I am busy working on another scrap quilt. I am calling this one, Yin and Yang after the Chinese symbol by the same name. 
I boldly entered this quilt in our upcoming guild’s quilt show on October 17 and 18 even though it isn’t finished yet.
This quilt will be 8 blocks wide by 13 blocks long. So far, I have 8 columns put together so technically I am more than half way done. 🙂
I am on a roll. I am determined that all of the completed blocks that have been stacked on the shelves for years will be put together into quilt tops. After all, empty shelves allow room for new fabric purchases!
Over the years I have used different techniques to piece together crumb or string blocks. The blocks in this top are strings pieced together onto muslin foundations. The many seams and extra layer of muslin make this a very heavy quilt top.
I am not sure how this will be quilted yet because of the weight of the top. I am debating whether I will finish this one without batting or not.
Finished flimsy size: 54.5 ” x 63.5″
This is a picture of my latest flimsy finish – another Colour Catcher String quilt.
I have been using used Colour Catchers as string block foundations for some time now. Between other projects or when I am in a creative slump and I can’t come up with anything else to work on, I mindlessly piece strings to the Colour Catcher foundations.
I usually get stuck on the borders of a quilt. I was busy watching old re-runs of “I Love Lucy” on Friday night while I worked on the borders of this quilt. Before I knew it, I had a finished flimsy. A little laughter at the timeless comedy antics of Lucy and Desi made me forget how boring I find attaching bindings. This quilt will be a perfect utility quilt for the winter when we are looking for an extra quilt on the bed.
This top now measures 97″ x 104″.
I love the lime green border fabric. Lime green is my favorite colour and I couldn’t resist using this fabric as the cornerstones and border to set off these colourful blocks.
This was yesterday’s finish. The dryer sheet string top is now a completed flimsy. This is another big one – 92″ wide x 104″ long. I have used up every last little scrap of the blue batik star fabric on the sashing and outer border. I was originally going to put a 6″ outer border on this one, but the remaining fabric after cutting sashing only allowed for a 4″ border. I have lots of the red fabric left so this one will likely be bound in red once it is quilted.
We are in for another bright sunny day and you can see the sun already shining through the top of this quilt top as it hangs from the clothes line.
Thursday night, I was making great progress on another UFO. I was busy adding the sashing strips to my dryer sheet diamond string blocks. I even got one full row of blocks sewn together and I was ready to put the last seam in the second row when it happened.
I had pinned my blocks together and I was busy pulling out the pins just before the presser foot reached them. I missed pulling out a pin, but my machine hit it dead on.
So now, there is just a hole in my work table where Heidi would normally sit. I can tell you that I am really missing her. We have been together since 1999. My husband bought Heidi for me when I graduated from my professional accounting designation courses. It had been a long haul–10 years of study and work experience and my husband felt I deserved something very special.
This is not my Heidi, but a machine very similar to her. (I pulled this picture off the Internet.)
Prior to Heidi, I had a Kenmore that I named Zip. This machine had two speeds–super fast and stop. I had to sew with a slipper shoved into the presser foot to help slow Zip down. You always had to be ready to grab the fly wheel when Zip would get into one of his moods and take off at top speed. If Zip was happy and sewing at a comfortable speed, he would make a sound like an Austrailian diggorie-do. Zip still lives at my house, taking up space in the cupboard. My daughter has used Zip on occasion but I have not sewn on Zip since Heidi came to live with me.