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.
