Serene Green

These green blocks were 95% finished by supper time on Saturday.

What actually was accomplished on Saturday is a slightly larger list. Between two adults and two children, here's what we did: washed two bathrooms, swept and washed every lino floor in the house, picked up toys, did dishes twice, organized the master bedroom, vacuumed two carpeted rooms, cleared the foyer, made meatloaf, did some gluten-free baking, went shopping, sewed green blocks, [played Castleville], and picked up the Husband from work. Phew!

Sunday was marvelously relaxing. We made a beautiful and tasty lunch and brought Husband back to work. Sunday also included some necessary evening beers.

This means that all the blocks for the House of Love quilt are done! Wanna see them all? Ta da!

They look great together! I'm planning to create a design wall in my next house - very much needed. For now, standing on the coffee table for photos will have to suffice.

This is the desired orientation for the finished quilt. I l.o.v.e. it. I really, really love it.

Today is library day. Tomorrow is grey sashing. I'll have a completed rainbow scrap flimsy by the end of the week (knock on wood).

These last photos are for Gramady. I didn't post on Grandparent Eye Candy Day, so anyone who doesn't want to see my Pixie today can navigate away without any hard feelings.

A normal breakfast in our home contains at least one cupful of green smoothie. The other day, my Pixie invented a new and unique way to eat her breakfast: by painting with it.

She even tried to lick the cutting board when she was done. Cleanup was a snap. I highly recommend letting your kids amalgamate art + breakfast.

Introducing: Rambo!

When I ran out of steam calculating the yardage needed for the Green Quilt I passed the numbers off to my accountant (yes, you read that right). And guess what? She miscalculated and I ran out of fabric...I may need two more meters.

Although it may make no sense to the non-quilting crowd, I am stoked that the green quilt has been put on hold for a couple of days.

The working title for the new quilt is Rambo Bright. The above photo represents about a quarter of the fabrics chosen to grace this beauty.

 I love that the colours in this picture are almost true to life.

Delicious red....my trouble colour. There never seems to be the "perfect" red. It is my favorite colour, however, so I settle for all reds and not just the perfect one. To me, trying to find the perfect red fabric is like trying to find the perfect red lipstick - it might take my entire life.

 These are a selection of neutrals that I might need....or I might not.

I also pulled every violet (and one purple!) I could find that hasn't been previously claimed. It's not much, but so very necessary according to the intended recipients.

The vague plan for Rambo Bright is crumbs, stars, and other improv blocks; possibly set on point; then bordered by some Nate blocks a la Malka. It's a Newlywed quilt and the groom is a Very Tall Guy so this will be a very large quilt.

I started slicing and sewing:

And I located some binding trimmings that will make beautiful improv geese:

I also chose a binding for my Dark Side WIP....revealing soon.

Counting the Irish Chain, Green Quilt, Rambo Bright, Dark Side....maybe I should have more than 4 WIPs? I haven't even begun the Mona Lisa door hanging, and the conceived Cathedral Windows throw pillow. This year is already so exciting!

Greening Up

I'm really not a quilter who gives a rip about matching seamlines, so you can guess how much of a trial this very simple green quilt is to my psyche. When quilting, my seam ripper is related to me like a third cousin, twice removed. (When sewing clothing, it is a devoted pet.)

But even distant relatives visit once in a while.

This is how my studio looked for hours today: Nothing but chain piecing.

And I managed to complete one more block. Can I get a woohoo?

In the midst of the quilty chaos, we took a break to make "snow angels" on the lino.

But was that it? One measly block?

Lest anyone (myself included) get discouraged by the lack of progress on this enormous green monstrosity, observe the following:

Round 1 has been [mostly] chain pieced; counted; pressed. Ready to slide under my presser foot. This evening I have a date with my pincushion.

Tomorrow I might spend most of the day slicing, counting and sorting the BG pieces for round 2 and sashing.

I lead the most exciting life.

First!

Ever had one of those weeks? For better or worse, I'm still surviving: pink eye, croup, 2am emergency trip, paperwork you wouldn't believe, and a new car. If I say I want to return to the status quo, will the powers that be know where to drop me?

I have been keeping my New Years' resolution very well - it's not hard to get stuff done when you do a little every day. The results are clear: out of 657 necessary green squares, I have finished cutting 659.

Plus, I received a phone call yesterday that had me singing -  shortly thereafter my sewing machine came home from vacation.

I celebrated by spending some money on a very soft unbleached muslin and started slicing. I made one lonely block, the first of many, to end my evening. It makes me happy to see.

Pretty, yes? These blocks will finish at 12".....only 63 more to go for an oversized queen size quilt (or a king). If anyone is interested in using my pattern, I'd be happy to post dimensions (sharing is for the good of humanity). Sashing is also included in the pattern.

But first! To the sweat shop for a few days of rapid chain piecing!

Beneficial Talent

There are many reasons why a quilter will choose one LQS over another when it's time to buy fabric. There is one store in my shopping radius that I will not go to because they like to choose colours for you, trying to make sure everything is matchy-matchy. The last time I was in there they tried to make me feel like I had no sense whatsoever simply because I did not know the producer's name for Malka Dubrawsky's new "Stitch in Colour" line of fabrics. Looked at me like I was crazy, they did: she actually asked me if it was a real fabric line.

It may have had something to do with me not looking like a typical quilter (purple faux-hawk and all). Meh.

However, at my "home" LQS they appreciate that I know my way around cotton. In fact, they never offer to help me choose fabric.

Why, you say?

I have a queer little (awesome) talent for colour memory. I do not have to take a focal fabric in and then match colours using the dye dots on the selvedge. All of my colour choices go together because I say so. I can see a colour a few times and just know what will look good with it. Or, as in the green quilt, I can match very similar colours and it'll still look good together when I get them home.

Today I bought these greens to supplement the scraps I already had.

Looking at all the greens together makes me so happy. None look out of place....good mix of values, shades, tints, scale.

While it's not a talent that begs to be bragged about, it does come in handy when I'm out randomly adding yardage to my stash. Keeps it cohesive. Makes me happy.

 Progress so far: 237 squares cut. 420 to go.

And I chose a lovely unbleached muslin for the BG. I hope they'll still have some when I have the money to buy it. (You were right about the cream, Diane.)

Seeing Green

This morning I ransacked my entire stash and scrap bins (excepting flannelette and denim) for warm and cool colours. I rediscovered that my stash is pathetic.

The warms:

The cools:

For the past few months I have been collecting greens for a quilt that has a design date of October 24, 2011 on the pattern. So I pulled all the (pretty) greens out of the cool stack.

Then the question became: Do I have enough green to do a queen sized quilt? I drew up a full sized pattern and calculated yardage - several times, because I'm rather retarded with numbers. I put it up on my bulletin board and started cutting.

Upon further reflection, I made the pattern slightly smaller (for a finish size of  114" square). I recalculated yardage. Again. I needed the book (The Quilter's Ultimate Visual Guide) to walk me through the series of calculations every. single. time. I'm still not done.

But I do have a very neatly organized basket of little squares. 90 down, 567 to go. And then backgrounds and sashing. This could take a while.

Instead of using a pure white (bleached muslin, same as the 9-Patch)for the background and sashing, I'm thinking about a creamy colour or maybe even a light grey. Any suggestions?

While I debate, I changed my stacks again. From this:

To this:

There is one WIP in the green bin (Husband's Irish Chain), and mending in the white bin. Once I get this mountain of green chopped up, the leftovers will go back into the blue bin for the warm/cool string creation. This way both projects win. My projected date of finish for all three quilts is the end of March.

Also, in my world, unicorns fly through purple skies and eat marshmallow lollipops.