There were no finishes in May. I spent a lot of time outside instead. I did have some finished tops however. I still haven't decided whether the one on the right will get a border. I am tempted to just quilt it as it. It is 66" x 88", not quite a bed size, but do I care? I usually let recipients chose a quilt from a group chosen by me and then I find myself apologizing that they aren't bed size. I think I need to get past that.
In a previous post I showed the colorwash quilt both like this and a 180 degree turn (which is the way I designed it). See it here. I think that this way it looks like flowers at the bottom and sky at the top. The other way the it looks like the sun at the top. It is made of rectangles that finish at 1.5" x 3" and it ended up 39" x 53".
Before I took the Drunkard's Path blocks off the design wall to move to a double size design wall I turned a few to different positions to try another layout. I think this looks like bouncing balls. I will play with the blocks on the larger wall today.
I planted one more pot to go by my garage. The Coleus will give me color without any blooms in these pots.
This is 48 of the 80 plaid and stripe Drunkard's Path blocks. This is the most predictable layout and one that I wouldn't usually choose but with the large variety of fabrics that I have used, it might be the best one. The other 32 blocks are duplicates of what is here on the design wall. I was too tired last night to try any other layouts. This is not a final layout by any means, just plopped up on the wall in the order they were in the pile after pressing.
I ended up using the 5 stripe pieces that are cut on the diagonal.
I am close to done cutting for 80 7" blocks. I just need 4 more pieces of the shape on the left. I decided to start pairing pieces and cut the last 4 when I know what I need.
I got 40 sewn last night and paired the rest. Now I know I need 4 lighter pieces to finish the cutting. Here is a post where I show how I sew curved seams. I don't use any pins now though.
I had to take the flannel off the design wall that I moved for better lighting and cut the board down 1". Then I put the flannel back on and set it up ready for the next project.
It was beautiful yesterday so I mowed the grass and planted one more tomato plant. I have a few more things to plant today before the rain starts again tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day!
Four times yesterday I went to the basement to find some squares for the corners of this block. I was sidetracked by something else each time and never did bring any upstairs.
I planted my two hanging planters for the backyard. I did red flowers this year. I'll take a photo after they have grown a little. I have tiny tomatoes on 2 of my plants. They like the rain we have been getting as well as the hot sunshine.
I planted my Elephant Ear bulbs and a couple more Canna bulbs. Carrying the 40 lb. bags of potting soil should be toning my muscles.
I sold a couple things on my Wandaful blogshop so I got them ready to mail and then went to the basement to do some cutting. I started with triangles to go in the Kaffe/plaid/stripe quilt.
Then using my acrylic templates I cut some more of the Drunkard's Path pieces. I thought I wanted the stripes on the diagonal but I cut some on the straight grain and think that is my choice instead. Luckily I had only cut 2 fabrics on the diagonal. I have a whole pile of fabric waiting to be pressed and cut for this quilt.
While I had the plaids out and pressed to cut triangles I decided to cut 7" Drunkard's Path pieces too. These are loose pieces on the design wall. I won't sew any of them until I have a better selection cut. Then I'm sending the leftovers and scraps of the plaids to a friend. You might remember my other plaid quilt top made in 2014. I will keep a few pieces in case I want to add the plaids to another quilt.
I need my basting tables cleaned off so I finished cutting preemie gowns and put away all of the leftover flannel. Now I can baste a quilt to quilt on the straight stitch machine with the new lights (see yesterday's post).
My straight stitch machine has new lighting, a Mother's Day present. I had to take the photo in semi darkness or the lights didn't show up. They are little LED lights on a sticky backed strip.
For anyone who wants the technical info here is the instruction sheet.
I had 2.5 hours of TV watching last night so I sewed some of the star blocks with the 2" finished triangle squares. I'll keep making them until I get tired of them and then decide what I am going to do with them.
I picked my first bouquet of peonies yesterday afternoon. I always keep the bouquet in the garage overnight to be sure the ants are all out of them. We had rain storms come through in the late afternoon and my rain gauge had 1.75" in it.
