Awash In a Sea of Blue

 

I chose a group of middle-range blues to use as an outer border on the blue quilt. I cut the strips more or less about 20" long, but arranged them in a very specific sequence. I wanted them to flow into one another all around the quilt.

I joined the strips at a 45 degree angle (because I think that looks more interesting) and then start at one corner, sew to the end, square off the edge, turn the corner and keep going.

This is a big chunk of the quilt, so you can see the different fabrics and values of blue in the quilt.

Here is the finished flimsy.

Cherie's comment yesterday pretty much named the quilt - Awash In a Sea of Blue.

It's a Flimsy!

 

Each evening I have been assembling a row of blocks. By Friday night I had sewn them all but one.

Then I finished the last row, and sewed the rows together.

Here is the flimsy in a crumpled shot. Julie likes these.

I added a narrow border of some of the light fabrics. My plan is to have a slightly wider border of the medium blues. 

I've already ordered fabric for the backing and binding.

One Two Three Four...

 

Sewing the blocks together is a kind of a precise thing. I start at the right side of the quilt, and then place the right side triangle over the blue one, and then set it down. Then I move to the next block, and do the same thing. All the way to the end of the row.

My stack looks like this. Next I pin the two pieces together, keeping the sequence the same. Then I sew them, stack them, and then press them in that same sequence. Then I square them up,

and pin them together (same sequence), being careful not to flip the blocks over.

Then I press them, seams open.

After I have two rows done, I sew them together. Then on to the next two rows. Then I sewed the two two row pieces together into a four row segment. The photo above shows two four row segments sewn together, (at the bottom). I'm working my way through this each evening.

Complicated quilts can be really cool, but there's something lovely and hypnotizing about one block repeated over and over.

In this particular layout, it's very important the blocks line up at the corners so the points match and the blue and white shapes are crisp and distinct.

Blue Arrowheads

I arranged the blue triangles the way I wanted, then added the light side triangles. They are pretty quiet, I know. This quilt has a home already and it is being designed for the future owner - who is a really low-key person.

I've started sewing the blocks together.

I've sewn the bottom four rows of blocks together. It looks a bit weird because there are nine blocks in each of the rows above, but the quilt the quilt really has ten blocks across, so I have been adding a block at the right side of each row.

This particular layout along with the low key light areas, has a very regular, repetitive design which is somewhat soothing. As usual, it looks better when it is sewn up!

This is a scrap slab triangle quilt. You can get the tutorial here at my Etsy shop. It's a great way to use up scraps,

 

Red

 

Here is the Red block. I knew I didn't want it to be too dark, so all the fabrics are red on white.

These are the nine blocks. I am happy where this is going. 

Back in the office, I figured out what was wrong. This bookcase was blocking access to the right side of the closet. If I moved it, I'd have access and the room wouldn't be so crowded. But if that went away, I needed to figure out where to put the stuff that lived in the bookcase, and I had to figure out where to move the bookcase TO. (By the way, I originally put the bookcase there so the Roomba wouldn't get tangled in all the wires and cables from the computer and other stuff on the desk.) 

Once I had that worked out...

Getting the bookcase out of there was definitely the right move. The room makes a lot more sense, and it's easy to move around.

I put the bookcase in my bedroom.

FINALLY I get to get rid of the stupid table that was in my bedroom before. It was left there by the previous owner. While it looks like it might be useful, one of the legs was broken, so it wasn't stable.

Teal & Orange

 

Here is the Teal block.

And here is the Orange one. I really had to search through my stash and bins to find light orange fabrics, or fabrics that would "read" as light orange.

Here they all are together, in no particular order. As you can see they are all different sizes. At some point I will need to trim them down, but not yet.

I have removed the bright one because it overpowered the others, and also the dotted one, which didn't hold its own among these.  I have fabrics set aside for a red one, and that's up next.

I'll have to go through my stash to see if there are any colors I have missed. I might be able to do a light brown (or beige?) one, and maybe a gray one, but I don't know yet. Maybe I can make a white with colors if I don't use fabrics that are as bold as the original one.

At any rate, if I need to make another yellow or green or blue or pink block, I'll do it. I don't need this quilt to have only one block of each color.

I do like the irregular shapes of these too. We'll see what happens. It's so nice not to have to fuss.

Pink

 

Here's the light pink block.

I'm not generally a pastel fan but these blocks are so pretty. When I envisioned making a quilt of mostly light fabrics, I'm not quite sure I had something like this in mind.

Here are all the blocks together. Clearly the bright colored block doesn't fit, but neither does the black and white one or the white one with the dots. And nothing has been trimmed down to a particular size.

I kinda like these as big rectangles. We'll see. Regular readers know I like to see what happens on the design wall and go from there. I'm just going to keep going and see where this takes me.

Eagle Eyes

 To Cherie who pointed out that the "new" blue block was the same as the original one...

OOPS! I uploaded the wrong photo.

The Yellow block was tricky. I didn't want to make a bright yellow block, and I really had to search my stash and scrap bins to find enough "pale" yellows to make this work. 

Hey, whatever works!

I figured I could rely on the wrong side of some fabrics if I really couldn't figure it out, but I did not have to do that.

Blue redux and Lavender

 

I revised the blue block. I didn't like the two big light blocks in the middle.

I decided to shuffle around some artwork and the drawing I wanted to hang had slipped out of the mat and needed to be repaired. I brought it to the frame shop on Saturday, before I drove to pick up my sewing machine from the Sewing Machine Spa. As I walked out the door a framed print on the wall caught my attention. It was tall and thin and lovely. I thought I'd get it if I could figure out where to hang it, and said as much to the owner.

Two blocks away I figured out where I would hang it, but I kept on to Boscawen to pick my sewing machine. I didn't even drive home, I went straight to the framing shop and bought the print, got home and hung it up.

I'm really happy with it.

Then I made a lavender block. I like this too.

Green & Blue

 Here's a blue Missing U block.

Here's a green one.

These blocks are based on fabrics with the color or design on a white background, so that's why there aren't blocks that are more vivid or intense. Naturally there are a few exceptions, but that's what you do when you have to "make it work." That term is meant to be "make it work with what you already HAVE."

I have long felt that having limited options forces you to be more creative. Hell, the Yellow Ribbons Zebra quilt came about because I wanted to make it work with the fabrics I had already cut. I was not going to cut one more damn thing, so I HAD to figure it out.

How Do You Eat a Whale?

 

This is the big pile of fabric that I have to sort through. I emptied all the big bins on the floor. This is what I have to sort through.

So, to answer the question... How do you eat a whale? 

One bite at a time. I grab a pile of fabric, move it to my worktable so I don't have to grab it off the floor, and sort through it, tossing the fabric into the appropriate bin.

This is after about an hour of sorting I had this. The bings were filling up and the pile on the floor was getting smaller.

This is after three and a half hours.

I had to take a break and eat and get dressed. But after a break, I got it finished.

It looks good!

I'm going to start by making slabs of the fabrics in the Lights bin. I'm going to make slabs of fabrics with a white background, but I'm going to have some fun. 

Busy Weekend

This is my pal Kathy French, one of the SSOBB members, who visited me on Saturday. She and her husband stopped by on their way home from Vermont. We had a nice visit. Isn't the color of her jacket terrific?

I sewed a few of my scrappy triangle blocks together. The bottom photo is back side of the block.  All the backs of my quilts look like this. Neat, with no straggly threads.

My sewing machine has to go back to the shop. It doesn't cut the threads consistently and it makes a noise when I sew like two pieces of metal are banging against each other. Bummer. The guy opens and closes within my normal work day and isn't open any evenings, so it means a Saturday visit and a week without my machine. Argh.


I spent a lot of the rest of the weekend organizing a calendar of my quilts for 2017, doing a bit of online shopping, paying bills and reconciling the checkbook. I've been neglecting the avalanche of paper on my desk, and at least now I've made a dent in it. The shredder will be getting a workout soon.

Oh, and whoever asked about making "slabs," here's a link to a blog post where I talk about how I do it.

Make It, Break It

To make "Made Fabric" you have to have scraps.

  You can probably do it by cutting up yardage, but I think it's fun to use scraps.

So aside from scraps, where did I get the bits to make the Made Fabric?

 First, I collected all the pieces I wasn't going to be using in the quilt.

 Then I cut what I need away.

Now I have a pile to play with.

 Like this!