This past weekend I started the Alaska quilt. I got 32 blocks made, out of 121, a good start. I am wishing for an Accuquilt die for these shapes though. I have the Laundry Basket templates that go with the pattern, so there is less measuring, just strips and then pieces. So much bias though, lots of triangular pieces, now that I think of it, they are all triangles of some kind or another.

I spent a few hours last week with EQ8, making this quilt into a large, 100″x100″ bed size. I changed the coloring of a few blocks to get my version. I have to be a little careful when I use the LBQ pattern as a reference though. It has 13 different colorations of two blocks, my version has 18 different colorations. Most differences are left and right versions, or opposite/mirror images. There is a lot of checking and rechecking of color placement. I am thinking of renaming this quilt “Sewards Folly”, Secretary of State, William H Seward was instrumental in purchasing Alaska from Russia in 1867. Everyone thought it was a waste, but then gold was discovered and later oil, the rest is history. One day I hope to make it up there, it’s on my list.

Fun fact: After an all-night negotiating session, the treaty was signed at 4am on March 30th, 1867. The agreed price was $7.2 million, equivalent to around $120 million today, which works out at about two cents an acre.

I am also working on my current long arm quilt “Turkish Delight”, I picked a simple panto called kaleidoscope from Karlee Porter designs. This quilt is a long twin size, 80 x 108, which translates into lots of rows. While the Q24 is working through this, I stitch on my Shiny and Bright embroidery piece. I am done with most of the cotton floss parts and have moved on to the metallic threads. I got a skein of the Cosmo brand gold, and it is a little less fiddly than the DMC metallic threads. Short lengths are the key here, it shreds after a while, too much friction. I am sewing through two layers, which doesn’t help the thread last. The two layers does make it look nicer, somehow a richer hand to the fabric, plus less thread ends shadowing.

I am awaiting my first installment of the Halloween Figs BOM, it shipped out last week. This is going to be my BOM for 2020.

It’s got some interesting blocks and it is wall hanging size. I just have my Baltimore Halloween quilt that I hang every October, so this will get into the rotation for 2021.

Linking up with Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2020/06/design-wall-monday-june-15-2020.html

Be Kind