Re-entry

I don't know about you -- but it takes a bit of time for me to "re-enter" the habit or routine or pattern of spending time in my sewing room after a week away.  There are chores to be done.  Thoughts to be thought.  Bills to be paid.  Laundry to be done.  Work to catch up on.  Groceries to be bought.  Life just needs to happen before patterns can re-emerge and quilting restarts.  That includes blogs to be written apparently!

The good news is that there was "reentry" on Sunday after we got home on Wednesday.  I made time after church to play with fabrics, start new projects, revisit current works-in-progress and get on with it! I'm happy to say that I pulled some fabrics for a little project, made a top for a hospital quilt, and spent some time with these beauties.

These are the Caryl Bryer Fallert Gradations Collection from Benartex.  They were one of my splurges at Houston last year and have been teasing me ever since.  They are reproductions of her hand dyed fabrics and clearly aren't as subtle and rich as those -- nor as expensive.  And they will make a great quilt.

I'm not sure how many pieces there were in the collection but as you can see from this unedited picture, I had to lay them out one day months ago and just admire them before I started cutting anything.  I didn't have a pattern but I knew I wanted to maximize them.

Mom22smartchix and I each bought them and decided on the same pattern earlier this year which meant cutting them into 2.5" strips.  Here is the waste.  Every little smidgen of it.  I'd say we maximized our fabric, wouldn't you?

I have decided I want a summer quilt for our bed.  The last one we had we gave to our son and daughter-in-law because they liked it.  Of course I want them to have it and it's great fun to see they are sleeping under it.  But, somehow the bear paw out of homespuns is just a bit dark.  Soon the Christmas quilt will come out (too soon!) but for now, I think these may just be the ticket for a summer quilt next year.  It will be bright and make me happy -- if I have enough fabric for queen size.

It takes five strips to make three 10.5" blocks.  I have 33 made, lots of strips left, and will just sew until they are all used up and decide what to do from there.  Either buy more and make a great border or decide it's a full size quilt and move on.  It's a "win win" no matter which way it goes.  They are fun to work with since each block is slightly (or greatly) different from the other two.  I started out thinking I would just use the jewel tones -- I have since decided I'm going to use them all.  Including the browns which make me a little "itchy" but should be beautiful against a blue or lavender block.

But somehow, these are not quick blocks.  I can't quite figure out why they take as long as they do.  Creating two short strip sets, cutting the block, cutting the strip, recutting the block and inserting the strip.   They don't look like they should take that long, do they?  Mom22smartchix elected to cut all the elements separately (she has trouble following directions and the crowd).  Hers will have much more color variation and may be faster -- who knows (although cutting couldn't have been faster). It will be fun to see them side by side, someday.

In the meantime, I have been lucky enough to use AMA's Handi-quilter and was able to finish this in time to take it to the cottage for cool mornings and evenings.  All homespuns from 4" strips and homespun backing.  And now I WANT ONE TOO!  And yesterday, I'm happy to say that I quilted a child's quilt top AMA had given me and one of my hospital quilts.  So -- I'm definitely getting back in the groove!

I hope you're getting your creative groove on, as well!

Jan