GETTING THE BACK DONE

I whipped together the back for Children's Library today, after our walk in the park.

Our pond with a net over it to catch the falling leaves.

At Lincoln Park on the ridge trail.

At Lincoln Park 

I have always loved this view 

 

The back for Children's Library Quilt

 I got it loaded onto Eduard and got a pantograph set up and a couple of rows quilted, too.

CHILDRENS LIBRARY TOP FINISHED

Wow, I was really hating this quilt top and just wanted to finish it and get it off my wall.  It looked very disjointed and lacking.

I knew it needed a border, but I did not have enough of one of the fabrics to make even a narrow border.  So, I went with a scrappy one -and-a-half-inch-squares border.  I cut up a bunch of squares from all of the fabrics I used in the quilt top - except for the whites.  

I think it really improved it.  Its not one of my favorites and has really turned me off to this kind of quilt - a mystery sew along.  I would have done a few things differently if I knew what it was going to look like from the beginning.

Here it is:

LAST BLOCK

I made the last block for the quilt along - Children's Library.

I got the whole thing mostly done, I need to add a border.

WEDNESDAY STUFF

I was out in the studio early and went right to work on quilting Chain Reaction.  I got a few more rows done and advanced it before going to our walk.

My own design, sort of.

This is one I've used before.  I think it's called Peony.

Didn't do such a good job with this free-motion.  

 After the walk, I was in the garage hooking up a new light fixture.  Of course, there was the mandatory trip to McLendon's Hardware.   It is up and it even works.

I went back up to the studio and pulled out an old project - The Children's Library, quilt-along with Pat Sloan.  I haven't worked on this in months.

These are part of the setting.  That grey is really a blue.

GETTING CAUGHT UP

I finally got around to making this week's Solstice Challenge block, "Hugs and Kisses".

The directions called for doing it in such a way that there would be a lot of fabric waste.  I'm getting down to small bits of fabric left and I'm getting concerned about having enough.  I decided to make the block, but in a way that wouldn't use as much fabric.

I first had to draw out the block on paper so I could figure out what size pieces I needed.

This is how the directions wanted it made.

Here is the little drawing I made, with actual sizes so I'd know what size to cut the pieces.

I sewed the triangles to the sides of the rectangle.

Then I squared them down to the right size.

The finished block - Hugs and Kisses.

 Then I moved on to the Children's Library Block of the Month.

This is May's - "Green Eggs and Ham".

BLOCK FOUR

After a trip to the fabric store, where I bought way more fabric than I needed, plus some thread and other stuff, I remade the Alice in Wonderland block for the Mystery Children's Library BOM.

I didn't notice that the print was directional until I took this picture.  Now I'm thinking I should take it apart and get them lined up...later.

Here are the four blocks all together.

I'm going to have to add more blue in the upcoming blocks.  
We still don't know the setting for these.

NOT HAPPY WITH FABRIC CHOICES

The next block in the Mystery Children's Library BOM came out on the first of the month.  This is number 4, "Alice in Wonderland", which is fun because I'm using Alice fabric as my main fabric.

I made my fabric choices and started putting it together.  I realized that the fabric I had chosen for the corner blocks wasn't going to work.

I went through my stash and came up with a few different choices, but I don't like any of them.

These dark red were my original choice.

I tried this blue, but thought it was still too dark.

I pulled this out of my stash, a lighter fabric with blue, but its still not right.

Time to go to the fabric store.

CATCH UP DAY

I spent my sewing time catching up with the Solstice Quilt and the Children's Library Quilt.

I am behind by three blocks with the Solstice Quilt.  I made two today.  I'm conflicted about the other block, it's very big and I don't think my fabric will stretch far enough to make it and the rest of the blocks.  I'm still thinking about what to do.

[I spent a wad of money buying blue flannel plaids online and none of them ended up being good enough to go with this group of fabric I'm using.  So, I'm not going to use them here - which means, I have a big pile of flannels that I have no plan for...omg.  I think that soured me on buying fabric online for a while].

Here's the next block for the Children's Library quilt, which only comes out on the first of the month.  I'm only a week late!

I'm really liking this quilt so far - 

CHILDREN'S LIBRARY #2

BLOCK OF THE MONTH, WEEK, ETC

I'm working on my Solstice Quilt, made two more blocks out of the plaid flannel:

 Week 3 - Tidal Pools

Week 4 - Cobblestones

And started Pat Sloan's "Children's Library" quilt, too.  I'm using the "Alice Through the Looking Glass" fabrics I purchased years ago, plus some go-withs.   I need to find some better greens - uh, oh - that means a trip to the fabric store!   The 'background' fabric', which is white and has little card-men standing on it, has a definite up and down.  I'll have to think about each piece and orient it properly.