Iceblossom

Is ok, Mary Christine, it's bound to happen. Remember, there is nothing wrong in collecting fabric even after we have forsworn the desire, now go back and do a quick project as penance!

I'm going over to my mom's today instead of tomorrow, she has a pre-surgery appointment Tuesday morning that I will take her to and listen in, I'm the home after care person.

I have all of my quarter units sewn, pressed and I even went through and trimmed them a bit even though they really didn't need much. It's good for me to see if I was sewing my seam right on, a little large, or a little small before I start putting them together (for the most part I was right on). So today I'll start pinning the quarters into halves, and so it goes, the Purple project will soon be over.

I'm thinking about layout now, light/dark is usually where I start, but I'll have to count up the groups of colors, I'm thinking maybe a large X of the medium lavender shade I have a lot of, and then filling in the triangles with darker colored fabrics. I'll probably post a few pictures as I make up my mind so expect that in the next week or two.

I have a large box just about ready to go to one of my ladies. It is about 2/3rds things from my stash, and 1/3 things I buy to put in there (from the thrift store). One or two more pieces and it will be ready, I love these flat rate boxes. I pick up a new one at the post office when I take the old box there.

I have the washed and ready stack of bright fabrics I bought in a thrift store bag ready to go for the next project. The goal for me for this project is to loosen up my style... it's fabrics that go well together but that I would not have chosen myself. Bright modern colors and designs, think fat quarters from Walmart and Joann in orange, red, grey, aqua, etc., lots of those quatrefoil geometric designs, polka dots. I'm going to make "wonky" 9-patches. I can't go completely without rules so I will still make 90 degree angles (no sloping cuts) but the individual blocks may or may not meet at the seam lines, like the center block may be cut 4" and one side 2" and another 3". Hard to describe. After I make the 9-patch units which will be ragged and finish somewhere around 10-12", I'll probably use an 8.5" square to cut them into their final shapes, which may be steeply angled or a "plaid" where you have a straight corner on one side but then the other sides are offset. The reason for choosing the 8.5 is because I can't imagine having a "perfect" 9-patch come out from that and, again, the goal is to loosen up. I don't know yet if I will sash the squares or just put them together crazy style.

Edit: I'm also going to loosen up by not fussy cutting the fabrics, strictly by the grain as I'm preparing to sew whether or not the pattern runs true or not. When I trim them most will be askew but by having the straight grain of fabric and the straight seams, they should hold together just fine. My decision to sash may have to do with how stretchy or not they are.

The left over fabrics along with the leftover cuts from the oversized blocks will go to the crumb quilter. It will probably fill that box to overflowing... maybe I should just top off that box with other stuff and start a brand new box just for these scraps. I mentioned last week that I picked up a piece big enough for back to go with the scraps I'll have left. Even after my twin project (and yeah, already have a back for that one) there will be still enough for another similar sized project.

Plan is to take the stack to group (so a week from now) and see if anything should be taken out or should I leave it all in. This will be a donation quilt about twin sized so I don't know who it will go to, but I envision about a 8-14 year girl. There are a couple of cute animal prints in the mix that I would leave in, but I'm curious what the ladies will say about them if they are too juvenile with the other prints, colors are right on. One piece I feel is really too dark, but will still work, my inclination is to pull it out of the pile but again -- I'm trying to loosen up. I'll just explain the project and ask if there is anything that doesn't belong or if they love so much they feel they need to take it.