Neglect

     Time always passes so quickly, so often, I look up, and I can't believe so much time has gone by since the last time I wrote anything! Since my goal is to write twice a week, I have been pretty neglectful. Is that even a word? I hope so.

     I say that I haven't been writing.
That is not entirely true. I haven't
 written on my blog, but, I have
 been writing all day. Next Saturday,
I am teaching my Let's Polka quilt at
A Scarlet Thread in McDonough. I have
 spent a good bit of today writing the
instructions for this pattern, and
gathering my thoughts on just what
 I can tell people to help them make
this quilt. 










    Last Thursday, I did our last demonstration at my guild quilt show. I didn't want to do the whole sewing machine thing again, so I thought it would be fun to try a few blocks for another quilt that has been tugging on my sleeve. Especially since it would be easy to work on while I was talking to people. I had already cut all of the strips for it, and I figured I could demonstrate rotary cutting the strips into squares and triangles, and get a few blocks ready to sew. The quilt was inspired by this painting by Vincent Van Gogh.

    
      I mostly, want to just explore using this color scheme in a very simple quilt with small blocks and an overall design. Here are the blocks that I cut, then I sewed them the next time I was at the sewing machine just to see how they would look together. I think I need a lot more to tell if I will like it. I may or may not add a thin sashing. This will be another good chain piecing, and work on away from home quilt.
 

  

     Yes, I am still working on my pieced hexagons-slow going, and my strip quilt. I have been carrying those strips everywhere, and I have all but 9 strip sets cut and ready to sew. There are about 250 of them. I have been sewing them between the other things, using them as leaders and enders, Right now I have 35 sewn, but they are not trimmed yet.

     One more thing. A couple of posts ago I mentioned meeting Karen from Honey Be Good.com. We have gotten together and done some brainstorming. She liked this drawing and chose some fabrics to make into a lap size to sell as a kit. I am trying to get it together for her ASAP .

      

     This is what I have done so far. I am writing a pattern for it too, as I make it. Sorry about the wonky perspective. My largest, best design wall is behind my loom, which makes photography difficult.

     So really I haven't been just sitting around and eating bon bons. Also, spring is almost here, so spring activities are starting up. The community garden, lending library, and my tennis team are all in need of attention. I am working on getting a newsletter started in my town. And now that the quilt show is down, there are all of those quilts to return to their rightful owners. Hope your life is full of fun too. Thanks for stopping by!






    

Design Wall Monday

     Good morning everyone. It has been a pretty good week here. I got the back done for  Missing Monkeys quilt. It is 96" by 110" so it is too unwieldy to take a photo of inside, and it is wet outside, so you will have to wait or it to come back from Regina to see it. I will do real "quilt portraits" then. I have to admit, once I get these monsters pressed and folded neatly, I hate to unfold them. I did meet with her to discuss quilting patterns and thread colors for my finished quilts, which is always fun. She always has such great suggestions. I always think they look so much more "real" after they are quilted.

     What is on my design wall now? I have been working on 2 things. I am using them for leaders and enders for each other.

     I have all of my solid blocks completed; and all of the setting triangles sewn to the "on point" blocks. I still have to sew strips to most of the straight set blocks. Will I get this quilt sewn together this week? It's possible. After all, there are only 12 (huge) blocks.





      

     I also got 2 hexagons made! I am excited about this, because my goal was one per week, so I am off to a better than expected start. God bless long. dark winter evenings, Netflix, and Quilt Cam with Bonnie Hunter.

     To make these, I sew the triangles together in rows. Then I sew the rows together; but I DO NOT sew the center seam.

     It is nice that these are symmetrical. I just sew on one side at a time. That way, when I get confused about the order of the triangles, I just used the other side as a guide, and then I can figure it out much faster.

    Eventually, I plan to sew them together in straight rows; just like I would assemble a One Block Wonder-with no "Y" seams.

       So, that is what I have been doing this week. Now I am going to go to patchworktimes.com to check out what others have posted on Design Wall Monday. It is always interesting! Thanks for stopping by!

Things in Progress From Retreat

     I wanted to tell you about about some other things I worked on at retreat, but didn't finish. In preparing for retreat, I finished all of my solid units. At retreat I got 4 more blocks finished.

     I can't wait to see what these will look like with their setting triangles added. I am planning on shades of red for those.

     When I came home, I laid out the last 2 blocks.










     Next, is a quilt I have been itching to work on for ages. I have been mesmerized by seeing  beautiful hexie quilts in progress; but I don't seem to be very good at finding time, or patience to hand stitch. While I was piecing a One Block Wonder, I thought it would be fun to use the same construction to make a quilt that would use a similar motif to the hexie quilts, but be machine pieced. You could use the fact that the "hexies" will have to be divided into equilateral triangles as a design element. I immediately got on my EQ and came up with several sketches and motifs. I think I will be having fun with this concept for a while.

     They will all be the same size once they are sewn. The big ones just have not been sewn together yet.

     I would love to plan to make one of these a week, but regular plans like that don't usually work for me; so we will just have to see what happens. Right now, I am really enjoying working on these.













     That is what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!