In a Fog

DS and I went out this afternoon, mostly to get things for his current project(s). It's always a risk to go to the thrift shops but today I felt like taking that risk. We ended up only going into one, generally the safest one and our favorite, and I found a jigsaw puzzle and a couple of men's silk ties. There were several other temptations but I successfully resisted them. DS scored, apparently, on parts for whatever costume he's working on. (I know it's another Star Wars outfit but I can't keep 'em straight.) We went to a couple of other stores from there. Mostly I sat in the car and waited while he took care of business. I did find some fabric for the back of the Orphan Train quilt - hurray! - at Sewer's Dream Outlet. I have washed and dried it; now it needs to be pressed before I cut into two pieces and sew it back together to get the size and shape I need.

While the backing fabric was in the washing machine I took the two ties apart for laundering. When I get new-to-me ties home I remove any exterior labels, take out the interfacing and then throw them in the washing machine, in a lingerie bag, in cold water for a short cycle. I either let them air dry or iron them dry, and once they are dry I cut off the facing material at each end and any other tags that may have been sewn into the seams when the facings were put on. Sometimes I separate the individual pieces that were sewn together to create the length of the tie as well. Then they go into my color-coded bins for future use.

Today I had to take off my glasses and put my nose practically on one of the ties in order to see the stitches that had to be removed so I could get the interfacing out of the tie. That was a mistake. I now have a killer headache and can barely communicate verbally. Y'all are lucky I've been able to be this coherent! I have set myself a goal to post an entry every other day or so (with the exception of weekends) so I wanted to at least check in today.

The picture is one I took probably a month ago of the rose buds outside my studio window. (The picture was actually taken through the window because that was the best composition.) Those buds have since bloomed and gone, the bush is taller, and there are new buds and flowers. I love summer!

The Orphan Train is Ready to Leave the Station

The last strips were put on this morning, the top trimmed to square, and then it was pinned to a wall to have its' picture taken:


It looks like we pulled it a little out of square when we pinned it. Oh well. It looks so good on that wall that I'm tempted to leave it there! What you can't see is that this is an unfinished wall. Has been for about four years. DH has the best of intentions but not the time nor the energy to go with it. (Don't tell him I told you this!)

I took a detail shot of the upper right side when I realized I had forgotten to do that yesterday. Let's see if I can get Blogger to let me add it in...

It's interesting to me that the big Star block looks rounded in the photo. (In both photos actually.) It stands out in person, but doesn't have the pronounced rounded-off effect. Once I had the top together and had a good look at it I sort of wished I had moved that Log Cabin block just under the star from the left side to the right side. When I was composing that bit I was focused on keeping the two halves of the block I had taken apart together to "border" the star, turning that corner as it were. By the time I could really see what I had done I wasn't about to take that out and do it over!

The top turned out to be larger than is necessary for the Quilts With Love project but I'm sure that will be okay. It's only four inches wider and barely two inches longer than their specifications. Now the challenge will be to find or create a backing for it. I doubt I have anything in my stash that will be big enough by itself; I just don't buy that kind of yardage until I need it for a quilt. I'm not sure I have the energy at this point to create a back so I may just go out and buy some of the extra wide fabric that's available these days. My friend Heather has agreed to quilt it on her long arm and Peggy Schafer at Sewer's Dream Outlet donated some batting a while back for charity quilts so I don't have to worry about that either. {whew!}

My design wall looks awfully white and barren now that this quilt top is done. DD liked what she saw of it when she blew through here the other day so I may very well use my bright orphans to make the next grandbaby quilt. I could throw some of them on the wall to lesen the starkness left behind by the departure of my Orphan Train. There's also the Fabric of Life top to put back up. I have to get back to my journal quilt too. Technically I need to get this one done within the week to stay on schedule. It's time to start casting around for ideas for the next one as well...

Last Call!

Just a quick update: I have a 1" x 28" strip to add to one side of my Orphan Train quilt top and it will be complete. It's too late now to get a decent picture of it (more like too cloudy; it wouldn't be all that dark if it weren't for the cloud cover {pout}) so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to put that strip on, photograph it, and show it to you. What I can see looks pretty good considering what I started with!

There Are Still A Few Seats Left...

I have just completed the bottom right section of my Orphan Train quilt and thought I'd better take the time to take its' picture and show it to you, otherwise it may be another whole day (or more) before I make another post!

Not much to tell about this bit really. A couple of Bear's Paw blocks from a block-of-the-month drawing, an experimental heart, two different sizes of Broken Dishes blocks set in two different ways (can you find them?), a Friendship Star and a Basket or Cake Stand block. I may get brave and sew this section to its' counterpart (the bottom left) before I go on to construct the top right quadrant or I may wait until I have the righthand side of the top sewn up to see how it all looks before I make it 'permanent.' Don't leave the station just yet!

All Aboard!

My Orphan Train is about half full at this point. I have been working steadily on it for the last three days. To the exclusion of all else in fact. Well, except for the quiet observance of our birthdays of course!

I really wanted to see whether I could make a quilt that I could donate to the Quilts With Love project. That meant that I had to make a 56" x 84" top out of my orphan blocks. The first thing I did was to separate them into two piles: one with bright colors and jazzy prints and the other with more subdued tones and prints. The larger pile was the one with the more muted colors so those are the blocks that I'm loading onto this particular Orphan Train.



As I said in an earlier post, my design wall is not big enough to accommodate a top of this size. So I figured I would try to compose this quilt in quadrants. It seemed logical to start in the upper left corner and that's what I did. First I put a few of the larger blocks on the wall and tried to fit smaller ones around them. Because I want a jumbled, random look for the finished quilt I really didn't want to work in rows, but that seems to be what's working the best. I can only hope that in the end it will have a less organized look than it currently does in my eyes.

It's a bit of a challenge to keep in mind that the colors and values need to be distributed fairly evenly across the surface of the quilt when I'm only working on one section at a time. There's also the matter of block size to consider. I don't want all the little blocks in one place, nor do I want all the large blocks in a discernible pattern. Mix and mingle children! Play fair!



At this point I have the left side of the quilt constructed, albeit in two parts. I am working now on the right side. This side is narrower,but just as long, so it will still have to be built in two sections (top and bottom). In the beginning I didn't have to do much more than add a few strips to make blocks fit together. As I approach the end, however, I'm having to deconstruct blocks to use their component parts as filler and sew up some of my leftover bits and pieces into "new" blocks. (They aren't really new since I'm using patches and scraps that were cut at the same time most of these blocks were made.) Overall I'm very pleased with the progress I've made and the way the quadrants are looking. A couple more days should tell the tale!

The first picture is the top left side of the quilt, the bottom picture is the bottom left side.