Sunday, May 20, 2012

Keeping Busy

Now that we have an empty nest, albeit with a reserved room for Erica's visits, rearranging of some functions has taken place.  We finally decided on letting the family room downstairs remain my sewing area, and yesterday moved some furniture and music equipment around from different rooms to try to corral my sewing stuff to only TWO rooms instead of four (that's a work in progress!).  Grant's music room moved upstairs so that means no more amplifiers in my sewing area.  I'll finally get to have a design wall again, too--very excited about that.  Meanwhile, progress has been made on a couple of quilts this week:

All the borders are on the Caramel Blues UFO, the backing fabrics are pressed and ready to piece, and the binding has been cut, sewn and pressed.  I always like to make the binding in the middle of the project.

Blocks have begun to be assembled into rows for the Jewel Box quilt, but are not sewn together yet.  These purple triangles coming together will be the "heart" I am so fond of putting in my quilts.  Four rows to go!

Of course, moving stash around leads to playing with leftovers.  Earlier this year I completed these pinwheel blocks from cutoffs from the Rick Rack Road quilt and want to set them with half square triangles in two colors that will form stripes.  The 6x8 setting will require 24 HSTs that finish at 7" and if my MATH is correct, about 3/4 of a yard of each fabric is needed. 

The purple-y blue is about 10 years old, the green a recent remnant bin find.  I think they work but don't want them to overpower the pinwheels.  Opinions?

More leftover HSTs from a baggie, these from the Bowtie quilt I made for a brother two years ago. 

These will be squared to 1" before assembly.  Sounds insane, right?  I'm curious to see if I can tolerate sewing squares that tiny!  It will be a micro-mini for sure.

12 comments:

Jan said...

My, you have been busy. I'm really drawn to your Jewel Box Quilt, can't wait to see it finished.

Joyful Quilter said...

You are going to be busy! Your Caramel Blues and Jewel Box are really looking great. I like the blue and green with the pinwheels, it doesn't look too strong to me. And lastly, CONGRATULATIONS on reducing your sewing space to two rooms, that is a major accomplishment. Wish I could figure out how to do that. ;o)

Unknown said...

I really like the jewel box quilt. Did you use scraps or did you go choose the colors? Either way, I really like it. I love a quilt with a whie or black background. Good luck with the 1 inch squares. I made a mini quilt with them and thought I would pull my hair out!

Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...

I love the Caramel Blues top! It looks great! I think the pinwheels look good on the blue/green too. I like playing with teeny pieces~ I think your mini is going to be cute! Have a happy week!

Vivian said...

I really like the quilt name "Caramel Blues." I can picture the fabrics just hearing that name. You're busy, as always.
So nice to read about the rearrangement plans for the rooms. Happily married couples need their own space, to my way of thinking. Those music rooms can get out of control! (and of course DH says my quilting is out of control too.)
Yes, separate spaces help in the marital world.

Dogwood Lane Rambles said...

Moving things around makes more project inspiration appear. I'd better never move anything ever again or I'll be overwhelmed with ideas!

Lorraine said...

Love the Jewel Box blocks.....funny how you always unearth more things to play with when you start moving stuff around!

loulee said...

I have a bag of teeny tiny HST's which I thought may be useful. Let us know what you come up with.

Janet O. said...

I love Caramel Blues, Annie.
Those tiny squares--I hadn't sewn anything that small until Carol at Brown Quilts encouraged me to make the tiny baskets for cornerstones on one of my basket quilts. Now I can't stop making them.
I don't know why this post didn't surface on my reading list until this morning!

One Minnesota Quilter said...

So, were you playing Twister before laying down those teeny HST? :) Tee-hee

Abby and Stephanie said...

Lots of pretties in progress! Enjoy your design wall. Don't know what I'd do without mine.

Kate said...

Wow! You've been busy. I love the Jewel Box Quilt. The blue and green look great for your other left overs project.

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