  I need to cut some more of the large squares and the fabric is all pressed, ready and waiting for me.

 

Sewn not pressed............

Over two hours, that is how long it took to get to the final layout of this Australian fabric 16 patch quilt top.  I kept taking photos and loading them to my laptop, changing another block, another photo loaded, another block changed, etc. for over 2 hours.  The camera emphasized the dark and light values so I could see trouble spots that weren't as noticeable just looking at the layout.  I'm happy with the layout now and it is all sewn but since I finished at 10:30 last night I will press it and photograph it today.

The Amaryllis from the hardware store last year is in full bloom now.  There are only 2 flowers but they are beautiful.

The snow storm mostly missed us Thursday night into Friday morning with snow just barely covering the grassy areas and it all melted yesterday.  They are predicting more snow tonight into Sunday morning and the temperatures are going to be in the 30s for 4 days.  If we get snow maybe it will stick around for a few days.

 

Cleaning up this and that................

The sewing cabinet had a lot of things laying on it, one of them being the end pieces of the Australian fabric stratas for the 16 patch quilt.  I decided to trim them straight and sew them together.  They were anywhere from 7/8" wide to 1 1/2" wide cut size.  This little piece sewn together is 8.5" x 13", big enough for a mug rug or add borders for a placemat.  I'll just put it up on the design wall for now, decisions later.

The next thing was the 1.5" light strips to use for sashing on the Bear Paw blocks.  I showed a bag of half length strips on Monday that were left over from a quilt top made in 2009.  I went through them and found 49 pieces that will work.  I overlapped them by 1/2" on my cutting mat and cut them to the 14.5" length that I will need.  I still need 16 more pieces so I'll cut from yardage for those.

The leftovers are 7-8" long.  I'll put them in a bag and put them with the rest of the darker strips.

Maybe by the end of the week I can have these blocks back on the design wall with the strips placed between the blocks.  The 49 strips are all different fabrics but the 16 I will cut will be 8 fabrics with 2 from each strip.

This is the third blooming of the red cactus.  I have a couple others that never bloomed this winter.  One of the cacti with champagne color blooms has one bud and there is one bud on the orange one.

It started snowing after dark last night but most of the storm went north of us.  Closer to the Wisconsin line some places had over 6" of snow.

 

The last 8 blocks...........

This is the last group of blocks for the Australian 16 patch and there are 2 blocks of each.  I haven't pressed them yet so they can't go up on the design wall yet.

I pressed all of the other blocks after lunch yesterday and got them up on the design wall leaving openings for 8 new blocks.  I will need to move some blocks to new places I'm sure as I get the last group mixed in.

I filled my bird feeders yesterday because we have snow predicted for late afternoon and through the night.  I wonder if the predictions are right this time.

I found some Australian fabric on sale on ebay, a person with 100% satisfaction rating.  Most of it was around $7.99 a yard.  Two hours after I placed my order I got an email that my order was cut and packaged and a label has been created.  Now it is all up to USPS to get it here.

Fabrics chosen...........

These are the 6 fabrics I chose to make the last six 16 patch blocks, 2 each of each combination.  I did my grocery shopping yesterday afternoon so I didn't get these fabrics pressed and cut.

I did get most of the duplicate blocks made.  There are 2 more to sew laying by my sewing machine.

This is one combination where I don't think both blocks will work. That means choosing 2 more fabrics so I will end up with 48 blocks.  I looked through the rest of the Australian fabrics and don't think I have any piece large enough for borders.  I will be looking for some yardage on sale or will end up with many fabrics pieced together for the border.

 

Australian fabric 16 patch begun.............

It was the day to turn on the iron yesterday.  I took down the Bear Paw blocks and pressed each one and pinned the rows in order.  I needed the design wall for the Australian 16 patch blocks.  I pressed the stratas and then sliced the segments and sewed one of the 2 blocks from each combination.

Here is a closer view of a portion of it.  I will be looking through the fabrics today to figure out which 6 fabrics will make up the last 3 stratas that I need to sew.

I showed buds on 2 of my Amaryllis plants a little over 3 weeks ago.  One of them shot up rather quickly but it was skinny and it looks like just 2 flowers on it.

The other one had been sitting there doing nothing and now the bud is fattening up a little and it is little taller.  I sure hope this means flowers in my future.

The third plant just has a lot of leaves and it looks like a second little plant on the bulb.  I guess I will have to take this one out of the pot and remove all of the dirt and see if it is another bulb that I need to separate from the large bulb.  I'll wait until it is the season to take them outside for the summer to do that.