Black and White and Pink and Orange All Over

I finally had some time yesterday to run out and pick up my Bernina from the service shop. They replaced the tension mechanism and put in a new bobbin case. They happily told me that all the tension issues they were concerned about when I had it in a couple weeks ago have been alleviated. That news makes me happy.

However, it didn’t arrive home until it was too late to finish my bag for a party on Friday afternoon. So I thought about what I could do instead and thought… if anyone in the world deserves a quilt as a gift it’s my co-worker who has now left. I hired her nearly 13 years ago and we’ve worked together that entire time.

So I dug into my closet and selected a quilt to give to her. I was a little worried because, as you know, the stuff I make can be pretty bold. But I took a chance and selected a really bold one for her.

And she loves it!!!

You can find a bunch of blog posts about this quilt here.

I will still finish the bag and gift it to her, but now I don’t have to be in an insane hurry.

With that pressure off, I spent some time a couple evenings last week and started cutting the fabrics for my black and white Interweave quilt. I managed to get all the main fabrics cut on Friday night.

Yesterday I dug into my white on white fabric bins and seleced the only piece that was big enough, but I would have selected it anyway even if I had more choices. It’s white on white with a lovely delicate leaf and vine pattern.

I’m not a huge fan of stark white background fabric in quilts. The color of this is certainly white, but the white on white design gives it some interest and texture. That makes me like it better.

Several years ago I did some small project where I used some white on white as a background, and thought I would do a lot more of that project so went online and bought 10 or so one yard pieces of different white on white fabrics. I’m not sure I’ve every used any of it beyond that first project! This is the story of my life!

I managed to make the strip sets that are needed for the blocks and got them all sub cut after breakfast. (I was supposed to play pickleball this morning but it was quite rainy so hunkered down at home all day instead.).

After lunch I dove in and started putting all the pieces up on my design wall. There are basically two types of blocks in this quilt, and each type makes up one of two horizontal rows that make up the quilt. But it’s important to me to have it all up on the design wall before I start sewing it all together because I want to make sure I have all the fabrics in the right order and everything in the right place.

I have seen a few of these quilts online that have mistakes in them that mess up the weave pattern. It would make me nuts if I had a mistake in this quilt top!

I had all my different pieces organized on the ironing board and cutting table, and with pattern instructions handy…

… I did get it all up on the design wall in two different sessions.

Of course, it’s always fun to get a little closer look at the fabrics.

And even closer!

I’ll start doing some sewing on this if I have some time this week.

Back to work tomorrow. I now officially have less than a month to go! It’s so hard to believe I’m this close!