Good morning, my friends. Heading into the sewing room yesterday afternoon, I decided to go for broke. My sewing "assignment" was to finish off one more vertical row of the Painted Ladies quilt. Smitty was not at all happy about this assignment. He was just thinking of taking a nap when I interrupted his settling-in process. He was mid-yawn when I took his picture.
Sadie agreed to be my sewing helper for the day.
So she and I went to work on the first of four houses.
That one isn't sewn together. It's split between the top and bottom of the quilt.
And then...we just kept moving along...
Until I had four houses sewn together.
And then I sewed the ninth row to the right side of the quilt.
It was lunch time by then. I noticed the squirrels are depending on the birds for their birdseed now that the feeder pole is standing upright again.
While I was eating lunch, I talked myself into making four more houses. If I finished one more row, I'd have a finished quilt top. And here's the thing: it takes me longer to select fabrics for each house than it does to sew them together. There was plenty of time left in the day, and so I went to work.
And there it is...the last one.
Sadie was 'zhausted by then.
Then, I sewed that final row together, and I had myself a finished quilt top. I just needed to enlist the services of my quilt holder-upper for a picture, and my sewing day was finished.
Knowing we're going to be traveling the country soon, I wrote myself a note about the backing fabric I needed for this quilt. As long as I'm going to be visiting quilt shops, it makes sense to have a list of fabrics I actually need and can sew into a quilt right away. But then, I went searching through my stash anyway, and I came out with the one below. I can orient the design vertically or horizontally, and it has the right colors.
This was another one passed along to me from a friend whose quilter friend passed away last year. I believe there is enough, but when I unrolled it to measure, I realized it was cut into two pieces. One is about 2-1/2 yards, and one is about a yard. I can probably piece together a back from this fabric, and so I'll give it a try today. If not, I'll just look for something while we're traveling. Also, I'll use the leftover grays from the quilt top background for the binding. I'll cut those strips today.
So that was my sewing day. Finishing up this quilt top opens up a slot on my WIPs dance card. As I mentioned, I want to make another flannel quilt. Today, I'll spend some time looking at my stash of flannels and see if I can come up with some design. I like using scraps, but I like some order too. I'm not sure if I have enough of anything to create a pattern, and I won't know until I look at my stash and give it some thought. If you smell smoke today, you'll know that's me thinking too hard.
Okay, so that's all I have for you this morning. Happily, the weather is looking great for our carpet install on Monday. It's forecast to be 60°F and partly sunny...with no rain! Hard to believe we were iced in just a week ago. I hope things are clearing and thawing for you too.
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It was morning; through the high window I saw the pure, bright blue of the sky as it hovered cheerfully over the long roofs of the neighboring houses. It too seemed full of joy, as if it had special plans, and had put on its finest clothes for the occasion. ~ Hermann Hesse
I did smell smoke, and I was wondering where it was coming from (certainly wasn't me, I'm barely fueled up on coffee - LOL). Looks like you and Sadie had a lovely stroll through the neighborhood of the painted ladies. You two are a good team, you get a lot done!
Have you tried Mary Etherington’s “Bullseye” quilt? I don’t know if you follow her blog (Country Threads Chicken Scratch), but she had a Bullseye quilt-along a few years back, which you can still access through the ‘search’ button on her blog. Anyway, it’s similar to your French Roses quilt … very easy cutting and sewing, and works great with flannel. I made mine from flannel, but I used plain flannel blocks alternating with the Bullseye blocks, so it wasn’t quite so busy. I’ve made lots of quilts, but this is the only one we’ve ever actually used on our bed. It just barely covers the top of our bed (wish I’d made it bigger!), but I love the weight in the winter. Have fun playing with your flannel! Candy
Congratulations on finishing your top. I've always admired those painted ladies blocks.
Great Quote and Awesome quilt top finish. Can't wait to see how you're going to quilt it. Such a happy neighborhood!
Are the squirrels driving the kitties crazy?
Painted Ladies is a great finished top. Congrats on another finish, and to your loyal helpers.
I think that once I finish my blue quilt, the house quilt will be my next one. I love the gray background.
Your Painted Ladies quilt turned out beautifully, you've got some very fun houses in that top. Hopefully you can make good use of your first choice of backing fabric. I used something similar for a recent backing and I badly aligned the design between the two halves. Those complex stripe designs are just hard to work with for a back, at least I think so.
Painted ladies is (are?) great! Makes me think of the pictures of seen of San Francisco.
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