Friday Results

I really enjoyed my first Friday Night Sew In. I've made some progress on my batik quilt, which is now called Moody Blues. The layout is just rough and I haven't decided if I want all the pieces to be strip pieced, or to keep some of them a single fabric. I'm thinking I like the way the first blocks I made were arranged in my previous post. There will be alot more rearranging in this quilt's future. It'll talk to me when more blocks are done.
 

It sounded really simple to sew a bunch of strips together and cut out a few shapes, but it takes a lot longer than anticipated. Now, I'm not in a rush and I know it takes me a long time to decide on fabric,  I just didn't think it would take me as long as it does to arrange strips from light to dark etc. I swear I must have rearranged one of the strip sets a bizillion times! The great thing about it all is I LOVE DOING IT. I'm finding my favorite part of quilting is not really the actual piecing together and quilting, it's playing around with the fabric.

I did say I would tidy up my room a bit before starting...NOT. In fact, I made it even worse? or better? I've got strips over chairs, on the floor, on the design wall, hanging off the cupboard doors, even one of my dogs walked out of the room with a nice blue batik strip on his back!

 By the way, those Kansas Troubles fabrics are back in the closet. Maybe one day they will get to come out and play.

Why Did I Wait So Long?

I can't believe I waited so long to try the Strips 'n Curves technique. I'm really enjoying the process. There are only about 1/4 of the block pieces cut out but I like where it's going. My favorite part will be arranging the blocks once they are sewn, this is just a mockup to give me an idea. Back to sewing!

The Batiks Were Calling

I've been pretty good (for me) in holding off starting something new while I had the scrappy quilt on the design wall. My intention was to get that quilt top finished. I had the border idea all sorted out, the fabrics stacked up and waiting. Well I couldn't do it. I couldn't resist cutting into the batiks I've been collecting. I'm blaming it on the fat quarters I bought on Monday. They were the last pieces I needed for a strip pieced drunkard's path quilt. So scrappy is "scrapped" for now. The batiks were calling my name and I answered.

I'm doing the technique from the book Strips 'n Curves by Louisa L. Smith. I've cut several 1 1/2" strips from each of  35 batiks. I've got them on the design wall, ready for sorting. I need to sew several strip sets in darks, mediums and lights, then cut them with drunkard path templates. So far this is what I have sorted: