Update!

Well I am currently in bed with my leg elevated after surgery last week to fuse a couple of sets of bones in my left foot.  I have to stay off my feet for at least two months!!  Since I sew about two hours a day usually, this is a real change in habits!!  Luckily I am off pain meds for now and thanks to a wonderful scooter, I get around the first floor of my house pretty well and even managed to sit in my family room chair for dinner the past two nights.  My husband claims I will be able to back up a semi after all my practice backing into chairs, beds and toilets (it's my left leg).  Ten minutes with an occupational therapist and a physical therapist at the hospital were a huge help.  Luckily I asked the physical therapist about scooters as I had been discouraged about using one.  He found one in the recovery area and showed me how to use.  I had a small tumble at the hospital (I was a little too aggressive) but learned my limits and am very cautious now and get around fine!  I had my husband order one immediately and it came in a couple of days.  It is saving him a lot of running around with the wheelchair.  I am not using the walker at all at this point.  

Anyway, back to quilting.  The weeks before the surgery I went through my fabrics that I had put aside for stack and whacks many years ago and went through them.  I put many of them in the "I'll use for backing pile as they aren't interesting enough" and then proceeded to cut up quite a few others into mostly hexagon triangles and four patches.  I figured I could audition them and decide how they should go when I could again sew.  The above fabric was the first one i pulled out.  It has about a 12 inch repeat and I had about 10 repeats of the pattern.  I decided not to do a kaleidoscope block as they only go together in one way.  I did pile 8 repeats on top of one another figuring I could do two "posie" (or 4 patch) blocks with each set.  I did a 3 1/2 inch strip and ended up with 72 posies which will finish to 6 inch blocks.  

Below are some of the different versions of the block from one set.  All the photos are with my phone and with them sitting on my lap in bed so not up to the usual standards.

 This is  one of the stacks and below are the two different arrangements I decided to use.

Another arrangement.

Another!

These next three are all the possible arrangements of one set of posies.

These next two are three versions of a posie.  The ones below I initially chose but when I did this one, I decided I liked it better than one of the chosen ones below.  I like them to look as different as possible even with a large focal point like the flower in this one.

Well, I am trying to figure out how to do some machine sewing down here.  I have a little board for my lap and could balance a FW easily on it but how to use the foot pedal is the problem although I may be coming up with a solution before too long!!  I will have to order bobbins as my husband finding bobbins for a FW in my sewing room would not be a pretty picture!!  I think he could pick out thread though!

Having Some Fun!

Well, this is the first of the two baby quilts I did with this old boring fabric and I ended up liking them!  A little more subtle than what I usually do!

This is the second and you probably can't see but there are both different larger pink fabric and an introduction of some more "found" light fabrics.

This is one of several fabrics that I have cut up in the past few days to make some more stack and whacks.  I did a couple that will be hexagons which I haven't shown.  

I have loved this fabric since I bought it as I love Birds of Paradise flowers and have made at least two quilts featuring those from photos I took in California.  The repeat on this fabric is 24 inches and I had two separate pieces but wanted to get 8 repeats so with some finagling I managed.  I have about a yard left in three pieces so I will be able to feature some of this full print in the quilt or quilts I will be doing.  I cut up half of the 8 piece stacks into kaleidoscope blocks (8 patch) and the other half minus a little bit I still cut into squares for posie blocks.  I figure that you can shift around the posie blocks and that you can get two different looking blocks from the same stack of 8 pieces.

I wanted to audition some of the pieces to see how they would look in the 8-piece blocks.  I say success!  I cut the strips for these 3 3/4 inches wide so the blocks will be about 6 1/2 inches finished.

I picked what I thought I was not a very good sample for the posie block to see how close the two variations would look and was surprised.  These were end cuts on the strip and a little wonky so figured it was worth a shot.

I will be off my feet after Monday for 2 to 3 months so have little baggies filled with the hexagon pieces and the posie pieces that I will play with auditioning them.  I never randomly put stack and whack blocks together.  I like hexagons and posie blocks as you can shift them in more than one way to get the look you like best.  You can't do that with the kaleidoscope blocks.

I will try to keep posting in my blog and may put some more instructions and examples in there or the "world of quilting and dyeing" according to Beth!  

Just a picture of the back of my head since Covid-19 has not allowed me to get my hair cut for 5 months!!  I posted it on FB and my hairdresser is coming to my rescue before my surgery as I don't want to have deal with my longer hair and the curls (which only look good for a bit).  She is actually coming to my house to do the cut as the salon doesn't open until the day of my surgery!!  I should say that I have been going to her for almost 40 years!