Sideways

 

By the time I figured out that I wanted the design to run sideways, I had sewn three rows together, so I had to do some unsewing. Then I had to move the blocks on the design wall, yet keep them in sequence so I could shift the design. I used Julie's paper-plate method.

I had to redesign two additional rows at the bottom.

Then it was start sewing things together. Pressing all the seams open kept the blocks more in shape. 

After I make my blocks, I always trim them to size. It means things sew up much more accurately.

Here all the rows are sewn together. I will add creams as a border and the quilt needs a name.

This is a scrap slab triangle quilt. You can get the tutorial here at my Etsy shop.

A Change of Perspective

 I started sewing the blocks together (far right).

As usual, when blocks are sewn together the design really starts to pop, and I am liking where this is going.

I particularly like this shape at the top of this photo. I had to do a bit of thinking...

The top drawing emphasizes the new shape I like, the bottom one is the original layout. Both of them cut off the design at either side. The quilt is designed to be 10 blocks across, and what do I do with the extra rows at either side? Neither one floats my boat.

Since I believe that you really need to SEE something in real life, I sewed a row of triangles to place beside a panel of three vertical rows I had already sewn together.

As I lay the strips together on the floor,  I saw this... which answered all my questions. ALL I HAVE TO DO is rotate the design 90 degrees, and I can get THREE perfect four row designs on my quilt.

I like this a lot better, so now I have some rearranging to do.

Stay tuned...

A Pair of Nightingales

 

This is Susan B's Nightingale quilt. Susan is the quilter who strongly encouraged me to write a tutorial for this quilt, and then admitted that you could probably be blind and still make a successful Nightingale quilt. (That means anybody can do it.) I think she has done a spectacular job. 

If you have made a Nightingale quilt, I'd love to see it. You can email me at PatcheryMenagerie AT gmail DOT com. (you know how to put them together properly)

This is my first Nightingale quilt. I have been waiting for the weather to warm up and for the sun to come out so I could photograph mine, and it kinda sorta did that yesterday (although it was still pretty windy.)

This particular quilt has a home already, and when it has been gifted I will tell you the story.

My Mother has laid claim to the second Nightingale quilt. Gee, what a surprise! (She loves ALL my quilts.)

If you want to make a Nightingale quilt of your own, you can get my tutorial here.

Right Church, Wrong Pew

 

This is the layout with the brown triangles and black on white side triangles. I stepped back and looked...

WHAT was I thinking? CLEARLYthe black on white side triangles were just plain WRONG! I had my box of leftover side triangles out, so I was not looking (or thinking) properly. It was apparent the side triangles needed to be CREAM or BEIGE...

Sigh. 

Back to the cutting table.

I had even bought a large selection of creams and beiges for just this purpose back in November. Must have had a lot on my mind. (ya think?)

This is SO CLEARLY so much better. Just goes to show you...

"No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back!"

I will start sewing this together!

This is a Scrap Slab Triangle Quilt, and is mostly made from scraps. If you would like to make one, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

PS, My California family is not near the areas burning in LA right now, although some of the places we have visited have been affected.

Brown Zig Zags

 

Almost eight years ago I arranged the triangles for the third Scrap Slab Triangle Quilt in these zigzags. I called it Snow Day, and you can see it here. I decided to revisit those zigzags for the brown quilt.

Now in the photo above, I have not fussed over the placement  of the brown triangles. I can't really play until I get them all up on the design wall, but I do have enough to get a sense of the basic design, so I wanted to figure out a basic idea for the light side triangles. I went through my bin of leftover side triangles and put some up on the design wall and stood back to take a look.

Now I have to tell you a little design theory here. Dark AREAS tend to sink to the background but LIGHT areas tend to come forward. I do not want the LIGHT diamonds in this design to take center stage. So in order to do that I have to make the LIGHT diamonds boring and less interesting. 

Which means I have to make them boring to the viewer's EYE and NOT give them any contrast, (like color in the light diamonds). Your eye is drawn to CONTRAST, so I won't have any color in the light diamonds. So the color in the light areas above is going to go away. 

Here is the basic layout of the brown triangles so you can see what the overall thing will look like. 

You can also see the brown triangles are just randomly arranged, and they don't flow and they seem a bit jumpy and disconnected. That's the next task.

Here I have arranged the triangles so they flow into one another, and I lead you there through either color or pattern.

Here is another example of what I tried to do with the brown triangles.

It's funny, but when I first started making these quilts, I added the side triangles to the colored triangles before I designed the quilt. Now I place each piece intentionally.

Next up is figuring out which light fabrics I will use in the side triangles. The only way I can work that out is to try them up on the design wall and experiment.

My mother's boyfriend's surgery was a success and he is doing well. I have spent three days cooking for my Mom so she will be all set in her apartment on her own. She has Macular Degenerative disease, so she sees poorly. She describes it as "seeing through lace." What's good is that whatever I made, I kept half, so we both have an assortment of prepared meals for the rest of the week. I've been her chauffeur and errand runner so it's been nice to get home at the end of the day and not have to worry about having to cook.

BRRRR.... Brown!

I am working on sewing the binding of the first Nightingale quilt, but I have to do that during the day, because as I get older it's harder to see hand sewing black fabric with black thread. I needed to be thinking about what I would do next.

Sitting in my studio looking at my stash and the big bins full of scraps, I thought, "What have I been neglecting? What have I been avoiding?" The answer was Brown. It isn't my favorite color, but sometimes  it's a good thing to get out of your comfort zone.

So I gathered up my brown fabrics from the scrap bins and the leftover stuff from the big pins and piled it all on my worktable.

Then I ironed it all.

Then I paired it all up, before I started to cut triangles.

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I found some fat quarters of Charley Harper fabrics and included that in my slabs. I loved this little cat!

Here are seventy triangles. I don't know what I will do with them yet, but cutting these triangles is a good way to reduce the stuff in the scrap bins.

Christmas Decorations Down & Done

 On New Year's Eve I started to take down the Christmas decorations and put them away. I put the holiday quilts away. Then I packed up all the decorations and ornaments and put them away.

I don't have much storage space, and I hate to put this out in the shed, so I put it in the (tiny) stand alone shower** in my main bathroom. (You think I'm joking? I covered the inside of the glass shower door with some nifty wrapping paper.)

Here it is! the decorations, the wreath, the ornaments, all hiding away. (The quilts go elsewhere - into the Quilt Closet)

So this is what it looks like year round.

I love a great disguise.

**the shower is so tiny that even I (less than five feet tall), feel claustrophobic in it, so I don't use it.

Binding the Nightingale... and Real Life

I've chosen this brightly colored striped fabric for the binding of the Nightingale quilt.  (You can get the tutorial here.)

I've added the binding to it.

And now I'm hand sewing it down.

So that's the quilty side of things. Two days after Christmas my mom's boyfriend called me (remember she is 91 and he is almost 89) to tell me he was having stomach cramps and his doctor's office told him to go the ER. He wanted me to go over and stay with my Mom, who is a bit unsteady on her feet.

I threw some clothes on, grabbed ingredients so I could make some soup for lunch, and drove right over.

We all know how slow getting through the ER can be, and this was no difference. He was not seen until nine hours later, when it was discovered he had a kink in his colon, and needed a procedure to unkink it. They gave him the procedure and kept him overnight.

I slept in the guest room.

The next morning we discovered he would need surgery to fix it and they wanted to keep him a few days.

My sister came over to replace me, and his daughter came up a day or two later. On Monday the hospital discharged him, but his surgery has been scheduled for next week. The thing is, the surgery is a Very Big Deal and being almost 89, it's an even bigger deal with at least a week's recovery. Which means that during that time my mother's caregiver will need a caregiver and she can't do it.

Which prompted my brothers to ask what would happen to Mom if the awful awful happened to her boyfriend.

So it's been a challenging few days and that's what's been keeping me from blogging.

Happy New Year 2025!

 

Morning Garden Beauty Shots

 

The Morning Garden quilt is complete and here are some of the beauty shots.

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Taking Beauty Shots is always interesting and occasionally challenging. To wit:

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! I hope you all have a happy day with friends and family.
 

Adding Binding to the Morning Garden Quilt

 

I added the binding to the Morning Garden quilt.

This definitely qualifies as quilt wrangling.

I got it done. Now I have to fold the binding over to the front and pin it down. Then I can hand sew the binding down. Given that it's Christmas week, and that I am hosting (and cooking) the feast, it may be a week or more before I can get it done.

Nightingales by Lynne & Susan

 

The first Nightingale quilt has been quilted. It's hard to see in this picture - I will try again later tomorrow when there is more light outside. 

Here's the quilting from the back of the quilt. Janet-Lee used a black batting in this quilt. I didn't even KNOW there was such a thing as a black batting, but I'm glad there is!

This is Susan's Nightingale quilt. It's also beautiful, but so different! It makes sense. I think each quilter's Nightingale quilt will be different from anyone else's. It's because each person's fabric choices will reflect themselves. That's what I think makes this quilt so exciting. Susan's quilt has been quilted and I am waiting for her to send photos.

If you want to make a Nightingale Quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

Murphy Reigns!

 

This is the backing of the quilt for Cat's quilt, and if you notice there is a big chunk of something else at the bottom of the green bit. This was not originally planned.  (Did you see Murphy's name in the title of this post?)

Long-arm quilters require the backing for a quilt be six inches larger on all four sides. The green bit above is barely three inches, so I had to add more fabric to the bottom. (The eagle-eyed of you will recognize that extra fabric as the leftover backing from the Cobblestones quilt. See! I told you I keep all leftover bits and re-use them where needed.)

So why did this happen?

Because I ordered the backing fabric before I decided to add a border to the quilt, so I didn't order enough backing fabric. Oh gee darn. That meant I had to add extra fabric to the bottom.

I knew I had to do this because I ALWAYS lay the backing fabric on the floor and set the quilt top on top of it, making sure I have the allotted six inches extra on all four sides. If I don't, then I add more fabric, as I have done here.             

Harlequin Scrap Slab Flimsy Complete

I've been sewing the blocks together for the new black Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, and I am really happy with it.

I'm not quite sure why I've been pressing seams open.

After I sewed the blocks together, and completed the flimsy, I stuck it up on the design wall and decided it needed a light border.

So I added one. I tried to make sure the assortment of fabrics I chose were not too strong, and seemed to blend into each other.

This will probably have a black binding. I don't have a backing fabric selected yet, but I am in no hurry.

That's it for me as far as quilts for this year. I have to get the backing ready for three flimsies (including this one) and I have two quilts away being quilted which I am scheduled to pick up late next week. The bindings are ready for those. Given the Holiday coming up I might get one finished by the end of the year.

I'll be blogging intermittently. Take care, stay warm (or cool) and safe.