stack and slash

Pushing and pulling.......

I was pushing the lawn  mower and pulling weeds for several hours yesterday.  It was another beautiful low humidity day.  That is all changing today, muggy and rainy.

When I came in I needed to pull fabrics from my flannel bins for a quilt similar to the one on the chair.  I'm selling these fabrics to a friend and will be cutting the kit for her. 

Some of the NO REPLY commenters leave me the nicest comments and I can't reply to them to thank them......so this is a group thank you to all of you kind people who say such nice things.

A finish.............

I finished the hand stitching on the binding of the Marcia Derse Stack and Slash quilt last night.  It is 53" x 67".  

I have another quilt started with Marcia's fabrics that I will be showing soon.


I was able to get one of Marcia's fabrics at a really good sale for the back of the quilt.















I borrowed the photo below from Laura Wasilowski's blog.  I saw Laura on Thursday at the International Quilt Festival.  Frieda Anderson was teaching a class so I missed her.  Laura was swamped with customers when I was there.  If any of you are going today, be sure to stop and see them.
 booth2
 

Another quilted..........

I loaded the smaller of the two Laurel Burch Stack and Slash quilts and quilted it last night.  The bright magenta backing fabric is a flannel Laurel Burch print.


I did this one in vertical wavy lines with a loop now and then.







Earlier in the afternoon I put the colorwash of squares (that was clipped together) up on a design wall.  This will be the before photo.  I will start tweaking it today.  It needs the right side row moved out one space and some lighter values put in between.  Also it could use at least one more row on the bottom.  Maybe it will get 5 or 6 rows on the bottom by the time I am done with it.
I just had to show you the cluster of orange cactus blooms.

Progress with orphan blocks.............

This is where I am on the batik orphan block quilt.  I have sewn the top section starting with the Northwind blocks near the left side down through the X and + blocks across the middle.  That section is 46" x 42".  

I need to add a strip to each of the log cabin blocks on the lower left to make them into 8" blocks in one direction and maybe some will get 2 strips to make that edge fit.
I went through my batik pieces and parts drawer to see if there was anything else that should go in the orphan quilt.





This is the only group that might make it, especially the strips of triangles, maybe as a spacer strip.






Here were some fun pieces I found that might make it into a wonky wallhanging.







Last night I got the backing for the other flannel quilt sewn and loaded the backing and batting on the longarm.  I hope to quilt it today.

 Below are the portrait photos of the 30s Stack and Slash baby quilt.
 
 

Finally.......some quilting........

I found backing fabric for the 2 flannel Stack and Slash quilts and got one of them pieced and quilted the quilt.





These are the 2 fabrics that are on the back.








It is now waiting on the cutting table for a binding.









Then I loaded the 30s repro fabric Stack and Slash and quilted it.








I cut the binding from the leftover backing fabric and sewed it on all by machine.  I used a narrow zig zag to stitch it down.  That makes a softer finish than a straight stitch.  I'll take its portrait photo today.  I hope I can stay on a roll and get the other backing pieced and binding cut for both flannel quilts.  The end of the month deadline is right around the corner.

Working on lots of things............

I played with my batik orphan blocks on graph paper yesterday.  Since this doesn't include color I have no idea if the layout will work.  This is using mostly edge to edge blocks.  If it doesn't work when I put them up on the design wall I'll go to plan B with lots of spacers.
I sewed the second Laurel Burch baby quilt together.  The one on the left is 39.5" x 52" and on the right, 54" square.  The big one would be big enough for 2 babies to play on.



I spent a considerable amount of time in the basement yesterday going through all of the stuff that was behind 2 design walls.  I took the two 1" styrofoam 4' x 7' boards to my workshop Saturday and now they are going to go into my main floor studio.  I will replace them with two 1.5" boards in the basement.

I have lots of blooms in my winter garden right now.  This is 2 plants side by side.  The one on the right is the peach/orange.  I have 2 plants in that color now and the other one is loaded with buds.


This is the same one that had blooms at Christmas.  I still have several plants that haven't bloomed yet and almost all of the early bloomers are setting buds again.  There is no rhyme or reason to their blooming.

More blocks............

I got the last set of Stack and Slash blocks sewn last night and put them up on the design wall.   I'll decide this morning if this is the final layout.  I will show the 2 Laurel Burch baby quilts together soon.  This one is darker than the first one.



I was so happy her signature on the fabric ended up in a prominent place on two of the blocks.

Today I need to vacuum the basement and then decide what to quilt next.

Workshop results...........


There were 15 participants in the Slack and Slash workshop yesterday.  Here they each have one of their blocks.  There was a nice variety of fabrics being used.


 I forgot my camera and had to depend on my cell phone camera.  I am used to a heavier camera and only got a few good photos with the cell phone.
Last night I sewed the crosswise seams on the 30s repro top  and also sewed the first of 2 Laurel Burch baby quilt tops.


2 quilts........

At the sew-in I cut the pieces for a 1930s reproduction fabric Stack and Slash baby quilt.  Later in the day I got the first round of sewing done.  I need to have 3 quilts in progress for demo purposes at the workshop tomorrow.

Last night I sewed the second flannel top together.  Now I need to turn on the iron and press both projects.