The wind died down yesterday. We've had a bitterly cold east wind blowing for about a week, and so it was nice to be out without getting blown away. The kitties went with me to fill the bird feeders. (The kitties are especially fond of this task.) Smitty was excited to have a human outside with him. Humans are a rare breed this time of year.
Sadie brought her shadow self to the party.
Most of the leaves are gone from our trees now, but a few are still present. This Japanese maple is at the front of the house.
There are two of these bright red guys around the back near the catio.
I'd already done my morning slow stitching. I stitched all of August's block and part of September's. I've finished September's block now, but it still needs borders.
When I was able to make my way to the sewing room, I stitched on the borders for August's block.
Sadie was there right away to help out. She was ready to settle in for a delicious NBS day.
Then Smitty joined us.
Uh-Oh, I think there's gonna be a rumble!
While they negotiated their respective territories, I went to work sewing together the latest three Shop Hop blocks. Here's San Diego:
Then, Newport, Oregon. These go pretty fast once the cutting is finished.
And finally...um, I'm trying to...could you just step a little bit...?
There we go. Arizona, near the Nevada border.
Here are the 15 blocks I have for this quilt so far. I need ten more to finish it off, and I'll add the final blocks to either side of what you see here. The camera will be in the middle.
Okay, so having finished up a couple of projects before I was booted from my sewing room, I have two open slots on my list of WIPs. One of them will be filled with this group of blocks gifted to me from my friend Wendy. Wendy gets some sort of monthly sewing sampler box, but she didn't want to make these. She sent them my way, knowing my obsession with barns. There are 12 blocks, plus a final setting design. (I'll probably set them my own way.)
I needed a background fabric. I can't remember if this came from my stash or if I bought it specifically for this quilt. It's a mottled off-white. I'll use it in all of the blocks.
Also, I added to the project box these leftover fabrics from other barn quilt projects. I have enough of the lower one for borders and more.
So, I'll begin with Block #1 and work my way through, starting here:
It took me a bit of studying and comparing different blocks to figure out what fabrics I should use. The pattern only specified "background, medium, dark, and stripe." Each block has a "stripe" in the lower left corner, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever. I couldn't really come up with a good substitution either. Also...am I supposed to use polka dots? Or is that just for illustrative purposes? Well, I happen to love polka dots, and I have lots of them, so what the heck? And I'll do each one in a different color, RSC-style, although I'll be choosing the colors as I go.
So here's Block #1. The "stripe" has me pretty confused. It doesn't seem to fit, and it doesn't make a whole lotta sense. Is it a door? Is it a wall? I don't know. I decided to use that board fabric throughout. I'm confident it will all come together in the end.
Okay, so next up, I'll be making the next section for Purrfectly Pieced. This is what I have for this quilt so far:
Also, I'll continue on with stitching and sewing the Books & Roses blocks. Those won't take long, and then I'll need to prepare the final piece for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. I'll be working with nearly the whole quilt sewn together, and so I'm dreading it a little bit. It's going to be huge and heavy to work with.
The final stitchery will be to stitch the tree branch across the top where the crows are perched. Honestly, if I'd known then what I know now, I would never have started this quilt. It's going to be a great quilt when it's finished, but it has been a bear to piece together.
The week is about to get busy. We're hosting Thanksgiving this year, and so I need to get busy with a few domestic chores, and I need a last minute trip to the grocery store to pick up the items on the menu that are best purchased very fresh. Also, the workers will be back tomorrow to finish up the final cosmetic work on the baseboards. Thankfully, when they're finished, the basement will be finished and the whole debacle out of our lives...hopefully, for good.
7 comments:
This mug of mine is as plain as a barn door. Why should people pay 35 cents to look at it? ~ Spencer Tracy
If you google #barnblockquilt, you'll see pictures of some complete ones, but the stripe patch still doesn't make any sense. The only thing I can come up with is that it's supposed to be steps.
You have so many interesting projects going on. The cat one looks nice.
I was going to suggest asking The Google about those bean blocks, but it looks like Chris beat me to it! Great minds think alike, of course. I'm still in love with the cat quilt, though I know better than to start anything like that. It seems anything that combines piecing and any other method gets left behind... And Smitty cracks me up. Sometimes he looks slim and rather normal-sized, but then other photos he looks like a beefcake! You've said he is a big boy, but sometimes he looks like he's been hitting the gym! He's handsome no matter what, just as Sadie is beautiful. Give them some scritches from me please!
I got my last minute trip to the grocery done yesterday (I hope). I look forward to seeing your barn blocks as they take shape. I have no idea about that striped square either - maybe check the hashtag on IG and see what others have done? Wilbs has been just as helpful as your two lately!
You just keep yourself so organized and keep to a schedule! That white board must really help you keep on track of what you want to do next.
Always an amazing read each day. You get so much done. I think those cats on the quilt looks like a fun project. No ideas from me on what that stripe is on the barn quilt. Company came in for the holiday on the 22nd. From here until Sunday it was all about Thanksgiving and getting meals prepped. My niece turns 12 on the 23rd. The dress is done.
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