"Checkered" - Upcycled Greens #8 progress report
I was itching to get back to this project. While doing it, it tends to be tedious and even boring at times, but if I put on something interesting to watch and then make myself sew the whole time I have that program on, I am able to make progress.
If you look at the top right, you can see that I got to the point where I trimmed the right corner. I have one more row to go down and I will be able to trim the corner on the bottom left and then I am really on the “downhill” side. This means I have reached the width I am going to have.
“Checkered” - a fantastic scrap buster! I showed how I made it here.
Having made the Up Blues “Checkered” and being totally smitten with it - I knew I wanted to make another from these Greens I have. Why not? It is quite a feat. It is not at all difficult but looks amazing when finished. it weighed a lot, too. That last one, I believe, weighed 9 lbs as a finished quilt!
People who don’t sew think I cut each individual square and sew them together that way. I suppose in that way, they think I am somehow a superwoman. I hate to ruin their image! :)
I showed mom when I was in FL how I put together a 1” finished 25 patch by using strips. I think she understood because I showed her step by step and she sews - or rather, DID sew. I knew I could share the secret with her and she’d be okay with not thinking I’m superwoman. She knows the truth, anyway- she’s my mom!
You can see the variety of greens I used. Lights, sage, yellowish, some dark and very few grass greens.
These strips are getting longer - so it takes more and more work to get the rows ready to go on. So two rows now and it is equivalent to many rows early on, as I’m working now through the heart of the quilt top.
I know once I get on the downhill side of this project, I will really want to get going on it - even more than I am now. I started this one quite a while ago now. In fact, the first report was back on Feb. 9 when I decided to just “get going” on it and show you a small start.
For me to add the three rows that I added this time, I needed 29, 31 and 33 16 patches, so I added a total of 93 little squares. I worked on the strip piecing while listening to baseball and videos. It would probably be better to try to do a few minutes every day. But this time I didn’t do that. Once again, if you want to know how I made it, please check out the link I put under the photo above.
I tend to make large batches of these 4 square strips - they are light/dark/light/dark. I make a lot of them. Then, I begin to make blocks. I use a bucket, so I can mix up the pieces easily.
I laid out the strips in pairs - and then picked them up and strip pieced all 16 before I stopped to match up the next batch.
And now you know where I am on this project. Once I get the next three strips done, it will feel like the rows will just whizz by, in comparison.
Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks so much for coming along with me on this sewing/quilting and life journey of mine!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!
Here’s one of the beauties we have!