A No Sewing Day

My daughter called last night and told me she and our grandbaby would be coming to visit next weekend for a few days.  (Her husband's staying home to do some uninterrupted home improvement projects.)

I was (and am) thrilled!  But then I started thinking about a 15-month-old toddling around our home and all the interesting and potentially dangerous things he could find (uh-oh!) as well as the lack of clear work surfaces in the room where the sewing machine and computer are.

I have these partially finished blocks laying on the ironing board waiting for a decision about connecting strips and center blocks...

... piles like these sitting near my cutting mat, and ...

 
... this stack of fabrics sitting in a basket on the floor.

I don't even want to take photos of the rest of the room with all the folded fabric on tables and beside my sewing machine waiting to be cut and put away.  All of this (above) doesn't even touch on the pins, pincushions, needles, and scissors I have in several rooms. 

So today I've been trying to cut fabric for three (three!) quilts in progress so I can put the fabric away.

(untitled but they make me thing of red birds)

(red and green circles and squares)

(red and green squares and triangles)

I know I'm crazy to have so many projects going on at the same time.  (Since I had the red and green out for one project, it made sense -- at the time -- to cut for all the quilts rather than getting the fabric out again.)  I'm great at multitasking on different activities at the same time but I don't do quite so well working on several similar projects at the same time.  And I'm a slow worker.  I fear that at least one of these will be left behind, forgotten.  (Perhaps posting about them will jog my memory later and keep up my enthusiasm for all three.)  I also want to choose and stitch fabric for the back of the plaid churn dash quilt, then get it layered this week so I can begin quilting.

If worse comes to worst, I can close the door to this room while Malachi's awake and exploring. 

Ahh, but it will be such fun to have the little fellow and his mom here for a few days.  He's easy-going, cuddly, kissable, and loads of fun.

I hope you're getting lots of sewing time in today.

--Nancy.
.

Center Light Bound and Finished

Every time I finish a quilt, after I put the last stitch in the binding and after it comes out of the washer and dryer, I feel like celebrating.  Some quilts are "ugly ducklings" and some are exquisite from beginning to end, but the completion of every quilt is cause for celebration.  I finished Center Light last Saturday and have been celebrating all week!  Thanks for joining me for a minute or two.

I stitched the top of this quilt 5 or 6 years ago then laid it aside while working on other projects.  I had forgotten how much I like it until it called to me when I had to choose the next top for quilting.  It was created because of all the small scraps of whites, off-whites, creams, and light tans I had lying around begging to be used.  Six-inch blocks seemed to be the perfect size for the scraps I had to use.

These blocks show the piecing of some of the whites/off-whites.  Some are very scrappy.

The back:

Particulars
Measurements:

67" x 87 1/2" unquilted
64 1/2" x 83 7/8" after quilting
61 1/2" x 80" after washing and drying (warm wash, regular dry)

Batting:
Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Time schedule:
5/28/13:  on the floor for measuring and choosing backing
6/3/13:  layered
6/3/2013:  quilting begun
9/11/2013:  quilting finished
9/12/2013:  binding sewn
9/14/2013:  washed and dried
This timeline doesn't show that during June and early July I quilted an hour or so a day and during the end of July until it was finished in September, I quilted closer to 4 hours/day.

Thoughts/Lessons/Observations (in no particular order)

• Next time, if I'm using a large print for the back, I will take care to align the pattern along the seam.  I thought of doing that for this quilt but I was in a hurry (for a self-imposed deadline), tired, found it difficult, and just gave up and stitched the seam without regard for the pattern.
• If I'm too tired to do a good job, don't do the job until I'm not tired.
• This is the second quilt I've made with Cream Rose batting in the middle.  I like stitching on it but I'm beginning to wonder if it's just a tad too thin.
• This quilt is not a cuddly quilt.  I don't know if it's because it's new, because of the fabrics, or because of the batting.  I need to pay attention to how this quilt changes over time with use and washing to see if it becomes softer.
• This quilt is not a warm quilt.  Again, I don't know if it's the fabrics or the batting.
• If I'm going to continue to use this batting and want a particular size finished quilt, I need to make the quilt top larger to allow for so much shrinkage.  When I wash and dry a quilt I assume it will not be treated gently in whatever home it resides, so I don't treat it gently to begin with:  warm water wash, standard heat in the dryer.  Of course, shrinkage is not minimal in that case.  This quilt lost 5 1/2" in width and 7 1/2" in length.

Thanks for visiting!

I'm linking this post to
● Leanne's Third quarter finish for 2013 Finish-A-Long at She Can Quilt.  I initially posted my "declaration" to finish at Slow Progress:  Center Light, Red & Green
● Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
● finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 
● Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Missy Mac Creations

--Nancy.
.

How Scrappy is Too Scrappy?

What do you think (and questions I'm asking myself):
Can a two-color scrappy quilt be too scrappy?

Can too many fabrics interrupt the pattern in a 2-color scrappy quilt?  I have a dozen or so more reds and greens.

Do I need to be more careful about fabric value, either within each block or throughout the whole quilt? 

Is there a limit to the variety of fabrics that will carry the pattern?  Do too many fabrics get in the way of the pattern?  Or do too few fabrics not work for a scrappy quilt?

Is it better to make each block with only 2 fabrics and then put the blocks together?

I'm thinking of this as a leaders/enders quilt but before cutting scraps to size I thought I should take a few photos, make a collage, then see what I think.  Now that I've done that, I'm not sure what I think.

I know that if the colors have to be too controlled, I probably won't follow through and it will be very scrappy.  But I'm willing to work at a little control - a specific green (or red) fabric for the diagonal squares through each block or through several blocks; or a specific red (or green) fabric for the triangles in a block or through several blocks.

I know I'll get bored if I can use only two fabrics on a two-color quilt.  I've tried it before and the quilt still sits, unfinished.  

Hmmmm.  So many considerations.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I'm linking to
W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
WOW at Esther's Blog

--Nancy.
.

Cutting Binding, Squaring Corners

I cut the binding before I finished the quilting, but I had just one corner block left and knew I would finish it today.

I deliberated about using colored binding but finally decided that white/cream/off-white would be best, especially because the quilt doesn't have a border.  But if I did use a color, what color would it be?  One color, scrappy colors?  If scrappy colors, what arrangement?  I thought about medium/dark colors around the corners and light colors toward the center edges but didn't think I could make it work.  Too many choices!

I squared the quilt and tomorrow I hope to pin and stitch the binding.  And be done!

I like this quilt a lot but sometimes when I get near the end of quilting, I can hardly wait to just be done with it.  I hope it will be finished by Friday.  We'll see.

I'm linking to
WOW at Esther's Blog
W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced


--Nancy.
.

Two Corners, Plaid Churn Dashes in Waiting

I'm so excited to be nearly finished hand quilting this quilt.  I have just two corners to go -- 14 blocks -- and the binding.  I'm to the point where I can just hardly wait to get it done.  It's my Q2 Finish-A-Long:  I hope there's little doubt that it will be done by then!

In the excitement of being nearly finished I've started looking at my quilt tops in waiting to see which I'll quilt next.  This one! 

As with most of my quilts, I've had a love/unlove relationship with it.  I loved it while I was working on it 5 or 6 years ago but I folded it away because I couldn't quilt it at the time.  As the years passed I decided it probably wasn't as great as I remembered and that I probably didn't like it as much as I thought.  When I pulled it out a few weeks ago I realized once again that I love it.

I think it will be a bear to hand-quilt though (at least for me) because the layout is on point, which means that the blocks seem very stretchy.  We'll see how I can manage.  I still have to choose a back for it.  I had something in mind before but I'm reconsidering.

I'll work on this as I can but a grandbaby girl will be joining us in early January (or the end of December if she decides (or needs) to come early).  So I'll be interrupting everything soon to begin a quilt for her and, of course, getting it stitched and quilted will take priority over any other quilts.

I'm linking this post to
WOW (-WiPs on Wednesday) at Esther's Blog
W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

--Nancy.
.