I recently joined a local modern quilt guild and my first meeting was tonight. Of course it was a Zoom meeting. I find it quite difficult to do these meetings on my personal time since I spend so much time on Zoom for work. This meeting was almost 2.5 hours long! There was a presentation by an art quilter and lots and lots of guild business.
I hurried and got a three mile walk in with the dogs after dinner and before the meeting. I didn’t have time to get much sewing done, but I did get some done.
During the meeting I pinned two rows of my blue 16-patch quilt together. I would have done more but I ran out of pins and didn’t want to get up to grab more. I got these two rows sewn together after the meeting.
Then I grabbed my stack of batik strip sets for a new 16-patch and started cutting the slices for the blocks. I was anxious to see these fabrics up on the design wall.
These blocks aren’t sewn together yet. Here’s all the pieces for the duplicate blocks.
I got really brave and tried cutting three sets at a time and it seems to have worked pretty well.
I won’t know for sure until I start sewing them together. It really saves a lot of time to do it this way. I have 15 more strip sets to cut and will get through those pretty quickly tomorrow nigfht.
Since the batiks are typically a little wider than other fabrics, I had a little more left over on the end of each strip set. I trimmed these all so they’re square but in varying widths. I laid them out on my ironing board to see how they looked. I’ll probably sew these together and put them into a zipper pouch.
And this photo reminds me that I recently purchased some muslin so I can get this stained mess off of my ironing board. Look how awful that looks! I have a padded ironing board cover under the muslin. I use elastic clips to hold the muslin on an change it when it gets bad. The muslin is pretty inexpensive and is a good way to preserve the life of the ironing board cover. This will be a project for this weekend.
Had a little bit of fun with Bender yesterday. He’s such a good sport!
agilejack 
Love the photo of dog with fabric – it made me laugh out loud! So much eye candy in your blog. What’s next? Ideas are tumbling out of your brain one after another.
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I have a couple of quilts in mind. One is called Plaidish. It’s a free pattern and depends on darks, medium and light value fabrics and it has a plaid effect. I’ve been wanting to make one but it will take some planning to get the fabrics right to get the plaid effect.
Also thinking about a quilt from Kaffe reds. I have been pulling fabrics and thinking about a couple different patterns. Also thinking a red 16-patch at some point will be happening.
Good to hear from you! I hope you’re feeling better.
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I keep looking at Plaidish too and just have to decide if it will be one type of fabric or all kinds mixed together.
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I think it would be fantastic with a generous mix of fabrics. It’s a pattern that is really all about the fabrics.
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Oh… I was kind of thinking about Aboriginal fabrics for a plaidish quilt
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Oh, my! Bender is quite the ham, such a good sport for sure 🙂 All those colorful squares will make a very pretty zipper bag 🙂
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You have some pretty combinations in the new batik group. I stack about 8 sets staggered when I make my 16 patch quilts and it is still accurate cuts. I just have to remind myself to use a little more pressure on the rotary cutter.
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Your strip sets are probably a lot more accurate and straight than mine! I’m a little concerned that the more I stack, the less straight they will be. I hope to get up to a stack that high some day. You’re my inspiration! Oh, and I did put a new blade in my rotary cutter before I started cutting multiples. I will try adding more pieces as I go along. I have a feeling I’ll be making more 16 patches!
I might actually take out some of these blocks. But overall, I like them. The colors are prettier than the photo shows.
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He is a good sport… happiest dog I’ve ever had.
I will lose a good bit of width on those left over scraps, but should have enough for the two sides of a pouch. I love a scrappy panel like that in a pouch.
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Your quilts are beautiful and so are your dogs!
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Thank you! They all help keep me happy and healthy!
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Bender is priceless and deserves lots of extra treats for his patience! All your ideas and quilts are amazing. Between your walks, work, and quilting not sure when you find time to sleep….but I sure love seeing everything. Makes me feel like a slack-erd and I’m retired! You mentioned Pladish in one of your replies and that has been on my list for a while too. I love playing with KF values and contrast. There is a bow tie quilt in one of his books that is probably going to one of my next projects after a drunkard’s path I am working on now.
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Ha! I stay up until 2:00 in the morning!!! I live late nights. Mornings, not so much!
Check out this woman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tilkunviilaaja/
She made one of my favorites. She has a really amazing way with color. She also does some really cool crumb pieced pouches. She really inspired me in my crumb quilt that is the photo on my blog home page.
For the Kaffe bow tie… are you talking about the red and pink one? It’s pretty amazing!!! It’s really hard to find a good selection of lighter value KFC fabrics now. They used to have a lot more of them in the collection. I’ve vowed to look for more once we can go to stores again!
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Absolutely brilliant!! Bender is such a star. His photo did make me laugh. 😂😂. You really work fast and achieve such a lot.
I’m very new to quilting but just finished a lap quilt made from my husband’s old silk ties. It’s a bit scrappy but fun to do.
How is your sea glass quilt progressing? I’d love to follow a tutorial about how to achieve a small one of those to hang on the wall.
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I really like finding efficient ways to get repetitive sewing done. So I do a lot of chain piecing and I try to be efficient when cutting as well. it makes a big difference in time.
I’m still waiting to get an accurate measurement for what my friend needs before starting on my sea glass quilt. I’m going to cut a piece of fabric to the size my friend said she needs and have her hang it over the spot and see if the size is right. Once I feel like I have a good measurement I’ll jump in! I’m itching to get started!
Exhautedoctopus on Instagram sells a class on her sea glass quilts for $35. I don;t know if that’s in your budget or not, but it’s a pretty good deal as far as classes go.
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the batik colors are just gorgeous! Are your strips 2.5 inches?
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Thanks! And yes, this is all made with 2.5 inch strips. I used this wonderful and easy tutorial from Exuberant color to make it. https://designrr.s3.amazonaws.com/vickib_at_carolina.rr.com_31594/2bd0c54b40da73ea8a37b6e9a1a0969e4a5b6485bf96f9b1705156fb7bbdcdd3
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