I’ve been busy!
Life…happened.
And life has included watering outside as it is again very dry. But our weather has been spectacular for days now. This morning we had a little colder weather, and I needed warmer clothes and slippers on my bare feet.
And life has included that there are a host of quilty projects happening.
The most recent “Pot Pourri” quilt made from the 3 1/2 inch Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star squares is finished. It is “Pot Pourri 4.” There are MORE quilts from these blocks not called by that Pot Pourri name. And…I still have about half a bin each of the colored and neutral squares.
PP4 came out much cuter than I had thought it would be–but what could go wrong? It’s scrappy goodness from great fabric prints!
The backing is a turquoise wideback that works well. I used a kind of light seafoam green thread and a pantograph that was new to me and suggested by Wendy Curry, my Canadian online longarm quilting friend: Rhododendron. It was a fun panto to sew. I used the backing fabric for the binding.
My online class “Blocks 2” with Tara Faughnan has started. The first block with which we are playing is the Hourglass block, also known as “Broken Dishes.” It’s long been a favorite of mine. Tara, as is usual, had dozens of ways to manipulate it–modern, improv, and traditional.
What drew my interest in my current moment of making a series of at least 3 scrappy quilts from the half-rectangle block–using Latifah Saafir’s Hurty Ruler–was Tara’s example of taking that half-rectangle block and making it into an hourglass form.
I set up a palette from my solid stash that came as close to Tara’s palette as I could–though I did limit the number of colors but made sure to have darks, mediums, and light fabrics included. And then I made two quilt versions of the half-square rectangle hourglass blocks I made (3 by 6 inches)–one dark and one light/bright.
Here’s the dark one–which is 18 inches square. I’m hand quilting it with my 12-weight cotton threads–just a simple grid. I pulled threads that match these colors. I might try facing these two little quilts, as I need to learn to do that well. It’s all about play, right? And with the binding on PP4 finished, I was missing night hand sewing. Otherwise, tv makes me so restless.
I got the lighter one sewn together last night and will layer it today. I’ll use the brighter threads to match the brighter colors.
I like both of them, but I have no idea how I’ll use these two blocks–but I do have some ideas. And I think this block would make an awesome bigger quilt. But I’m not going there right now.
I will play with the traditional hourglass block before I break up this palette. Maybe just a few blocks…LOL.
The design wall is FULL!
I’ve got the blocks set now for the second half-square rectangle quilt. The first is on the longarm and is now basted and waiting for me to finish it. I’m using a challenging panto that is new to me, so I’m hesitant I think, but also engaged in these other projects.
To remind you, here is “Arrows” which is on the longarm.
Here’s the second quilt: “Diamonds.” I changed out the bottom row diamond and am making one I like better. The top two rows are sewn together–after days of moving blocks around and trying out more diamonds than originally planned. And, playing with ways to NOT make the diamonds altogether symmetrical. Or, all of the neutral backgrounds symmetrical–as would be typical in a traditional quilt. I wanted the edges to feel a bit…scattered.
PP5: Crosses–is on the right and needs to have its rows sewn together to free up space to finish it–which is not far from being done.
I also know what I’ll do for the third quilt in this series–and am already looking forward to starting it.
I also got tired of pawing through my 12-wt thread spools for the “right” color and put them all into shallow boxes where I can see them all at one glance. I’m loving that!
OK, folks. That’s it for now, and I’m sending all of you my best wishes for a lovely week.
Louisa Enright's Blog 