Blue Ice Laughing Out Loud

 

in 2009 I made this quilt, Laughing Out Loud. It is a takeoff of the "Reading in Bed" quilt in Freddy Moran & Gwen Marston's book, Collaborative Quilting. 

It was the first quilt I ever made with sashing and cornerstones, and it taught me something. If one fabric is used for the sashing, and if it is used well, the blocks appear to be floating above them.

When I started laying out the blocks for the Blue Ice quilt, I saw the two darkest fabrics wouldn't work the way I wanted, so I decided to use them as the spacers between the blocks, but when I stepped back, the dark solid looking fabric looked dead. Notice them around the block with the dragonfly in the center, above. Notice how the other spacer blocks with the deep space "stars" in them, appear lively by contrast, and they seem to connect to each other. 

I decided to use only that fabric for the spacers, but I didn't have enough. So I have placed an order for more of that fabric. As long as I was at it, I ordered the backing fabric, and something I might use for the binding.

Dawn Breaks Over Marble-Head

Marblehead is a seacoast town in Massachusetts, about 45 minutes away from me. The phrase "dawn breaks over marble-head" is an accurate statement, because it really does.

It also means, "Duh, what a dummy, I just got it" when accompanied by a slap to your [own] forehead.


These blocks will make up my quilt "Reading Out Loud." I finished them last night. My son said I should call the quilt, "Laughing Out Loud."

Last night, when I was thinking of how much I loved making Tonya's letters (and how I am going to make some words for her Halloween Noises quilt), did I realize that "lol" was a tag for "Laughing Out Loud," and that I could very easily make a block with those three letters in it and put it in the quilt. Or spell it all on the back...

Duh!

So the quilt gets renamed again.

ROL Blocks Progress

I've got about 1/2 of the ROL blocks completed (the stack on the right). Another dozen are sewn together and need to be trimmed. There are about 20 blocks in the stack on the left that need the extra side sashing pieces.
These have been matched already and are waiting to be sewn together.

I really don't like my present method of organizing leftover bits of fabric. Right now they're more or less organized by size of scrap, but that isn't very consistent, and as I have been going through them for this quilt, I've been really frustrated.

So I've decided to organize them by color. That's how I've got everything else organized, so it should be much easier. To that end I've ordered some clear plastic storage boxes from The Container Store. I already use them for my "chunk" storage, and I like them very much. They have clear lids and are easy to open. They stack nicely and come in a wide variety of sizes.

I can't wait.

ROL block assembly

Now that I have the basic ROL (Reading Out Loud) blocks made, it's time to add the sashing. A finished unit is the block with sashing on two sides plus a corner block, like this:Every time I make a batch of blocks, I then added the sashing to one side. Now I am making the little side block with the colored corner.So, I'm lazy. When I got the sashing fabric, I cut it into 2-1/2" strips. As I made the colored blocks, I would set aside fabric bits that were about 3" square. As I cleaned my sewing table yesterday, I trimmed these little pieces 2-1/2" wide by whatever. Next, I sewed these little squares to one end of the long sashing pieces like this.Then I played matchmaker, choosing which sashing square would go with which block. Then I sewed them all up and trimmed them. I have made about 20 so far. Here are the first 9.I won't automatically add sashing to the triangular pieces I made the other day, because I haven't determined the final layout yet. And this whole on point with sashing business is complicated enough already. I am not a math whiz, and yes, I do know all about the instructions for all this math business on various sites like Bonnie's. I worked it all out and I -think- I have enough blocks for the quilt to be the size I want.* But if not, I'll make more.

Regular readers will know I don't quilt my quilts, and they don't even have batting. Just a top, a cotton backing and they are tied about every 4" - 6" with crochet cotton. The backing is folded up over the front edge and machine stitched down. This makes for a sturdy, lightweight quilt (washes like a dream, btw) that, in my family, lives on top of the top sheet (like this:)and underneath the blanket, so 99.99% of the time, nobody ever sees it. Which is certainly pretty hilarious.I suppose the name really should be Laughing Out Loud. Because if you think the front of the quilt is going to be loud, wait until you see the fabric I have chosen for the back. (Hint, hint.)


*How big will this be? Since this quilt will be used on my bed, I will want to tuck it in under the mattress at the bottom, the quilt will be the top of a double bed + 8" drop on each side and + 20" at the bottom. So I am going for about 70" x 92" and this is before the 4-1/2" border I am planning all around.

Half Square Blocks

The "Reading Out Loud" quilt I am working on is set on point, and thus needs half square triangles all around the edges. Here are the ones I have made so far. (You can click the picture to make it bigger.) These blocks are 6-1/2" on the short sides.

The quilt is inspired by Gwen Marston & Freddy Moran's quilt Reading in Bed from their book, Collaborative Quilting.

You may be wondering why I have decided to rename this quilt Reading Out Loud. Good question. Let me explain.

At the last meeting of the local quilt guild, a woman got up at "Show and Tell" with a quilt she described as being "kind of loud." I craned my neck to get a better view as she unfolded it. This I wanted to see.

It was a smallish quilt, with nine blocks and a wide border. The blocks were very simple, with a lot of background. The quilt was made with three fabrics, bright red, bright yellow with beige background.

I thought, "well, if that's loud, my [Reading in Bed] quilt is positively SCREAMING!!"That's when I decided to rename my quilt.