When You Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Triangle blocks complete...now to fill in the open areas!

In only two weeks we will be packing up for our journey to our winter home in the Rio Grande Valley of TX.  An entirely different lifestyle and routine.  We are eager and ready.  

This summer has been peaceful and quiet and I've been able to focus on my goal to complete many unfinished projects, use up some scraps and make some fun quilts for charity..

My plan for the last several weeks still in Omaha was to relax, organize my sewing room, and prepare for leaving.  But, as is usually  the case for me, I got distracted, sidetracked, unfocused....(who me?)   

My good friend Pam (did you say Pan??")  and I have been drooling over African Print Fabric and over the last year I've collected a nice little pile of unique and colorful designs from there.  We had seen a very simple shadow box type quilt made with them at a quilt shop in Lincoln, NE.  So clean and nice. Not only a wonderful way to display these awesome fabrics but a quick and easy way to do it.  We found just the right background fabric at "Around the Spool" quilt shop in Louisville NE.   I bought it, and also the black for the shadows and then promptly got stuck in the mud.   I just wasn't thrilled with the shadow box look.  Clean and nice, but maybe too simple?  So my pile was relegated to the corner and there it sat, waiting to be elevated once again. 

How the triangle blocks will look on the background fabric

Thanks to Pinterest, I saw a method of piecing that I liked and somehow on the web of live links and clicks I got to Craftsy.com and found a tutorial on how to make inset isosceles triangle blocks.  I had to go so far as paying to join ($4 special for the year, woot!)  An awesome way to show off these prints...a simple pattern using only seven triangles of different sizes.    I made the blocks...but wait, 7 is not enough to make a quilt of a size I could really use.  This one will not be donated.  So I made 11.  Still not big enough.   The remainder of my African stash did not include pieces large enough to make additional triangle blocks nor did I have enough background fabric to do so.  My head was now spinning with ideas to make alternate blocks and inserts to make it all fit together by using what I had on hand.  

So I got out my graph paper, grabbed more coffee, lit a candle and away I went...for two days! I've now created 15 different panels and inserts to make my African quilt large enough for my king sized bed.  I still haven't figured out if I need a border. Most of the fun comes from figuring it all out as you go along.

Graph paper, pens  and (thank God) an eraser!

I don't think I will finish by the time we are ready to leave but I'm going to work on it!   I sit here at my laptop wondering why I couldn't have left well enough alone and make the simple quick and beautiful quilt as the pattern taught.  I could have enlarged this quilt top by adding plain background blocks, but how fun would that have been?  I could have decided to design one insert panel and use the same for each space, but would that be boring?    My heart is singing with excitement to get started on my designs.  I'll start with the one with the largest pieces and then I will use the smaller pieces to make the more detailed ones.

Time to get started!!!

Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted!  

Masks on Parade

 Covid19.   It's been around for nearly two years now and not going anywhere fast.   We are now facing a 3rd booster shot and new vaccines coming out every day.   Up until recently Ive had few friends and family experience this virus.  Today I know six people that have it.  Some are vaccinated and some are not.  They are sick. 

In the thick of the lockdown last spring and summer, my sister Kris and I jumped in with a group in Omaha making masks for local organizations, companies, hospitals etc.  I made over 2000 masks last summer.  I greatly reduced my stash, which was a welcome relief.   The act of sewing masks was also a welcome relief from the stress of the lockdown and lack of social interaction.  

I had scraps left over.  Last winter, at the end of January I came home from TX for an emergency visit to help my dear neighbor when she lost her husband, tragically to suicide.  My one week visit turned to 3 weeks due to weather, both here and in TX.  First extended long freeze in TX in over 100 years,  knocked out the electricity, froze all water sources and cancelled flights.  In Omaha it was  certainly cold outside and snowy, but my house was warm and my sewing machine plugged in.  :)   So, I sewed.   I took out the mask scraps and began this little quilt.

This summer I was able to finish the top.     On to the quilt machine with this one!