During a hot, humid July week at the lake I was working on a strip quilt.  I used all hand dyed fabrics. These were pieces of material that I had dyed during the past few years and could not bear to cut up. So I got brave, took out my rotary cutter and cut them into pieces. One afternoon I was trying to piece the quilt, but it was so hot & humid that sewing seemed like an aerobic activity, I was sweating that much. At that point, I took a break and walked into the lake, shorts, t-shirt and all. I knew I would never squeeze into a swim suit at that moment.

A few days later I finished my piecing. The quilt is somewhat bigger than I anticipated. I have this idea in my head to try using some deColourant on it. I have this vision of a space picture like the ones you can see on the Hubble Telescope website. However, I am stuck on how to proceed at the moment. I will have to practice with the deColourant first. So for the time being, I have shelved this project.

Strip pieced quilt

space picture from Hubble Telescope

It’s been a cold week up here in Fargo, ND, my home town. Don’t quote me, but I’m not sure if the temperatures even got above zero this week. I have been wearing long underwear all week & it feels good. So what do we do when it’s cold here? Why quilt, of course. I’ve been toying with the idea of making quillows to sell. This would be a lap sized quilt that folds into a pillow.

So I went into the basement to work on a quilt top. Took my digital kitchen thermometer along. It clocked 52 degrees. Time to plug in the space heater. Once I warmed up, I started cutting 6 inch square from my fabric stash. I sewed the squares into a 9 patch block. Then I cut the block into 4 equal squares (well they would be equal if my piecing was better, but you get the idea). Next I rearranged the squares and sewed those together to make a quilt top that looks more complicated than it really is.  The final phase will be the quilting, but that will have to wait until another day.

Here are some pictures of my progress