One More Row

Yesterday I finished the last block center for the “36-Ring Circus” English Paper Piecing ((EPP) wedding ring quilt I’ve worked on for YEARS now. And, that I’m now determined to finish.

I had these centers all prepped back in March 2022, but did not sew them together. Now, I realized I wanted to make sure that I understood how they would each fit into the last row of the quilt–taking into consideration the placement of the centers in the whole quilt.

I laid out the finished top three rows and lined up the finished bottom two rows. Hmmm. It is interesting and kind of funky with the Cotton+Steel fabric centers.

How these bottom blocks of the 6th row get placed depends on WHAT one is looking in one moment–which is always true of quilt block placement. I can already see blocks I might want to switch around, but then also see “but wait, it would be too close to `that block.'” I am going to switch out the far right two blocks though–even though the corner block will be close to the red mushroom block above it. The lighter aqua block is too pale to hold down the corner.

At some level, it just is what it is…

But, I’m seeing other issues that are not working for me while looking at this picture–which is why taking a picture is a really good idea. I need to split up the blocks with the strong blue in them.

I still have to make and sew the templates that will square off this quilt. They are larger and might go faster. I’ll use all dark solid fabrics. And I might need to add some additional borders–a narrow one and a wider one. Thank heavens as they would be done on a sewing machine.

I took a moment yesterday to finish off the edge of this cotton kitchen towel hand cloth used to dry wet hands–made from cotton balls I had on hand for grandchildren, but which didn’t get used to teach them to knit due to no visits to Maine during covid. These balls became my hand work at night while I packed up in Maine. And, later, while I was waiting to get into my new home.

I had fun playing with patterns along the way–and explored a moss stitch in one of these hand cloths. A plain old garter stitch is sturdy for this kind of use too.

The cloths sit in a dish given to me many years ago by another Enright “outlaw” wife during a visit to Maine: Judy O’Connor.

The outdoor room blinds are being installed as I write this morning.