An update on a couple of finishes.The past few years, members of our monthly hand-sewing group/guild have each taken on the summer goal of finishing a healing/comfort quilt for a given organization. This year's designated group was "Rebuilding Together Philadelphia." Previously, I had planned to make a zig-zag pattern which used scrap nine-patches alternating with plain cream-on-cream squares, as shown in a book I own. So, as a leader/ender project, I had already made a bunch of nine-patches from scrap 2.5" squares -- you name it, it was in there: novelties, florals, batiks, everything. To move the project along, I decided that this would be my donation quilt -- after all, I already had I had I-forget-how-many dozen blocks ready to use. I tried out the arrangement on my design wall. Didn't like it. At All. My re-thinking process told me that half-square triangles lent themselves to so many possible arrangements that I was sure to find something I liked. So I paired the plain squares with the made bunches of HSTs. On the last St. Paul's Quilt Day, I laid out the top in this barn-raising setting. Machine quilted this one myself, first on the neutral, echoing the seamlines several times, and then zig-zag across the sliced nine-patches. As I still have a lot of these nine-patches left, I will eventually make up more HSTs and try another arrangement.
The entire gallery of Uvulati quilts is found on Nancy's blog.
Last spring I caught granny-square fever (it was going around) and dropped my then-current project in favor of making a dozen blocks out of scraps, each with a single color and a coordinating small print background. My original plan was to sash with a stripe of some sort to frame the blocks strongly. I took this project to our spring retreat to audition some stripes from my stash, and even ended up purchasing some additional fabric, based on comments and advice from fellow White-Oakers. (Yeah, I know, it was a chore to shop...)
But somehow, whenever I'd put the blocks up, nothing that I tried "felt" right. One day a few weeks ago, I was reorganizing my stash, happily fondling fabric, when I discovered a yard of white fabric with large brightly colored dots. Excited, I spread it out and put the granny square blocks on top, and it was clear that I had a winner for the sashing! More prowling in my "geometrics" drawers provided the check that had been a recent acquisition on my first trip to a new LQS. They were having an end-of-bolt sale and the bolt with the last piece of this bright summery check just jumped into my arms! The result is, I think, a much more "airier" quilt than if I'd used a stronger or darker sashing with any of the stripes I was considering. My talented long-armer quilted "bubbles" (circles of different sizes) on this, which I absolutely love! "Sherbet and Gum Balls" is a gift for a friend who has had some recent health problems. Hoping it will both add some cheer to her life and stand in for some warm hugs from me.
You've been doing really stunning stuff lately, GF.
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