Progress Report on Quilty Fun

I decided a few days ago to go ahead and finish up Quilty Fun. I’ve been dilly dallying with this top long enough. I’m tired of even thinking about it.

So, I went to work. I thought I had three rows left - the apples (which were already made), baskets and the flying geese row. I had forgotten about the very top row of tulips.

I went to work finishing up the apples row first since they were already made. I had made them along with the others I made for the Apple-licious Quilt I made last summer.

I pulled out my Lori Holt fabrics and started cutting the pieces I needed for the flying geese row. I decided to just ‘go for it’ since I was afraid of that row - a little. I hadn’t understood it when I looked at it before, but decided to just tackle it.

And I did.

The row went together as advertised. I didn’t realize it was actually so small when I was looking at it. I guess I had thought they were about 4” tall finished and not 2”. I learned how to make those flying geese with what felt like a magical method.

Let me say, I am a believer now. They came out so well - I am really pleased. I had previously only made flying geese by putting half square triangles on the corners of a rectangle and doing a stitch and flip method.

Then I made the baskets row and called it a day. Between the rows are white strips and I was able to get the rows I finished attached to the top - at least to the top part of it.

The only thing I have now left is the last row - a row of a whole bunch of tulips - And then the borders. It appears there are three borders a white, a colorful and then a pieced block border.

I am NOT doing the border as Lori shows us. I am not really excited about using that green gingham as those 6” blocks - just don’t like the look. The seams show up so much when you seam gingham that much - and it isn’t necessary. I have other fabrics. (Plus I don’t have any green gingham with me).

I decided, instead, to just make a scrappy outer border. I may hate it- or maybe I’ll love it. I think I will just go for it, but I may go around the top with the colors sort of ‘in order’ as with the color wheel. That might be interesting. I’m still thinking about how to do it exactly.

These are the blocks so far. I will need 46 of them and I have about 30 cut. Each is different. I will need to snowball the corners on them and then get it together. I’m kind of excited about it—but I have to make those tulips blocks first.

Probably the next time I show you this quilt, I will have the whole top finished.

One thing I noticed about this was the apple row. It felt “different”. It didn’t hit me until I looked at it all together what was different.

I had made these blocks when I made that other quilt - and just put these blocks aside for this top.

I guess I must have been in another world, because now to me, the leaves stand out as blaringly loud as they are dark green solids and not Lori Holt prints.

BUT, I am leaving them as they are. This quilt was started back when I first started making Lori’s patterns and I started with those house blocks. It is kind of a history of my familiarity with her stuff.

So, I’ll leave it. Some of the fabrics are not Lori Holt’s - they are just similar colors. Some are just whatever I thought worked with the colors as I didn’t have many of her fabrics.

I did bring back quite a few of those fabrics with me this time, so I hope to be able to make several quilts before thinking about running out of her fabrics. I took a photo from the side and it becomes obvious how dark the leaves on the apples are compared to the rest of the greens on the quilt.

Just so you know - I also made the Tulip Patch quilt as a result of my working on this Quilty Fun quilt. (I started the Row by Row and wanted to make a couple of the other quilts in the book while doing the sampler one.)

Once I took a photo, I realized that I had all my yellows with this one fabric all along the right side. I debated about changing the baskets - switching the first and last baskets, end for end.

I didn’t take another photo, but I did go ahead and trade them. You will see that in the final picture - next time. Now I just need to do the tulip row and then the borders after sewing the two sections together with a white strip.

Tulip Patch as I finished in March- later I added another border

Oh - and just to remind you - to the right is my Tulip Patch quilt top which I made on our trip up north in Indianapolis back in March.

 

I am recovering slowly but my cough is getting less and less - for which I am so grateful. A cough really interrupts one’s night’s sleep and I am just tired. I believe I was getting sick before we left the states - but add the trip, and a slight cough developed into something more after I got here - and I’ve been not feeling all that great. I do normally have allergy issues here in Poland right about now, but as one lady told me today (at the findings store), “doesn’t matter the original reason for the cough - an infection or allergies - they merge into one”.

But hopefully, the worst is behind me. As I write this, we’ve been back a week now. I’m not really over jet lag completely - probably mostly because my poor body is all confused. I’ve found great comfort in working on these quilt tops and kind of going in a slow but sort of steady way.

Thank you once again, for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.

Becky Petersen1 Comment