Squirrel Time

     I thought I had my schedule all made up of what to work on. Our guild show is the beginning of October, so I have tops to quilt. I have an art show in September that I need a couple of small art quilts for. That was my priority. Changed.
     One of my friends, who volunteered to take care of my cat so he would not have to boarded,  told me of her friend who was stricken with an illness and is incapacitated in a nursing home at 63. He has refused PT/OT.  I knew I had to make him a quilt- Squirrel time. He loves cats and flowers. He was an avid gardner and cat owner. We chose some fabric online (wish I had some local quilt stores with choices) and when I got it, the print was smaller than I thought, so I had to rethink the design. 
     A while back, I made this Disappearing 9 patch with lattice and thought this would be a great idea.

     So, I thought I would use brown squares to repeat the idea of the window frames in the cat fabric. Well, big mistake- way too dark and overwhelming. Ripped it all apart. 

    I kept thinking about and thought green batiks might set off the squares.  However, my scraps were not quite the 6.5" I needed, so I used 3.25 x 6.5" scraps. Have a box of green scraps, so I cut those sizes. That means the quilt will not be assembled as a Disappearing 9 Patch, but chain pieced squares and strips.

   I like that much better, so that is the way I am going. A friend said the white looks like a hole, but I want a relief block in the quilt, so it is staying white.

     The quilt will be 3 by 4 big blocks, with some border, will have to see how it looks. Maybe florals.
     I wanted the back of the quilt to be interesting also. I can't imagine laying in bed all day and all night. I thought if the quilt reversed, it would be more fun. The back of the quilt will use this panel of cats cut into separate squares. I cut two of them, put a grey border on, and will use the Grunge Pear Green around all of the squares. 

Battle for the Lilies

     I did not get beaten the red lily beetles. All the experts said give up the lilies and just grow local plants. Well, our blooming season is not real long and I need flowers to make it through the tough months. This is the way I figure it- for every lily bloom, I am keeping the pollinators fed and alive. So, I did battle with some Ortho products (don't shame me) and I have gorgeous lilies this year that are such a joy and treat. 
     I buy my bulbs from White Flower Farm and they do not disappoint. I have to put the new bulbs in the fall inside homemade hardware cloth cages so they don't get eaten by the squirrels. But these bulbs are worth fighting for. 

OBW orange top done!

      After a lot of fit and starts trying to figure out the borders, I made a decision and went with it. No second guessing now, it is sewn and don't ask me to rip it apart. I personally liked the turquoise blue relief border and wanted it to do what it does- stop the eye, but not call attention to itself. I had a great suggestion to use the teal/dark blue color found in some of the blocks (thanks, Julie). I debated how wide to make it. I cut it 2". When I put it against the turquoise, I cut off 1/2" off the turquoise, top and bottom. That made it seem a better proportion.

Other color ideas

Print with dark teal strip

The teal 2" strip

     Then I thought about using the print fabric and I had enough that I would not have to seam the lengths. I debated the width and cut it 6", knowing I could trim more off after quilting to square up. All the border sizes were cut using the measurement across the middle of the quilt. I don't like to average it. I add 1/4" to that measurement, pin out from the middle to the ends. It seems to work the best.
     I did not get the best photo I could. I always have a hard time getting the perfect flat shot. The breeze always messes with me outside, and the wall is never lit well or easy to get back far enough.

Inside on wall shot

Outside, hubby holding corners as high as he can

      Done!

OBW Orange you glad it's sewn

     After sewing the rows together, I put painter's tape on the rows and sewed the strips together. I used the fork pins for every seam. I put too much work into a myriad of arrangements to endure sloppy row joins. Who cares it took forever?

        I measured 3/4" from the end points of the hexagons and drew a line. I staystitched 1/8" inside it and stay stitched the top and bottom also. Then I trimmed the line to square up the sides. I auditioned the width of the top and bottome border and went with 3" unfinished. Sewed that on.

      Now I have to figure out what border to end with. I tried this green which is nice, but does not put the focus on the center. I am pulling out some darker green fabric and we will see what happens. Not sure what to use. 

     I have to say I chose this fabric because I knew it would work for an OBW, I loved the flowers, I loved the designer, but boy, do I hate orange. Even though the orange is not dominant, I can barely look at this without getting a bit nauseous over that fever hot orange. I think time away from it will help me deal with it.

When it is good that it is broken

     For a whole week, I had a fever. My days and nights were a blur. My husband brought home a gift from his Grand Canyon rafting trip- a flu or respiratory bug. He came home June 21st. He was sick the next day. I held out until the 24th when I went from incredibly healthy to a feverball complete with wheezing, hacking cough. How fast it turns. This was my view until this past Monday.

When my temp finally came down to close to normal.
The thermometer was my constant companion,

     Went to the doctor, swabbed for the normal flu bugs, negative, chest x-ray, negative. Given steroid dose pack, face blew up red and swollen, stopped them and dealt with steroid withdrawal and fever. Yikes. All in summer. I lost a whole week of June.
     I kept moving around the OBW for distraction, and decided on this.

     I had to audition what colors would look good on the sides. I did not want to lop off the ends of the rows. I had put too much work into sewing and arranging them to throw parts out.

     Then I decided to be smart and sew the ending triangles on before I sewed the rows. Unlike last OBW when I had to sew sewt in trianles on the sides. When I cut the triangle as normal and sewed it, I found that I would have no seam allowance on the outside edge and the outside points of the hexagons would get cut off. I drew a pattern with the template adding a 1/2" line bigger parallel to the side of the triangle to give some seam allowance. 

First triangle (ripped out) not enough seam allowance. Second triangle has it added.

See how I have a good seam allowance so the outside  point of the hexagon is not cut off?

     I sewed all the end triangles on before I started sewing the rows. I sewed two rows at a time as leader and enders so I could keep chain sewing. Due to the fever, this went slowly.

Rows all sewn

More Quilt Canada Show

     I got the rest of the photos off my phone. There were many, many great quilts. The phone is limited in what it can take. I am a camera person. The lighting limited taking photos clearly making the phone unable to focus well.

Very big quilt. Hard to see all the values as they are dark. Pieced, not fused or raw edge.

Typical panel quilt, but rhinestone spider in corner. I have a friend who collects rhinestone pins,
so I thought it was funny.

Beautiful colorwheel with lots of neutrals, crummy photo

Read the description below. I cried.

Millions of nine patches, detail below. The quilter found all the color fabric cut in an estate sale box.

This quilt is incredibly small. Maybe 12 x 18. Detail below, about 1/4" strips.

Quilting detail of a quilt that did not photo well enough.

Just plain fun