Felt Like Knitting

Happy 4th of July!

I spent the whole day quilting and managed to get 3/4 of Emma's quilt planned out. Now we are eating dinner with friends and then enjoying some fireworks.

I hope my American friends are having a great July 4th!

What I've learned

When I started making the blocks, I was more concerned about what I was using for the middles.  I quickly realized I should be paying attention to the patches that weren't being cut because you really see those much more.  When I was ready to lay out the blocks, I arranged them in piles with similar big patches.  I think my favorite is the polka dot.

I arranged the blocks several times until I decided on a size and layout I liked.  Using the iPhone to take pictures was helpful to make sure I hadn't put too much green together, etc.  I found a mistake last night as I started to sew it all together.  It was late so I fixed the layout then stopped.  Looking at this picture now, I'd still like to make changes but I'm going to leave it.

A solid purple border will come next so I made sure that I didn't have any solid purple along the edges.  Then I want to add a pieced border after that followed by another purple border.  Beware the borders!  I've had several people comment that they have quilt tops waiting for borders (and I do, too).

This quilt is all I want to work on right now!  I realized today that I need to pay the bills and I'm going to go to quilting at church this morning.  So the quilt will have to wait until later today or tonight.  What is grabbing your attention these days?

I couldn't resist

So I did resist starting the baby quilt from the fabric I showed you, but I did not resist starting it with these fabrics.  This disappearing nine patch block is so fun to make!

I've used up a couple of my fabrics so today I will pick up some fat quarters to finish off the quilt top.  I'm not going to allow myself to start sewing it together until all the blocks are finished.  I do have some discipline!  :)

The weekend wasn't all sewing.  I mentioned yesterday that I did some reading.  I've been wanting to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but haven't gotten around to it.  Emma was assigned this book for freshman reading so I figured this is a good time to read it.  Have you read it?  I'm about half done and it's really been a good book so far.  There are some interesting photos on the author's web site.

Emma came home for something this weekend and it was good to see her.  It's very strange because it felt weird when she left to go to school.  Then this weekend if felt a little weird to have her at home.  I guess this weird feeling is the new norm for now.  :)

For sociology class, she was supposed to break a social norm yesterday and see how people reacted.  She decided to wear her blonde curly wig to church.  And since her dressier clothes were at school (she hadn't originally planned to stay through Sunday), she wore her Flash t-shirt.  I should have taken a photo!  I was glad she figured out something that wasn't rude.  I could only think of social norms that you really wouldn't want to break.

Well, I've been on the computer long enough and I need to get to some other thnigs - like buying that quilt fabric!  Hope you all have a great day!

Patchwork Saturday

Like much of the country, it has been terribly hot here in the Atlanta area.  So on Saturday, I stayed inside.  I did a little cleaning and laundry, but mostly I worked on some quilts and read.

These are most of the blocks for Emma's quilt.  Instead of using the Card Trick blocks, I'm making a rail fence quilt.  Hopefully I can show you a layout photo soon.

This is a quilt for the refugee quilts our church makes.  I'm using all stash fabric for it.   It feels good to help someone and also to use up fabric I already have.  The squares are 3" finished, so there is quite a bit of piecing for this quilt.  I'm not wild about the green, but it's what I had on hand.

Just like knitting, quilting is addicting.  Here's the quilt I want to make next.  I already have stash fabric chosen.  This quilt will probably be for a friend's baby.  I can't let myself start on this until the others are finished, right?  Sigh...

I hope you stayed cool and were able to do something fun, too!