Better Late then Never

I finally have all the the blocks framed. Now to trim. What size??? Well mom would like it to be a queen size quilt or as close to it as possible. Well, hmmmm... What layout am I to use? Sashing? or no sashing?? Here is where MATH comes into play with a large piece of scrap paper and of course a calculator! After a little bit of consulting, some time away from the project and A LOT of MATH, I finally decided on how I am going to lay it out and what size I am going to cut my blocks! YEAH ME!! but am I sure? do I really want to do it that way? will it be to much of the background??? the doubts are creaping in. Not a good thing.

So I had a little conversation with myself, nothing to be alarmed over, it happens. "Self, get over yourself! Just do it already!!!!" Well whats a person supposed to do? GET OVER IT! So off to trimming I went!

And here is the pile of the trimmings. There is probably a good yard of WASTE fabric there -- give or take. And yes it A L L went into the garbage!! I know shocker! Right?!?!?!? (Dad would be so proud of me for doing this. However, he would add, Now that I am on a roll, get rid of MORE!) Gotta love him!

And wahlah! here is the pile of all the blocks framed and trimmed to all the same size. Now to cut the fabric so that I can lay it out and get to sewing.

Happy times!

Not so Surprise!

Long story short -- These blocks were made by my great grandmother and after all was said and done, I ended up with them to make them into a quilt -- for my dad. and yes he knows --hence the Not so surprised.

It has taken me a long while to figure out what to do with them. I have consulted many different quilters and read many different articles and was still confused. Why? Well you see, they are all just a smidgen off of being all the same size, some have been washed while others weren't, the fabric on the edges were so frayed that I would need to trim so much off to get to good usable fabric that I would cut off points UGG and they are 1/8th inch seams. sigh............

So here is what I have decided to do. Trim them all to where there is good usable fabric. Border them all so that I can then trim them all to the same size! And yes I will use 1/4" seams which will mean, NO points to any of the blocks - which really bothers the professional seamstress in me. In this case, I would rather be safe than sorry. So here goes..... Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pics before all this started, so here we are -- its like starting a movie a half hour into it and missing some vital info. oh well.

I absolutely LOVE this block! It's the only one hand pieced! Ya! Not in MY life time!


I love how she has used whatever to make the piece so that it fits -- two different greens

In this one, the 2 blues and then the one corner triangle is different from the rest

Check out all of the little pieces in the pink

Here she almost matched up perfectly the lines in the plaid - AWESOME! Did you happen to notice the teeny tiny triangle in the very corner. This won't even be seen when all is said and done.

The green stripe must have been an old shirt, I am assuming, because it looks like she has sewn up the holes? I could totally be wrong, but that's my thinking and I'm sticking to it.

There are 4 different fabrics in this one.

I love the fact that this one has a stain on it -- center blue square.

This one just tickles my fancy! That one corner square that's so different!

Backside of one of the blocks with the teeny tiny seams.

And here we are in the process of getting "framed".

And the sewing continues!