Florabunda top is done! Woohoo!

I was totally in love with making this top!  I love yellow (it's right up there with orange!), and all those fabulous big florals were so fun to look at, and cut up (finally)!  lol

Here's the top.....finished!  Yay!  It's about 76x86......a good size on it's own, no borders.

It's actually darker, more like the 2nd closeup pic.  I think the sunlight from the window was fading it out a bit in the first pic.  I'm just in love with it!  Thanks Bonnie Hunter for showing us the original in an antique shop, and giving us the challenge/nudge to use our big florals.  I'm so glad I did!  This is going on my bed when done!  I thought for a backing, I would use the florals in big sections......they are just beautiful fabrics, and should really be used and shown off.  I like that it will be totally reversible, too.

So, while I was making the florabunda quilt......I decided I needed to do something else for my leaders and enders.  Up until this, I have been sewing together 2" squares of my thrift store shirtings......any two squares together, then those together as a 4 patch.  Not caring if the pieces were light, dark, whatever!  A totally scappy 4 patch......and I had been making these for at least a year, and now have a drawer full of 4 patches.  At least 400!  So during the florabunda quilt, I thought I should make something of these 4 patches.  Here's what I came up with......a little red sashing and a black cornerstone creating a 9 patch block.

I put 7 blocks together while doing the florabunda quilt, and I'm just loving them!  But I need to really think about how these blocks will come together......I tried a few versions of sashings.  Above is just straight black.

This is black with red cornerstones.

 Here I thought I would try something different with the black and red theme.....I think it overpowers the blocks.

Here I put some of the 2 inch shirting squares across a wider sashing.

I just don't know.  I think they all pretty much overpower the blocks.  But as I'm typing this, and looking at this last pic......I'm looking at the blocks on the right with no sashing between them......and I kindof like THAT look.......so maybe I need to do a light shirting as the sashing.  Hmmmmmmm.  What do you think?  I would love your thoughts or suggestions on it.

I'm going to keep making the blocks as leaders/enders.......until I have at least 20!  Then we'll see what happens!

Have a great week!

regan

A sewing day! Yay!

I'm spending this whole day sewing.....ok..... and movie watching!  But only because the Netflix needed to go back!  And by the way, the Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon is pretty good.  But tough to sew to, because you kindof really need to watch it!  Dang!  I like the movies that you can just listen too mostly, so I can sew at the same time!  Oh well, those will be later!

But sewing did get done......here is the latest on my Florabunda progress!  Woohoo!  I'm really loving these blocks!

I'd like it to be about a queen size, so I have 33 more blocks to make!  I'm over the half-way point!  Yay!  But I've only worked on it as a kindof filler between projects.  I kitted up a bunch of the blocks a while back, and I just finished sewing them yesterday.  I need to kit up a bunch more now, and then they'll be ready when I have a few minutes (or a day!) to sew them up!  I just love the yellow and all the beautiful blossoms that peek out here and there.  I didn't realize I had so many big florals in my stash.....who knew!  And.....why did I even buy them, other than I liked them.  Thank goodness Bonnie Hunter came up with this plan.....or they'd still be sitting in the stack of "Why on earth did I buy this print!?!"

My 'real' project is finishing up the baby quilt for our cousin April's 1st grandson.  I have the top finished, but was stumped on the batt to use.  I really wanted it to have a more sleek, modern look, but my usual 100% cotton batts always give me the crinkled/puckered/antiquey look that I love.  But that just wasn't in my head for this quilt.  And I really didn't want to use a poly batt......just not my thing.  So I figured to make a few samples of different batts and see what happened.

The two larger pieces are from a Fairfield 80/20 batt, one piece I prewashed, and the other I didn't.  Can you see a difference?.......Me neither!  The smaller piece is Warm & Natural.......and is only slightly more puckered than the other two.  I drew registration marks on all of them, so I could measure the shrinkage, and the two 80/20's still shrank the same amount, even though one was prewashed AND shrunk in the dryer!  What the heck!  So, even though my brilliant batt test was a total failure.....it left me with the decision to just use the dang 80/20 and get it done!  If it puckers and crinkles a bit, fine!  It's a quilt, dang it, not a marble statue!  lol

And the stripey quilting on the test samples is the same kind of quilting for the baby quilt......it's what was in the original pic, and April really liked the simplicity of it!  Yay!  Not perfectly straight lines, about 3/4" apart.....easy peasy!  We love that!

Ok......back to the sewing room!  I have to seam the back of the baby quilt (it's 50ish by 65ish......a nice BIG baby quilt) and get to the town office to pin baste it.

Oh yeah......I was just on a blog the other day......so sorry I can't remember where......but she had a YouTube of Sharon Schamber's table top basting method......and it's brilliant!  I just need to get to the hardware store for some molding pieces, and I will never have a basting-backache again!  Yay!  If you haven't seen this method, here are the links to it.  It is a two parter, so make sure you watch both videos.

Sharon Schamber's 'Hand Basting a Quilt' Part 1

Sharon Schamber's 'Hand Basting a Quilt' Part 2

Ok......I can hear Jane Eyre calling from the sewing room......gotta go!  And yeah, that would be the Jane with Ciaran Hinds......he is SO good!  Here's a little glimpse......

Jane Eyre.....the goodbye scene.....with Ciaran Hinds and Samantha Morton

Ok.....NOW I'm really going to sew!  lol

Have a great day!  Don't spend it all on YouTube!  Ha!

regan

This is NOT what I should be working on!

You know how it is......you should be working on THE project, but somehow everything else wants to get in there first!  And I have NO willpower.....so Bonnie Hunter's 'Florabunda' it is!

All I was going to do was kit up a bunch of the blocks, that way, when I had a few minutes to spare, I could just do one.  And one by one, they would get done.  Well, I cut and cut and cut......and then I just had to sew one up, just to see.  Right?

Well......twelve blocks later.....

AND I LOVE IT!  The blocks are not in any placement right now......just the order I sewed them.  I'm using a mix of solid and patterned yellows and golds.

And I can't tell if that top-right block with the turquoise background is needing to be replaced, or maybe it's my favorite!  The yellow print used with it is nearly the same tone as the yellow flower on the turquoise print....so it really obscures the lines of the piecing.  I kindof like that it is the odd man out......the rebel block! I think I'm keeping it!  :o)

I have about 20 other blocks all cut and ready to sew, but for now......I'm just going to let them happen when they do.  I have three other quilts that really need some attention......two of them have deadlines!

Hope you had a great day......I spent mine in the sewing room, and we went out to dinner!  Yay!

regan