Saturday, September 18, 2021

Tomatoes, Onions, Squash and Orange String Quilt Blocks

Actually, I don’t need to write a blog post today, because the title pretty much sums up my week. OK, OK, it’s not everything that happened, but it’s not far off. There were also friend visits, family visits, and we’re going out to eat outdoors again this evening with family. I’ll be attending another Quilts for Kids workshop today (masked and socially distanced). I’ve been asked to be prepared to demonstrate quilting with a domestic sawing machine if any newbies join us, but other than that I’ll probably just work on strings. 

The great news here at Chez Kizerian is that the carpet installers will be here at 8:00 a.m. sharp on Monday to trim and re-stretch the carpet in my studio. YAY! Then we can shampoo the carpet and move back my furniture and sewing stuff and finally put the storms and flooding of Summer ‘21 behind us. We’ll have to hang the wood blinds and shop for storage pieces, but at least I’ll have my Stuff back where I can see it and get to it!

This was The Week of Strings. Orange is a color that I love and use a lot in my quilting. It’s also a great gender neutral color and I get a lot of donation scraps to work with from the Quilts for Kids members. So I decided I would make one orange string quilt to use up a bucketful of strings and strips. I sewed 56 blocks (6 ½” unfinished) for a 7x8 layout that will measure 42x48” when finished. 


The center strip of each block is an off-white strip that I cut from a piece of yardage. It lends (or will lend when it’s all sewn up) a subtle lattice design to break up the orangeness. I couldn’t fit them all up on the exposed portion of the design board, so the remaining blocks are pinned up in clumps on the left. But you get the idea. The design board will be re-covered with fresh new flannel probably on Wednesday when Cousin Kim comes to sew. 

Then I sewed up 16  5.5” waffle blocks, which in turn were combined into four larger blocks of four each.This completes all the blocks I need for this Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) quilt. Although next month’s color will be lime green, I don’t need any more green blocks, so I can assemble this quilt  sometime over the next 2-3 months.


But that’s wasn’t all. I also stitched up these “chips” blocks (4.5” unfinished), which I am SO not crazy about. These 17 blocks bring my total to 180, which is thankfully all I need. 


I don’t have a setting plan for these yet, but they’re now in the stack of RSC blocks to be finished into quilts, along with the waffle blocks and the kitty blocks from last week. 

Kat of Kat and Cat Quilts has called out this block and these colors for the September-October block drive  for Covered in Love.  So since I have lots of orange scraps, I made four 12” blocks (finished size). They will be sent off to Kat this coming week.


I still have some four patches and crumb blocks to work on, to say nothing of assembling the orange string quilt and another orange-and-yellow quilt from scraps and orphan blocks. Once the studio is up and functional again, it will be pedal to the metal to finish up as many quilts (and use as many scraps as possible) until the end of the year.  To that end, I’ll be joining Devoted Quilter on Instagram for her WIPS-B-GONE 100-day challenge.  (WIP = works in progress). I’m going to shoot for 20 finishes in the 100 days between September 23 and the end of the year. Wish me luck!

That about wraps it up for now. This coming week will be another busy and exciting one here. I hope yours is a great one too!

I’m linking to Scrappy Saturday.

20 comments:

  1. Glad things are finally on track to finish up your sewing room and get it back together, Cathy! The orange string blocks are great. Love the pops of other colors here and there and the off- white centers running through. That makes a neat design!

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  2. Yes! I am so glad you will back to “almost normal” next week! I just love those orange string blocks! Like Diann said the off white center string is cool! It will make a great quilt!

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  3. I'm sure you've been working on waffle blocks all along, but it wasn't until this color that they started to sing to me. If you don't mind, please remind me what size piece/strip you are using.

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  4. Hurray for having almost all of the work done in your sewing room! I know you'll be so happy when it's done. I love the orange strings quilt. Strings are so versatile and always look great. And twenty quilts in 100 days? Yikes! I'm only going for three. You know I'll be cheering you on!

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  5. lots of stuff done - great job - I don't understand the instagram thing but I like the idea.

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  6. Wow, Wonder Wonan at work again!

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  7. SEW many wonderful ORANGE blocks, Cathy!! I'm sure you will come up with a fun way to use those Chip blocks (whether you like them or not.) Nice job on those blocks for Kat!

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  8. Great idea to put an off white strip in the centre if each orange string block. Orange is such a strong colour the off white really breaks up the orange and draws attention to the other individual fabric strips. This will be a super quilt. Already looking forward to seeing what you make from your orange and yellow scraps. Hope your carpet stretching goes well so that you can get your sewing room back to rights again.

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  9. It sounds like you are SO close to getting all settled in again. The orange strings are so fun! The white center strip really does tie everything together.

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  10. Lovely orange works you have going..Love those waffle blocks..and the strings are so pretty...happy to hear that your room will be done for you soon....hugs, Julierose

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  11. Hurray for almost reaching the finish line on the studio restoration. I bet you don't know where to start first (but I'm confident you'll figure it out). I'm also doing the WIPS-B-Gone challenge and I need to give myself a peptalk to keep me on track, but I really need to get some old projects completed and out of here. I just finished my blocks for Kat yesterday and will mail them this week. I'm usually pushing up against her deadline, but since it was orange month, I already had a good start on pulling fabrics and I decided to get 'em done. Now I just need to keep garden cleanup from derailing my good intentions.
    Pat

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  12. Hi Cathy! Oh, your little chip blocks are so cute. Thanks for the reminder about the CIL blocks for September and October. I think I can actually meet a goal that gives me 41 days. Finally, I misread the 100-day WIPS challenge. For some reason, I thought it said it started in January!! Well, well, well. I think I'd better check out the link you shared again. {{Hugs}} I hope you and Bruce are doing well and staying safe. ~smile~ Roseanne P.S. I am THRILLED beyond belief that your studio is about to be all finished - or ready to play in again. You deserve it!!

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  13. Love the orange! So nice to hear (read) that your sewing room is nearly a done deal. I'm so happy for you! I bet it will feel amazing to have that storm damage put behind you.

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  14. Two of your chips look like squash blossoms while a few pass as tomatoes…and yes I see the onions framing the string blocks. So the title does say it all!

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  15. Those orange strings make me smile. That was a great touch with the off-white. I've seen others use a black fabric in the middle but I like your warmer cream. I saw that 100-day WIPS challenge. I'm not joining in but I'll look forward to seeing all your finishes!

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  16. Glad to hear your studio is almost back to normal! Love the orange strings - they make my heart sing! Good luck with the WIPS-B-GONE. (PS - thought of you guys recently when I heard an interview with Bela Fleck on Fresh Air)

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  17. Oh, 20 finishes in 100 days! You will feel SO accomplished! Glad you are getting your sewing studio back in business - interesting that you will shampoo your new carpet. I guess it's to get the smell and any residual chemicals out of it? I'd be interested in knowing. Have fun putting your room back together. And eating all those delicious veggies....

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  18. Nice to read that you like orange -- so many people don't. I think it's cheerful! Hope the carpet installation went as planned and that you're able to get your sewing room set up to your satisfaction. WIPS-B-GONE is a good challenge!

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  19. WIPS be gone, what a great idea! I'm finally working on one that has been on my back burner for a while. I have to pace myself with the hand quilting though, else my hand aches bad for the next couple days.

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