Is that the DWR that you were working on at the Retreat?  The colors of that one were so spectacular.  It must feel good to get another project finished.  :-)

I'm looking forward to seeing the in-progress or final pictures when you're done with your circles & dragonfly quilting project!  You always come up with such innovative ideas.  :-)

I did try to insert the photo in the end of the post. I do it with my phone. Some days it works fine and sometimes not. If you if you have Instagram I am under Ami Krenzel there. I know not everyone likes Instagram but I use it just for quilt photos.

Yup that was my retreat project....ready for gifting in a week. We are gonna deliver it to them as they are in Colorado Springs about 90 min drive.

I will likely bring my dragonfly quilt to retreat if it is finished by then. Today I have not touched it yet. I have a group of garment sewing projects I have batch cut a week ago and I pulled the first one out which is a thrift flip. I have been sewing French seams all morning. Will switch to the quilt this afternoon. I am trying to do about one garment every two weeks as I also love working on those and with the change of season I am excited about these new things for Fall.

I have too many things in progress right now, at least for me. 

1)I have the mantle quilt to bind - still deciding if I want to bind it or do a facing - kind of thinking a facing so that the red at the bottom of the swag continues to the edge.  But that is more complicated and I have to think about how to keep it flat so it doesn't roll out.  I may just do a regular narrow binding and be done with it. 

2) I need to bind the Dee's place wall hanging - it's all quilted but deciding what shape do I want it to be?  I was thinking I wanted some curve on the edge but the sunflower is pretty close to the edge, may not be able to.  I am going to cut some shapes from freezer paper to audition before I start cutting.  I want it done also, so close but I don't want to rush and mess it up.

3) I have 2 patriotic quilts on the machine with one pass done - decided some mindless loops was the thing two nights ago. 

4) And the two patriotic quilts to finish - I got border fabric yesterday  - she actually sent me about 8 yards of LQS fabric, very nice stuff, to pick from. 

Last night I put these blocks together from my last kit - they had been on my design wall for about a week and I got tired of them falling down so I put them together.  They'll eventually get a border but not now.

And I've been working more than I want - trying to get silly P1 wrapped up but going to 7 or 8 pm all week.  gah!  This work stuff is really putting a cramp on my quilting....

Back in the beginning of this year, I started another EPP project that is called Dillyflower.  Essentially, it's rounded top Dresden fans stitched to a central hexie.  The flower is then stitched to a background.  I used EQ to design it and came up with a layout that I liked, which was two different colored columns of the flowers which alternated with each other.  I've been steadily working on that and recently, I finished all the Dillyflower blocks of flowers with a neutral background.  I stitched them hexagon blocks together, per the layout.

When I was done, it sure seemed to me to be much LONGER than it should be.  I measured it and .. holy moley ... that column was 135" long!  GEEZ LOUISE!  Even a king sized is only 120"!!!!   So, somehow I miscalculated and made more hexagon blocks than I needed.  Sigh.  All that time on blocks that weren't required.  Sigh.  I had made 6 columns, each of 12 hexagon blocks, when I really only needed 9 blocks.  Sigh.

So, I took 3 blocks from each column .... 18 blocks ... and thought about what to do with them.  Since this was not a "planned" quilt, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of time on it but I still wanted to produce something "nice".  Since these were hexagon blocks, that necessarily means set-in seams, which are never quick.  I also wanted to use only fabrics I had on-hand, as I'm really trying to use up my inventory and get it to a more manageable amount.

These hexagons were "low value" colors.  I chose other low value colors for the set-in diamonds between the hexagons.  There were *10* diamonds to set between the 2 columns of hexagons.  ugh.   Then, I thought about borders ... put one on or not?    Having a border would bring it up to a better usable size .. so yeah, a border.  What color?   If I use another low value color, the entire quilt might look washed out.  AND I was limiting myself to what I already had.  Ugh.  Decisions.

I chose a mocha brown to fill in the partial hexies on the perimeter, as well as the outer border.  It's a contrast but not unappealingly so.   But, of course, there's ONE MORE wrinkle.  (Isn't there always?)  As i figured out how big of a border I wanted VS how much fabric I had left (after cutting the partial set-in hexies), I comitted a rookie error in calculations.   I came up with a 7.5" border all around and cut the remaining fabric to that width.  Welllllllll .. what I forgot was that after the first two borders (top & bottom) were put on, that would ADD 15" more to the length I needed for both side borders.  Ugh.  And doncha know, I didn't have that extra length.  ugh.  If I had made the borders narrower, it wouldn't have been a problem .. but I didn't and now I was stuck.  UGH.

Well, the solution I came up with was to put in cornerstones with more Dillyflowers on them.  Although the cornerstones are not what I originally had in mind, I think I'm OK with the final result, especially since this particular quilt wasn't supposed to be even made!  I'm not in love with it but it's not butt-ugly either, so it has that going for it.  :-)   It's ever so slightly smaller than a twin.  And the top is DONE!  The binding is MADE and it's hanging up in the closet, waiting (with all the others) to be quilted.  :-)

Bonus: I completely used up the cocoa brown fabric.  I don't even have any scraps leftover.  :-)

Ami_Quilts (sewingupasto) said:

We are gonna deliver it to them as they are in Colorado Springs about 90 min drive.

oh!  Wave 'hi' to Rene when you're in Colorado Springs, as that's where she has relocated.  :-)

Will do ;)

Love your scrappy quilt!  I just finished piecing something similar only 6 strips instead of your 8. I have a bunch of CW fabrics I wanted to play with and thought this would be a good pattern.  I really must quit piecing and start quilting.

Your bonus quilt turned out great!  Very creative and resourceful.  I call that size a nap quilt--just right for cuddling up on the couch.

It has been quiet a summer for me. I did not get to go to FL  in June. Had the covi and my eyes with hay ware. Was seesing double.Then I was planning on going to Va in Aug for my D-Day.Then my dad got sick and died two days after my Birthday.I was just thinking that Qct is coming soon.Where are you planning on to go on your little trip this year.? I amplanning on to go to AZ in Feb. I am still making quilts.I got 50 ready to put batting and backing on. And making me some tops from knits material.