Take One Out of the Hoop, Put Another One Right Back In....

Time to put another quilt in the hoop! Once the Christmas tree goes up, there is zero room on the living room floor for pinning larger quilts. And hello? One thing that does not need to happen around here during the holidays is an empty hoop! Those of you who enjoy hand quilting, totally know what I'm talking about. lol

Rising Sun quilt

I put all the names of those interested in the Kaffe floral vase panel {offered in the previous post},in a bowl today and drew out the lucky person. Congratulations GranChris! You are the winner! I'll get it into the mail asap after getting your mailing address.

Looking a little closer

It was wonderful to pull this quilt top out and finally start making a plan for quilting. I had a very good pattern I was following for this particular quilt and then... Well, it just wasn't working for me anymore. During the making of it, I finally stumbled into a better solution {for me} and then had to laugh at myself for being so contrary about following a pattern. Growing pains are not always easy to transition through are they?

Loving the sashing fabric I won long ago
from Barb

And really, I think those growing pains might still be happening around here. I don't feel quite as betwixt and between as before, but there's still this underlying restlessness that I deal with pretty often in regards to quilting decisions. Especially in terms of starting in on new quilts. I second guess myself all of the time. There are so many quilting ideas hanging out in my head and I really, really don't want to waste time on quilts that won't matter a lot to me in the long run.

A few false starts and now I've got it figured out....

Which I guess is pretty much the way I was feeling with the Basket Medallion quilt. So sad because it was a great learning quilt for me. Thankfully, I only have one other much older quilt top in the queue these days. All the rest only go back a year or two! And I have to remember that there is very real value in the learning and doing. It's how we get to the next step of amazing ourselves with our wonderful creativity!

The Basket Medallion quilt is completed!!

And you really can't go wrong with a quilt that has basket blocks in it! Right? Always a place for these in our repertoire. You better believe that I am not done making basket quilts any time soon.

Little basket blocks making up the last border

Plus, this is a medallion quilt. Something that I still love and adore making up as I go along. There are like a million different ways to work through a medallion style quilt and pretty much none of them are wrong. I am sure there are many, many more medallion quilts in my future....

A close up of the hand quilting...

Very fun to work out the math. Play with various options in size and proportions. Get each pieced border to attach to the previous one like it was always meant to be.

And a closer look at the more subdued center baskets...

Sure, if I could do things over, I'd change a few things about this particular quilt. For instance, the yellow sawtooth border has a funny way of turning and going around the corner. I didn't really know what else to do with it, but it bugs me just a little.

Six borders in all, counting the coping borders

And I'd probably place the black hourglass corner blocks so that they were all presenting the same direction. Maybe. But maybe not. I've always loved the energy and whimsy of them being different. One of my favorite things about any quilt is including something that feels unexpected.

The last larger quilt finish for 2018!

The very best thing about Basket Medallion quilt being finished is now I can mark it off the list! It won't be nagging me or haunting me anymore and that feels so... good. Other than the doll quilt and a couple pot holders I'm making for my mom, this will be my last finish for 2018. 

Linking up with the Peacock Party over at Wendy's Quilts and More. It's a new 'quilt share' linkup with a more laid back philosophy than most linky parties. Gotta love that this time of year!

This One Feels Like a Keeper

It feels so good to get this particular quilt finished and washed up before Thanksgiving. All along, I've had the hardest time photographing this quilt. The yellow just keeps getting louder depending on where the light hits it!

Quarter Circles Round #2 all finished up!

Had to get most of the holiday baking done today before giving myself permission to get sidetracked on the computer. Quilts may be very high on my priority list but the rest of the family wants their pumpkin pie cold when they get up tomorrow morning.

Never underestimate the power of adding quilting stitches....

It's been a long crazy year, but we have so much to be thankful for. Don't want to ever lose sight of that do we?

It may have started out as a mistake, but this layout
looks like it was always meant to be!

Reading and hearing about the wildfire devastation in California is just heartbreaking. Honestly I can only take so much before I have to turn away. Lori over at Humble Quilts has a wonderful way that we can help out some of our fellow quilters in that area.

Yellow isn't my favorite color but it's definitely
worth playing with....

It may seem silly to some. Worry about sending quilting supplies to people who have been burned out of their homes? But quilting is extremely therapeutic to those who are used to having it in their lives. Very few people will feel free to use any hard won recovery/insurance money on 'hobbies'. From experience with close friends and relatives who have been there, I know they will tell you that they struggle with feeling good about spending money on anything but absolute necessities.

Something about this quilt....

Just sending a little bit can make that decision easier for them and help them get a good start on regaining such a positive and important part of their lives. Money is very tight for me this time of year, but it costs nothing out of pocket to dig around in my quilt room and come up with a small care package of quilty goodness. The only cost then is postage!

Loving all the  imperfect circles

I'll never forget how good quilters in our country {and around the world!} were to my own mother several years ago. She has never forgotten that outpouring of love and kindness from so many good hearted persons. And now I'll get off my soapbox. Truly, this is not what I normally do as I just assume that people give as they see a need, and usually do so quietly and from the heart--no prompting needed. Please don't feel any pressure or expectation from here, and definitely don't feel like you need to tell me one way or another what you choose to do. That's your private business and we're all perfectly okay with that.

Getting back to my fabulous yellow quilt now. It's been a very happy finish. In fact I can safely say that I adore it now after so many ups and downs during the making of it. So many great fabrics in it that really melt my heart! Must be the perfect mix of sweet and sassy. As you can see, I kept the quilting really straightforward and simple. So many times it feels kind of lame and pathetic {in a comparison sort of way}, but in the end, that's the stitching that resonates so emphatically with me. It's good to do the things that we love the most. To finish up and nod our heads. Yep, this one is a keeper!

Off On a Tangent

It's done. My honest-to-goodness squirrel quilt has the binding on and it's ready to head down the road to its new home! It was started on a whim one day when the leftover triangles seemed more interesting than the finding-a-solution session would ever be.

Off on a Tangent

It quickly morphed into a quilt with a destination. There's this friend of mine who has had some scary health problems earlier this year and of course, I'm always thinking 'surely, a quilt will make everything better!'

A happy quilt...

I loved adding that oldish red/yellow/purple plaid. It's one that I bought years ago in the feel sorry for me clearance bin. You know how it works, gotta buy a whole yard before you actually get the 'deal'. Uh huh. I'm a sucker for them too.

Hand quilting along the triangles....

The lettering added onto the quilt was a bit of a disappointment. Not very visually striking at all. But I took some of your advice and just let it be. I could've done some really interesting things to darken the edges of the letters and all kinds of super creative things.... that would have taken a lot of time.... things that would have totally annoyed me.... And well, it's just not that important to me with this particular quilt.

And hand quilting in the border....

It's a feel good quilt. A fast and easy 'squirrel' quilt that took me totally off on an unplanned detour. Which is why it's called 'Off on a Tangent'. Fun to be distracted once in awhile, but seriously, I have quilts that I'm much more invested in. If that makes any sense?

Good way to take care of those leftover bits!

Did you catch the big 'oops? I know some of you like to shake your finger at me when I point out the errors, but this one is classic. Totally worth pointing out! It wasn't until the quilt was almost totally quilted that it finally even caught my attention. Which is good, right? With these sorts of '9-patch' borders, I always do a rough drawing, count out the either-or squares of color and do the placement just so. Ideally, we want the border pattern to flow properly around the quilt. Well, somewhere in the sewing phase, I flipped the left side border upside down. 

Yep, look closely my friends, the 9-patch flow is definitely interrupted at the corners, top and bottom. How did that happen when I planned so carefully?!!  Waaaay too late for a fix and probably not even that important in the scheme of things. Did I drag my hands up to my hair and sort of push into my head with my fingers and pull at my hair for a few seconds? Uh huh. And laughed. Kind of crazy-quilt lady style if you want to know the truth of it. Gotta love the human touch! Never have to do it on purpose around here, that's for sure!

Improv. Wheels My Pick for 2018 Bloggers Quilt Festival

Oh my, how the time does fly. I've been working on this quilt for over 2 years now! It was a project started in order to play with an improv. method from Sujata Shah's 'Cultural Fusion' book. Finishing it up at the time of the Bloggers Quilt Festival made it a shoe-in for entering!

A closer look at the blocks

I liked funky pinwheel look to the blocks, but it just seemed like they needed a bit more focus. Thus the idea of trimming the edges and giving them more of a 'wheel' look. I do tend to veer toward a more circular look at the slightest provocation.

All washed up and crinkly looking

Then of course, the centers appeared to be in need of a brighter, more unifying color, of which I was happy to oblige them with. But what to do about those white, vacant looking connecting squares?  That yawning emptiness?

The birds are little but I like the whimsical touch

It only seemed right to add a busy little bird and on and on like that, it just happened. This quilt seemed determined to tell its own story and it was my job to figure it out and narrate it properly.

Improv. Wheels finally a finish!

Looking back, I'm not sure the flower border was the right element for finishing off the quilt. It does give it a rather dated look! Oh well, I fell in love with the way that floral motif blended in so well with the rest of the fabrics in the quilt and all along, I was rooting for a vintage vibe. Just might have to wait another 10-15 years for the 'vintage' to kick in. lol

It looks good for snuggling

The entire quilt was hand quilted in perle cotton #8 and #12, my go-to threads for the last couple years. It's part and parcel of what tipped the scales in the direction of being happy with the ultimate finish. Hand quilting texture in a quilt is just so very yummy. I'm quite the addict by now and still have to grin when I think of those years when I was so vocal about never, ever hand quilting anything!

I'm also very pleased with the recycled mens shirts included in the quilt and the one vintage piece of fabric I bought special at a quilt show a few years ago. I don't do much of that, but it always feels good. Plus, as an added bonus, there are many oldy, moldy fabrics in this quilt that have been languishing in the bottom of the stash totes for sooo many years that it feels quite ridiculous at times.

Not my normal colors, but it all came together in the end...

There is a very real resistance to throwing out fabrics on the basis of 'Well, I haven't used them thus far, so I probably never will!'. Oh no. That's just like waving a red cape. Throw a few beautiful new fabrics in with the lot and just wait and see what I can come up with. Challenge thrown down, challenge accepted!*wink  Now to find times to peruse all the wonderful quilts over at Fall 2018 Bloggers Quilt Festival. Always a good time to find new inspiration!

The Finished Sunburst Pictures and Another Improv. Quilt Top Joins the Quilting Queue

So I'm diving back into blogging after a short, two week hiatus. It feels a little awkward and ungainly after removing oneself from the rhythm of it all but I really find myself {unexpectedly} missing the musings about the journey. Quilting, stitching, posting, reading and/or commenting--it's all part and parcel.

Sunburst is finished!

Sunburst is the quilt that was finished up in time for the last quilt show. It's been the forever project for longer than I like to admit to. There was never the right time to post proper finish-it-up pictures, but overall, I am extremely happy with the results.

After a bit of agonizing, I ended up stitching a free-style Baptist Fan pattern over the entire quilt. This was one where I never got comfortable to 'just go for it', but continued free-hand marking throughout the entirety of the stitching. If you were to get very picky and critical, you would find areas with 5 arcs instead of 4 and in at least one spot, there is only 3. Love, truly, truly love how that ends up happening with this sort of stitching. Kind of ironic because the continued marking instead of 'eyeballing' only highlights my ongoing insecurity with complete and total abandon to freestyle!

Looking at Sunburst

Generally I would be feeling contented with the look of stitching by one completed row, two at the most, but this quilt left me second guessing until almost half of the stitching was completed. It left me feeling a little frustrated and antsy. Not that I could imagine anything that might look better, but I had this fear that using a Baptist fan pattern was not good enough, perhaps I was cheating the quilt. I know, so irrational! But you know how protective we feel about our babies.

Really love those trees

It was wonderful to pull the quilt out one evening and just smile at the relaxed and almost joyful look to the stitched arcs. Oh yes! That's what I was hoping to see! And then it was all totally fine. The perfectly spaced arcs of traditional fans look marvelous, but I'm a huge 'fan' of the human touch, and slightly-off perfect is what usually gets my motor running these days.

Looking perfectly snuggable!

And I also wanted to show a picture of one of the Adhoc Improv. quilts that I've been working on. It's the Score #5 from 'The Improv. Handbook for Modern Quilters' by Sherri Lynn Wood. I'm very happy to report that the quilt top is now finished! If you want more details on the progress of this particular quilt, you can check out my latest post over here.

Score #5

Now I just need to find time to work on that other Adhoc. Improv. project I started a couple months ago. So many things have been taking up our time lately and quilting happens in odd moments and random bits of free time. Honestly, it's been wonderful to feel and see the season start to change. Fall usually ends up being a more peaceful time for our family and believe me, I'm more than ready for the return to the slightly more normal around here...

Hey Grandma! The Perfect Summer Finish

I told you. It's been time for finishing around here. One more quilt crossed off the list and it's already been used just this past weekend! Nothing like my girls having a sleepover for getting these medium sized quilts broken in just a little bit more.

Hey Grandma! a Finish

This quilt is 'Hey Grandma!', one that was inspired by a quilt hanging up at a flea market I went to last summer. It really didn't end up looking much like the original {tho I don't know for sure as I never took a picture!}. Regardless, the strange mixture of colors and fabrics were a direct result of that image in my head. All the lighter blue just happened to slide into the quilt in a sneaky, use-up-fabric-I-already-have sort of way. Amazing how it lightens and brightens and even makes everything seem happier instead of the moody vibe it should have had. There's something happening to my quilting where all choices seem to lead to a 'lighter' rather than 'darker' look these days, no matter what the original fabric pull may indicate....

Loving the odd fabric choices

The design is all my own of course, just another quirky flower in a long series of odd looking flowers. As you can probably tell, I often lean toward the traditional look of making repeat blocks in lots of similar but different looking fabrics. The border is Sujata Shah 'Cultural Infusion Quilts' inspired piecing and is easy peasy, but does require more fabric than I initially intended to use. Really fun to see the wedge spiked border pieces that {now} kind of remind me of a short little flower garden fence. I am so happy with the scrappy, make-do look and feel of it too. A pieced border doesn't have to be meticulously formal looking to wonderfully frame and add to a quilt.

A mix of machine and hand quilting works wonders...

This quilt feels like a fast finish for me, somewhere around one year from start to finish. Sometimes I just have a craving to get a certain quilt in the hoop and this one happened to fall into that category. Or maybe I was strongly avoiding having to make decisions on other quilt tops? That happens around here too, much as I hate to admit to anything so cowardly.*wink

It makes me smile just a little

I have one more quilt ready for binding and then it will probably be awhile until the next true-blue completion. Considering the amount of company, traveling, and other non-quilty distractions, I'm always blown away to see any serious forward progress in the summer.

Just another quirky quilt...

Sometimes I think the time spent in the quilt room or with the hoop must pass in a sort of fog induced haze, of soaking up quilty goodness just as fast as possible! You know, because it never seems like there can be enough time for any of it this time of year. August already???? 

I fully intend to carefully go through all my projects and re prioritize all the quilty lists. Sometime very soon because it's definitely time. Maybe even do a post on the fabric stacks as one of my readers keeps requesting. We'll see. I've got labels to put on for all the quilts entered into the quilt show coming up around the corner {and thread picking and trimming} and guess what? The last of our long weekend of company just left today. In fact, I barely moved the barricade of totes from in front of the quilt room out of the way before I sat down and started typing this post. It looks like we have two weddings to go to between the next three Saturdays which requires {TWO} trips down south to Oregon, from here in Eastern Washington, and lots of efficiency here on the home front to make it all happen without something mucking up the works. Yay! Maybe I'll just go lay down on the floor in the quilt room and take a nap... Why do we bother quilting in the summer time? Maybe we should just try and absorb the colors and textures by osmosis....

6and6in2018 is Getting a Few Results!

The 6and6in2018 for July crept up on me pretty fast. I've been working on my oldest quilt top off an on, trying to get it finished up for this particular linkup. It was part of a series started a very long time ago and one that ended up being monstrously large. So big {105" x 107"} that I never wanted to actually quilt it myself. Do you blame me? What was I thinking?

9-Patch Building Blocks is a finish!

For awhile I planned on having it professionally quilted and then decided it wasn't worth spending that kind of money on. I tentatively decided to hand quilt it and even had a grand stitching plan, special piece of batting bought and everything. Meh.  Still not feeling it and quite honestly, almost gave the quilt top away to a group of ladies I know who make a quilt every year for a fundraiser.

What was holding me back was all the hand work along the edge. That applique border took me forever and was something I felt pretty proud of at the time. It felt so creative!  In hindsight I wish it could have been completed fairly quickly so it could have been one of those celebratory finishes we all love so much. All's well that ends well though as my youngest son really admires the size and simplicity of the design. Yay! It's only been a year and a half since he got a new quilt, but if he likes this one, then I'm a whole year ahead of the gifting-a-quilt-for-graduation thing that I do. Bonus!

It's a big one...

Oh yeah, the details. I finally broken down and decided to sandwich and pin this quilt for machine quilting on my Bernina 740. It has a larger harp than my old machine {the backup these days}, so it seemed doable, at least in abstract. Lets just say that I will probably never, EVER do that again. The machine handled it just fine, no problems there, but the sandwiching, pinning and marking took forever and many more days. Ughh....  Not fun at all.

I used an orange/gold Aurifil thread for stitching and various pieces of green fabrics {pulled from deep down in the stash totes} to make a scrappy binding. It's all done now and washed up in a very loose, drapey feel that my son will love. After he popped a bunch of quilting threads on the last quilt {pushing his feet into it and stretching out like the total dork that he is}, I have given him the big fat lecture on how to properly treat a quilt: Feel free to use it, maul it, snuggle up in and generally wrap up and/or drool on. Wipe your Cheeto fingers on it if you must! but please, please stop with the gross mistreatment!

The basket is my favorite part

And no it wasn't old, sun faded thread or anything like that. It took awhile and much pondering and panicking about other quilts that I've gifted. Would people tell me if their quilts are coming apart at the seams? We finally narrowed it down to the problem child though.*whew! I take care of my threads and don't use garbage for machine quilting so that's that. This new quilt will be a great test quilt to see if he's learned anything or actually even heard a word that his mom said. Hmm... How does this even happen to a quilter? Not sure I'd place any money on this particular bet though and you can be sure he won't be getting a very impressive quilt anytime soon.....

Patchwork Triangles a new quilt top!

The quilt top for Patchwork Triangles is done now too. It was on the 6in6in2018 list as well. Just cut-off triangles in the beginning, but they certainly shaped up into a fun looking quilt top! So glad I challenged myself with these as I always get such a charge out of figuring out something to do with the orphaned bits and pieces. The sharp yellow solid fabric was bought at a quilt show last year just because I couldn't resist. Love seeing it end up in something like this! The top ended up being 62 1/2" x 68 1/2", so a nice sized lap quilt that could be a sweet gift for one of our extended family members some day. Loving the slightly vintage looking vibe of it all and feeling more determined than ever to keep playing with the castoffs.

A good border works wonders

And you've already seen the quilt top pics for the HaHa quilt. So glad that one is finished up and out of my hair for now. I knew it had to be on this list to receive any more attention this year, and yep, that's exactly what happened. I'd look at the list and start to feel guilt pains if I kept pushing it aside. It's so interesting that with some quilts we can't hardly make ourselves quit working on them and others? Wow! Such a slog. Never seriously want to get busy with them, although that doesn't mean we don't like them just as much in the end!

HaHa quilt checked off the list too

I haven't been keeping very good track of new quilts as this list has been more valuable for keeping me on task for finishing. There is never a problem with wanting to start new quilts around here so not gonna worry about that for now!

Washington cherries are the best

My cousin unexpectedly dropped off three boxes of cherries this afternoon. After making a few phone calls and unloading two of them {they needed immediate attention}, I decided to freeze the rest. It doesn't take much time, just have to wash them, pick all the stems off and toss the bad cherries. They don't even have to be totally dry before putting them in freezer Ziplocs and then later in the year they are a great snack for the {bottomless stomach}, youngest son. We ate frozen cherries like candy when we were kids. Junk food? That was for summer picnics and vacation. Linking up with Meredithe and Anne for 6and6in2018-July!

A Great Summer Finish!

Although I am feeling a bit helpless in the wake of wanting to start so many new projects, my main focus has still been on finishing. Vintage Red was started in 2015 and now, three years later, it is a true blue finish! 

Vintage Red is completed!

I zeroed in on this red solid somewhere in my shopping because I've always, always admired that bold, vintage zing that make so many scrappy quilts shine. My quilt top didn't end up being a scrap bin type of quilt, but I tried to incorporate lots of fabrics into it. My motto has always been, the more fabrics the merrier!

Another 2018 finish

The applique flowers were just a whim, something that I drew up one day and thought, 'Hmmm, this might actually work!' And indeed, in this bright red, they might actually do the heavy lifting.*wink

Nothing like a little applique to make me smile!

I had hoped to be able to put this quilt into this summer's quilt show, but my stitch-in-the-ditch quilting efforts are very marginal. It's a good thing that I added my usual Perle cotton stitching, or I'd be very upset. As it is, you have to be the picky maker of the quilt to even care much. Isn't if funny how much we see our own mistakes and weaknesses? It's like they are blinking at us in neon yellow!

Hand quilting always makes things look a little better....

I'm very happy with the fact that this feels very much like an Audrey quilt. That text fabric, the simple applique flowers, the vintage/mixed modern feel to to it all. Tho I won't subject myself to quilt show perusal, I'm calling it a win.

All washed up and crinkly looking, just the way I like them!

I'm thinking it needs to be the next quilt to grace our bed. Something about it makes me think that it might be making me smile for a good long while....

Maybe I Should Just Make Baby Quilts All the Time

I had to laugh the other day while reading Julie's post. It must be a good time of year for planners and organizers to fall off the wagon en masse! My youngest brother and his wife recently had a little baby girl. And uh... well.., the rest of the story {understandably if you're a quilter}, writes itself.

Starting something new

That only-making-one-baby-quilt per-sibling, {no matter how many children they have} is crumbling quite badly these days. Once glimpse at the latest, but sweetest, niece or nephew and I'm diving head first into the fabric totes, potential fabric flying everywhere. This time I settled on a piece of striped fabric that I bought on a whim a couple years ago. Something about the colors and print resonated very strongly with my impressions of the new mamas tastes.

Potential applique 

Not wanting to make things too complicated, but needing to expand the yard of fabric out to a better baby quilt size, I made a simple, but scrappy flying geese unit. It took a little bit of contemplation to figure out the best place to cut into the stripes and insert the flying geese. Yes! Love that subtle bit of dark pink framing the geese. And wallah! The quilt top is done!

Then, while I was trying to determine where to cut the edge of quilt, {at the gold strip or at the gray?}, I made up my mind that the quilt absolutely had to have a bit of applique. Huh? I thought it was DONE? Out came the applique parts and pieces totes and this is where I really put my foot down. Okay self! Any applique added to this quilt is going to have to be orphaned bits and that's that! Like it would matter one whit if I snipped off some little bits of the stash fabric here and there! Full disclosure for those that are wondering: I am such a weirdo about arbitrary challenges to myself. I get it! Totally recognize the randomness in how/where/when they insert themselves into the quilting journey. In my defense tho, I feel that they sort of liven up the process and give opportunity for unexpected, but fun results. Probably why I continue to gleefully make and attempt to follow through with them...

Two or three flowers? It's so hard not to keep adding....

This time it worked out beautifully. Who knew these pretty bits would shine so brightly on this particular quilt? And so finally, finally the quilt and I were in perfect agreement that it was time to move on. Simple straight line quilting  and then afterwards, some strategic echo quilting with perle cotton. Would more could it ask for?

Ready for machine quilting

The gray and white backing fabric was bought on clearance awhile back for a potential quilt back. Now it's approximately a baby quilt size short for the intended project, but we'll worry about that later!

And it's done!

There was only a fat quarter available of the pretty, pink polka dot on black fabric used for binding. Oh well. Can't have everything fall into place the way we want! I decided to be bold and went to the opposite end of the spectrum, using a light pink for the rest. It washed up very well, with a soft, drapey feel that was a little unexpected but still felt marvelous. I think mama was genuinely happy with her gift, which always feels good. Four days from start to finish! Why can't all quilts be this easy?*wink

Loving the addition of some Perle Cotton stitching

That fast and easy feeling is a bit addictive though, so next up was playing with these abandoned cut-off triangles. I loved the idea of them fading in and out of a similar color background.

The patchwork triangles starting to come together

 And then got all excited about using this sharp, citrusy yellow fabric in long vertical rows.

Hmm...  Is it too stark?

I had just enough of that mermaid green solid to make smaller strips through the yellow, but now I'm wondering if it should have been cut more narrow? The entire color scheme is a bit of a departure for me, but you might recognize the triangle fabrics from this Improv. Wheels quilt.

Such a simple, straightforward layout....

I've been dragging that quilt top out, contemplating whether or not it could/should be the next hand quilting project. Probably why it was so easy to forge ahead on these orphaned triangles. The quilt practically made itself, everything went so smoothly. Well, other than having to precisely cut every single length of fabric and pinning a hundred pins per strip. Okay, maybe only thirty, but it felt like thousands by the time it was all sewn together! I'd say it was done, but honestly, I think it needs a simple red fabric border. Still chewing on that decision.

And yes, I'm putting the Squirrel Club button over on the side of my blog. Total capitulation to what I'm beginning to suspect will be a summer of squirrels.*sigh  Those orphan totes are starting to look very interesting in a arbitrary, challenge-to-myself sort of way....

P.s. Have you read Flossie Teacakes latest post about blogging? She's someone I read in the event EPP suddenly becomes my latest craze, plus she's pretty interesting as most really great quilters are. Some really good points about Instagram scrolling versus settling in for a good chat on a favorite blog!