An Autumn Flimsy

I bought the fabrics in this table runner last month. I had a vague idea about how I wanted to use them; it was so vague I don't remember what it was. I was in Pa. helping my daughter in law after their move and we visited a quilt shop about a block or so from their apartment.

The striped border fabric caught my eye and I bought a yard of it and then picked out 4 fat quarters to go with it.

I have not shopped yet for fabric for the wall hanging I want to make and I don't have the yardage requirements figured out yet. I decided to use this fabric to make a test piece to determine how large I want the blocks. I also wanted to see how easy or difficult 9 Patch diamond blocks would be to work with. I strip pieced these and it went together easily. The flimsy is about 16 x 34. I cut my strips 2 inches wide and offset them about 1/2 inch to reduce waste. I cut 2 inch slices from the strip set by using the 60 degree line on my long 6 x 24 ruler. I did pin at the intersections when I made the 9 patch blocks and sewed the blocks together. I was really surprised that all my intersections came together with points that are as close to perfect as they can be.(I hate to say they are perfect but if they are not I can't tell.) Still this is only 7 blocks the wall hanging has about 74, although not all of them will be 9 patches. That doesn't include all the 60 degree triangles around the perimeter. That will be a lot of intersections.
Maybe I should make my strips a bit larger; I'm not sure that will save me much work. I am not going to rush into this without giving it some more thought. I don't want to come up short on the fabric if I change my mind about the size of the components.  I've been there and done that and it was troublesome enough when I could jump in the car and run over to the local quilt shop in 5 minutes.

A Finish

I finished this on Friday. It is Hidden Wells, a Mary Ellen Hopkins pattern. My friend Lynn made the top and gave it to me after I admired it. I am not sure why she didn't keep it; it really is beautiful.
I quilted it in the ditch around the squares and quilted free motion feathers in the border. Of course, they do not show up because I used black thread. I probably should have just quilted straight lines because it was really hard to see where I was stitching. I worked on it in the afternoon when the natural light was good in my sewing room.












This is the backing, a small scale print that I ordered on line. The color does not look as vibrant here as tan is really brighter, more like gold.
I used black Kona solid for the binding and it looks good on both sides.













I have not even started on the diamond 9 patch color wash. I don't want to order fabric on line for it because I need to see the changes in value from one fabric to the next. Getting out to a quilt shop is a big issue for me and I am pretty sure I will have to find what I want in more than one shop. Jack was having some problems with eyes and it took a while to get his eyeglass prescription right after a post cataract laser treatment. Until he got his new glasses he didn't want to drive very far. Since he got his glasses it has been one thing or another to keep me from shopping.

Until I can get out to shop I will have to be content to spend my time raking up prickly chestnut hulls and black walnuts and hauling them out to the woods to dump them (there is an over abundance of both). There is also an over abundance of leaves to rake. I am cleaning up the flower beds around the house as well, preparing for winter and next spring.
I am not complaining, and neither is the dog. We are both enjoying being outside in the crisp fall weather. When he sees me change my shoes he is ecstatic, running in circles and jumping for joy. He doesn't seem to like to venture far from the house by himself but he loves to run all over when I am outside with him. When we walk around the back yard and the woods he goes exploring but comes quickly when I call him. He is not like the cat was but a very good companion nevertheless.

Playing with EQ

I have not been posting much because I keep having problems getting my photos into the computer; I think I have that worked out. Today I spent a good part of the day trying to get an image of an EQ project saved as a jpeg file so I could upload it to Picasa.
I have been playing with EQ7 working on a plan for a large wall hanging. I have wanted to make a new one to hang above the sofa for a long time.  I fooled around with different ideas from time to time but nothing ever really inspired me to follow through and actually make something.

This week Lynn Tyler posted a photo of a flimsy on her blog The Patchery Menagerie  and it fired up my muse. Hers is beautiful and though mine will be nothing like it, seeing how beautiful her quilt turned out gave me the idea to use diamond patches. It was just the inspiration I needed.

This is the EQ7 version and I am sure the quilt  will not be exactly like this. This is a starting point and I am excited to get going on it.