Play Time

I only meant to assess the situation with the Plaid blocks, but I got busy putting the cut pieces together, then realised I only needed 8 more to complete the top, so that's what I did. I went to the trouble of trimming each block, only to discover that they all measured 7.5" exactly. What a nice little block to put together.

They aren't all together yet, I assembled them into groups of 4, and I'll get it in one piece today. Then I can think about whether it needs a border or not. It might benefit from a 2.5" strip all round it to secure all those edge seams.

I had a little play with the Tucker Trimmer ruler, making Cat's Cradle blocks (or Mary's Triangles, or Shaded 4Patch) in various sizes. In 2020 I finished a top called Beloved from a favourite book, The Big Book of Civil War Quilts. 

I didn't have a ruler to help with the hundreds of Cat's Cradle blocks involved, and I cut all the pieces the exact size, which led to some struggles with piecing.

The ruler worked well, and I found it fascinating that this is one of those blocks that can be trimmed down to any size. An Hourglass block, or a HST can also be made bigger and then trimmed down.  If I were making a miniature with these units I would definitely make them larger and then cut them down to the size I needed. I've since discovered a Creative Grids ruler that might work even better, and I'm debating if I need yet another ruler to clutter up my table. But I'm a gadget girl after all, and with our current fabric prices here that's the equivalent of 1.5m of fabric..

I have other things I want to do right away, but I'll be on the lookout for a quilt design that I can use these units in, now that it's easy to do them.

What else am I doing? Still opening project boxes and organising the contents. So many of them are just leftovers from tops I've already completed, and think I might want to make again, or a collection of fabric destined for a top that's hardly begun. I might have to persuade myself to be a bit more ruthless.

I attended an exhibition of Anette Gero's  quilts many years ago, and took photos of my favourites. Annette is an Australian historian, and began collecting antique quilts long before it was fashionable here in Australia. 

I loved the quirky 1800s prints in these Sawtooth Stars, and about 10 years ago I set aside all my suitable fabrics in a project box.  I made one star, and  to me the project was underway. 

But it never moved past that initial block. By the end of today I'm going to have made a decision on whether this goes ahead, or if it goes back into stash.

Some of these pieces have disappeared from the stash, and I thought I'd used them all up. Not so; I'd cut 8" strips and squirreled them away in this box. I'm glad to see them again, and I hope a little of them survives this project and enters the stash again.

Strange, strange prints, but they will work in a quilt like this. If I decide to do it.