SNAKING AROUND

It is the Year of the Snake, you know.

So, here are all of the blocks I've made so far, up on the wall.

 

Now, I need to make more strip sets and make more blocks.  

A SNAKE OR A WEB?

 I thought I'd try to make snakes instead of webs.  Not sure if it will stay this way though.

WEDNESDAY AT JOE RETREAT

 I finished the Borders project from yesterday.

After lunch, Joe had us pick two fabrics and cut 6" by 5" retangles.  Then had us cut them diagonally and sew pairs together.  Once we had the Half Rectangle Triangles (HRTs), we cut them in half the long way.

He invited us to sew them together in any arrangement.  I immediately saw a Snake - probably because the Monday Sewcial group on Brave Patch had a Challenge about making a Snake Quilt.

Here are some variations.

I have an idea for making another Snake Quilt using these as the jumping off point.

QUILTING THE SNAKES

 I drafted a template to mark where I should quilt the arcs and then quilted the first row of snakes.

Then I spent most of afternoon trying to figure out how to quilt the other parts of the blocks.

LOADED SNAKE ONTO LONGARM

 I loaded the Snake quilt onto Erik the Longarm.

I decided to experiment and baste the whole thing before I started quilting.  The blocks are all the same size, so I straightened them and used a one inch baste and finished for the day.

SNAKE BLOCKS ARE A TOP

 I got all of the Snake blocks sewn together.  It's now a quilt top.

It is 70" by 84".

SEWING SNAKE BLOCKS TOGETHER

 I'm sewing the Snake blocks together then sewing them into columns. 

Got two done today.

I'm really starting to like how the arcs don't match up.  It gives the quilt more energy. 

MAKING SNAKE BLOCKS

 I cut out all of the center pieces of the Snake blocks and put them up on the design wall, moving them around until I like the way they flowed.

The I cut out the corner pieces and put them up.

Then I added the green arcs.

Everything needs to be sewn together now.  Easy peasy.

HOMEMADE TEMPLATES

 Darrell and I drew up some templates I wanted for a 14" Snake Block.  Well, I told him the sizes and he drew it up in his CAD program.

Today, he cut them out on his CNC.

Making the blocks will now be so easy!

The 1/8" acrylic being held on the CNC with double-backed tape.

I made two blocks, trying out the templates.