A Midweek Peek

A Confession: as a somewhat lazy laundress, I often find that an imminent need to do laundry offers an incentive to finish a quilt. Otherwise, it might take a while for that quilt to get all soft and crumbly from the washer/dryer rumble.

The blocks above emerged from a desire to use the neutral striped Marimekko print, of which I had some but not a lot, and for which I was uncertain about coordinating colors. So it's a very neutral quilt. Not my usual color scheme, but a pleasant experiment with paper-piecing (of my own devising, though perhaps there are comparable blocks out there in pattern-land).

The quilt is ready to send off to its new owner. But I need to take pictures, and this -3 nonsense to which I awoke this morning (cozy under flannel sheets, several quilts, and a down comforter) has not exactly inspired a photo shoot. According to my weather app, it's 10 degrees warmer now, at a whopping 7, which might be sufficient enough for some whole-quilt shots outside.

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Sewing: It Still Happens

The Jewish holiday season, some travel, a chapter deadline, and a few other obligations conspired to make me take an unintentional sewing hiatus. It's kind of hard to sew while on a plane, in synagogue, or while furiously typing. (Though if I could multi-task simultaneous dissertation writing and sewing, I would be a superhero. Just sayin'). In any event, I granted myself some sewing time this week as a reward for submitting said dissertation chapter (incentives: they work). I've had a quilt block in my head for a few weeks now, and decided to test it out. Often this means drawing on some graph paper before cutting and piecing, but this time I decided to go for the direct brain to fabric option.

Mental math is pretty awesome, but sometimes comes with a bit of imprecision. I won't say exactly how many times I had to rip out seams on each of these blocks (probably more than once but less than a handful -- let's keep it in general terms), but there was some mental cursing and aggravated looks directed at the blocks. Millimeters are finicky things, in case that was unclear. Last night the Southeast Michigan Crafty Meet-up allowed me finish some blocks and start sewing them together. At which point a number of people noticed that my quilt color scheme coordinated with my wardrobe (Atomic Washi, woot!), and documentation of this occasion became necessary. One friend has asked why there is a traffic light in the background, and since I don't know, I welcome all suggestions and stories as to how and why a traffic light would find its way into the scene.

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Squeaking By

Deadlines and I have a contested relationship right now. Witness: My June do.Good Stitches blocks.

Heather asked us to make Lynne's "Lynne Bob Square Pants" blocks with Kona Ash as the background color. I could blame my tardiness on the fact that I was waiting to get back to Michigan and get my hands on some Ash (true) or on being away from my sewing machine for almost all of June (true) or a tree getting in the way of weekend sewing at the end of June (true). All of these factors contributed to my delinquency, but I also confess that once back in Michigan, with my sewing machine, in possession of Kona Ash, I also tarried a bit. These blocks are a lovely, but a bit persnickety for my sewing tendencies. They're going to make a great quilt, but 36 squares yielding a mere 12.5" block? It's just not my style. As I said at the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild's Sew-In on Sunday, 3.5 hours of sewing should require using more than one bobbin.

In the spirit of confession-time, I will also note that this month I definitely have a favorite block. The aqua and red one. I'm pretty sure quilters, unlike parents, are allowed to express preferences among blocks, but I usually try to love them all equally. Not this month, I'm afraid. But that's okay because the quilt chorus is also a lovely place to be.

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12 Hours

Friday started like this -- at my parents' house, reunited with my sewing machine, playing with some new porthole blocks (made using Jodie's tutorial). I made such blocks and sewed them together into a table runner top, with plans to make the backing in the afternoon and quilt the table runner later in the weekend, before returning to Michigan.

But 12 hours later, Friday ended like this. Well, not like this exactly, because it was dark out by 10.30 pm when the power went out and we heard a large thud. The derecho storm that pummeled the DC area caused a tree to fall on my parents' house. No one in the house -- 2-legged or 4-legged -- was harmed, which is the most important thing.

Friday night was very long, with lots of moving furniture, clipping and clearing (a small number of) tree branches, waiting on hold for hours with the insurance company, and calming terrified animals. The fire department arrived pretty quickly (especially given the number of fallen trees and unpassable roads in the neighborhood) and determined that the house was still safe, provided we stay away from the side that was hit. Neighbors were extraordinarily helpful -- calling the fire department, providing tarps, bringing over helmets and head lamps (neighbors who go for spelunking? very useful in such circumstances), helping to clear out the affected rooms and salvage what we could, trimming and clearing about 100 pounds of tree branches, getting cars out of the way, etc. The local police conducted neighborhood sweeps around 4 am (I wasn't sleeping anyways...) to make sure everyone was ok.

My brother showed up at 6 am on Saturday morning, at which point we could see the full damage. I christened what had been my brother's old room "the sunroom." My mom quickly edited it to "the undesired sunroom." To be fair, it was a terrarium for a bit, but by mid-day Saturday Tyson's Tree had removed the tree (they have a very impressive operation, for anyone looking for tree removal in the DC area) and it was a sunroom, albeit one with blue-tarp filtered light. Yesterday the damaged area was boarded up, and now it's a matter of getting contractors in to assess, estimate, and finally rebuild.

Needless to say, no more sewing occurred over the weekend. I'm now back in Michigan, where sewing may resume if the heat relents anytime soon...

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Berry Lime Sublime

It's true: I'm naming this quilt after my favorite Jamba Juice drink. Which I haven't had one for several years because I'm rarely near a Jamba Juice. But I passed a Jamba Juice yesterday (no, this isn't a plug for the company or a sponsored post despite the use of a corporation name three times in three sentences), and had a naming epiphany. So back to the quilt itself....it emerged from two complementary interests: 1) a desire to use off-white (Moda Snow, I believe) as the neutral and 2) a stack of yellow, orange, and green fabrics (the purple inserted itself later -- fabric having a mind of its own, after all).

Square-in-square blacks may be my favorite go-to block. As per usual, I started with a stack of fabrics cut into strips and some sense of which fabrics might serve as the center focal points. Of course, the size of the starting square and variation of surrounding squares can make the center more or less of a focus per se, but that's just another reason why I like the improvisational nature of this block.

The first three blocks were made from only yellow, green, and orange fabrics. Then a piece of the reddish-purple fabric I was using in another project landed on the square and I knew that purple was an absolutely necessary addition. In keeping with my current proclivities, negative space was a must. I made 9 blocks but discarded one when I decided a rectangular layout spoke to me more than a square one (the voices, sometimes you just have to listen to them).

The quilt also grew from its intended size, which meant that my initial plan for the back (which is to say, sans framed panel in the middle, would be too small. A problem, indeed. It was not until I rummaged through my stash to modify the back that I realized the Laura Gunn Lantern Bloom prints matched perfectly. This oversight arises from my stash organization: although most of my fabrics are stored by colorway, I have a separate box that houses the few fabric collections for which I have the majority of prints. Lantern Bloom lives there.

In one of my rare efforts at quilting forethought, I carefully measured the purple tile mosaic print (the big stripe above) to make sure I could use some on the back and have enough left over for the binding. That way, the color-coordinated front and back would also share some fabric. Well, technically the two sides already shared the yellow (from Joel Dewberry's Heirloom) and green (from Sandi Henderson's Secret Garden), but Lime Sublime lacks the pizazz (and taste) of Berry Lime Sublime, so the purple was necessary.

Assuming my courier did his job, the quilt made it to a baby shower for my friends Trevor and Allison last Sunday. Allison's due date is the day before my birthday, but I'm all for sharing birthdays, since the July 27th is such a fine day. And when they head to the hospital, I get to borrow their amazingly sweet and well-behaved dog, Cricket, so it's a pretty win-win situation for all.

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dGS: May

I've returned to the whirlwind life: going to sleep in 5 different places in 6 nights. It's almost glamorous, except for the shlepping of stuff, the digging through the bag for contact-lens solution, and the reacquaintance with x-long twin beds. So maybe a college dorm room isn't glamorous, but my 10-year college reunion (go Ephs!) was delightful and fun, if a tad exhausting. In the past week, I also snuck in a couple of academic conferences and now I have a couple of weeks in New York for research (and play). In each of my previous NYC summer stints, I lived in Brooklyn. This time, my friend and I are subletting an apartment in the East Village, which means--among other things--that I am surrounded by tons of vegetarian cafes and restaurants...pure delight, I must say.

While real life has a funny way of limiting sewing time, I managed to get these blocks together (at the last possible second) for do.Good Stitches. In May, Kelli asked for framed patchwork blocks. I was grateful for a simple block (see: last-minute sewing), and I think these will look great together in a quilt.

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Black Hole

The last 2 weeks of April and the first week of May pretty much escaped from my life. I mean, I know where I've been -- the travels include 3 different time zones, some flights, a set of two 11+ hour and two 5ish hour drives, work involved writing a couple conference papers and conference remarks, tooling around in multiple archives, and life included trying to take care of basic things like laundry and food preparation during this insanity. I'm not sure I've ever experienced quite as much zig-zagging about as I did in April 2012 (which in my mind includes May 1-5 as well).

Not that ends, exactly, as tomorrow I'll get in my car again and head to DC. But, quite remarkably for my life this academic year, I will be in DC for 4 weeks. Four weeks. In one place. Amazing. I should also note that while all my clothes for the next 7-8 weeks fit in 1 carry-on sized bag, the same cannot be said for my sewing stuff. Since I'll in one place for so long and driving, it seemed like a good idea to bring my sewing machine. I tried to keep it reasonable by pre-selecting some fabric for some projects, but we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I was able to squeeze in a little sewing over the crazy month. Last weekend, I eked out my do.Good Stitches April string blocks just under the May wire (which might bear some resemblance to a May pole, at least in my fogged mind). There was a also a little piecing and quilting, though not much else. Which is a problem since I really wanted to finish some bag gifts for some friends, but luckily, they're very patient people. They may have to be patient for another two months, alas.

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Tutorial: Triangle-in-Triangle Blocks

While pretty and full of potential, square-in-square blocks must occasionally give way to other polygons. It's the triangle's turn, and I'll be asking my fellow quilters-in-crime to make triangle-in-triangle blocks for do.Good Stitches in March. Although trendy rarely describes two.hippos' general ethos, it turns out I am quite fashionable this month as Lynne will also be debuting some (wonky) triangle-in-triangle blocks.

These blocks are pretty easy--dare I say straightforward--to make. Start with an equilateral triangle of whatever size you prefer, add a border of another fabric, rinse and repeat until you get to the desired size. I started with 4 triangles ranging from 3" to 6" and it took 4 rounds to reach 12.5" from a point to an edge (that is, the line bisecting the triangle, not the length of the triangle's edge). 

This tutorial assumes basic sewing knowledge. It also assumes an ability and willingness to go with the flow since precise measurements are intentionally lacking. The amount of fabric you need will vary by a) the starting triangle and b) the width of the strips you attach to create the next triangle.

1. 

Cut out some equilateral triangles. Quick geometry review: equilateral triangles have three sides all the same length (hence: equal) which means each corner has a 60 degree angle. I happen to own a plastic template, but you can easily make your own by drawing a triangle, printing one from your computer, or using your cutting board which may well have 60 degree angles marked. If you're cutting a triangle from a charm square, a 4.5" one is your best bet.

2. 

Cut strips for to surround your triangle. They can be any width, though anything less than 1" may be a touch tricky the first time out. Make sure your strips extend beyond the points of the triangles. This is very important; otherwise you will not create a full triangle and will spend needless time ripping out seams. (Guess who did this the first time around?). I recommend erring on the side of lots to trim for trimming is far less time-consuming (albeit a little fabric-wasting) than seam-ripping and re-sewing.

3. 

Sew the first strip to one edge of the triangle. See how the strip extends way beyond the points? That's good. Now press your seam (I press open, but you could press to one side).

4. 

Now you can see why you need a strip longer than the triangle's edge! Line your ruler up with the triangle's edge and trim the newly added strip. Then trim the other side. All should be good.

5. 

Sew a strip to the next side. It doesn't really matter which one, as the both options are adjacent to the already-sewn side, but you'll probably want to continue adding strips in the same order. I tend to add them counter-clockwise. Why, I have no idea.

6.

Trim it up. You could stop here if you just want to make some tents -- for a campsite quilt perhaps?

7.

Add the third strip and trim it up. At this point, you also want to "triangle" up the block. Apply the same principle as squaring up blocks: decide how wide the strip should be, measure from the edge of the inner triangle/row (e.g., place the 1.5" line on the seam between the blue and pink), and trim. Repeat for each side. This ensures, to the best of bias edges' existence, that your triangle will remain a triangle.

8.

Rinse and repeat. Err, start adding a new round of strips: sew, trim, sew, trim, sew, trim. Triangle-up. Do this as many times as you need to get the desired size you would like.

9.

Admire your finished triangles. (Note: these are very easy to chain-piece, so if you know you'll be making more than one, I recommend chain-piecing.) Contemplate how to sew them together.

10.

The end. Or a few postscripts. 

a) you could add strips that are the same or different widths

b) contrasting widths can create cool effects

c) this is a great block for prints and solids

d) I'd love to see what you make

e) check back in April to see what I do with the dGS triangle blocks.

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Twirl

It's Michonne's month in do.Good Stitches, and she asked for Ribbon Blocks, with yellow stars and aqua ribbons. These blocks are going to create a lovely quilt. That said, making these blocks made me very happy that I came of quilting age in an era of modern quilting, because lots of little pieces that need to fit exactly into place would not have led me to prolific quilting (and the prolific fun that results from it). Now, these weren't difficult to make, they simply required a lot of instruction-checking and concentration. And much like I prefer to free-form it in the kitchen with recipes as a starting point (that adage about baking requiring precision is rubbish! Or at least only sort-of true: if you know what cake/brownie/cookie dough/bread batter should feel like, you can adapt), so too do I relish a certain imprecision at the sewing machine. But one of the benefits of do.Good Stitches is regularly moving outside the sewing comfort zone and that's a good thing, even if it lands me back in the comfort zone...

...of some improv log cabin blocks. Carrie asked for some volunteers to make blocks for a quilt for Avery, a young gymnast who recently fell and was paralyzed. As a former gymnast who has stayed somewhat involved in the sport (some coaching, some meet-directing, and now mostly spectating), this particular quilt project felt especially important, and these blocks were fun (and quick!) to make.

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Slow to Bloom

Heather was our fearless leader for January's round of do.Good Stitches. She provided us with instructions for blossom blocks, and we made them in a purples-and-pinks palette, with a background of coal. I admit that I'm a touch concerned that the Coal I bought is not actually Coal. It seemed darker than it should have been, but it was labeled Coal, so hopefully it's correct. Once I was home for more than 12 hours at a time (January was a little nutty with travel; February is somewhat similar), they came together quite quickly. I grabbed a picture of them on the steps of the Eisenhower Library before mailing them out earlier this week.

Michonne has asked for Ribbon Stars for February, and I've cut out all the pieces. Which places me way ahead of where I was a month ago for January's blocks. This suggests I should be able to crank them out before I leave for Utah at the end of February. Suggests being the operative word. What is no longer a suggestion but will be a reality is heading to Sarah's Fabrics in Lawrence tomorrow, where I'll not only get to see the amazingness many have raved about but also get to meet up with Mary Anne, who made me a set of fabulous placemats in the first round of the For the Love of Solids Swaps.

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Heart to Heart

I think I completed my last sewing for 2011 this morning. Although a few hours remain in the year, I've only got about 3 hours until friends come over for a New Years gathering, and somehow I don't think they'll be pleased if the entertainment is watch me sew. Call me crazy, but I put away the machine, cleaned up my sewing messes, and made a pinata. And baked and prepped some food.

But back to the pictures....for our December do Good Stitches quilt, Kelli asked us to make heart blocks. She gave us ample freedom, simply requesting heart-focused blocks made from reds, pinks, and whites and one more color. Technically she said use our favorite color, but I chose colors that I thought worked best with the fabrics and blocks.

Inspired by Sandi's list of paper-pieced hearts, I made the block on the right first. Hers were 6-inch templates, while I wanted a slightly larger heart, so I drafted my own based on her diagrams. I cut a standard piece of printer paper into an 8.5" square and then folded it every which way to have lots of angles to work with. Then I drew in the lines, stared at the template for a while, and finally labeled the piecing order. It's the first time I moved beyond a ready-made template for paper-piecing, and it provided some good mental exercise. The bias edges on some of the corners make it lay a little less flat than I would like, but I think it will be fine.

After paper-piecing, I wanted something simple. And I haven't made a square-in-square block in ages, so square-in-square it was. I transferred my elementary-school construction paper heart-cutting experiences to fabric, and made myself a swirly purple heart which I appliqued onto my pretty block. I'm slowly starting to see the fun in applique.

So there you have it, the last blocks of 2011. Except that I actually have three quilts to show you: two are making their way to their new owners and one needs to get photographed well. Obviously I can't do any sort of "year in quilts summary" without these ones included. Or maybe I can. To be determined. In 2012.

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Yes, Virginia, She Can Sew

It's taken awhile, but I finally used my sewing machine and started putting together the October do Good Stitches bee quilt. I played with a lot of ideas about how to use all the blocks (mostly in my head). I knew I didn't want to just sew all the blocks together as I thought it would be too busy.

I contemplated uneven rows or rows unevenly spaced, but ultimately decided to make 5 big blocks of 4 stars each. I'm going to sash each of the big blocks and hopefully create some floating big blocks. I may get a little improvisational as I sash. Since I now have 5 big blocks, I'm going to use 4 on the front and 1 on the back.

Having now seen all the awesome blocks that my group sent me, I have to confess that I love the solids (none of which I made) the most. Maybe I'm just in a solids-place, loving solids anyways. But there's something about the crispness of the blocks that really appeals to me. Don't get me wrong, I still like the others; I'm just lauding simplicity at the moment.

After I had sewn the blocks together and was arranging them to take pictures, I realized that this block looks pretty damn cool when set on point. I briefly considered ripping out the blocks and remaking the quilt on point with white blocks in between each star block. But then I recognized the insanity and opted to file that layout away for another time.

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do. Good Stitches: November

After my last-minute block-making for my own month in do. Good Stitches, it was time to be diligent and efficient this month. Shannon picked a great block and a wonderful color scheme of gray/tangerine/aqua. I was able to make the blocks out of my scrap bin (plus the Kona Ash from Shannon). I do use aqua and orange a fair amount, after all. These blocks were super easy to put together -- cutting the pieces definitely took the most time, but once that was done, the sewing was quick.

I think the upper left block is my favorite. I like how the scale of each of the prints works with the other. As I noted to Felicity last week, I like the challenge of bees in which each person is sewing from their stash. It means choosing blocks that can play well together even when the fabrics are pretty different. I think this block is a real winner in that regard.

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Delinquent!

It's taken me until the last day of the month to make, take pictures, upload, and post my blocks for my month in do.Good Stitches. At least they don't have to be mailed anywhere!

I made a tiny bit of progress in depleting using my scrap box. Although this block required a lot of HSTs, it came together quite quickly once I had cut all the pieces.

I'm realizing that my black desk provides a nice backdrop for pictures when there is sufficient natural light, aka a sunny day.

Here's a little glimpse at all the blocks I have thus far. Six more are heading my way and I need to decide how to arrange them. Although they're side by side in this image, I doubt that I will piece them like this. I think these blocks need more negative space to really stand out. I'm thinking of pairs or short rows (maybe 3 blocks each) surrounded by a lot of white. I may need to get more white as I've got about a half-yard right now....

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do. Good Stitches: October

It's been one of those weeks. Or, really those past couple of days that have stretched to feel like a week. Rainy, filled with work, challenging personally and professionally, exhausting. Time in which my bed seems like the best destination but once in it, my mind is racing so much that sleep fails me. Yep, truly delightful. Did I mention the 3 inches of rain over the past two days? Sogginess does not inspire me to go for a run even though I know exercise is good for me. And the furniture in my living room and dining room is in the center of each room, covered with tarps (all for good reasons, but it makes both the couch and my sewing machine unavailable to me). And my computer randomly shut itself off last night for no apparent reason (thank goodness for back-up copies and recovered versions of documents). After turning my computer back on, I checked my email and found a sweet piece of spam asking "do you model?" And I laughed and that felt good.

From Shannon

I buried myself under several blankets, finally got some sleep, and woke up this morning determined to turn things around. This means getting work done today and this weekend, but also doing some things for me -- some sewing, some hiking. And on the sewing front, it's time to make my blocks for do. Good Stitches.

From Shelley

As I might have mentioned, I'm leading the new Empower Circle. I am one delinquent leader, for I posted my blocks in late September but have not yet made them. To be fair, I was away for 10 days without a sewing machine and then life got overwhelming. But in the spirit of empowerment and admiration for the fab blocks other group members have already made and sent me, it's time to make some Love in a Mist blocks.

From Heather

I cut out the pieces for my blocks (first picture) and asked my group to make blocks using a palette of warm fall colors -- deep purple, burnt orange, cranberry, gold, etc. I asked for a white background but also suggested that some blocks could flip the white and the color to create some reverse blocks.

From Kelli

I also suggested that while I liked the scrappy blocks, a couple two-fabric ones (solids or prints) would add to the variation. I think there is something simple and stunning about this one:

From Heather

And with that, off to work and then later in the day or weekend, to sew. Have a wonderful weekend!

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Bugs.

I haven't been sewing much anything lately and just wanted to make something. Without a fabric option, I thought baking might be a nice replacement. But I'm staying with my brother and his kitchen is half-packed-up, which means the mixer is sitting in a box somewhere. Yet people have been baking for far longer than electric mixers have existed, so it had to be possible.

I gathered all the ingredients to make brownies, and plunged in. I melted the butter and chocolate, and I broke 4 eggs into a bowl. At which point I realized there was no white sugar in the cabinets. So brown sugar would do -- I decided somewhere between 1/2-3/4 cup of brown sugar would be best, especially since I was using milk chocolate which was already sweeter than other chocolates. Adjusting and adapting on the fly. All was good. Everything was mixed and ready for the flour. I dropped a 1/4 cup in the bowl and then looked in the flour.

Big mistake.

There were bugs in the flour. Little crawling gray things, and god knows how many invisible bug eggs. I was really annoyed -- mostly with myself for not looking in the flour before adding it to the brownie batter. That was just dumb and totally preventable.

After dumping the batter and playing on the internet for a while to mollify my annoyed self, I walked back to the store and bought more chocolate chips. I might have also impulse purchased some salt and vinegar chips to appease myself.

Then I made brownie batter again, and of course managed to spill melted chocolate, beaten eggs, and batter in various ways. Clearly, it was not a good day for baking. But I made my brown sugar substitute (I could have acquired some white sugar at the store, but I was committed to my experiment) and I used some cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. And it turns out that while chemistry limits baking in some ways, these sorts of substitutions are just fine. The texture and taste is slightly different, but they're brownies and they taste good. And there are no bugs in them.

Meanwhile, on the sewing front, while nothing has been sewn, lots has been contemplated.

In particular, I've been looking forward to the tutorial for this block of the summer sampler series. Kate posted it this morning, and I really want to make it. I might use it for a mini-quilt for my partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap or maybe make a baby quilt of them (I've got a bunch more of those to make for the fall) or maybe something else altogether.

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Practice Makes...Decent

I've been interested in the circle of geese block for a while, as in almost 2 years. A couple months ago, I finally printed the paper template, and recently I sketched out a quilt using this block. I decided to test it out first, which was a really good idea. Despite reading the very clear tutorial carefully, the first quarter-block was a mess. Had I not reused the paper template, I would show you just how much of a mess it was. Suffice it to say that I managed to use pieces that were too small and sew pieces together incorrectly. My second try was better, but somehow I sewed fabric to itself multiple times. The third try only required ripping out 2 pieced lines, while the my 4th version included only one episode of fabric sewed to itself (I pinned and everything but still accidentally folded fabric onto itself).

I really like the block, but it was wise to start with my scrap bin instead of the planned quilt fabric. I'm not sure how many of these blocks I have in me -- making one took a good 4 hours. I'd like to believe my next effort will go faster since I now know what I'm doing, but I'm sure I can find some new mistakes to make. I'm still trying to work out how to minimize fabric waste since I feel like I need to use much bigger pieces than necessary to ensure I fully cover each section.

In the meantime, I'm debating whether I want to make this block into a larger quilt or enlarge it slightly and create a challah cover. Either way, turquoise is definitely my dominant scrap color!

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Parrots and Pigs

 

I used to be a disciplined quilter. I started a project, worked on it, and completed it. Then I started a new project. I am no longer that quilter. I have three projects in the works, at various stages, and yet started a fourth this week. 

Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! posted a tutorial for a Crazy 9-Patch Lattice Quilt. It looks fun and I needed to get crackin' on some gender neutral baby quilts. Indeed, I already need one, and the design seemed like it would be fun with lots of primary color prints. I made the first set of 9 blocks over the course of two evenings (and a couple of accompanying crime shows). I thought I remembered all the directions perfectly, but I did not. So that set is a bit imperfect.

But I've got another set in the works and I think they'll play well together even if one is more perfect than the other. I might use the lattice layout Elizabeth shows but I'm also thinking about a few other options as well. Once I have all the blocks in hand, I'll lay them out on my design wall floor, and proceed according to what speaks to me, or what screams "put me together, put me together." 

Then again, I just received a big box of fabric I ordered and I'm kind of hankering for an orange quilt, an orange creamsicle quilt, if you will. So what gets started and what gets finished this weekend remains a question...

p.s. I'm still trying to figure out my new camera and how it works in different lighting, but hopefully my images will continue to improve.

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