Time For Another Palate Cleanser

I’m still ruminating on my black woven quilt so decided to dig into a new palate cleanser. You might remember that I did a palate cleanser quilt a few months ago.

I had quite a frenzy of productivity over the first few months of this year. That furor has abated but I’m finding myself ready to get back into my sewing room. So tonight I started a new palate cleansing quilt project — a project that will clear out my mind, be quick and easy to make, and get me ready for something more involved.

I’ve been thinking about this packet of purple and aqua batiks that I pulled together into a set a few years ago. The picture shows the pattern I had intended to make.

I never could get very excited about that pattern after I bought it. But I’ve seen several quilts made from this All Inked Up tutorial using Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics recently and I’ve really liked them.

So I decided to use those purple and aqua batiks and got started this evening.

First, I pressed all those fabrics that have been folded and in that bag for years.

Once pressed, I cut four 8-inch squares from each piece. The pattern calls for 10 inch squares but I want to make this a rectangular throw size quilt and the smaller size will make that more workable and a better size.

The pattern also calls for a contrasting fabric for the strips in the blocks. But I decided to use the batiks in the quilt. All the fabrics in this package were 1/3 yard cuts. So I had enough for the 8 inch squares with enough left over to cut the strips for the accent pieces, and enough for a 2.5 inch WOF strip from most of the fabrics that I can use in a future project.

Then I combined four 8-inch squares with an accent strip so I could just fly once I was ready to sew. That’s 20 “kits” in that pile. Enough to make 20 large blocks. I’m planning to make this quilt 4 blocks by 5 blocks.

Once all the pressing and cutting and kit making was done I hunkered down and made four blocks because I wanted to get a feel for how this was going to look.

I’m still not quite sure how to layout the blocks. I’ll play with that once I have more blocks completed.

The blocks will be sewn together with a strip of sashing that’s the same width as the accent strips. This sashing helps establish more of a plaid pattern across the quilt top. This made me realize that I’m going to have to cut up all my left over 2.5 inch strips to Make the accent strips I’ll need. Well damn.

I’ve isolated one block in this photo so you can see what each block looks like.

This should go together quickly. I spent a good deal of time prepping the fabric tonight and still managed to get four blocks made. I would guess that I can have these blocks made before the week is out.

My friend Linda flew home yesterday. The house is very quiet. It rained all day today and I had to turn on the furnace. I had the air conditioner running just a week ago.

As our last hurrah while she was still here we headed to the coast on Sunday. It was a nearly perfect day and we all had a wonderful time.

I was worried that it would be really crowded, but we had some rain on the drive west and I think that little bit of weather convinced a lot of people to head home early. We had all the room we needed on the beaches.

When we first got to Cannon Beach we stopped at Center Diamond quilt shop. I bought one piece of batik. Linda bought a few pieces. Rico barked in the car the entire time we were in the store. As we were leaving a Cannon Beach police car pulled into the parking lot. I was sure they were there because Rico was such a bad dog. But they were actually there to drop off to ladies who needed a ride to the quilt store! Don’t you just love small towns?

After the visit to the fabric store we hit the south end of Cannon Beach and let the dogs have a good run. We walked for two miles. I’m guessing the dogs ran 15 miles!

Bender and Rico absolutely LOVE the beach! All the sand… the water… all that space to get out and really run!!! It’s their best day!

After we all had a good workout we headed south to the next beach and sat in the parking lot with a view to eat the lunch we brought with us. Then we headed south to Wheeler, Oregon, to grab some ice cream and ate it beachside in Manzanita. After we finished dessert we got the dogs out on Manzanita beach for another run before we headed home.

We were home by about 7 pm. We grabbed a quick dinner and while Linda packed for her trip home I cut the sashing strips and sharks teeth squares for the Blue Swirly quilt Linda bought fabric for earlier in the week. So all she’ll have to do is cut the center strips and then start sewing!

I played pickleball last night and again this morning. It felt great to be out there again. I hadn’t played since Linda arrived. I will play again tomorrow night.

My friend who recently purchased a house here for her retirement will arrive with her husband, three dogs and all their belongings in two days. We’re already planning our pickleball adventures!