Bordered

Borders are finished and the quilt is ready to go to a machine quilter. The batik fabrics are really beautiful. I'm going to need to look around for a new machine quilter, so it will be a while.

Jeff would like me to make one of these for his birthday, so I'm going to have to shift gears for a while.

Batik Quilt Progress

It just needs the border, and then the quilt top will be done! I kept taking progress photos during the last week but then was too busy sewing to post them.

Quilt Progress

I'm making pretty good time on the latest quilt project. I've been trying to work on it for at least a couple hours a day.

It took an entire week to get the green batik from eQuilter so I was stuck at the point where I needed the green until it had arrived. It finally came on Monday so I've done little else since Tuesday.

I completed one block so I could test the pieces and make sure I was ironing seams correctly.

I really prefer making quilts with good plans like this. I know exactly how much to cut out and I can build the blocks assembly-line fashion.

Tonight I've finished making the last of the components, so tomorrow I should be able to start assembling the blocks.

As a reminder, this is the plan.

Fall is Here!

It's not just a clever name. There are so many leaves in our yard right now. I hope we have another couple dry days so we can clean up the yard. As the outdoor season draws to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back at the progress we made in the yard this summer.

In May/June, Jeff planted the parking strip.

This is how it looked when initially planted

This is how it looks today. The plants that lived seem really happy.

Cutting My Losses

I decided I don't like the last quilt enough to finish it. I don't even want to spend more fabric finishing the border. Maybe I can find a charity that wants it.

Instead, I started a new quilt. LOL
This one I did much more planning. While the arrangement of blocks is likely to change, I suspect the colors will be pretty similar. I might add a couple of fabrics to get more variation in the flower petals. I need to dig around in my fabric stash a bit more to see what I can find.

This one is made with all batik fabrics.

I spent the afternoon cutting out many of the weird-shaped pieces that you can't just cut with the rotary cutter and a ruler. My right triangle ruler came to the rescue again. I'm really glad I got it.

I didn't have enough green batik so I had to order some so it will be a few days before I can really get rolling with this project.

Blocks Assembled

They're assembled. I still need to make the rather complicated border, but this part is finished.

I wish I'd done a better job at planning the arrangement of colors. It is pretty and bright, but I had rather hoped for more purple. :) I just needed to stop adding non-purple colors sooner.

Sadly, Electric Quilt doesn't give cutting instructions for the border so I'm going to have to figure it out. I've had enough time at my sewing machine this week, so I'm going to take a day or two off. My poor old back needs a break.

So Close

I'm probably only a day away from finishing now.

Actually, I'm wishing it was a little less scrappy, but I do like it. It's been a bit of a challenge to get blocks arranged so there aren't too many pieces of the same color next to each other.

Our bulbs finally came from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm today and they were large and beautiful bulbs. They looked really healthy. The bulbs are already in the ground which I believe is a record for us.