Project Updates

As March roars in like a Lion - a rather fickle one I might add, 81º one day and 46º the next, which makes it very hard to plan - unless of course one is headed out to hockey - where we know the rule is dress for the rink. Slogging across a parking lot in 80º+ weather with a bundle of blankets... but I digress...

 The binding is complete on the zebra/lion baby quilt and I need to make a label for the back and stitch it one. Something to keep my hands busy during the playoff games this coming weekend.  

Only three more weeks of ice hockey season!  By next season, I may even have a quilt of my own done to bundle under, along with the no-sew blankets.

The final seams have been sewn for Asian Nights. I do need to photograph it and probably press it one more time before storing for the upcoming lesson on borders.  I'm happy with the outcome, and also happy to move on to other projects.  Holding it up, to show my husband the other night gave me a better sense of the size - knowing the dimensions is all good and well, but actually feeling/seeing what 64 inches means in length makes a difference - and helped me to not overdo the changes in store for Interlacing Circles.

The fabrics for Interlacing Circles have now been washed and pressed and I've cut the first 12 strips (red & purple).  I decided to call it a night before finishing prepping the yellow and celestial as both fabrics are two yards long, so it is taking me a bit longer to be certain that they are squared prior to cutting.

Now - if you have the book in front of you, you may be wondering why I'm cutting so many strips.  This is one of my favorite patterns, and I've taken some liberties with it - firstly enlarging the finished block size from 3.75 inches to 6 inches to accommodate the suns and moons from the Laurel Burch panel, and to add a few rows to expand the quilt to lap size. The pattern as written is about 27x27 before borders. My variation is headed towards being 54x66 before borders.  Thankfully Harriet & Carrie are careful to teach drafting throughout the book, so after "cheating" and creating an excel spreadsheet in which to lay out the colors, I used the copy/paste function to add rows and columns until I found a combination that sings to me. The navy squares will be the fussy cut pieces from the panel and the large navy border, may end up a bit wider based on the repeat of the focus fabric for this collection - which will also be incorporated into the backing. After looking at Leslie's variation, I decided to add a third border - which hopefully will float the design like the solid teal does here. The teal is the celestial scatter fabric. This will be a fun one!