CHECKERBOARDS

 I've been working on this scrappy Checkerboard project for a while now.  I've got the left side pretty much together.  Almost every seam is a partial seam.  There's a lot of head scratching and figuring and constructing more pieces to make every thing fit together. 

It can be exhausting, but it's also very exciting.

CHECKERBOARDS

 While the Sunrise quilt was monopolizing the design wall I haven't been able to do much else.  

But, I started making checkerboards (4-patches, 9-patches...etc) from two of my scrap buckets, Magenta and Purple.  And I added some greys.  I was surprised that I don't have many grey scraps.

So, when I took the completed Sunrise down and folded it up, I was able to arrange the checkerboards I've made so far up on the design wall.

I think I need to make more and I've run out of bigger scraps.  But, I do have lots of fabric.  Don't worry.

SQUARES FROM THE SCRAP BUCKET

 I've been making 4-patches, 9-patches and 16-patches from the scrap buckets.  

These are from the Purple, Magenta and Grey buckets.

This picture of my design wall also has part of the Sunrise blocks in it - ignore those.

NINE-PATCH PI QUILTED

 I finally finished the quilting on the Nine-Patch Pi Quilt.

It's fabulous!

QUILTING FM PI

 I finally decided on how to quilt the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

I'm doing a totally free-motion curvy, loopy line from bottom to top.

P.S. we got this Monday off from Jury Duty for some reason, but it's back at it tomorrow.  I probably won't be able to get back to quilting this.  I hope I can pick up on the same rhythm and motion so it looks consistent.

I MADE A LEGEND

 I made a legend for the back of the Nine-Patch Pi quilt so, hopefully, folks will understand what I've  done on the front.

As I was sewing it all together, I see that the 'four' has a stain on the white fabric [this is one of the reasons I hate working with white - I almost always manage to smudge it up].

I took it all apart and replaced and redid the white part.

LAST OF THE NINE-PATCHES

I've been working on making the nine-patches for the Pi quilt on and off the last week or so.

Today I made the last of them.  Yoo-hoo!

The last few rows still need to be sewn together.  

I ordered some black and white fabric with numbers for the backing.  It should be here soon. In the meantime, I think I'll make a legend to go on the back to explain what's happening on the front.

ALL THE COLORS

Jelly and I went for a nice walk in Lincoln Park this morning.  We started at about 7am and it was dark. There's not too many folks in the park at that time of the day either.   I had to use the flashlight for the first half.  On the way back I encountered a suspicious young man acting strangely so I turned around and backtracked.  He gave me a good scare.  He didn't follow me, but it made me think again about being alone in the park like that.

 Back at the studio, I cut and arranged the rest of the colors for the last of the rows for the Nine-Patch Quilt.

Now it's just making all of the number blocks...

ROWS 11 AND 12

 These last two rows, in blues, are rows 11 and 12 of 18.

I sewed them on and then folded the quilt up and moved it up on the design wall so I could work below it.

I've cut and added the blues and started into the blue-greens.

MORE ROWS

 I cut a bunch more colors to add to the Nine-Patch Pi quilt.

WAIT A MINUTE

 I started working again on my Nine-Patch Pi quilt a few weeks ago.  I had put it away months ago into a project box.  When I pulled it out, I was surprised it wasn't farther along.  I could have sworn I had more colors laid out and ready to go.  But, I went ahead and started working on it.

It continued to bother me, so I went back on the blog and found the last posts.  And, lo and behold!, it was farther along.  Now, where to find it - why wasn't it in the project box?

I finally got around to looking, and I found it in another project box.  OMG.

So, now I'm working on the right one.

NINE PATCH PI AGAIN

 I've taken the Nine-Patch  Pi quilt parts out of storage and started working on it again.  I'm starting to realize why I put it away earlier.  It's a bit of a pain and slow going.

58/100

I couldn't do much of the work that needed to be done on the deck, so Darrell was again, on his own.  He made a template to cut the curve into the ends of the deck and then trimmed them and routed a round-over on the ends.

The dogs really like the new deck.

I was busy in my studio, first I spent a little time making more triangle blocks from my scrap bucket:

Then I made the binding for and sewed it onto the Baby Pi quilt.

The back of Baby Pi

CHANGE OF DIRECTION

Jeez Louise.  I had started out with a stack of white and black fabrics, gradating from light to dark.  And as I've gone along, I've had to reject and replace a few because I didn't have enough of that particular fabric.

It happened again today, when I started on the fifth row.  I didn't have enough and just went with the next one from the stack.    So, after I made the fifth row with this fabric, I re-assessed and realized that some of the upcoming rows I didn't have enough of the fabric I had picked, so this problem was going to just get worse!  I went through my stash and come to the conclusion that I didn't have the fabric range to do this right.  I've even been thinking it would look better with just one 'white'.

I decided this last one would look great for that.  I had recently bought it at Quilted Strait, so there should be more of it out there somewhere.  But, I need to make sure I can get some more (enough) to finish the project before I commit and do something stupid.

But first, a really nice walk in the park!

Here's how it looked at five rows (soon to be redone).

I erased some of the trees in this painting and lightened the sky.  I'm still not happy with it.  Is it the colors?  I'm beginning to think I hate this palette.  The trees are all the wrong colors!  But, what do I want?

FOUR UP

After a nice walk, I got the fourth row of the Pi Quilt up.

THREE DONE

Three rows done... 

A ROW IS DONE

I got the blocks made for the first row of the Pi Quilt.

Then I made the half square triangle squares for the next row.

PI COLORS

I started working on my bigger version of the Pi Quilt.  I'm cutting out pieces of the colors and putting them up on the wall.  I want to get the colors sorted out before I start making the blocks.

Of course, I made the 3.14 first.  Here we go.  It will be 18 rows down.  I've got a ways to go, and of course, all of the rows won't fit on my work wall.

LITTLE PI TOP

Here are ten of the ten rows done, but not all sewn together.  Once I got all of the nine-patches done I had to make the zero blocks remade.

Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the rows sewn together tomorrow.

It still needs a good name.

MORE PI

I got more of the rows done on my little Pi quilt.  When I went to add a zero block I realized I had cut them all too small.  I'm going to make them later.  I don't want to disrupt my rhythm.

Here are six of the ten rows, almost done.