My Current Project

This latest project is one I began on a whim. It is not listed on the 2013 goals as I didn't discover the fabric in my stash until well after I made the goals list. But, I did want to leave room for spontaneity, and this is definitely spontaneous!

I have had the pattern marked in this book for a long, long time. I have looked in fabric stores for just the right blue toile on an off-white background, and have never found one that satisfied me. Well, while digging around in my blue stash, I came across a 3-yard piece of fabric that met the color requirements, but it is not toile. I decided to go with it anyway. A quilter is permitted to take liberties with a pattern, right? It doesn't have to look exactly like the picture - deviate, if you must! I certainly do, and read lots of blogs from others who do this, too.

Anyway, this is the book, in case you wondered, and here is the fabric I found in the stash. Add in some random print 9-patches, and, ladies and gentleman, I will soon have a quilt!

While at Terry's on Thursday, I got real busy on making 9-patches. That is always fun. They go together so fast, and you really feel as though you've accomplished something when there's a big ol' pile of 9-patches by the sewing machine!

Then I began with the triangles.

Easy stuff.
Fast stuff.
Fun stuff.
Satisfying stuff.

That about covers it, right? *grin*

I was still plugging away at it on Sunday evening, and got all my pseudo-toile blocks done.

Allow me to insert a bit of a sidebar here. I was whacking away when cutting these blocks and triangles, not doublechecking measurements like I should. I discovered (too late) that the light block is to be cut at 6.5 inches, and I had cut them all at 6 inches. DRAT!! I stewed about that for awhile, and decided that I would try to make it work. And I did. A new quilter might not want to try doing this, but I figured with my years of sewing and quilting, I could figure out how this will be okay. I adjusted the stitch size down a bit, and was careful to sew each seam the same way. I think I will be fine when it comes time to stitch the whole thing together.

What would you have done? I couldn't see wasting the fabric, and I didn't want to find an alternate fabric. Make do, isn't that what our ancestors would advise??

Okay, so back to the construction of the quilt. I put 4 blocks together on the ironing board to see the effect, and I am so pleased. It is going to look wonderful, if I do say so myself!

I had several random leftover 2.5-inch squares, so I piddled around with them and made a 16-patch block. Who knows when and how this will come in handy, but I bet someday it will!

Happy Quilting, Friends!