Friday, May 23, 2014

That was Quick!

Wednesday morning I brought Dear Son #1 to the Calgary airport, after a great week-long visit.  Wednesday evening, starting about 7 p.m. I cut out squares for a lap quilt.  Our quilting guild plans to make new lap quilts for the local long-term care facility this coming winter.  Since I don't plan to be here for much of that time, I thought I should make my contribution this summer.

I cut out 48 6 1/2" squares of assorted beige fabrics from my stash.  Then I cut out 96 4" squares of nice, bright fabrics.  I drew a line diagonally across the 4" squares.

Thursday morning I sat down to begin sewing two 4" squares to opposite corners of the 6 1/2" squares, chain piecing, of course.  Often I will work on 10 or 12 blocks at a time, but this time I opted to chain piece all 48 squares.  Here they are in process.  A not so big pile of 6 1/2" beige squares and two piles of bright 4" squares.  The squares are being sewn to one corner of the beige along the diagonal lines.

Then I turn the pile around and similarly sew a 4" square to the opposite corner of the beige.








The next step is to sew a seam about 3/8" closer to the corner than the first seam.  That will give me "bonus" half square triangles with very little extra work.  They'll make a nice border.

Here's the finished pile of blocks, ready for the corners to be cut off.













 On the left, the piles of blocks ready to be pressed open.  On the right the "bonus" half square triangles.








 By 7 p.m. Thursday the blocks were finished and I laid them out on the living room floor.  This is just one option for layout.

I picked them up carefully, keeping the rows and the place of each block in the row all in order.  The rows were labeled, 1 through 6.

This morning I looked at them, having put them up on the design wall in the sewing room.  The design was nice, but somewhat static.

I rearranged them by turning every other row in the opposite direction.  This appeals to me much more.  It's actually the same design as the black and white background quilt I've been working on now and then for about a year.  That quilt is close to finished and I'll show it when it is complete.

This is the completed top, minus the borders.  A border suggestion is beginning on the left and on the right.  I think I will go with the tiny blue border and then the half square triangles flipped from side to side.

So this is the state of the quilt 48 hours after I started cutting it out.  What fun that was!
Size: (without borders) 36" x 48".

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