Projects in Process

 

Why do I think I need an even number of purses to mail to Sew Powerful?  I have 18 completed and think I need two more before mailing.  But I’ve been distracted by the lure of other projects.  Evenings I’ve been hand quilting a project that I am still so in love with.  I’m may be  half way done and am enjoying every stitch.

My never-ending supply of scraps and UFO’s call to me loudly.  At the beginning of the pandemic I took an on-line workshop with the revered and lovely Carol Lyles Shaw(who sad.y is no more ). And it was terrific.  She had one camera above her work surface and one on her, and she toggled back and forth seamlessly.  The topic of this workshop was scraps and a creative way to use them.  Here’s what I created: 

My plan was to make more of these large blocks (15” x 24” ish).   But after 4 years it’s clear that that’s not happening.  So, what to do with these?  Then I remembered the scrap community project guild mate Jane Shapiro led us in.  I liked it so much that I made a quilt using her technique.  This quilt was gifted to my cataract doctor (John had a horrible complication with one of his surgeries, and I was thrilled all worked out for me.)  and I wondered whether this pattern might lend itself to these big squares - and some random black and white blocks.

After a bit of sewing and finagling and looking for a background fabric, here’s what I’ve come up with. I have  a total of 48 blocks, 5 pairs of orange, 5 pairs of teal, 5 pairs of purple, five pairs of browns, and 4 pairs of blacks. Each block is 12.5” square.  This means the quilt of 48 blocks would be 72” x 96”.  

And here’s how I’ve packed it away until I’m ready to join the blocks together.

Look at my note to myself.  I can make more blacks.  Do I want a quilt that is 84” x 84”?  I need one more block.  What if I want the quilt 84” x 96”?  Then I need to make 8 more.  Next decision is layout.  Here is something different: 

But while I’m deciding how to lay out these blocks and finish this quilt top, I’m itching to start a Glam Clam using a pile of blues and greens I’ve been accumulating. I spent one day with my quilt guild at last weekend’s retreat.  All I accomplished there was cutting the clams.  Today I started to lay the quilt out.  Here’s what I have so far. 

Construction of this quilt is odd.  One must work row by row, starting with the top row.  Each new clam is inserted and sewn to the body.  Starting this quilt is easy, but it gets cumbersome as you work your way towards the bottom of the quilt.  But my hands are happy piecing curves.  We’re heading to Atlanta to visit Julie for a long weekend and to see foliage in Kentucky and Tennessee.  I can’t take the quilt I’m in love with because it’s too heavy and Atlanta is still pretty hot.  So this hand-piecing will go with me.  Perhaps when we return I can finish those two remaining Sew Powerful purses and get them all mailed!