After completing Frolic I needed to find something mindless to work on. This is Cascade. I started it in April 2018, cutting all the pieces as retreat project. I spent most of the retreat working on swap blocks, so I didn’t get very far. I’ve pulled it out a couple of times making a block here and there, so when I resumed working on it Saturday half the blocks were already made. This should be quick to finish up.
Easy Breezy – 36
At 118″ square, it’s too long to hang off the gutters and I didn’t want to climb the ladder – well the fully extended ladder – to get a picture straight on.
I need to make a few more blocks for the backing, but for now, I’m going to work on something else.
Cascade. Most of these blocks were done prior to me pulling it out Saturday afternoon.
Easy Breezy – 34
My Frolic has gotten huge! It has become quite unwieldy as I’ve added the borders. Originally, my plan was to just add a matching 1-1/2″ outer gray border, but I decided to make it wider. The first plan was to increase the border so there was 1-1/2″ of gray between the binding and pieced border, but when it came time to actually add the border I was concerned that the narrow border would look weird, so I opted for a 5″ border. I still have one more to add to call this top done.
Of course what I failed to take into account is the top is now 118″ square. My backing is only 108″ wide. I had a plan to add 10″ to the backing, which would have made it tight, but not impossible, but now I need at least another 4″ and 6-8″ would be better. At least the backing will be lighter when I finish piecing it.
The larger quilt has also thrown my binding choices into limbo. My sister gave me a bit over a yard of blue fabric which I have used as the cornerstones, possibly one star block (I simply can’t remember), and the inner blue border. The plan was to bind the quilt in the same fabric. Now I’m not sure I have enough. We think she still has a yard of the fabric, but it’s buried in her sewing room. Naturally she bought the last of the bolt and it was an older fabric. But I suppose I don’t need to cross that bridge quite yet.
Easy Breezy – 33
The end is near. That is I can see the finish line for my Frolic top. Today I finished the inner borders and attached 3 of the 4 pieced borders. I practiced sewed the 4th border – pulling pins as I went until I was about 12 – 15 inches from then end. At that point I discovered I ran out of bobbin thread about 12- 15 inched from the beginning of the border. At that point I called it a night.
Speaking of running out of thread, I finished off a cone tonight. It took me about 4 months to use this cone. Yes, I’ve been sewing a lot, but I didn’t realize just how much thread I was going through. It was kind of nice not having to worry about getting thread as I watched it dwindle on the cone, so I think I’ll go ahead and order another cone of thread. It took nearly a month of get it in this spring.
Easy Breezy – 33
This is the 4th pieced border for Frolic. I probably could have gotten it attached if I hadn’t gone off to try to see the comet.
But as you can see there was some cloud cover. I don’t know if I’ll try again tomorrow or not.
Easy Breezy = 32
I spent maybe 45 minutes at the sewing machine. 5 more and a corner block after I get this one attached.
Easy Breezy – 26
I spent the better part of the day sewing HST together until I had both side borders completed and 3 of the 4 corner blocks made. By 5 PM I decided to walk away from the sewing machine. The fact that I needed to do a bit of housekeeping had nothing to do with it.
My living room was a disaster. I had setup my extra sewing machine in the room a few weeks ago while my sister was here using the quilting machine and it was time to put it away. I also needed to move the furniture so I could do a thorough cleaning of the floor. I thought I had short hair cats, but you couldn’t prove it to me with the amount of hair floating around. Anyway, since I was moving furniture I decided to rearrange it.
Before:
After:
There are advantages to both arrangements. I’ll leave it this way for a while to see how it works.
I did not make it back into the sewing room after this.
Easy Breezy = 26
This morning started off with me cutting gobs of black and white HSTs to go with the blue and white ones I cut last night. Then the stitching began.
Each stack with the blue on top represents one 6 x 12 blocks for the border. The two stacks with the black on top are the 4 corners. After counting, recounting, and counting again, my count was off. I think I have the right number of pieces in each stack, but until I lay them out I wouldn’t bet on it.
I managed to get one block made and attached to the border I’m working on, but when I went to press this block, I realized it was time to quit.
Two Easy Breezy blocks were made today. I’m only sewing one seam at a time.
Easy Breezy = 18
It doesn’t look like much, but if I counted correctly — which I just realized I didn’t — I have all of the blue HST cut that I’ll need for the rest of the border. I just realized I didn’t count the HST needed for the corner blocks. I need 16 more. I’ve also kitted up 10 Easy Breezy blocks and have the neutral rectangles cut for ‘more’. I didn’t count those. Tomorrow I’ll work on cutting the black HSTs.
Easy Breezy = 16
Yesterday was the Star Studded BOM pick up day. Since my cutting surface and sewing machine were clear of all projects and I had already printed my freezer paper patterns, I immediately came home and worked on the block. This block is also The National Quilt Museum Block of the Month Club block – but their’s is 8″ and paper pieced.
Had I been prepared, I could have easily knocked out another Easy Breezy block. But I did not have anything kitted up. So after the block was made, I pulled down the project box with the leftover pieces and fabrics from Good Fortune. Turns out there were a bunch of HST which need to be trimmed, a few strips of purple and orange, a few neutral FQs, and the fabric left from the Pink & Brown “Ugly Fabric” quilt top – all reproduction fabrics, except for the “Ugly Fabric”. I kitted up 3 more Easy Breezy blocks from the Good Fortune fabric and called it a night. Tonight I’ll see about emptying the project box to make room for the next project.
Easy Breezy = 16
