Mostly Monday

Some Mondays, I get to quilt with some good friends, the kind who like me even when I'm grumpy and cranky and crabby.

Which I sort of was today, for reasons that will become apparent all too soon. However, first here's some good cheerful eye candy for you!

This is a quilt that Anne had taught back in the old Bearly Stitchin' days. The pattern is Buggy Barn Quilts' Heart Crazies. Louise had made the blocks and was hoping to get it completed, so Anne brought hers for reference.

Okay, are you ready for this? The reason I was a little--shall we say--frazzled--today?

What you are looking at in this picture (besides my ubiquitous water bottle and telephone) are the foundation papers for my Asilomar project. Louise is taking the same class--Judy Niemeyer's--and we're both making the same pattern, the Celebration Tree Skirt. (Although neither of us plans to actually use it as a tree skirt--more likely as a throw.) When you first open the envelope, it's a bit daunting. Okay, a lot daunting. We decided (after having a few minor freakouts of our own today) that the reason they have us do so much pre-cutting is to get the freaking out over and done with. I have to say that after cutting and trimming all the foundations, I am much calmer and much more certain that I can, in fact, do this.

Of course, I haven't actually picked out any fabric yet, so we'll see what happens with that.



One feature of quilting at Sandy's is that it's doggy heaven. Here are three of the "babies"--two of the pugs and Nora, the Italian greyhound. She really does think she's a pug too.

For perspective, my chair is "below" this picture and Sandy's is to the left. They're curled up right in the middle of the action.

Or, in the case of two ladies cutting out paper dolls  foundation papers, very little action.

So on to some more colorful things, which I alluded to in yesterday's post. Remember I said I thought I would cut up my remaining stash of flannels and just go ahead and make more ragg quilts?

Well, here's Exhibit A. There's a yard of each of these, and if I cut the squares 9" instead of 10", I can get 8 blockes out of each one. That will work!

 Then there's this array. If it looks vaguely familiar, it's because it's the same fabrics I used for Debby's quilt, with the addition of some solid pink and green. I will most likely not use the solids unless I run short of a block or two to fill out a row.

Then there's the next set. These little cuties feature folk art motifs: pears, wispy flowers, houses and trees and cats.

 Lots and lots of cats.

 See?

More cats.

 

Then there's this allover set of squares. These would most emphatically not look very good cut into blocks and sewn into a ragg quilt.

But there's more. Check out t he last picture. By the way, if you want to see these larger, just click on any of  the pictures and it will bring up a slide show of all the pics in the post.

Or click on my Flickr badge up there on the top right, and that will take you to my Flickr page, where I have put close-ups of all of these squares.

Which range from folksy, to charming, to downright adorable. (See: Krazy Kat Lady.)


Now, these are really unsuitable for cutting into ragg squares, since most of them aren't even square!
The largest ones measure about 10 x 11 or so.

These last two fabrics are also not very "flannely"--they have almost no nap to them. So I'm thinking they would probably work in a series of small wall hangings, using some of the other fabrics in the series to make borders and lattices and cornerstones and such. The allover squares would make a good backing for at least one of these proposed wall quilts.

But, I am on a finishing binge, and the only reason I "allowed" myself to be distracted was the allure of using up lots more fabric. So I really don't want to sidetrack my UFO project just now by planning a series of new quilts.

I think I'll promise myself that when I get a few more finishes taken care of--and some of them are S O  C L O S E--then I'll go ahead and do the two simple ragg quilts, and set  the folk art cats aside for later. Another little "reward" when I get some more things done?