this and that on a Saturday

......And the non-sewing drought continues though I have been studying and considering different aspects of a couple of different patterns. I went to a "one woman" quilt exhibit held at a nearby church yesterday which triggered some of that quilty curiosity.   More on that in a bit!

Also I reorganized a few of my fabric totes and made sure the containers were labeled as to what is housed in there. I want to do that blue and white Disappearing 4 patch (D4P) sometime next month so most of the shifting around was because of that. However, I know there is more hiding in my sewing room, depleted from several QOVs but I may be able to scrounge some 6 1/2 inch squares from those bits. If not, I am cutting them up for other uses. I've got an old UFO of Massachusetts Cross and Crown that also uses dark blues, for example.  I'll dig it out for you to see or you can read about it on the link above.

The Hancock's of Paducah catalog came a few days ago and I was finding myself intrigued by a quilt on the cover and on page 51 done up in the Gardenvale fabric line by Jen Kingswell.  The quilt is called "Gene Pool".  Well, it looks like Marti Michell's "Cubic Turtle" from Quilting for People Who Still Don't Have Time to Quilt to me.   This blogger refers to it and you can check the graphic she used.  I have had those pages flagged in my copy of the book forever.  Essentially it is a four color quilt and I just have not found the perfect fabric combo in sufficient quantity to try it.    Also stuck in the pages of the Cubic Turtle pattern:  printouts.  Sometimes, in the end, it is called Tile Quilt.   The block does not look like much until you join them together.  Scroll on down the page on the threadlove site I liked to and you will see a version of my friend Cher of Marathon Quilter made.

SO I am thinking, looking at a more scrappy version of this from Ms.  Kingswell, "how did she do a scrappy version?".  Boy, would you really have to watch your color placement!  Design wall a must.  Closer inspection shows that she didn't use larger plain squares and 4 patches but they are strips and squares.  Take a look at the version shown here in progress and you can see how it might go together.  Maybe it is made to be jelly roll friendly or some such thing.  She changed it up.

There are many patterns open to interpretation that turn out looking much the same, from a distance anyway.  Like, I can stitch my blue and white D4P using those directions OR I can strip piece sections and use a pattern like this Block of the Month on azpatch and call it woven 9 patch.  (There was another site that had the same thing and called it Knots but no longer available.  Trust me, I looked!)   It isn't the size I want but hey, it is drawn up in EQ now and I could make them 11 inches or 13 inches or whatever trips my trigger if I go that route.  The Disappearing 4 patch way, mine came out 11 as I cut mine a little wider by accident---see HERE --but I liked my way better, LOL.  And will repeat that "error" on purpose.

What else has my attention?   I postponed my lap walking yesterday until AFTER I went to look at Fleeta's quilt exhibit.  I get pretty sweaty after walking almost 2 miles in the Alabama heat and humidity and then car's a/c does a number on my hair.  Good plan to wait!  Fleeta used to come to Bama Belles but then later settled in with the JOY Guild and more specifically with a small group within the guild.  I don't see her much anymore but many of the quilts were probably held up for guild show and tell.  A few pieces I remembered.  She also cross stitches beautifully so other items were there as well.  She walked around with me to tell me more about the quilts.  Many of them are going to family members if they haven't already been borrowed back for the exhibit.  I took a few pictures with my phone.

I forgot what she called this and she had another done up in blues that was very well done.  Obviously there are alternating blocks which complete the framing of green around the other Weather Vane-like block.  I told her I would look and see if I could come up with the name in BlockBase.

She had two made in this pattern and said it was "Treasures Amidst the Bric-a-Brac"  apparently taught in a guild class by a mother and daughter quiltshop owners team up on the Mountaintop.  Thing is, I know who/what she meant though I cannot come up with the name either though some of the Belles and I have been there on a field trip.

I have a photo of quilt just like it in my files but it did not print off with the blog name and I neglected to label it but it did intrigue me.  I can sort of see how the alternating block goes together but not what happens where the two chains intertwine.

Here it is in the alternate colorway.  

Mr. Google showed me that this is a mystery quilt from a book called amazingly, Mystery Quilts by Rita Fishel.  This link will open to a pdf file. There is a pattern for something called "legend of the spinning top" that looks like something fun for Belles to try.  I like the blocks shown in the pdf file even though I am not crazy about doing mystery quilts so I ordered a used copy from amazon.  I like to read mystery books but quilts is about the process to me.  "Here is a picture of my fabrics now visualize your own" and make the blocks to make it happen.  I like the one down near "meet the author" on the table of contents on the left.  Wonder what that looks like when combined with other blocks?  Guess I'll find out soon enough!

I am hoping that Oscar and I can settle into a bit of a routine so he can go outside for a few hours in the backyard once the sun is more in the front of the house.  Just a couple hours to sew or cut.  Or even quilt or that matter as I have several pinned and waiting.  Used wisely, I would not feel like such a slug.  I miss it.  I am due that reward project!!  Past due.

Well, speaking of Oscar we have done the "do you need to go out?" hokey pokey for about an hour.  I go to open the back door and he hops in his bed or just looks at me like " what?  are you nuts, lady?"  He did at one point head to the carport door but I was not ready to go and he ran back to the couch.  I was ignoring his "please walk" signal.  I finally made him go out the back but feel guilty---a little, LOL.  I'm tired and achy but will do it anyway.  Skyler, on the other hand, is practically Velcro'd to his chair in the kitchen.  It has been days and days since he got on either window perch.   He has taken to climbing on Oscar's spot on the couch however, mostly once Oscar is in bed.

Till next time------