Here it the sewn top.I love the texture that the Australian fabrics have with all of their
little dots.It is close to 59” x 70”
and all of the edges are bias so I’m not sure what the finished size will
be.I think I should add a border to stabilize
it so I’ll look today to see what I have that would not take away from the
pieced blocks.I have already
staystitched but that isn’t enough to keep the edges straight but it will keep
them from stretching. Take a look at the new sign up form on the right side bar of my blog. I'll be opening a new store soon and will be offering quilts, quilt tops, fabric kits and more. I'd love for you to be first in line when the store opens.
I chose to sew the right side layout. Thank you for all of the comments and votes yesterday. 24 chose the right side layout, 11 chose the left side (see yesterday's post if you don't know what I'm talking about!). 10 people like both sides equally well or were undecided. I just turned 2 quarter blocks a half turn on every big star block on the left half to be the same as the right half layout. Then I noticed the dark squares touched the top and bottom of the quilt but the ends right and left were only half a square.
I took half blocks from the left and placed them on the right edge and now I was really happy with it. Now it is ready to sew. Well, not really, there is one quarter block turned the wrong way in both of these photos. Actually I moved a couple blocks too after the first photo was taken.
Here is a large view and a small view so you can see how different it looks. In the large view the star points seem more prominent and in the small view the plaid or gingham effect is more visible.
I finally made it to the design wall yesterday. I started doing the layout wrong and changed to what I thought was the correct way. Then I decided to put the other half up the way I thought was wrong and see which way I like it best.
On the layout on the left the star points alternate, light, dark, light dark. On the layout on the right there are 2 dark, 2 light, 2 dark, 2 light points. I think I have seen both of these layouts before and never noticed what the difference was.
I know it is an optical illusion but the stars seem closer together in the left layout.
Some of the stars are low contrast because of the busy prints.
With the plainer light prints the contrast is higher.
Which layout do you like best? (I probably won't answer comments today but would love to hear from you)
I thought I might get to the design wall yesterday but didn't. We walked around the yard and checked out the gardens. The bees and butterflies are still all over the aster blooms.
At first I thought the butterflies were small Monarchs but then decided they must be Painted Ladies.
I think this is the last Goldenrod to bloom. All of the rest of them have gone to seed.
The Sedum has changed from its pink hue to a soft red.
Now we are supposed to get 3 days in the 80s after some gloriously cool days.
On Friday night I pieced some more grid blocks while watching TV. See this post for the inspiration and this post for more blocks. The light color in this group is a Skye Dyes hand painted fabric by Mickey Lawler.
I also made this group and as much as I like them I don't think they will work with the other blocks. I am just using any and all of the fabrics that had multiple strips already cut in the 1.5" batik strip box. I can see using these by themselves in a small piece.
My daughter and son-in-law are here from the east coast. My daughter will be here for over a week (maybe 2) so we can work on a computer project together. 😊
There were no complete finishes in September. Because of the restrictions on my left arm after pacemaker surgery there wasn't a chance I would do any machine quilting.
I made this little baby quilt top in September with a box full of 3" flannel tumbler shapes.
I'm not sure if this tablerunner top is finished or whether it will get a border but it is the only other thing I assembled in the month.
I did finish sewing all of the Australian fabric Hunter Star blocks and now that I can move that arm more I will be going to the design wall with the blocks.
There are still restrictions on the left arm for cyclic motions like vacuuming and window washing for the next 60 days. Machine quilting whether on the longarm or regular machine would need a lot of action with the left arm so maybe a small project or 2 may get finished next month but nothing large that would take hours of action. I am so happy I pushed to get a lot of finishing done in the first 7 months of the year.
I had the iron on so I decided I would press the flannel tumbler baby quilt top. Then I trimmed the sides and now it is ready to be quilted. I will be looking for a backing fabric. This ended up 38.5" x 57" so it will take just one width of fabric for the back.
There were 2 more new shows on TV last night so I sewed more blocks like I showed yesterday. When I run out of one fabric I just substitute one that is similar. The cross bars are the same in both blocks, the verticals are different.
I end up with three of the square blocks and one rectangular block with the number of strips I am using.
This is the variety so far. I don't know what I am making so I'll keep making more of them and then eventually get to a design wall and play.
The bees and butterflies are still flocking to the aster blooms.
This shot shows the two different colors of blooms and how full the plants are now. I have never had luck wintering over chrysanthemums so Asters are the next best plant to have lots of blooms in the fall.
I started cleaning the area of the basement under the dining room and hallway. When they put in the new carpeting all kinds of grit filtered down through the floor boards. Luckily there is a drywall ceiling in the area under the 15' x 30' living room. The carpet was laid 6 days after my pacemaker surgery so I didn't even think about the dirt sifting down. I have all of the table tops and the floor clean in that area now. While I was down there I pulled out the batik orphan block box and looked through it. The new rust orphan blocks are going to be quite a contrast with the rest of the blocks. Here is the first orphan block quilt I made.
Last night the new season shows were on TV so I needed 3 hours of sewing to do. There is a new book coming out in about 3 weeks from C&T publishing by Maria Shell. Check it out here. Look at the 3rd image from the book. I have always loved Maria's quilts and now I can try some of her blocks. I used the strips that I sorted back on day 6 of my recuperation.
I still had the remainder of pieces left from another quilt laying on my sewing cabinet so I decided to make as many more blocks as I could. I will throw the last few pieces into my scrap bag.
Here are all 8 blocks together. As soon as I get them pressed they will go into the box with all of the rest of the batik orphan blocks.
We have had several days of 90s now with Chicago breaking the old records with many of them. One more hot day and then the cool off comes.
