Erica's quilt top has been pieced, except for the borders. I had to take a picture of it outside, otherwise the colors look inaccurate. And I didn't want to lay it on the ground, so you get a draped photo. Once I get borders, there will be much better pictures.
This shows the essence of the project, and that's what I want you to see. This might be the last time I ever do this design. It has not been easy. And I recently figured out why. There's a line on my machine that marks the quarter inch seam allowance, and I just measured it for the first time in my life, and it's wrong!! This is not so noticeable when I'm sewing squares together. But when those squares are sewed to multiple triangles like this, it just doesn't turn out even in the end. It meant I had to scrap or creatively adjust all the blocks that weren't snail trail.
In the end, I am moderately happy with the outcome. If I magically mustered up the energy to attempt this design again, the blocks would be 8" instead of 12", and I would add in some velvet scraps here and there.
I am not planning to do any more on this quilt until it sees its future home this month. Then we can make some decisions on the borders, and I can work on it until it's done.
Feeling like I needed something else to work on, I pulled out ALL of my fabric scraps, including prints I thought I would use on the above quilt, and didn't. And some that I did. And some that I got from my mother. I've been seeing a lot of amazing vintage style quilts on the net that have me salivating, so I finally started putting one together.
Here's the first quarter of it. It doesn't look as vintagey as I'd hoped, but I so appreciate the turquoise and purple together that I don't care. I have to make 3 more of those strips and I'll have a complete top. No borders for this one. I'm going get some batting in there, slap a muslin backing on it and put it under the machine.
The main reason I am doing this patchwork is to get machine practice before I quilt Erica's. I might do a few more to make sure I am getting the hang of it. Not sure what I will do with the practice patchworks, but I have a couple of ideas. In the mean time, I am now accepting unwanted fat quarters! Not that I ever expect to see an unwanted fat quarter. (Is there such thing?) I would more prefer to see anyone reading this finish their own projects that they bought that fat quarter for in the first place.
And now I'm going to do some hand quilting on a project I will be posting next time, after a certain someone has their birthday this month.
