All tied up

    Finally done, the Bow Tie Top from a block swap. All quilted, 55" x 62", bound and ready for a home. Glide Celery thread, top and bottom.

Back

Mystery top sewn and Alycia's mystery

     I am picky about doing mysteries and somehow I am sewing two at once. Not sure how that happened. I finished the guild mystery top which was a facebook mystery years ago. Now I have to find/make a backing and get it quilted, oh boy.
     I used hand dyed fabric (not dyed by me) and dark blue assorted batiks and assorted neutrals. Not a hard quilt- the components are easy to assemble.

Sewn blocks

Audition wide dark borders

Auditon color border with thin dark blue

Final choice after umpteen auditions- thinner blue with wider black scribbled border

     Alycia's A12 mystery is being assembled and here are 20 blocks laid out on cardboard trays, ready to sew.

Flowers and friends

      It is no secret I am nuts about tulips. Although I have a small yard, I plug as many as I can in. We have to build small cages for them or the squirrels will eat them all up. Not a squirrel fan.
     I am a bit worried because tomorrow we are supposed to have an accumulation of wet slushy snow, oh no, my tulips!

     Someone else who loved flowers was Debbie Clarke of Stitchin' Therapy. Her colorwash florals were inspirational and gorgeous. I corresponded with her and learned so much from her.
     Debbie had battled health challenges over too many years and today she lost her battle with them. I am so grieved and sad for her family especially her husband, Russ. The tulips are for her today.

Finally flowers

      After a surprise late snow, it warmed like crazy and the daffodils burst forth. Their sunny faces are immensely cheering after dark days and times.
     I like a variety of daffodils, like scrappy fabrics in quilts, so that is what I plant. I have a small yard, but the flowers do their job well.

Mystery nearing completion

     My quilt guild is currently working on the last clue of our mystery. I like to do mystery quilts occaisonally because it provides another quilt I can give without doing a lot of planning or thinking. I like to support our guild, especially when we are still meeting remote.
     I am working on another mystery with Alycia because it assures me I will make a RWB veteran quilt and I don't have to plan it out. 
     I laid out the blocks for the guild quilt and saw it was a square. I am not fond of square quilts, especially for a comfort quilt. After some mental back and forth battle, I decided to add another row and had to figure out how to do the blocks without going through the mystery clues.
     I used graph paper for the 2 alternate blocks and wrote dwon what pieces I needed to cut. I always make some extra blocks when doing a mystery quilt, but there were not enough for 3 star and 2 lattice blocks. It took me longer than I wanted to figure out and cut out because I still have a vaccination brain and am not the sharpest crayon in the box.

The square layout, blocks finish at 12"

Layout with the extra row. I like the size much better.

Working on the extra blocks for the last row.

     Currently, the quilt is webbed on the wall waiting for the horizontal rows to be sewn. More photos later.
     The borders on the Mystery quilt were an add on at the last clue and I thought the blocks were way too fussy with such a strong overall design, so I will use some dark blue batik for the border. Once the quilt is all sewn, I will audition border fabric and size.

Up and down again

     First, wishing everyone a Happy Easter! I am in the middle of making an early dinner, so I wrote this yesterday!

      No, I am not referring to my condition after the second shot, which has been hard and fatiguing for over 4 weeks, but to another Upstairs/Downstairs quilt. This one is from two batik jelly rolls. First set of 6 blocks is sewn, 7 more down to go.

Two identical rolls

Sorted 8 sets

Strip sets sewn, 2 sets of same strips

The 8 sets of strip sets, 2 each of each strip set, ready to be cut into 2 1/2" strips

8 sets of block strips, 2 1/2" wide

The first 6 blocks of set 1 out of 8 sets, 7 more sets to go.

Almost a finish

     A number of years ago, I participated in a block swap with Barb. It was a bowtie block and we had to use grays and a bright fabric. I was happy with what I received and made it into a top. Which sat. And sat.
     In my resolution to make backs for all my tops, I made one for this and because it is a bit smaller than I usually make, I put it on the longarm this week. Although smaller (53" x 63"), it took a long time to quilt. The bowties were quilted with three diagonal lines (used a ruler, but I stink with rulers- they are always slipping on the ends) and the gray has small semi-spiral lines. The thin gray border had sawtooth triangles. The piano key border had square spirals that covered two keys at a time. I used Glide celery top and bottom. I think that this design flattened out the piano keys to be more subtle. The diagonal lines on the bow ties emphasized the changing directions, and the small scrolly lines lent a softness. I do not think an overall design would have achieved the result I was after. That is my story and I am sticking to it. 
     I have to put a binding on it and can't decide what fabric. When I get the binding on, I will photograph it so you can also see the back.

Blocks as received

Unquilted

Quilted, needs binding