Trudging Along

 This is not a beautiful post, just a little update on progress for the past week or so. The pear blocks are appliqued and ready for further work now. Just contemplating how I want to frame the smaller blocks so end up being the same size as the larger.

Probably going to keep this arrangement

All the blocks for 'Old Fashioned' have been trimmed and now I'm sewing the rows together. It's all tedious work when the blocks don't have a lot of variation. Love these two color quilts when they are totally finished up and quilted, but it's a real effort putting them together. Soooooo boring sometimes! 

Starting to come together

All the blocks were laid out and the rows numbered before I remembered that the plan was for pieced blocks to be chopped in half at the top and bottom. Uggh... I almost backed out of the idea completely, but then reconsidered. The quilt will look ever so much more interesting to me if I stick to the original idea! Had to take five blocks, mark the centers, sew a seam on either side of the mark and then cut through the middle. That should hold the cut piecing stable at the edges of the quilt.

Always best to stabilize the outside edges of a cut block

Doesn't look like much, but I also managed to figure out the colors for the sashing on the Primrose Path quilt. Got all the pieces cut out and ready for a big sewing session. Should have cut long strips to sew together and then cut into pieced rows, but the math failed me. It's so much harder to determine when you're dealing with bits and pieces of cut fat quarters instead of larger yardage! I just threw up my hands and resigned myself to lots more sewing time.

Prep work

Yesterday was the day that I set aside for sandwiching and pinning the next quilts in the hoop. Not done with the current one yet, but it's getting closer and I know it's much, much easier to jump right into the next quilt if it's all ready to go once the hoop is empty. Apparently my mind is on the fritz lately as both of the backings were the size of the quilt tops. Uh huh. Didn't add any of the extra needed at all. And of course I didn't find out till the backings were already taped to the floor. It was terribly annoying. Thankfully my daughter offered to help pin the quilts later in the day so at least that part went really fast!

Next quilts up

While I've been hand quilting most evenings of the week, I haven't been putting in oodles of time with it. So many things taking our time and attention lately, I'm really starting to crave some down time.

Working on the outside of the quilt now

Won't be happening any time soon though as were already gearing up to head out on our annual camping trip with our church friends. I'm trying not to feel grouchy about it, but it's hard. Prices of fuel and groceries are gonna make it an expensive little vacay and me? I'd almost rather head to the ocean. It's always fun once we get there though and at least I'll get to see my grandkids there. That pretty much makes it all worthwhile.