On tour without the bus

By tomorrow noon, I will have been to 14 different airports in 33 days. Some of the travelling was vacation and some work with more work travel coming up in the next few weeks. No sewing around here so I consoled myself with a brief stop at the local quilt shop while running errands.

Five fat quarters that struck my fancy. No plans for any of them. Yet.

I picked up five fat quarters and an issue of Quiltmania. I think I need to subscribe. It's pricey, but so much more inspiring than any of the other magazines I have. We were talking about this at the shop. Most of the magazines show very simple quilts that I can easily draft myself and don't really get me excited about making or they are contest winners that while beautiful aren't tops I'll make.

Quiltmania seems different. Not sure exactly what it is. I bought issue No. 76 based on two quilts that I couldn't look at long enough! Studying them I was struck by how the fabric choices made such a huge contribution to the overall look of the quilt. The quilts appear complicated and busy at first glance, but are fairly simple. The pattern, value and placement of the fabrics makes all the difference.

I'm glad I'll have something to occupy me for the next flight. Now, I 'm off to pack. Again.

Carbon dating my UFOs

One of the blocks is turned the wrong way. It's fixed now.

All the blocks for this string quilt UFO are done. It was part of a guild fun night, but as I didn't write the year on the handout I can only estimate that it was started before 2004. Possibly before 2002! And I still like it. Sometimes when the UFOs are that old, you aren't as into the fabric choices as you were when you first picked them out.

This is a summer quilt, meaning their is no batting. The strips are sewn to a fabric square, and the squares are sewn together with sashing on the back to finish those seams. I had enough fabric for 36 9.5-inch blocks and will set it 5 x 7 to get a quilt 45" x 63".

Not sure why I didn't finish it earlier except that the only thread I'd brought with me to fun night was a khaki grey color that I usually use for piecing and the bobbin thread shows on the back. If I'd known what we were doing I would have matched the bobbin thread to the backing squares. It bugged me at the time, but 6, 8 or more years later, I'm over it.