Saturday Layout

Early morning wakeup this Saturday and time to play with layouts for the wedding quilt.

Yesterday the sections were cut from the strip sets. 

Here laid out according to the pattern and my original vision of my fabric choices versus the magazine.

I was bothered by the high contrast between the rust stripe and the green--those complementary shades intensify each other--and the dark appearing too deep with the rust stripe around it.

Second layout. 

The neutrals seem more balanced in this layout with the tan and rust more prominent, which is what I want.  Opinions?

July UFO, and I can't help myself

Judy's UFO Challenge has been a great motivator for me.  The number picked for July is #2, which on my list is the Mystery Quilt from Judy's blog last year.  I was hoping that quilt's number would come up!   My June UFO was finished early last month and I posted about it here .  It is supposed to be on its way to Oklahoma, but I haven't stitched on its label or gotten to the post office yet.  That's priority for tomorrow (sorry, Kate!).   I've been terrifically distracted by all the new projects I started in June.  Let's see, there are two tablerunners, a wedding quilt, another tablerunner leader-ender, and as of last night, the beginnings of a new leader-ender project.

I found this Gypsy kit at JoAnn's fabrics on the clearance aisle last year, marked down to $20.

It had these 12 fat quarters in pretty wild prints, with a 1/2 yard cut for borders. But I didn't like the pattern--it was too random and there were too many different sizes of squares, rectangles and strips to cut, I felt, for this diverse of a fabric grouping. It just looked a mess to me.

So I selected this pattern I had instead (Charlene Westerberg Designs).  I think it will make a great leader-ender project.  Last night all the fabric got washed and a cutting diagram was mapped out for the fat quarters.  Now that the MATH is out of the way, I can start cutting and sewing!

Whew! Back in business!

Last night, as many others did, I got kicked out of my own blog in the middle of composing a post.  It was very demoralizing, but after feeling very alone and helpless for an hour, seeing the same "Bad Request Error 400" everywhere I tried to go in Blogger, I discovered bunches of others around the world were experiencing the same thing.  Fortunately this morning everything is rosy.  Or lily, like this beautiful volunteer plant on the side of our building: 

Look how many buds and blooms are on this lovely thing!  I like its shadow too, and it smells divine.

That was third in a row for unfortunate happenings in my world.  Tuesday night I came out from Big Lots and found a flat tire (#1 incident).   AAA came to the rescue and changed it out to my spare.  I drove by my brother Kevin's auto repair shop on the way home and he happened to still be there at 7:30 p.m. (the joys of owning your own business!)  He said he could fix the tire but there wasn't much of a tire left as it was so worn--the reason the nail got into my tire in the first place.  So now we have to get new tires for my car.  Cha-ching!  (#2 incident)  That means driving 10 miles to work on city streets for another day instead of taking the freeway.  Good thing I asked, because Kevin told me that if you read a spare tire, it says not to go over 50 mph or travel more than 50 miles.  Somehow in my mind I knew that, but it is always good to ask!

Design Wall Monday

On my design surface today are the strip sets for the wedding quilt for DD Elaine and Chris.  I sure like fast methods like this--simple width of fabric strips.  The batik narrow strip makes a nice stable center for these so no problem with curving.

These will be cut into 3.5" sections arranged around large 8.5 squares for the Natural Beauty quilt from Quilts and More Winter 2010 issue.  I am increasing the size of this throw to make a queen sized quilt and have redrawn part of the pattern to eliminate a lot of seams in the white setting squares.  It meant cutting three different sized pieces instead of just 3.5" squares, but everything is cut out and ready to go.  I also decided to only use one fabric for the narrow strips rather than two as the pattern calls for.  Makes for fewer strip sets for me to mix up when rearranging!

Finally, finally, I got a Leader/Ender project started.  I have only been meaning to do this for a year or two, sheesh!

These adorable little rectangles will become the Baby Boxes tablerunner from Heather Mulder Peterson's book, On the Run.   See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Set Decorating

Doesn't that sound like a great job?  I've always thought it would be great fun to go into a giant warehouse at the studios and pull furniture and props, especially for a period piece.  My version of set decorating today involves red, white and blue for the upcoming Independence Day holiday.

This mini was made from leftovers from the Kitchen Sink quilt.  I sat outside and stitched the binding down in my new lounge chair. I'm afraid I exceeded the 10 minutes' sun tolerance for my pale skin and got myself a slight sunburn.  Oops!

A little bling for the center of the pinwheel.  I've had this button in my button box so long it is almost vintage. 

Some leftover binding was fashioned into a hanging sleeve...

...to fit on this stand.  The mini is almost too big for the stand and in fact I pulled the binding towards the back a little extra to get another 1/8" clearance.

The Broken Dishes tablerunner fits perfectly on my sideboard.  You'd think I planned that or something!  The mini garden flag adds some height to my arrangement.   Now if I can just get my Patriotic Fields Doll Quilt finished this week, I'll be all set for the big weekend.  It has been waiting a year already to be hand quilted, so we'll see!

Summer's here

The June Gloom, our usual summer weather pattern, has been hanging around all month so far, true to form.  The marine layer drifts in and out morning and evening but we have been having some sunny afternoons, even at the beach.  I only need to wear my sweater at work half the day, ha ha.  Lots of folks in blogland are showing their flourishing gardens.  I have a harvest to report as well:

Yup, we're farmers!  A neighbor gave us two tomato plants and they are producing.  This plate is about five inches across so it is not a bountiful harvest--these are cherry tomatoes! 

I finished this Broken Dishes tablerunner a while ago and really should have waited for morning to photograph it as this is a bit dark.  I posed it on DH Grant's new lounge chair.  Today I went out and bought another chair for me; mine is red.  There was about 20 minutes of lounging time before the dog went ballistic because someone was knocking on the front door, so I had to get up to see what that was all about.  The neighbor boys told me their ball went over our fence so I plodded through the thigh-deep weeds in the side yard to return not one, but four of their balls that were back there, all different sizes.  Someone keeps missing the pitch-back, apparently!

 

When I came back in from taking the tablerunner picture I found Mini holding down this WIP.  Thanks, Mini!  (Really need to get that one quilted.)

This photo should be titled "Why I should never buy ivy".  There is a sad twin to this plant in another room.  My record with houseplants that require frequent watering is pretty dismal.

But here is our healthy Golden Rain tree in the front yard.  We had it trimmed in late spring and it has filled out nicely and is thickly covered with yellow flower spikes.  The tree is only about half grown at about 15 feet tall though we have had it a number of years.  While someday it may be tall enough to actually shade the house, only part of the driveway and garage receive any protection from the sun now.   Not really reached goal on that one yet!   I love this tree because it changes all year--after the flowers bloom there are lantern-like seed pods that turn to golden and orange colors as fall approaches.  Finally all the leaves and pods fall off and the tree is bare until spring, when first red leaf buds appear that then turn green.  Nice tree!

Works in Progress

WIPs sound so much better than UFOs, don't they?  Getting my UFO Challenge for June finished early freed me to dive into some new projects.  The top to the "Sweet Escape" tablerunner started on the weekend is complete and I am auditioning binding choices.

The pattern designer, Heather Mulder Peterson, always uses striped bindings on the bias.

I have these two green stripes, but am leaning toward pink to continue my pink and blue theme.

It's always so great to have choices!  This pink print is my favorite so far.

This deep pink dot is reading more red but really is a lovely lipstick shade.  Opinions, anyone?

Also in progress, the remaining squares from the Boutique by Chez Moi charm pack are turning into the "Party Time Runner" pictured on the back of the On the Run pattern book, and some scraps are being turned into the "Baby Boxes" tablerunner, also pictured.  The latter will be used as my first leader/ender project once I get the white pieces cut for the box centers.  It has been really fun playing with these squares and strips in lovely summer colors.