Rachel "Ivy" Clarke

Haven't made much progress on the quiltalong this week, mostly because of a pesky little interruption called "my day job."

I was at an impasse because of one Block B where I'd cut the pieces too short. I debated just replacing it with a different fabric, or trying to piece a new block together from the scraps, but I'm just anal-retentive enough to go all the way back to the quilt store to buy more. And this time I was able to bully one of my coworkers who joined the quiltalong with me so she could finally get her fabric. The trip was fun, even if I did get into a debate with the saleswoman, who was almost as pushy about not prewashing fabric as the yarn lady at Michael Levine's is about knitting with the Magic Loop method. I confess some smugness at being able to halt her in her tracks by telling her that the whole reason I was buying fabric that day was because the previous piece I'd purchased (at that store, off that same bolt) had shrunk enough in the wash that I ended up short. Hey, it's all a personal choice, but I've had enough sorries that I'd rather be safe, personally. They didn't have any colors I liked for sashing, so that meant another trip to Michael Levine's later in the week, where I was able to procure a nice light grey for sashing. I tried some other colors, but I think the grey will work best. Still not sure about the backing; I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, same as the sashing, I guess.

In the meantime, while I was waiting, I got all inspired to work on other quilt projects. I pulled one top I've had on the back burner for a while and started adding the borders. (Sorry, no photos, as it's a gift.) Since I apparently have two new second cousins, or first cousins once removed, or great-nieces and -nephews, or whatever it is you call the children of your cousins, I started a quilt for each of them. I had some scraps leftover from The Very Hungry Caterpiller quilt I made my mom for Christmas, so inspired by Project Improv (which I stumbled upon by reading quiltalong blogs), I thought I might try some more improvisational blocks with the fruits and foods at the center:



They're not exactly how I imagined them; I think the colors drown out the foods. If I did it again, I might surround the center images with some white colored fabrics first (maybe with a piping outline to match the block color?) before starting to build the colored fabrics around it. Next time.

In order to work on the monochromatic blocks, I needed to know what colors of fabric scraps I had. I used to keep them all in Ziploc bags by color, and just toss those into a big brown paper shopping bag under the table. Sp I pulled them all out, ironed them, and sorted them by color and put them into tubs:

(There are a couple colors in each tub; I thought about buying more tubs, but them I heard a rumor that someone might offer me an old library card catalog after I move and I thought that might be perfect...)

I also had a bunch quilting cotton samples (mostly Robert Kaufman) that I got from work a while back. So I took them all off the headers, washed and ironed them:

Which was really helpful, since when I sorted my scraps I was heaviny on the yellows, greens, and browns, and low on reds, oranges, blues and purples. Those headers were chock full of blues and reds, so now I just have to keep my eyes out for oranges and purples. If anyone has any scraps from their quiltalong that they don't want...

I also discovered that I now have quite a sizeable amount of black-and-white prints, which is awesome, because I've been mulling over an idea for a quilt using that theme.

(I also learned how to take photos with my iPhone and upload them directly into Flickr...)

Now I just have to keep myself from getting so distracted by these other projects that I don't finish the quiltalong!