Githerments and Trouvaille Make Progress

I decided that since Fandango (Macnas series no. 7 of 12) will be quilted early next year, I'd like to have Githerments (a bonus quilt made with leftover rectangles from Fandango and Blossoms) ready to be quilted as well.  With the same color palette I should be able to use the same quilting threads.  

To that end, I went ahead and spent part of an afternoon power sewing the remaining sets of color rectangles with black and white squares. 

The half-block strips are much neater since being pressed.

Next step was to sort the half-block strips based on the rectangle's color (41 unique fabrics in the mix).

This photo was taken after I'd started pairing pinks with purples (that's the taller stack at the far end of the dining room table).

I came up a few pinks short so I'll cut 24 additional rectangles, pair them with the leftover black and white squares and then pair the new half-block strips with the leftover purples.

I need a total of 156 4" x 6" (finished) blocks to lay out the quilt top (along the lines of Caim and Comfortable).

The nutcrackers on our dining room buffet kept a close eye on my work.

I've also gotten the back pieced and pressed for Trouvaille.  The back (left), batting (center) and top (right) are rolled onto pool noodles ready for me to pin baste the quilt sandwich early next week.  Trouvaille will be the 12th quilt for my annual quilt calendar so I need to get it done soon - the calendar itself is laid out and ready to order as soon as I have photos of this last 2025 finished quilt.

(the wrinkled batting on the far right is the last 62" from the giant roll - it has plenty of time to relax before I use it with one of the smaller quilts in the waiting-to-be-finished queue).

Quiltdivajulie

Blossoms - the Quilt

I took this photo just after finishing the binding.

And now that Blossoms is finished, I have totally fallen in love.

Here is a full view of the front (can you tell it is "khaki season" here?)

There are at least 35 different green and 21 different pink rectangles in this 54" x 72" quilt.

(inspired by a free tutorial from Jen Baker of In Color Order - click HERE)

Close up view of the texture of my liberated free motion all-over nested spiral fans.

I used Glide thread in Soft Rose (a very pale pink).

This is the back - the insert used up the leftover rectangles and a stashed strip of scrappy green binding.

And as the fates would have it, instead of gifting Blossoms as initially planned, we will be gifting Otsego Revisited to our friends' first-ever grandchild in the very near future.  

* * *

(and before anyone asks, I bought my giant clothespins in 2015 from Amazon - mine are no longer available, but if you search for "12" clothespins" there are other options out there.)

Quiltdivajulie

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"Perfect happiness is a beautiful sunset, the giggle of a grandchild, the first snowfall.  It's the little things that make the happy moments, not the grand events.  Joy comes in sips, not gulps."

Sharon Draper

And Then ...

In my last post I mentioned that with the pool noodles empty after pin basting Logophile I could roll the top and back for Repose right away instead of relegating them to the dreaded waiting to be quilted closet.

Well . . . instead of Repose, I ended up piecing this back for Blossoms because friends of ours just (or as they put it FINALLY) became first-time grandparents of a baby girl.

Blossom's quilt sandwich has been pin basted and is awaiting time with Max.  (introductory post for this squirrel project is here)

I'm still debating whether to use green or pink thread - the binding is a darker shade of pink so I'm leaning in that direction.

Once Blossoms was pin basted, the pool noodles were once again empty and I did get the top and back for Repose rolled onto them.

I'll need to cut and roll the batting but not until the other two are quilted and finished.

Over the past week or so, in between other things, I've been stitching the strip sets for the rows of Shirts and Such.  Eventually there will be twelve groups of three like the first three above.

I'm sewing each row's strips into three groups so the sections can be easily trimmed to 6.5" wide using a 24" ruler before being sewn together.  

Working this way gives me maximum flexibility when I'm ready to lay everything out on the design wall.

My sister in Michigan surprised me with the delivery of this waxed amaryllis bulb.  I'll take a photo every few days so I can gauge how it is growing and when the flower buds appear it will be fun to discover what color the blooms will be.

Quiltdivajulie

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"I love pink - pink's my favourite.  I hardly ever - weirdly - wear it, but I love the colour pink."

Elli Goulding

Blossoms - the Flimsy

When the layout for Blossoms began, this was the plan for backing and binding.

(these are the first fourteen of eighteen rows)

I sewed the first ten rows together (pinned on the lower part of the design wall above) then laid out/assembled the bottom eight rows.

(shown here on my sewing table prior to final pressing)

And then there was a delightfully scrappy quilt top!

Approximately 54" wide x 72" long.

As so often happens, along the way the backing plan changed and in this case so did the binding.

I used the last seven blocks and the previously-intended scrappy binding to create an 84" vertical insert strip.

The "new" starry mottled binding had been skipped over for a previous project but works perfectly here.  And this backing had been set aside for my low volume tumblers but it was just too perfect for this quilt.

All in all, I'm very happy with the way Blossoms has come together.

Wait until you see what is next up on the design wall . . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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"Sometimes the difference between a terrible day and a pretty good day is finding one small stupid thing to be nerdily excited about, even (especially) if no one else cares or gets it."

Nanes Hoffman

The Squirrels Are Back - Introducing Blossoms

Last week I chanced upon this post and Flash, one of my studio squirrels, took off like there was no tomorrow.

Instead of a baby quilt, I opted to create a larger throw (54" x 72" 'ish) which meant I needed to cut a lot more rectangles than shown in the tutorial.

Roughly 380 greens ones -- they filled two trays when sorted by fabric before the pairs shown here were pinned for chain piecing.

And roughly 200 pink rectangles, shown here sorted by fabric.

Happily all of the greens and about 1/3 of the pinks came from fabric pieces stashed in the resource boxes.  The other 2/3 of the pink was cut from yardage.

The first batch of finger-pressed pieced blocks.

Flash waiting with the entire group of pieced blocks "before" pressing.

All of the freshly-pressed blocks - with Flash lurking in the background.  

(blocks sorted by the 21 different pink fabrics)

Time to start piecing the eighteen rows!

Quiltdivajulie

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"I'm definitely not one of those focused people who can finish one piece before starting the next.  I have found, though, that I don't run out of inspiration this way."

Robyn Gold