Friday, November 10, 2017

Two Flimsies and Some Dark Blocks

Ok, don’t tell me. You want to see the flimsies first. I know I would want to if that was what you posted on YOUR blog. So without further ado, here they are. (For the uninitiated, a flimsy is just a quilt top before it is sandwiched with batting, backing and quilted). 



This is my Rainbow Selvages quilt top. It was originally going to contain just 14 columns, but I added the brown column, extreme left, after adding the planned black and white (polka dot) column on the right. It measures 60x72”.  I like this so much more now that the top is complete. The texture is so much fun!  I have a couple choices for a backing, but have made no decisions yet on that or the binding. I think a fun scrappy binding might be the ticket if I have enough leftovers. Must go stash-diving!




The second flimsy is my autumn farm girl type sampler. Please excuse the distracting blue low-tack tape holding it up (in addition to pins); it is too large for my design board.  I probably should have just let it hang, but it makes it look wonky. 


I am pretty amazed at how this turned out. You see, some of the original blocks were made 3 (or was it 4?) years ago during the Vintage Farm Girl Quilt-Along. I was learning as I went, and the block sizes ranged from 12 1/8"  to 12 3/4”. They were supposed to be 12 1/2” unfinished. So first, some blocks had to be added to and of course everything trimmed. There went some points. And the 1” sashing didn’t leave much wiggle room. But it got done, slowly, imperfectly. Not a competition-level quilt by any means, but not bad.

Then, since I wanted the leaf fabric of the outer border, of which I only had one yard, to orient with the leaves falling down, the cutting was a challenge. That’s why there are cornerstones - there was not enough fabric without them! And then, when it was all sewn up, I measured the top. And nearly fell over. And measured again. The width at the top and bottom were exactly - EXACTLY - the same. Not an eighth of an inch difference! The length at the two sides had a 1/8" difference, which I don’t even care about. How the heck did THAT happen??? Anyway, if it looks wonky now, get over it. It isn’t!  YAY!!!

My plans are to get these two tops basted this weekend and maybe even quilt one. They are both on my Finish-Along Quarter 4 list, so they will get done before the end of the year!

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I want to thank you all for your thoughtful comments on my post last week about gathering and saving ideas for quilting projects (for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and quilting in general). And there were many great ideas and comments about scrap and fabric storage, settings, and organization. Thank you all so much!  And be sure to check out the rainbow lineup over at Angela’s So Scrappy blog. It’s Scrappy Saturday, and there are always great ideas and eye candy over there!

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By early in the week, I was digging into my scraps. Since Dark Neutrals (gray, black, brown) are the color of the month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I sorted all the colors and decided to play with the browns first.

First I made twelve 4.5” (unfinished) bow tie blocks. This brings me to 214 made of 304 needed. I’ll probably do a few dark gray and black ones, but these will carry over into next year.

And then I whipped out the brown strings and made four 8.5” string blocks and sewed them together.  

In fact, I sewed all my string blocks together into foursomes (like above) and took an inventory. It appears I have 12 more 8.5” string blocks to make: 2 orange (to finish up an orange foursome), 2 blue (to finish up a blue foursome) , then two more foursomes out of any of either red, green or purple, depending on what the scraps dictate. It would be quick work to finish this by year-end if I didn’t have so much ahead of it in line. But I may get to it by the end of the year. If not, it will finish up in the first quarter of 2018.

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And how fun is this??  Bruce had the day off Friday and we went grocery shopping together. I spotted these Lehi Roller Mills (a local Utah mill and bakery that makes great breads and mixes, etc) items on an end display at our local (Harmon’s) grocery store. What caught my attention? They are all in sacks of Lori Holt Vintage Christmas fabric! Lori, of course, is a local sew-lebrity fabric designer (for Riley Blake fabrics, also a Utah company). So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the collaboration. 


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Finally, I asked last week if any of you were participating in the Bonnie Hunter annual Mystery Quilt-Along, On Ringo Lake. It appears that several of us are!  Here is my fabric pull. I decided to go with grays instead of the browns that Bonnie suggested, mainly because I have grays. I could’ve gone out and bought some chocolate brown, but I’d rather use my stash. The grays look good with the colors, and it will all look better in our newly-remodeled living room.


Have a great week, and stay warm!



19 comments:

  1. Way to go! Two flimsies in one week. Isn't it fun to look back at our early efforts and then the thrill of realizing we've actually improved!

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  2. Boy, you are sure on a roll with two flimsies finished--plus all those other blocks, too.
    Congratulations--it must feel really good!! I am still (not so patiently!;((() waiting for my hands to recover so that I can get back to my Pomegranate quilt and at least finish that one (stinkin'!!:D) block left to hand quilt!!
    (Go ahead ask my hubby just how patient I am (NOT!!).
    Hugs Julierose

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  3. This post is just chock-a-block full of eye candy! I don't think I had seen any of your Farm Girl-y blocks before, so it's fun to see the finished flimsy. Any missing points are completely overshadowed by so many interesting blocks. Love those tomatoes!

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  4. Always so productive! What great color. And I love how the squirrel is looking up at the bigger acorn and thinking of a trade. And I'm thinking of using black in the Ringo quilt too...mostly for the drama...but I do like the look of turquoise and brown together.

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  5. I like the addition of brown to the Selvages quilt. Congrats on the flimsy.

    That Farm Girl-y quilt is awesome. What a great variety of blocks. I never measure my quilts before, during or after and they are all probably wonky. Makes no difference to me!

    Go, Cathy, Go!

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  6. Wow so much going on. Great to see to tops done! I love how your selvage quilt has turned out. I was just playing with some selvages the other day. Love the brown blocks.

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  7. Your Scrappy Selvage Quilt is absolutely AWESOME!!! It makes me smile every time I see it. The coping strips for Farm Girl Vintage are virtually invisible and it looks like you are having tons of fun with your BROWN scraps!! Looking forward to what comes next...

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  8. That's a lot of selvedges! Absolutely beautiful. I'll be eagerly watching the mystery quilt progress. I've never made one, but I sure like looking at them. I guess I need to work on my RSC crayons tomorrow.

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  9. Who knew there were so many different selvedges - and who else but you would have a collection of them! The result is a spectacular quilt and I'm pretty sure you're happy with it. Funny how the colours for last month and this month are my two least favourites but in your hands they look great. Hmmm....just thought of something...I think you should change the punctuation in your blog title....'Cathy's Crazy, By Design' sorta has a good ring to it don't you think? hee hee..........

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  10. Wow, you pulled your Ringo Lake fabric already! That is a good sign. Both your flimsies look great. I love the fall colours in the Farm Girl one.

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  11. You sure had a productive week with two flimsies done, and both look great!
    I've never saved my selvages, but I sure love the quilt you made with yours!

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  12. Love how both flimsies turned out! I'm so tempted to try Farm Girl Vintage - I usually don't like "cute", but I think Lori's blocks are so unique. I didn't realize Riley Blake was based in Utah - they're one of my favorite fabric producers!

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  13. Wow! Two flimsies! You go girl! Love both of them. Love Farm Girl Vintage blocks!
    Looking forward to seeing your BH Mystery quilt come together.

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  14. Wow! Look at you go!
    (So, did you buy some of those mill products?) (I wish everyone packaged their products in fabric!) (Well, maybe not the dairy...)

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  15. Wow! Love your selvedges and scraps (I hope that was the name...) quilt. what a great use of those selvedges. You got a lot done finishing two tops. I'm jealous of your very accurate piecing. I won't talk about how far off my last quilt was. Let's just say it was somewhat embarrassing! Keep up the great work.

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  16. You are on a serious roll my dear!! Love both of your flimsies! I pulled out all of my dark scraps, but mostly I worked on finishing blocks from previous months. Just not sure how they will fit into my bright colors. Decisions, decisions, decisions!! I do like the bowties in the dark colors. You always get my brain going!!

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  17. Your Rainbow Selvages quilt is fabulous! I’m torn on the Quitlville Mystery.... will I have time? I know I don’t have the needed pinky orange, so what do I substitute? Oh, well. I have time.

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  18. Rainbow Selvages is terrific, what a finish. I don't remember that Farm Girl top. It is just so cute! I hope it is for you or someone really special. Good choice of the gray for the BH mystery. I like that mix better than the brown. Good luck and have fun with that mystery. Another productive week under your belt!

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