Smatterings of fabric and stuff

      Fabric, just love it. No matter how it comes in the door, no matter what size. Recently, a box came from Gwen, who has over the years boosted my ability to back comfort quilts.

     With the brown batiks jelly roll I received from Gwen, I bought a jelly roll of neutrals to go with it and now have to remember the pattern I was going to use for the two.

     I was trying to find another set of affordable two jelly rolls that I could make either another Upstairs, Downstairs quilt or another bargello, like the blue one. It is so hard online to tell if they will work. These are called Hidden Canyon, and they were under $20 ea. When I opened and laid them out, I don't think the gradations are sufficient- too many darks, dark mediums and then real lights. Hmm, now what do I do with set of 2?

Tried to layout for a bargello, B&W shows how there is no gradation despite the colors.

Tried to layout sets for Upstairs, Downstairs but not great gradation.

Out of focus

      It is very disjointed here at the Swanekamp abode. On Black Friday, my husband went shopping with a friend. Two days later, the friend called and said he was Covid positive and he did not feel all that well when shopping. Immediately, my husband went to the top floor of our Cape and I disinfected the whole downstairs. The top floor has 1 bedroom, a full bath, and his office. He tested negative until Wed.- 5 days later, when a home test revealed his positive and followed it up with a PCR test, positive. He has been stuck up there except going outdoors (cold here) for walks. I have been making his meals and delivering them on the stairs. He has been tossing down clean clothes for me. I quarantined also and my primary said to wait 5 days from his positive to PCR test. I used home tests up to then on this past Monday when I had a PCR, negative as all the tests were. He gets out tomorrow. I am clearly negative.
     So it has like been living alone trying to make sure my husband gets what he needs. I write this to say it is a difficult time to concentrate, focus is hard. I don't fear the virus, but respect it. My husband never had a fever, lost his taste or smell, etc. Just a bit of plugged up head. We had already been boosting our immune system with recommended vitamins (flccc.org iMask protocol), used a nebulizer with saline and hydrogen peroxide and were vaccinated. He got monoclonal antibodies via IV, but it was hard to get it scheduled when we wanted it.
     I was able to finish the guild raffle quilt and now it will go to the person who is binding it. I used Glide Military Gold in the top, Glide 60 Military Gold in the bobbin.

This is the pattern "Lucky Stars"

This is one block design, the one below is quilted differently,
and I alternated the designs block by block.

Block swap, 4 patch

 

    These two blocks represent two sets of blocks, 24 each set. My guild did a block swap share using 3 1/2" squares  made into 4 patches. I was first introducted to block swaps when I took a workshop at Quilting by the Lake and shared a dorm suite with Lynn Roddy Brown, who has books on the subject. Later at Houston, I got to take a trunk show class she offered with the quilts from the books. I lent my books to the program chairs and they decided to do these blocks. 24 people signed up, so I ended up getting 48 in return.
     Some of the blocks did not have the specified contrast, so I ripped them apart and added the lights. I also had to make a lot of extra blocks because some people had trimmed them to finished size, so half were not the right size. I wanted to do something a bit different, so I set the blocks on point with a plain block of a taupe with dots. By making the setting triangles a darker gray, it gave the quilt more contrast. I lined all the squares up so that the color prints went up and down like a beaded curtain. Lastly, I auditioned a whole lot of border choices- trying to stick with a dot theme, and chose one to add as the border. It is a nice size and now I need to find a back. All those disparate color squares nicely jell. I really like it. I guess I am just a simple person and scrap lover.

Guild workshop- All pieced!

      A couple of Saturdays ago, our guild had a guest teacher, Marija Vujcic, to show us how to make her quilt pattern, Borneo Nights ,  a freebie. It uses larger squares of fabric so I thought of some RWB layer cake squares I had around that were not enough to make a quilt on their own. Marija is a very energetic person, smart (does bio research on cancer at the Roswell Cancer Institute), funny and helpful as well as very talented.
     I got a good chunk of the blocks made that day and I was determined that they would not sit around and marinate for an extended time. The arrangement of blocks in the pattern somehow bothered me- kind of scattered to my eyes, so I moved them into a different arrangement. It is quite large. I see this as a veteran quilt. It will be awhile until I quilt this one as so many are ahead of it. Pretty simple pattern as long as you keep your wits about you.

Arrangement according to pattern

My arrangement

All sewn together