Category: Japanese X & + Quilt

Posted on

Some X & + Progress and Some Home Grown Stuff

It was good to have a weekend and I did enjoy it. Sheep herding with Rico Saturday morning. A wonderful lunch with friends in the afternoon. And a Sunday full of pickleball. But back to work today. Then another long weekend coming up since my workplace celebrates Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. You can read about Juneteenth here.

I didn’t get any sewing at all done on the weekend. And I’m ok with that. But I did hit my sewing room after our evening walk tonight and got a little bit done. I trimmed and sewed one more row of the X & + blocks and then sewed the two completed rows together.

It’s really fun to see all the Xs come together in the corners and see the secondary patterns emerge. I’m so glad I decided to deal with a little wonkiness in these blocks and not add sashing.

I love this more each time I look at it. The color combos are not something you see every day. And those little green triangles are magnificent! And the turquoise dots make me smile.

Look at this!

Despite being careful in pinning my blocks together, I seem to be destined to have the first seam every night be a little off.

OMG! That really bothers me. But not enough to rip it out and do it over again.

With the subsequent blocks I was more careful in pinning the seams and got a better result although not perfect. Oh well. Better luck next time.

One of the best parts of my weekend was my first strawberry harvest for the season. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this many strawberries in one picking.

And they were sooooo good! I just wish I could get better production. It would be great to get enough for my breakfast a couple days a week. But I don’t come anywhere near that.

I also noticed yesterday that I actually have some tomatoes on my plants. This seems a little earlier than normal. Maybe I’ll have ripe tomatoes in early July. That would be so wonderful!

And for my lunch today I picked a gorgeous bunch of lettuce. I ate it in a sandwich with some sharp cheddar cheese on good wheat toast. It was wonderful!

It’s so cool to go out into the yard and pick food! But I’d hate to have to survive on my meagre harvests!

On our walk tonight I was reminded of Wanda at the Exuberant Color blog and her post a few weeks ago about the golden hour.

The low evening sun was shining through the tall Douglas fir trees and lighting this little red tree on fire.

And this next photo doesn’t do this scene justice…. but I was walking on the shaded trail that we walk every day and it was like a tunnel… and to the west where it opened onto a round-about was bright sunlight.

I count myself fortunate every day that this lovely trail is so close to my house. It’s wonderful to have an easy opportunity to feel like I’m away from population.

Posted on

A Good Weekend with No Sewing, But Some Noodling

I think I felt such a sense of accomplishment by getting that Wensleydale quilt top finished that I deserved a break from sewing this weekend. So I got nearly nothing done in my sewing room since Friday.

Nearly nothing. I did stand in my sewing room and look at that Japanese X & + quilt a few times and noodle over the arrangement of the blocks, moving squares around to separate places where one fabric showed up a lot in different blocks, balance the darks and lights, and make sure my favorite blocks had prominent placement.

Here’s where I’ve landed as of tonight.

This is feeling pretty good to me, but I see at least one thing I want to fix.

My brain wants to make every other block brown, with the alternating blocks yellow. But I have more brown blocks that yellow blocks. So that just won’t work unless I make more blocks and that’s just not going to happen.

It looks pretty balanced in this black and white photo.

The bottom doesn’t look as dark in person. It’s all how the light hits it. But I am going to have to look at that lower left corner next time I’m in that rom.

I wish I had taken a photo, but I looked at this when I got up this morning and opened the blinds and saw it with the bright morning sun coming through the window. It looked so bright and cheery and makes me really want to see this done and on the bed.

Yesterday was pretty much a wash. I took Rico for his sheep herding lesson and we did some driving work in a smaller field. He was a good boy and his brain was tired by the time our lesson ended.

On the way home we stopped at the field with the creek so the boys could get a good run. I only walked about a mile but they must have run six or seven! They love running through the trees and bushes to get to the creek. Then they come tearing out all wet.

I love to play a hide and seek game with them when they tear into the bushes to get to the creek. I’ll hide and let them find me.

They usually find me pretty quickly! Rico is a little better at following his nose.

They do love a chance to run and having access to the creek is even better.

It was a gorgeous day and wasn’t too hot. But when they’re running they get heated up.

That walk in that field took me back to my childhood. There were wild roses all over the place. The air was full of their scent.

The hot air, the bugs buzzing, and the scent of wild roses reminds me of summers at my grandfather’s home in Hudson, Wyoming, when I was a kid. It brought back all kinds of memories.

Here’s my boys posing in front of some of the roses.

Other than taking the boys for a walk later in the evening yesterday, I really can’t remember what else I did. I think I probably wasted a lot of time.

Today I slept in a little and then went and played pickleball for 3.5 hours! I had so much fun! I went to a different place and there were more courts so that I got to play more ad didn’t have to wait my turn as much. I may go back to this place on Sundays. I’m pretty wiped out tonight, but I did manage to take my boys for a three mile walk after dinner.

It was a gorgeous evening. Our weather has been pretty perfect the last few days. With the exception of Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with temps at or near 90, the next ten days look amazing!

Posted on

Wensleydale Quilt Top is DONE! And What’s Next?

I had a great day off today. Started with some morning pickleball, then stopped by the racquet store and bought a new pickleball paddle. Then headed home for a nice lunch on the patio, then a little bit of personal to do stuff on the computer.

Then I hit my sewing room to start working on the final four seams to complete my Wensleydale quilt top.

First, I sewed the bottom three sections of two rows together. Then I ran a line of stay stitching around the perimeter of this section of the quilt, about 1/8 inch from the edge.

This line of stitching will hold the edge pieces together and prevent the stitching in the blocks from unraveling with handling. I don’t typically do this line of stitching, but with this quilt and all the angled points. I wanted to make sure they all held together.

I did this when the quilt top was still in two pieces because it’s easier to not have to wrestle then bulk of the enter top through the machine.

It really did go together quickly. Here’s the final two sections as I’m pinning them on my cutting table.

I really love the look of these blocks from the back! Everything is so clean and incredibly consistent from block to block.

Once I got that final seam pinned I rolled the two pieces up so the entire piece is about 14 inches wide, then accordion folded it all to help make it easier to move that bulk through my machine for the final seam.

Then I just put that stack on my lap and feed the fabric through.

I really enjoyed the final pressing of this quilt top. It’s so fun to look at all the fabrics close up and enjoy how they all play together.

I mean, just look at that!!

And here’s the finished flimsy! It measures 66 by 73 inches. I wish you could see it in person. The blue batiks are so pretty.

Before I put that finished flimsy up on my design wall for photos, I rolled up the front design wall and rolled down the back one and then put this on the back piece.

Why did I do that? I wanted to get my Japanese X & + quilt blocks up on the design wall so I could decide whether or not I have enough to move forward and complete the top. I put these blocks on the front design wall.

That’s six blocks by seven bocks. So a total of 42 blocks. I thought I had 42 blocks made, but I actually have 44.

I adjusted a photo of these blocks to see how the values balance.

I’ve already moved a couple of blocks around after I saw this photo. There’s a few more things I’ll change, but it’s close.

I’m sure this will be plenty big for the double bed in my guest room. So, no more blocks needed. I’ll decide on a final design tomorrow and will start putting this thing together.

And, of course, I have to show you some close ups of these blocks so you can see the amazing fabrics… all Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.

It was actually Liza Roos Lucy, who works the the Kaffe Fassett Collection, who suggested using that green/turquiose spot for the background. Of course, I love it and love those little pops of turquoise!

I can’t stop!

And one more for good measure.

I might have to do some minor trimming on these blocks. But they are big and should go together pretty quickly.

Tomorrow, Rico has a sheep herding lesson and then I’ll take them for a nice field run in the park with the creek. They will enjoy a chance to run and get in the water.