I needed more of the relaxing sewing of strip sets like I showed yesterday. I made 11 more blocks while watching 2 more episodes of a TV show.
Earlier in the day yesterday I planted the remaining perennials I got on sale for 62 cents each. On the left is the before shot of the area and on the right after 4 Asian Lilies were planted.
This is another area I worked on. The left photo is before starting and the right after I finished planting 3 Perennial Carnations which I thought were Dianthus. I moved the rocks out about 6" and dug out the Creeping Charlie, Violets and some grass. I dug out 2 tree roots from volunteer Redbud trees too.
Debbie at the blog A Quilter's Table announced a quilt along on Monday. I was itching to join in but had too many things going on earlier in the week. Last night I had to have some fun. I had starting making a bunch of the strip sets in January 2016 and had all of them in a project bag. Here is where I played with them on my design wall. I thought they were all too dark and just put them away for awhile.
This is the new batch I made last night. I am using the cutaway strips from when I straighten the edge of my batiks before I cut for a project. They are usually wider at one end than the other and slightly crooked. All of these pieces are a little over 10" tall so they could be cut in half for 5" wide pieces.
This is the old batch from over a year and a half ago. Soon Debbie is going to post again about the quilt along so hopefully I'll get some ideas of a direction to go with all of my strip sets. Meanwhile I had a lot of fun sewing while I watched 3 episodes of a Netflix show.
Yesterday morning I took this photo from my kitchen window. My camera kept wanting to focus on the background and this is the only photo that was good. The butterflies are loving the coneflowers and so are the bees and wasps. The flowers are starting to fade and have holes from bugs. I leave the dried seed heads all winter for the birds to eat.
In the background are the Dianthus and Coreopsis that are in front of the tree straight out from my window.
I sewed units for 4 more large star blocks. I left the pieces in the bottom right corner so you can see that I'm designing with the triangles. I haven't sewn any blocks together yet and most likely won't until I have more made and know what direction I'm going with this quilt. I'm liking the red and black with white, beige and pale green in the light fabrics. I have 4 more combinations to sew in this color range. I have 2 options: add more colors in or repeat the same fabrics to make more blocks. I'm going to go slowly and enjoy making this one so no decisions at this point.
My pale pink Weigela bush keeps blooming. It has a few branches that bloom at a time so it has been partially in bloom for a couple months.
I sewed four of the twelve combinations that I have cut for the Hunter Star. I placed the half blocks (triangular shaped) on the design wall and this would be the expected layout. Note: pieces are just edge to edge, not overlapped as if the seams were sewn so there are holes at the centers of the stars right now. Where the 4 big star blocks meet the star is 8 different fabrics.
Then I switched the blocks to half and half, 2 different combinations in each block. The 2 blocks with matching fabrics wouldn't necessarily be near each other since this is only 4 of 12 different pairs of fabric. There will be more than 12 pairs too since the quarter units are only 6" finished. If I sewed this right now it would only be 24" square. More days of cutting and sewing ahead........
I realized I hadn't shown a photo of the backyard color since the Rudbeckia was in full bloom. The tiger lilies are nearing the end of their blooming time so I'm glad I got this recorded in a photo now.
This is the view coming in from the other end of the path (weedy path...I need to do something about that). I'm glad I went with red petunias in my two hanging pots this year. I have seen more butterflies this year than in the last few and they are loving the Coneflowers.
Yesterday I cut 8 more Australian fabrics for my Hunter Star. I paired the fabrics, 12 sets of them and started sewing the pieces. After I sew all of these I will decide what other fabrics I want to add or which ones I want to repeat. I didn't want to turn on the iron yet with so few pieces sewn so the large triangle isn't sewn onto the other piece yet. I can cut GO dies on my Studio cutter with an adapter. The GO dies come with a sewing diagram which I needed for this block.
I had 2 finishes in July. The flannel quilt made with 9" tumbler blocks is 64.5" x 80". The hot pink improv wallhanging is 26" square. I just looked up when I gave the workshop that I started the hot pink piece in and it was March 2003. I'm glad to finally have it finished. I didn't have any finishes the last 2 years in July so I'm ahead of the game this year.
I finished 3 quilt tops in July. The 2 large ones have been in progress for several months and just needed final decisions and sewing. Marcia Derse fabric Drunkard's Path 48.5" x 69.5" Old Italian block in batiks 38" x 48" Seed Packet top with fussy cut floral fabrics 68" x 83"
The photo is big but the wallhanging is small, 26" square. I thought I wanted to do a lot of stitching on this one but once I had finished the ditch quilting I decided to extend the lines of the "ribs" in the column with matching hot pink thread and decided it was done. The hot pink is brighter than it looks here. My camera makes it look a little more coral/pink. I am not a believer that black binding is the answer on every quilt but in this case, there was black in the piecing so the binding had to be black.
This little improv piece has been waiting to be finished for over 10 years. I decided it might be a quick one to finish....and then as I was basting it I realized there would be a lot of decisions. Do I leave the edges crooked, should I put binding or a facing, and what type of quilting did I want to do on it. I went ahead and basted it anyway.
I knew I needed to ditch quilt along the seams before I would do any other quilting so I got all of that done last night. Now I have to make all of those decisions. If you have been a reader for awhile you might remember I asked "which way is up?" on this one and asked for votes in April 2016. The majority of the votes went to #2. See that post here.
I ended up using the first fabric that I considered for the binding. At first I thought it was too dark and kept looking for something just a little lighter. I either didn't have enough or the color just wasn't right on all of the others so I was back to the dark brown with black lines forming little squares. I used a medium brown Superior SoFine thread to quilt it.
The back is made of 3 of the largest pieces of flannel I had left. I have lots of half yards but not much in big pieces any more. The quilt ended up at 64.5" x 80". I used Warm and Natural batting because it has scrim in it and stabilizes and gives body to the pieced flannel top.
I finished the quilting of the tumbler flannel quilt but I couldn't make a decision on binding last night. Hopefully the right piece will pop up in the box today and say "cut me".
I got a lot more volunteer trees cut yesterday. Even though the humidity is down it is still hot out in the sun. Each day the temperature is going to be a little warmer so I need to get my yard work done in the morning. Afternoon and evening will be sewing time.
