3.27.16

Today is a little damp, but if it warms up, I will use the damp to help wash off my porch. A wrap-around porch gets every speck of pollen offered up by Mother Nature.

Time to catch up my sewing progress. Here is some of what I have been doing.

Temecula Circa 2016,  the block for March 25 which used leftovers I did not have, but made so I would be ready.











Here are this weeks Splendid Sampler blocks.

Block #13 is called Checkerboard, designed by Pat Sloan. I forgot to adjust my needle to the right, so mine measures 6", instead of 6.5". I like it anyway and I will figure out how to make it work.

Here is Block # 14, Scrap Stars, designed by Corey Yoder. This was challenging because of decisions I made along the way. I should have thought the block backwards and saved a lot of waste cutting. I could have used Audrey's methods for a lot of this. Better trimming would have cut down on the distortion. I wish designers would stop along the way and tell us to square up the components to whatever size. This designer did, but not until just before the last step. 

I do really like my color choices, though. You can't tell, but the outer edge is green. The red in the weave makes the camera see it differently.

I have also been working with pink and white fabrics. One of my guilds expressed a need for pink and white blocks to make into Quilts of Comfort. This guild presents these quilts to members who have breast cancer. They just gave out the last one they had assembled and called for more blocks. I counted up and found there are 6 women in my mother's family, and added to that, one in my husband's family that have had breast cancer. I plan to make a block to donate honoring each one. I will put a butterfly on each one, because the butterfly is the symbol of hope.

Here is what I have so far.

The two teapots are for Great-Grandmothers. 

I saw a block like this on Pinterest, so I drafted out my own version. Normally, with work like this, I would have all kinds of beads and buttons and such, but I think these will be given to a long-arm quilter and those things get in the way.

Now I am working on blocks for the next generation down. There are two in that generation, two in the next, and then one, so I have four more to make. 

I really "re-invented the wheel" on this one, I had the idea but couldn't get the math to work out. I spent a lot of time with paper and pencil when I could easily have bought someone else's pattern. But, there is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in envisioning, engineering, and completing. I need another for this generation but it is NOT going to be like this one!