The Quilt is Finished

Hello,  everyone.  

The Lap/baby sized Building Blocks quilt is finished. 

Draped over the sofa. 

I used a decorative stitch for the final row on the binding. It's a lot like the little "railroad tracks" lines on maps, isn't it?

The top side of the mitered corner. I took the "railroad line" stitch wings at a 45 degree angle at the corners.

The reverse side. The extra fabric on the back with machine applied binding is the reason I went with the "railroad line" built-in stitch. 

I used 8x7=56 charm squares, plus the thin and thicker sashings, borders, and binding. The backing fabric is part of a chunk from the (now-gone) A Block Away shop. 

This was a fun little project. Next time around--there are LOTS of charm squares in the stash!--I think I will square up the charms before slicing them into parts. Maybe try light charms and medium or dark sashings? Or cut up the Christmas layer cake (10") squares into charms and do a Christmas quilt.

Update on the quilt

Hello, everyone. 

This is a progress report on the Building Blocks quilt.The rows have been assembled and sewn together to form the center of the quilt. A border in a coordinating gray print has been added. It will finish at 1.5 inches after the binding is added.

The quilt is ready for basting, quilting,  and then finally binding.

I think a simple geometric quilting design will allow the colors to come into their own.

The pinned on bit of paper marks the top left block.

Starting sweet potatoes

Hello, everyone. 

Unlike many areas, in South Texas the autumn is a time to plant vegetables. This year we're going to try growing sweet potatoes. 

We went to the oriental grocery because the internet told me that there are varieties of sweet potatoes grown in the Far East that are different from the ones grown here. We got 2 of their red-colored sweet potatoes.  We also hot a standard orange one from our regular grocery store.

I put them all in a cardboard box with potting soil, kept them moist, and waited.

The one in front is the orange one. It has sprouted several slips, but the little stems aren't showing much root at all. The other two sweet potatoes are just sitting there. We will see what comes to pass. I have heard that it can take a while.

The season is finally turning for us, and we have hope that we're through with the 100-plus days now. (38+ in Celsius degrees.)

Another new finish

Hello,  everyone. 

Today there was a need for a little, lined basket. Fortunately there was a suitable basket around the place. 

This is for a drop-off basket.

All of the fabrics are from stash. Poly woven, lace from the bin, ribbon leftover from wedding years ago.

A bowl filler

Hello, everyone. The fabric scraps called to me again. This time it was a set of gray and white strips--fairly narrow strips--that had already been joined into a block.

I used my Creative Grids circle cutting template, the smallest one, to make ends for the tube. The green dotted fabric was left over from the Road to Round Top themed table runner, where it had been used to make sashing between the blocks. The beads on the ends of the little cylinder are just for fun.

The Creative Grids templates are part of the loot from the Houston Quilt Festival trip last fall. 

A new project in process

Hello, everyone.  There is a new project underway around here.  I think it's going to be a lap quilt. The pattern is Building Blocks, from Fat Quarter Shop. It's a charm square pattern.

Blocks have been made, and some were "un-sewn" and then sewn again. (Backwards blocks don't work with some patterns.) They were first laid out on the floor, but the automated vacuum was patrolling the house, so they got moved to the guest room. This is when it became apparent that some blocks had been assembled backwards. After that was straightened out, and various changes were finished, they got their placement codes pinned in place.

The placement codes are the standard matrix space labels I learned in business math classes in college.

A1 is at the top left. The bottom right is H7.

I did one extra row of blocks, the pattern only called for a 7x7 square and I thought it should be more of a rectangle. 

The table runner is done

Hello, everyone.  The table runner is done. This is my first modern-quilting style project and I'm not sure how I feel about the concept.

This morning,  ready to have the binding sewn on.

And it's done. 

I'm not feeling the love for extra-skinny binding. Next time I will cut it wider and let a little more binding color  show.

The binding does punch up the accent squares, but at this size the little reddish dots don't do much to echo the flower colors.

I did free motion quilting in the larger squares in the blocks, and simple geometric lines for the rest of the quilting.