Disclaimer: This is not my work!

On Saturdays my husband, Bob, and I often walk downtown to the Farmer's Market.  The city has many urban trails and we can make it down there walking on neighborhood streets and through woods.  After Farmer's Market, coffee, lunch, and other local shops we head home.  Just outside of the downtown area is a new fabric store ... it's all about upcycling fabrics, yarns, and other textiles, Ragfinery.  They often have finished items the staff and others have made from the donations.  A few weeks ago, there was a finished quilt top tacked on the wall.

As we walked home, my husband couldn't stop talking about it.  He wished he'd taken a picture of it.  Thanks to Zenia Rene I was able to identify it as a One Block Wonder.  I also found a book on One Block Wonders.  So the next step would be to find similar fabric.  We headed 60 miles south to a fabric store on Black Friday to take advantage of their 20% off the entire store ... we did not find any fabric that felt right.  I actually was a bit relieved.  I am leery of tackling a project this big and would really prefer to try it with some heavily discounted fabric first! 

A week later we stopped by Ragfinery again after our trip to the market and the top was still there.  We asked about it and the backstory is it was donated by a woman in the county who gave up quilting due to health issues.  It was so beautiful to the both of us, we brought it home.



We've started discussing backing for it and the possibility of another border or two.  We're thinking this will be a couch quilt.  Our daughter will be home from college later this week and we'll definitely get her advice on the backing ... she has an interesting approach to color that always turns out well.

 

I currently have 4 quilt tops that need to be finished, including this one.  I'll save this one for last and if I'm not confident that I can do it justice, I'll either set it aside until I'm ready or take it to a professional.  

The fun part of this is my husband's taken an interest in quilting.  He's even been asking about how a long arm works, did I get to see it when I dropped my other quilt off, and so on.   While I don't see a long arm in my future, I suspect he won't be as bored if he gets coerced into stopping at a fabric store any time soon. 

Routine Chaos

Twenty-one years ago when our son was born the professionals were quite insistent that we would have to keep to a strict routine as people with down syndrome had to have routine.  My thoughts at that time were we would just need to develop a new normalcy for the family as anyone with a new baby would.  We would also establish chaos as the routine in the household! Today, chaos is still the basic routine with adaptations made to accommodate each individual in the family.

Will was born a week before Thanksgiving, so he's always been my Thanksgiving baby.  This year due to an aging dog, we were unable to leave town for the usual family gathering.  We had a quick simple Thanksgiving dinner, but with all the trimmings.

The rest of the day I split between the sewing room and family room keeping the dog company.  This morning I finished the top to "Routine Chaos"

When I originally cut up my 3" scraps for "Cacophony" I also cut 2" squares from the smaller scraps.  Then I used the 2" scraps as leaders and enders while working on "Cacophony".  By the time I was finished with it, I had nearly finished with sewing the 4 x 4 blocks. I have to add that on occasion I just sat down and worked on the 2" squares when I had a few minutes.  Over the weeks, I toyed with ways to put the squares all together and decided that I liked the idea of the squares turned on point, but didn't want all of them.  I also thought about rows of diamonds and rows of squares, in the end I went with alternating the diamonds and squares. 

So, here is "Routine Chaos" a tribute to my Thanksgiving baby, beauty in the unexpected.

Sidetracked to UFO

I posted my sidetracked project a couple of weeks ago.  After I finished the top, I went out to get a tutorial in spray basting.  I am quite taken with the ease of spray basting over pinning.  As a result, I've decided to finish up a couple of projects and then spray baste two to three projects in a single setting.

I started this project a couple of years ago using leftover fabric for a friend's daughter.  I've made all her children and grandchildren quilts (the yarn tied off type).  One daughter really wants a second quilt ... 28 years later, the first is long gone.  For a variety of reasons, I decided to make her one more.

This one will be backed in an old purple sheet pretty much by request.  I haven't decided if I'll tie this one or machine quilt.  If I machine quilt it will have to be wide, as she remembers the softness and drape of the original quilt.  The flannel backed ones I made for her nieces and her children are not the same!

Sidetracked

I was volunteered by my husband to work on a quilt for someone retiring in his area.  This was fine by me as I tend to get bored rather easily when I focus too long on one project ... so I was given the fabric to make 17 squares in three days. Okay, husband is out of town at a conference, son is not a picky eater, I can definitely find the time to finish and have the weekend for family ... Mission was accomplished, and since I was so quick, I was asked to put them all together.  Okay, there went the weekend.

Here's the near final project, the last column still needs to be attached as the last row, but all in all I'm fairly happy with my "rush" job.  I know that I will not be working on it anymore and hopefully the other person can disguise my less than perfect points.  

This quilt is definitely going to have a relaxing watery feel.  I rather like the calming effect it has.  That said, back to my Cacophony quilt and my Galiano quilt (friends quilt) with the bright colors I so love.

Cacophony Continued

Last weekend I plowed ahead and finished the top of the Cacophony Quilt.  I took Joanna Goranson's advice and used a solid color for the sashing.  I really liked the blue of the dotted fabric I had originally chosen so went with a similar solid for the sashing.  I am very pleased with the results.

Even though the picture shows it differently, the quilt is fairly square.

Blame it on being too short to evenly hang it on the wall, stood at an angle around the furniture to get the shot and painter's tape is not the stickiest!



Here's a close up of the quilt.  A co-worker told me she could stare at it for hours, looking over the different fabrics.  That was my hope as I'm planning on giving it as a baby gift.   

Cacophony: a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds

Cacophony was the word that came to mind tonight as I finished the last of my 4x4 sets of 3" squares.  

I went for the mismatched look as the idea of organizing color and patterns escapes me.  One day I may find the time to learn more about color, but for now I am happy with the results.  

Going through the fabric and cutting it up took me down memory lane, Harry Potter Halloween Costumes, my kids' quilts, Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, pillow cases, curtains, quilts for friends, and fabric from my daughter's projects.  I must confess some of the fabric mystifies me as to how it ended up in my fabric bins.
 



 I learned a lot about precision cutting (I still need more practice) and matching seams/corners up (I'm pretty pleased with my seams/corners overall).  My 4x4 squares are not all equal and I think if I try to put them all together the seams will not match up very well.  

 



My solution will be to add borders to each square and then trim all squares to the same size.  In the end each square will be approximately 12".  With 30 squares the top will finish out around 60"x72".  This blue dotted fabric seems to work with the squares and add a little pop!