This weekend I am working on the El Camino/Summer swag quilt top. I started it about six days ago, with the star blocks. I thought the rest would go together quickly, strip piecing and cutting the 60 degree triangles was a bit more work though. Part of the trouble I had was not having full 42 inch strips of fabric to work with. Not all of my El camino scraps were width of fabric, some were FQ. A few of the triangles were made using individually cut trapezoid pieces, which can slow one down a bit. I put out all the blocks as I made them on a spare bed and then the floor, because my design wall wasn’t wide enough. As I made the blocks I was careful not to have the same combination of prints/strips. Also not to have the same fabrics touching – flashback to kids in back seat “He’s touching me!”. As I was sewing them together, I thought that I might like to fill in the zig-zag side borders. I figured out a size diamond to cut, and since I have a few yards left of the border print, I am going to use it to square up this quilt. I am trying to come up with a name for it, it reminds me of the flamenco dancers dresses. Flamenco is a Romanian or southern Spain thing, but also Mexican, and the fabric print is more Mexican influenced. Maybe Mexican fiesta quilt?

The Barn house project has been sitting in the field. I have been sewing x’es sporadically. I am finding the red rows of the building monotonous. I have to keep telling myself that each row is two stitches less than the last one. I think it should have a name, red house syndrome, how many samplers have a red house in them? The Heaven and Nature sampler had one (took forever to stitch) and the Pet all the Dogs one too. This Fabulous Houses sampler is all houses, should have thought of that six months ago. I made another cow, maybe I ‘ll do the right side sunflower next.

I am almost done with the Good Morning blanket, about one and a half more rows to go. Then I’ll have a weaving ends in session or two, there are 64 ends to weave in, yuck. I think I’ll have time to knit a few pairs of booties before the gifting in August. When I got the blanket kit, I was looking for knitted booty patterns, and the yarn was shown also used for the blanket. So I bought a separate selection of the yarn for the booties. There are a few yards of each color left over too, maybe a hat?

The Memory Tee Shirt quilt is on the frame and the quilting is going along well. The client picked the panto Kaleidoscope, and luckily for me I already had it in my collection. This quilt is a bit of a mixed bag of fabrics, satin, flannel, knit tees, and cotton prints. I also left a few pockets in place to make it interesting. There are some rhinestones and flat beads too. Those were a bit tough to stitch around, I thought the stitching was going to miss the flat beads, but ended up breaking a bead and a needle. The pockets I am able to use the masking feature on the computer to not stitch over them. The appliquéd Minkee backing is holding up well too. I attached it with the selvedge edges on the leaders, so the stretch is parallel to the bars. This makes the panto run top to bottom through the words on the back, but since it’s non directional and the quilt is square, it’s not a problem. I think I am going to bring the minkee to the front to bind it.

Be Kind.