Ho Hum -- Working on Tops 21 and 22

Finished the first of the strip setting stack and whacks and went on to number 2!  The separation into the dark edges vs. light edges was not as clear in this bunch and I had to find another green but had lots of the yellow.

Arranging and also trying out the new green.  It works.

Two strips done and testing out some fuchsia between the strips.  I always have to do something different!!

All the stack and whack strips are done.

All the intermediate strips have been cut and await the final stitching.

I took a day off to help hubby pick our sour cherries and then proceeded to pit the half peck we got and make a couple of pies and then froze the rest.  

Today I had  yet another appointment as a follow-up from my first cataract surgery and found out I have some scar tissue and so have a laser procedure next week but in the office and I will be able to drive. He says that will improve my vision which is better by far but not great yet.  My focus gets better as the day proceeds.  He tells me that my progress is usual (maybe because I had glaucoma surgery at the same time as the cataracts). After the laser procedure, I should be able to get some temporary glasses prior to my second surgery.

Finally finished!  I do like the fuchsia strips between the blocks and the green was a good choice I think.

As I liked how these turned out, I took the other half of the fabric and created  hexagons for an additional 48 blocks.  I may actually replicate this top with the new blocks as I do like it.

I finally found my little point and shoot camera after losing it about two years ago!!  It was right next to my chair  underneath something which tells you a bit about the pile next to my chair!!  Never occurred to me it would be there!!  It will be my sewing room camera from now on as it is more compact and easy to use.

Still More but a Different Configuration

I had a large piece of the fabric I cut up for this but only stacked half of it as I wasn't sure how it would work up as there was a lot of very large shapes and a relatively small hexagon (4 1/4 inches).  Some blocks ended up pretty green and some had no green at all.  After they were all sewn together (but not before), I decided they were okay!

There were 48 blocks made from half the fabric.  I decided to use a set that used 24 blocks.  Because of the wide variation in the blocks, I divided them into those that were light on the outside and those that were dark on the outside figuring I would do a configuration that involved more than one background!

I loved this fabric.  The repeat was 24 1/2 inches.

Wanted to see how it looked.  I really liked it!  I really thought when I had the hexagons cut that this wasn't going to work.

I decided on dark green for the lighter ones and yellow for the darker ones.  At first I thought green on the inside and yellow on the outside.

This is the alternate configuration with  yellow in the middle.  I am going to add 4 inch strips to the bottom and top of each strip.  I haven't yet decided on the width of the strips between the blocks or whether I will add some more strips.  I want it to end up between 40 and 45 inches wide.I have enough for a second top and of course I will do different colors in the background.  I get bored too easily to make two tops alike!  The challenge is to find new settings that will use up all the blocks and end up with quilts of a reasonable size.

More of the Same Only Different of Course!

Well, finished this last one.  The fabric in the border  is the one used to make the blocks which are octagons.  It is a very dark purple in the background.

This is the last top I finished before the first half of my cataract surgery.  It is Day 5 and I am still blurry when I wake up in the morning but better by the end of the day. Old age is not for sissies!!  Going to get some temp glasses next week but can finally do some sewing again.

I had some blocks left from the mushroom fabric.  I had already made two quilt tops from it but still had 27 blocks left so decided to do this configuration, a version of which I saw on Pinterest.  I like that the blocks stand out more and it is fast.  After making this one with 15 blocks, I still had 12 blocks left which I wanted to use.

Decided that I would put spacers between the blocks.  Quite  amount of math in all these quilts.  I am trying to keep the width to low 40 inches and the length to somewhere between 50 and 60 inches so I am always measuring the blocks which are all different sizes and calculating border widths or spacers.  I am also keeping a journal with the sizes of all these tops so I can maximize the use of the batting and backing fabrics.

This is the finished top which is the same size as the one above.  It is  only about 44 inches long and about 40 inches wide.

Still Whacking the Stacks

Columns are almost all sewn and I really like the looks of this one.  Now to decide on the borders.

I ended up going with the green border, then a thin white one and then this purple which matches the purple in the outer blocks perfectly.  It isn't obvious from the picture however!  This quilt ended up being about 44 x 60 and I used all the blocks.  Not sure i I can give this one up!

Although it may not be obvious, I turned the blocks for this one so that the narrower part is left to right instead of up and down.

I had always liked this fabric and thought it would make a nice stack and whack even though the repeat is very small.  I only cut up half the fabric.  With stack and whack, you cut the fabric down the middle and stack each side separately so it isn't too unwieldy.  I had two yards which was plenty for the eight repeat block.  However, after I cut the blocks up and played with them a bit, I was sure I wasn't going to like the results but you never know!

I finished the first 11 blocks out of the 21 I had and was extremely pleased with how they looked so finished up the rest.

Here are 20 of the 21 blocks.  I left out my least favorite and moved them around until I liked the arrangement.  Now to decide on the backgrounds.  Will I do two colors or one.  Hmmm....  Stay tuned!

One thing I did notice was that some of the blocks were bigger so I will be trimming them all to one size.  I didn't do that with the last bunch of 8 sided ones and the top is a little wonky although I am sure I can quilt out the differences.

Different Color Stack and Whacks -- One Oldie and One Newer

These blocks had been sitting around for some time and I think one of the reasons I never finished them is that they weren't cut very accurately so there was a lot of adjusting when sewing them together.  

I finished it today and got to use the fabric that made up the blocks in the border which was nice.  The first border is a very dark green.  This one is pretty good sized.

I had cut and sewed these blocks before I left the beach.  They are made from pretty small triangles (3 inches) so needed lots to make a top.  I also needed to orient them different like the top above which is different than what I had been doing.

This photo shows them sorted to the final arrangement -- darker blocks on the outside and lighter ones in the middle.

I decided to go with this light green mottled fabric for the main background with white stars in the middle.  I have only finished sewing the first row on the left.  Hopefully I will get the rest done in the next couple of days.  I already picked out the border fabric from my stash.  It is nice to have my whole stash here and be able to find about any color I want!!

This is the fabric that was  used to make these blocks.  The repeat was only about 12 inches so it only took two  yards to get these blocks.

These are some of the 102 blocks I did at the beach also.  Looks like I can get two or three quilt tops.  I really love these blocks but it is too much putting them all in one quilt.  I still have three or four more bags of cut up triangles and then I will give these a rest and work on the QBTS mystery quilt challenge as well as the kaleidoscope quilt I was looking forward to making this summer.

Of course cataract surgery is coming up and I am trying desperately to do some downsizing although I won't be able to lift anything after the surgery for some amount of time.  So we shall see what the next couple of weeks will bring!

The End of the Hawaiian Stack and Whacks

This is the finished first Hawaiian stack and whack.

This is number 2 which still has the same configuration as the first one.  I tried to have the primarily green blocks on the outside with the reddish blocks inside on both of these.

This is number three and I will put a fuchsia binding on this one.  There are five of the bright reds in the middle here and this is the 3/4/3/4/3 configuration.

These were the remaining blocks which were much busier with  lot more red in them.  I did spend time trying to get pleasing arrangements.

Found this bag of 3 1/4 inch triangle hexagons that I put away some time ago.  There were 33 done and I did the remaining 12 today.  I will use this 6/7 arrangement and there will be no blocks left over (a goal!).  I will turn the quilt however so that the sides will be the top and bottom.

I decided to do red stars in the middle surrounding some blocks that didn't have red on the sides.  I was fairly successful.  Off-white will fill in the rest.  As the top is almost square, I will add a healthy amount extra of the off white on the top and bottom of the turned shape.  

I have sewed the across blocks on three rows and hopefully will get the remaining four rows done tomorrow as well as sewing them all together.  Then to add the borders.  Haven't quite decided on those yet.  I have a bit of yardage of the fabric that made the blocks so it may play in the border.  It will be my pretty consistent 40 to 44 inches wide and 50-55 inches tall.

I found another bag with 102 blocks done!!  Oh my, I thought I had gotten all my partially done projects done last summer.  Still have two more of the mushroom quilts to do as well -- I have a pretty efficient way of doing them now!!  

With my first cataract surgery scheduled for next week, I want to get as much done as possible as I don't know what my vision will be like in the interim between getting both eyes done (second one not scheduled yet).  I am looking forward to getting my vision back!!