‘Tis Awesome

Check out the progress on Awesome Land. I am obsessed with this pattern! But I think Sue Hoover, mentioned in my last post, has the right idea of using a constant black polka dot for the monkey wrench pieces. I chose to use up my black scraps and am finding it’s a big pain to lay out the blocks so that the black sets for each monkey wrench are together. The whole quilt is completely scrappy. It feels good to use up my scraps!

Here’s a tip I read somewhere: use a cheap flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth for a design wall. It works very well. Mine is hung over a bookshelf. When assembled rows or columns get too heavy for the flannel to cling, just pin it to the tablecloth. You don't have to worry about holes in the wall or fiberboard. When the tablecloth vinyl gets too holey, just toss it in the trash and spend $3 for a new one.

Up in the Air

It was a rare Saturday - light winds, clear blue skies, no particular plans to highjack my time. So I went flying! Just did a bit of landing practice. I'm happy to say my skills have not atrophied. My airplane was very happy with the cool air. A change in the wind direction on that last pattern made things a bit bumpy so I called it a day.

On the quilting front, I finally began quilting Arcadian Chain. The chain squares will have a big chain link - that looked great sewing it freehand.  I tried a couple designs I had sketched (and practiced on a dry erase board) for the colorful spaces, but my freehand was too wobbly and the blocks are a bit too big to play with rulers on my midarm. So now I will simply do a couple passes of echo stitching and let the colored blocks stand out without excess stitching.

Do you participate in the Rainbow Scrap Color projects by Angela at SoScrappy?  For 2020 I have been cutting fabrics in January's green and February's orange colors. I was inspired by Cathy's False Positive quilt. I like the easy Greek Cross design (see my Red Cross quilt on my 2018 Quilts tab) and figured this would be a good way to use up my scraps. Eventually I will post pics of the resulting blocks. Here's is Cathy's quilt:

February's RSC color is orange, and besides the Greek Cross cutting, I have begun cutting orange scraps into pieces for Awesome Land designed by Lissa Alexander from her "Oh, Scrap" book. Both the Greek Cross and Awesome Land blocks use 2.5 inch strips. Lissa's pattern uses black prints for the secondary monkey wrench formed by the sashing, but my black scraps are pretty sparse so solid black is my choice. Sue Hoover is using this block design for her RSC quilt HERE.