All twelve Kaleidoscope blocks............

Since I'm out of room on the main floor design wall, I put these up on the double wall in the basement.  After seeing this I can see I don't want to stop at an uneven number of blocks so 5 x 7 = 35 is out and I'll probably make it 6 x 8 = 48 blocks.

Here is my Sunday progress, 5 more Kaleidoscope blocks and the second section of the quilt above them is filled in.  I can see some that I want to move.

From the pile of tall triangles on the sewing cabinet I counted out the number of pieces I need to design the bottom section (like the top section).  Then I counted leftovers that will be used in the rest of the Kaleidoscope blocks.  I will need to cut more.  I have the rest of the strip I cut the first ones from and I think I can get 4 more from most of the fabrics.

On my way to fill the bird feeders, I pass the Lenten Rose flower bed.  The plants will get much larger by the time summer is over.  All three have blooms on them.

Since the flowers hang down, all you can see is the outside of the blooms.  I love it that there are two colors of blooms on each plant.

Over by the bird feeders, the Scilla is blooming.

I broke off dried flower stalks from one Sedum plant and trimmed my Zinfin Doll Hydrangea in the front garden.  It sounds like rain starting Tuesday and lasting a few days so I need to get out today and break off more of those flower stalks.

 

6 more blocks.................

I had to cut some more triangle corners before I could make any more blocks.  That is 60 triangles in the stack, one pass through the Studio die cutter with a Studio die, 10 layers at a time.  That is enough triangles for 15 blocks.  There is very little waste when cutting with the triangle dies.

After that I cut 30 tall triangles in one pass through the cutter, enough for 15 blocks.

I also cut 6 of each of these Marcia Derse prints so I would have some more variety to choose from for both quilts.

While I was in the basement I pressed the first 6 blocks.

I added some more pieces to the quilt at the top and the layout is subject to change as I keep working on it.  The 6 new Kaleidoscope blocks are at the bottom and they will get their final pressing today.  The blocks will be 10" finished so I need a minimum of 35 for a quilt 50" x 70".  That means I'm 1/3 of the way there.

It was 48 degrees for a high yesterday and may get up to the 60s today.  I need to trim my Zinfin Doll Hydrangea.  It says to do it in late March before it has buds.  My Annabelle Hydrangeas can be trimmed in the fall or spring.  I'll check both of them and see if they need any more cut off.

Playing with triangles....................

I should have been working on the finishing of the Marcia Derse fabric table runner.  Instead I did my grocery shopping and then went back out to get birdseed that was on sale for a couple more days.

Last night I didn't want to go down to the basement where the table runner parts are waiting for me so I made a few more of the Kaleidoscope blocks.  I need to cut some more corner triangles before I can finish any more blocks.  I'll take these down to the ironing table today and press them and while I'm down there, cut the triangles.

Here is the whole design wall.  I started designing the part at the top on a design wall in the basement but I decided I would rather work on it in the main floor studio.  My friend and I both wanted to remake a quilt that we both had made and both had gifted to someone.  Here is the post with its finish in late 2016.  I made the first one with a tall triangle template but I'm making this one with die cut pieces, a little shorter than the triangles in the original quilt.  This quilt will be much smaller than the original.

When I brought the triangles upstairs they weren't sorted so I took time to do that yesterday.  I have gotten a couple new MD fabrics since I was working on this last year so maybe I'll cut a few triangles from them too.

 

A little sewing....................

I added some pieces to the partially assembled crazy pieced blocks, pressed and trimmed them.  This will be a long table runner with the blocks measuring 8": 5 x 8" = 40", and that is before adding sashing or borders.

I tried this Marcia Derse fabric as a possible choice for sashing and border. With both light and dark strips on the outside edges of the blocks it becomes trickier to choose the fabric.

I also sewed the six half blocks for the 'other 16 patch' quilt, 2 of each that are shown.  I need to press them and then I can work on a layout for the quilt.

 I trimmed this quilt a few days ago but haven't done any serious searching for a binding fabric.

We got up to find an inch of snow on the ground yesterday morning.  It got up to the mid 40s so it disappeared quickly.  The piles of snow from the previous storm are going down fast too.  50s predicted for today.

Pressing, cutting, sewing..............

I decided to take the larger pieces of Marcia Derse scraps out of the project boxes and cut 3" finished triangles out of them.  I pressed all of the strips and the other things piled on the ironing table.

Last night I sorted the triangles into piles of the same fabric.  I'll do lots more cutting before I decide a use for these.

I sewed these 3 stratas which will become half blocks for the 'other 16 patch' quilt.

After pressing the blocks I made on Monday night, I trimmed them to 8.5".

Yesterday afternoon I remembered there were 3 partially pieced blocks left over in December when I made the first table runner top.  It won't take too many strips to finish these blocks and I'll have my 5 for a new table runner.

This is the ruler I will use to trim the blocks so this one looks like one triangle shape and one strip will finish it.

It was another day in the 20s yesterday but 60s predicted on Friday and Saturday.

 

Cutting...............

I decided I needed a little more variety in the triangle blocks for the medallion quilt.  It took me an hour to find my cutting die.  I need to do some cleaning and organizing.

I sewed some of the triangles into squares but didn't turn the iron on last night.

These blocks will go in the column on the right when I get them sewn.

The last 2 flowers on the Amaryllis have opened up.  The red edge on the petals is so delicate it hardly shows up in the photo.

Our warm weather is history now, snow flurries predicted for this morning and 28 degrees on one of the weekend days.

 

#2 Quilt top for February 2026................

This top ended up at 48" x 72", much better than the 42" x 60" that it was before adding extra columns and rows.  This Wishwell Weather Report fabric is hard to photograph, the darkest fabrics a little darker than they look in person. This cell phone photo is better than the Canon camera photo.

I looked through my larger yardage pieces and it looks like I'll have enough of these 2 for the backing.  The one on the left is more apricot color than it looks here.

I put my Kaffe medallion center back up on the design wall and got the 4" parts department box out to play with the next border.

I had a left over strip of the binding fabric from Purple Rosy but I think it may be too dark.  I added some hourglass blocks to the left of the strip.  More playing needed.

I took several photos of the 2 current cacti blooms and they all seemed slightly blurry, more of a soft impressionist look.  There is another bud on the champagne color that should open soon.

One more day to finish............

All eight of the diamonds for the top edge are designed.  All blocks of 2 triangles are sewn.  Now I need to sew these into two rows and attach to the quilt top for a finish.  I think I can do that today.

These are the leftover triangles, facing right and facing left. There are 34 of one and 43 of the other.  They will probably go into a ziploc bag for now.  I will search through the yardage I have left and see what I can do for a backing for this one.

We had another 61 degree day.  I was able to open windows on the south side of the house while the sun was shining and let in some warm fresh air. 

Accomplishing a lot..............

This photo shows the small amount of progress on adding to this top.  The column on the far left is all loose pieces, only one block of it is sewn.  With lefts and rights, it is confusing to pick up the right piece the first time.  I got a bunch more pieces cut so now I have a better variety and it should go faster now.

Yesterday afternoon I pieced backs for 2 quilts that I'm ready to send out for quilting.  I also cut the batting to size for one of them.

I started sewing some blocks from the stratas I made the night before.  This is 12 blocks.  I don't usually place the 4 alike together like this.  Right now I'm just making blocks, no plan in mind.  I'm sure a plan will pop up eventually.

There is a right and wrong side to batiks, contrary to popular belief that both sides are the same.  I agree you can use either side you want, but I prefer the right side.  The right side has clean edges on the motifs, the wrong side is slightly uneven.  Also on the wrong side there are usually little dots of the dark color in the motifs.  Above, right side on the left, wrong side on the right.  Click on photos to enlarge.  Feel free to disagree with me but I'll always scrutinize both sides and use them right side up.  There are some batiks however that don't have clear outlines on either side and I don't like them as well as the crisp designs.  Hoffman batiks have always been my favorites.

Die cutting...............

I went through the small pieces of Wishwell Weather Report fabric to cut some half rectangle triangles for enlarging a quilt top.  There are 44 pieces in these piles.

I will need 20 of them to add one column of blocks on a side, and I'm doing both sides, needing 40 of them.  I have a little bag of leftover triangles from when I made the top, but it was in the basement when I was writing this post and I didn't want to go down there to get it.  I don't think there are more than a dozen pieces in the bag.  I still have a layer cake of this fabric line so I can pull out all of the light fabrics from it.  I want to add a double row across the top which will take 64 pieces.  This top is only 41" x 59.5" right now and adding these planned columns and rows will increase it to 47" x 71.5".  That is close to the 50" x 70" size that I like to make.  I could increase it to 50" with one more column.  I'll just do more cutting and then decide.

It was -2 yesterday morning and it got up 7 degrees by 1:45 p.m. when I had to leave to go to PT.  Wednesday will be our heat wave at 30 degrees and then back to the deep freeze. 

Choice made................

I decided to go with #3 choice from my previous post.  I not only liked it best, it is also one of those hard to use prints because of the size of motifs.  It will be perfect in 8.5" x 9.5" blocks.

While I was at it, I chose a backing fabric too.  This is a surprise project, not at all planned, started just by looking through drawers of sewn pieces.  I need to turn the iron on today and press fabrics so I can do some cutting.  I also sewed the top and bottom borders on the medallion quilt and need to press it too.

This is the quilt top I want to add to.  I have a few of the half rectangles leftover from making this top but need to cut a lot more.  It will be mostly light ones added.  Here is the post where I finished sewing this part together, with my idea of how I was going to finish it.

I'm not sure how much I'll add to it at this point.  I'll just start cutting and sewing blocks.

Here is another UFO that has been waiting for me to work on it.  I showed it just about a year ago and I still haven't made any decisions on it.  I finished the machine embroideries in December 2019.  I'm not sure when I started them but it may have been earlier that year.  Here is another quilt I made with a different size of the same embroideries.  I was going to keep it but it ended up going to a little girl in the hospital, the child of a friend of my granddaughter's.

2 projects.................

Awhile back I showed the triangle panel and mentioned it was going to be the center of a medallion quilt, that I would be working on slowly.  I found the 6" snowball blocks in the Kaffe orphan block box (left over from this quilt top from 10 years ago) and they were on my design wall for at least 10 days while I tried to decide if they would be a border.  I said s.l.o.w.l.y, so I think I'm following my plan.  I sewed them together yesterday and sewed the border on.  Now I have to work on the other 3 borders.

I did my first layout of half of the 16 patches made with Nancy Crow designed fabric.  There are 2 of each combination and 20 alternate blocks so this is one of each and 10 of the alternate blocks.  I may still move a couple blocks and then I'll sew this first half and move it up the design wall so I can work on the second half. 

Sidetracked, or is it derailed.............................

There is a table in my main floor studio that I have been slowly cleaning off (we're talking piles here) and when I say slowly, it is like 2 items a day.  One of the items yesterday was a little 4" x 4" bag of small batik pieces.

The 7" ruler gives you an idea how small the pieces were.  They were all end pieces when I was cutting some project a few years ago and I couldn't throw them in the trash.

I decided to piece them into strips, 4 of which would make a little mug rug.  I haven't pressed anything here and they are overlapped by about a half inch.

After I sewed those, I could see there were enough to sew 4 more strips of them.  And guess what, there are still enough to make 4 more strips but I didn't do that yet.  I need to press these and trim them into straight strips before I can assemble them into mug rug tops.

That was fun but now I needed to get back on track and cut the triangles and get this baby quilt top sewn together.  I will need to press the center part  before I can sew on the 4 corner triangles.  I ended up using the same fabric in all 4 corners, and 4 fabrics for the 8 setting triangles.  

 

Searching.................

I went back to the black and white stash to find something for setting triangles.  The first one I found that had enough yardage was just too bold compared to the background fabrics in the blocks.

I went back to the stash and found 2 more larger yardage pieces (I mentioned yesterday I have lots of 1/4 yard pieces and some 1/2 yard pieces but not many larger yardage).  The bottom one is too dark and I'm not sure if I like the top one.

One of the zebra prints is light enough but being a one way design, I'm not sure that makes me happy.  I'll keep looking but I have a feeling that I will use a variety of fabrics for the triangles.

I finished the third one of the last 3 dishcloths I had started.  Someone asked me how to get them to square up because they are kind of lopsided when they are finished.  Actually they square up perfectly after the first washing.