Thursday, July 13, 2006

Such a productive day!

Aren't Mum's wonderful? It's school holidays here, and yesterday my Mum took the two kids out for the day. I knew in advance this was happening, so I had been thinking about what I'd like to do. I decided I would start to paint the kitchen. I recently showed a picture of my cabinet in the dining room which gives a glimpse of the sage green colour I've been painting with ... well, I'm on a mission, I have decided to paint the kitchen, family areas and hallways with the same colour! It's a big undertaking, but I'm on the way. I have taken a 'before' picture of the kitchen, but I don't think I'll post that until I have an 'after' picture so you can compare.

So, I painted until I knew the kids arrival home was imminent, and then I headed into the sewing room, and started cutting out more Atlantic Jewel blocks. I've almost cut out all the blocks I need, and last night after the kids were in bed, I sewed another block using the alternate colourway. I think it's kind of cute, what do you think? And here's a question for you, I'm only going to make 9 blocks with a border ... do you think I need a sashing inbetween them? I'm just not sure. This is going to be a smallish quilt that I will put on the dining table in the family room. So far, the blocks are made entirely from stash fabrics, which makes me happy. The border fabric was an impulse buy :-) but at least it's not going to sit around in my fabric collection for ages ... right??

When the Atlantic Jewel quilt is finished, I will start working on a table runner for the quilt store I teach at. Cheryl from Quiltaholics is the loveliest lady, and she asked if I would make a table runner for her to cover a little area on top of some smaller fabric shelves. Of course I said I would, and she gave me these two bags of scraps to make it with, and she wants me to keep the rest! Ohhh heavens, there's a lot of fabric in there, it's going to be fun!

Today I plan to baste the quilt for the magazine. I hope the kids cooperate. Cameron would have been going to day care today, but his carer is unwell. I'm so pleased she's the kind of lady who doesn't just soldier on regardless, because the kids just pick up all the bugs that are floating in this cold and flu season. My quilt is 70" square, so it shouldn't take forever. Basting is not my favourite part of the process, but the next step is super fun ... quilting!

8 comments:

Nancy said...

Your blocks are turning out so nice. Personally I'd probably separate the blocks with a narrow sashing but they would also look lovely without. Whichever you decide it's going to be a beautiful quilt.

quiltpixie said...

What a lovely collection of scraps to "inherit" when the runner is done. What a fun way to thank you for your work. With regards to the sashing -- I'd measure what size I wanted the finished quilt to be since you have a particular use planned for it, and then sash or not depending on whether i needed it for the size. Without sashing you're going to get a square secondary pattern appearing that may look really good with the jewels...

Pink and Barbara said...

Hi, It looks like that is going to be a great quilt. I had never seen this block before so thank you for sharing it with us.
I think I would have used a sashing. Maybe one were you sew 2 triangles on the end of every piece of sashing. So you will have 2 arrows..if you combine that with a cornerstone in the middle in the same colour you get a second star in you quilt. It is hard to explain and I don't know what this pattern is called..maybe somebody else can give me a hand??

Cathi said...

Having two kids myself, and living 3000 miles from my family, I can truly be jealous of your free day! You are more productive than me, painting the house! I'd be sewing and soaking in a QUIET bath!

The blocks are lovely. If you like it without sashing I say go for it. I love the bag of scraps you got from quilt shop. What type of classes do you teach?

Joyce said...

The secondary pattern without the sashing could be interesting, especially if you use Barbara's idea of stars in the sashing. Once all the pieces are done and you lay them together you will know for sure.

Linda C said...

Have we seen the quilt that goes in the magazine yet in your archives or we will when it is done-done, I bet. Just like kids and Christmas, LOL. Congratulations on its acceptance into the publication.

Of course you can use my EQ sketch but you will also want to go over to Quilter's Cache to see Marcia's instructions. I only drew it up because you cannot use her graphics plus it made it clearer in my mind just how that blocks went together should I try to make one.

Seems unreal that you could be having winter weather and going through cold and flu season when we are roasting here in the States!

Cher said...

lovely block- I would not put sashing in, it looks good with the blocks next to each other to me.

Hanne said...

Lovely blocks. I am ambivalent on the sashing, so will not say anything about that. 2 bags of scraps are a real treasure. The pattern for the blocks, is it in a Jinny Beyer book ?

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