Yep, I've been bit by the quilting bug again! I've been happily ignoring this blog in favor of whipping out some - if I may say so - beautiful work!
First, I've been doing a lot of hand piecing. Now, I've actually been working on this "charm" quilt (each one of the pieces is supposed to be a different fabric, but I'm cheating a little) off and on since last Thanksgiving, but in the past week and a half, I've made quite a bit of progress.
This "pattern," or patch, is called "Tumbler," and it's an extremely simple tessellation. Most of the charm quilt patterns are simple tessellations, but not all of them go together this easily.
If I were doing a clamshell or an applecore pattern, I'd be dealing with curves - and they can be a pain. Still, I'm finding that hand piecing can be much more accurate than machine piecing - but it's still very forgiving.
I do want to start some curved piecing sometime; there are a lot of patterns that use it, and are stunning. A couple that come to mind are Drunkard's Path and the Wheel of Mystery (I think that's what it's called yup, it is!), which make exquisite quilts. As a matter of fact, I really, really, really want to do a wheel using my South African Indigoes and some shirting fabrics and taupe fabrics... Blues, whites, and browns - mmmmmm!
At any rate, what you're seeing in this picture are several stages of this piecing process. There in the center, you see pairs of light and dark fabrics pinned together. I sew them into strips of 10 patches, and then (on the bottom right) pin the strips together to sew them into sections. I don't know why, but eight rows of ten patches each seem to work for me to use as sections. Currently, I have four (well, now five, but you'll see why I only say four for this post) sections done, and I'm dithering on whether I want to make five more and set them three by three for a queen size quilt, or simply have a total of six for a twin size...
Of course, there will probably be a double border - inner and outer - either way I decide to finish the top. And, also of course, I'm going to be in a major quandary: How am I going to be able to let the quilt go in a bed when I've hand pieced it?! I'm actually also hoping to hand quilt it - I just got a Quilting Spoon from my visit to Jinny Beyer's Studio, and I'm hoping it will solve the difficulties I've been having with hand quilting.
What else have I been doing... Oh! You can't see them, but in the plastic tub in the pictures above, I have almost 1,000 blocks ready to sew together for baby quilts! I calculated it out, and I have enough to make about 30 tops! I'm going to have to get rolling on that, because I'd like to see about selling them, AND I've got a friend who's due in late October...
Here's a sample of the kind of colors and fabrics I use in baby quilts. This is one of what I call the "second stage" blocks - most of the quilt is made up of a simple three piece slit rail block. But, when I cut the strip sets apart, I also cut narrower sections so I can piece them into 9-patches like these. I'll even cut narrower ones, and piece SIX together so I have a sort of 18-patch block.
They all end up finishing to six inches square, and each quilt gets thirty blocks. Usually, I'll toss in about three or four 9-patch blocks, and one or two of the 18-patches, and jumble them up among the split rails.
Wow. Thirty tops... I think I'm going to have to get back to sewing - and very quickly, too! Don't forget, I'll have to add borders, too! Usually the inner one finishes to two inches and is some shade of yellow, and then an outer one of six inches. I'm going to have to see what kind of kid-critter fabric I have on hand for those outer borders. I know I have some, but I bet I'm going to have to get more! (Oh, darn! LOL)
I'm also going to have to get more bright bright BRIGHT flannels for the backing, because I don't think I have enough to do more than eight quilts. Hm. Well, maybe ten... And batting! *groan* Well I did get a whole bunch of sale batting (still all cotton!) recently, as well as a half roll of Warm and Natural, so I think I'm OK with that...
What else... I just finished a blue and white kit yesterday. It's very pretty, although not my usual LARGE size. I don't recall where I got the kit, probably from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest one year, but it's cute, and uses one of my favorite blocks, the churn dash (some call it "shoo-fly")
As you see, it's a cute quilt - more of wall hanging size, or as a small throw. I really didn't like the border, though, so I changed it. After all, it's going to live in my house (unless I can think of someone who might give it a good home after I've quilted it - any suggestions? 
), so I'm using a quilter's prerogative and adjusting things to suit my preferences, LOL Of course, the kit was in blue and white (sorry, fellow conservatives - I much prefer blue to red!), so that made my job easier. There was also plenty of fabric, so I could make my changes without worrying about running short.
And this is what I ended up with yesterday! It measures about 46 inches square, and *I* think my border is much nicer than the original...
Anyway, that's all for now, and I have no clue when this'll be posted (it's Saturday, 11 August at 8am as I write this), because the Beloved Husband is working with our soon-to-be-multiple wireless routers. He's been wrestling with them since about five o'clock yesterday afternoon, but I expect he'll be triumphing fairly soon...
(8:30am - ah, well, hard wiring into the DSL works, too!)
