Goodbye August!

Sharon was here to sew with me yesterday! This is worthy of exclamation because we have been unable to coordinate our schedules since late June, as best we could recall. All manner of vacations, illnesses, appointments and family time kept our calendars so densely packed that we could never carve out a sewing day. 

So yesterday was special in that we were able to catch up, but we also got a lot of sewing done, too. Sharon worked diligently on a puff quilt for her 5-month old nephew. She made a lot of progress but needs just a few more "puffs." She plans to back the quilt with flannel, and it will almost be like a weighted blanket for the wee one, as it has quite a bit of heft to it. I did not take any pictures of Sharon's work, but you can click back here to see what a puff quilt is. That was my introduction to puff quilts.

I worked on Lil' Orphan Scrappy by adding economy triangles to my 6.5-inch stars. From the very start, I veered from the pattern by not bothering to fussy cut for the centers of the stars. As I get further into the construction of this quilt, I am finding it necessary to veer even more extensively. I am running out of light fabrics. Look at the picture below and see how much it relies on distinctions of light and dark. I expect I am going to lose this with my overload of dark and medium options.

 

This will be fine. Originally, I wanted to make this quilt because I loved how it looked, but my decision to use the scraps tied my hands a bit more than I expected. Look at that F8th pack - not many light/neutral options. I took out the 4-5 that would work and added them to my scrap stash, but still, I am woefully lacking in lights.

Realizing this, I had to adjust my thinking. Fine. Those WM fabrics look so amazing that this quilt will have its own unique "look" and I will love it. Here are a few pictures of blocks with the economy triangles added.

Note that this layout does not match the layout in the pattern picture. When I have all the triangles attached and trimmed, I will lay the quilt out properly. For now, this look pleases me and motivates me to continue. I have plenty of triangles cut, yet I think I need more red, so I will probably cut some of those today and begin blending them into the mix. And perhaps, when all blocks are made, I can work on placement in such a way as to achieve just a hint of mimicking the look of the original.

According to the pattern, this quilt should finish at 77" x 86". I have yet to consider what to do about those light triangles that are intended for the outer edge of the quilt. I won't worry about them now, though. Somehow it will all come together; I vow to use the existing William Morris in my stash (translation: I won't buy more). 

Remember these wise words: done is better than perfect.

Happy Quilting, Friends!