Rainy Days Sewing

Who was the person whining about no rain and a drought in recent months?

Yep, that was me.

My prayers have now been answered as we have gotten 12 inches of rain in my little rain gauge from Wednesday to Sunday night.

So, I….sewed.

I had a happy little retreat right here in my house.

The pink gift quilt for my backdoor neighbors’ baby girl is getting its binding sewn down. Said baby girl is due around Thanksgiving and is a first child. Our neighborhood is now full of young children and lots of new babies and young children–all of which I find delightful.

I’ve named this quilt “Girls in Trees” due to the Heather Ross print on the back with which I’ve fallen in love.

The low-volume donation “Stacks’ quilt top from Tara Faughnan’s first “The Color Collective” year (2019) is on the longarm and is waiting for me. I found a bright orange fabric in my stash for this quilt and the rusty orange fabric in some of the triangles on the front will be the binding–and it is made and ready.

The donation quilt made from a Bonnie Hunter free pattern called “Patches and Pinwheels” is done. Boy did it use up a lot of my 2-inch blocks in that bin of blocks which get cut as I finish a quilt project. I’m organizing a backing from my stash: those backing pieces are cut but not yet sewn together.

The six new placemats–also made from that 2-inch bin of blocks–are done. I hand quilted the bindings. BUT, our Patchwork Gals president Patti Gramling and quilter Rick Sanchez have released the video they made of how to sew down binding on a quilt. Patti’s work is the best I’ve ever seen with this method. Here’s the Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3UoCPmPuV4

These gift placemats all have the same backing, which works really well with them and uses up more of that very big pattern.

Here’s my first attempt at Tara Faughnan’s Blocks3 online class–using her palette for this month’s “Crosswalk” block. It will go into the in-process improv quilt on the design wall. Next I’ll make a version with narrower pieces as these seem a little fat to me. The object here is to play with color and with the fabric sizes in terms of pattern width, height, and so forth. Play is…everthing…in this online course.

BUT, BUT, BUT–I have been totally obsessed with working on Rachel LaBour’s Sewalong using her newly developed “Under the Maple Tree” pattern. I cleared the area on the left of the design wall, and this is happening.

Along the way I realized which rulers I could use (or in one case NOT use) while making these blocks–and that was fun too. Well, sort of… I have had to make a zillion half-square triangles for the leaves and for those tiny gold triangles in that “Breeze” block on the border. Part of the bigger gold “Sunlight” block is a Cat’s Cradle block–so using that ruler makes quick work of those units.

Here’s a picture of Rachel’s first quilt. She is now working on a second one using very different colors. My quilt uses her background fabric (Tilda’s Soft Teal) and the gold accent fabric (Free Spirit’s “Spark Gold” by Denyse Schmidt) as I loved them at first sight.

Today will be a short sewing day due to other commitments.

Bah! Humbug!

LOL, I’ll survive. It’s good to interrupt…obsessions.