some production and some stashbusting

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter weekend. Quiet day here; in fact, DJ had told me a few days prior that I didn't have to cook a traditional Easter meal for us so we had some freezer leftovers with a couple additional sides to round out the meal. Okay by me!

I have gotten some sewing done over the past few days though. Shown at left is what I have been calling the "World's Ugliest Quilt" or WUQ for short. It salvaged what was supposed to have been a Pioneer Braid strippie along with the yellow I had cut for sashing and top/bottom border sections. I had enough for 12 blocks with 4 sections when I whacked them up. I guess it is no more or no less attractive than any other crumb or string type quilt. But I think that they will be ice skating in August if I ever try making either form of this quilt again, LOL. I had enough fabric leftover from my scrappy bargello backing to use it for the backing fabric on this top as well as the binding. Slightly different green but with all this color, I doubt that it makes much difference.

Here is the other top that I was working on this weekend. Actually it is a mostly done top that Finn passed on to the Belles to use last year? She posted about the history of it on her blog at one time so that is probably in her archives under "divorce" quilt. This picture does not do it justice though as it is a little fuzzy. I still need to mark some crosshatching on it and maybe a simple cable from the border before we can pin it.

Anyway, it was in a 4 x 4 on point set minus the borders when I started working on it. I decided yesterday that it had antiqued long enough. and it might be better to get it into a rectangular shape rather than a square for the kids. That required a little dismantling to get the blocks moved from the left side of the quilt down to the bottom--mostly getting the setting and corner triangles reconfigured. I had that much done by supper time.

I remember this fabric well. I had some very near like it that came in a kit from BH&G back in the early/mid 90's. I made it into a log cabin quilt that I donated for a lap robe to a local B-N, IL nursing home--might have been a guild service project. I liked the fabric and always thought I might make another log cabin like it from the leftovers. The first rounds of a log cabin never take up much yardage, right? Didn't happen but I would stumble upon it occasionally and think it might be a quick project for WTIL. Of course, now that I am looking for the leftover fabrics bits or the picture of the quilt that I had with it, I can't find them--figures, huh?

Finn had sent the extra yellow background fabric and I had the burgundy piece in my stash so that took care of the borders. I yanked another bit of yardage for the binding and part of the backing and another piece of yardage my mom had sent along with it. Stash busting, in other words.

In additon I got the backing and binding cut for three other small tops over the weekend and into this morning. I had hoped to find something to border a top that Theramae had sent home with me---the dominant color on it was a rusty red but nothing I had seemed to work. Too bright, too orange, too something. There was no logical point to move the blocks around to make it rectangular either. It will remain square and borderless, LOL. Kids come in all sizes, after all. One fabric I had considered for the borders works fine for backing and binding using up some more fabric my mom had sent for the Belles that I had hand here at home.

Still to do today: write up a handout for the 2nd installment of our group's "non-mystery" mystery quilt. It is like my merkitty challenge quilt but I re-designed it and didn't follow the book instructions for assembly. I also need to do some design work for the heart block quilt and if I have time, the t-shirt quilt. That thing is getting to be a big source of procrastination and guilt. Frankly I am tired of looking at the piled up stuff waiting for me. My Viking has been in the shop for a week now and I truly think it will be another two weeks before I will be back to quilting. Should be hitting it in the piecing department in the meantime.

I had initially thought that I would be going up to Joy's this weekend for a little girl time but the timing is not working out for our hostess. I am hoping that the 4 of us who live locally can at least get together in some manner even if it just for lunch and chatting. BUT even if that doesn't happen, Norma and I thought we might pull out a UFO and get it up to flimsy status this wknd. I have found that we spur each other on when we sew "together" like this over the miles. Makes us more accountable somehow, I think, then when left to our own devices. I'll deal with "hafta" work between now and then and be ready to roll on Saturday. My choice: back to my 4 patch stacked posie, I think.

Well, we spur each other in more ways than one, LOL. I ordered two used books over the weekend, thanks to those little chats, LOL. ( Judy Sisneros' 9 Patch Pizzazz and One Block Wonders by another author--too lazy to go look) We have also been yakking about some other idea for FABS weekend in coming months. We had a lot of fun doing the convergence together recently and have been considering what we might do next. Several ideas have been bandied about and googled over to see some finished quilts. Links flying back and forth. Looks like some good choices for some donation quilts and in my case, some challenge fabric use.

I promised DJ some homemade chicken soup so best get on out to the kitchen----till next time. I'll have some pics of some of the quilts in the next post
that will be going to M2M 08soon.