Puttering

Summer always feels like such an unproductive time for me.  I much prefer to have my To Do list and actually be accomplishing stuff.   I have been finishing off a few E2E client quilts the past 3 weeks, but what I have done could have been done in 1 week at most if all was normal.  Now I am finding that clients are off on vacation and not able to pick up their quilts in a timely manner anyways.  Oh well...at least they are done.  I have a smaller custom I may load next week; time will tell.

I have been making a couple of bags from some fun Paris-themed canvas that was purchased by mistake.  I have ordered canvas a few times now, when I intended regular weight cotton.  This is actually the first I am doing anything with it.  I have a small bag for myself - with lots of zipper pockets.  It's not too large, since I intend to carry it while we are abroad, and there is a pocket for passports, money, phone, maps, etc.  Not sure if it will be done in time.  It is really far from my best work since I get about 20 minutes at a time to work on it, and I didn't have a pattern.  It is made by the pattern from the school of hard knocks.  At least I do know how to install zippers since I have done 6 of them recently!  I am also using this fabric to make my little mademoiselle a tote too.  Little missy can't be too fashionable when visiting the Eiffel tower!  Her's is much simpler and stands a better shot of getting completed, as it just needs the canvas handles added!

I am still pushing onwards with my hexie blocks.  I oversaw my niece quilting one day this week.  I had a lot of sitting idle time as she stitched, so the outer border on my latest block is done.  Today, I braved the bottle of tan dye and overdyed some black and white zebra print to taint the brightness some.  My goal is to get it to match the creams in the blocks and in the silks that will be used for the quilt background.  Yes, I am going that mixed silk-cotton route again on this quilt.  It just looked too good the last time to resist.

The layout for the blocks is still in the air though.  I presently have 20 blocks done, and 4 more cut out.  I am assuming I will make all of them, but maybe not.  When they are framed with the zebra print, they will be big, close to 15".  I am not sure I am up to quilting another monster-sized quilt.   

This layout seems boring, but I know that the silky background space will make the quilt.  Note that I do not have the actual hexie blocks showing.

I am very much drawn to the medallion settings, so I played with this too.  The obvious drawbacks are that I will only use 16 of the soon to be 24 blocks, and I am not really sure I want to design and quilt those huge blank triangles.  It seems a bit daunting.  And maybe boring (even with a tad of applique I am pondering).

Last consideration is this layout.  It uses most of the blocks that I like best (21 in all) and has a good amount of blank space as well.  It still finishes about 80" square, but that's life.  I think I like how the colors are dispersed, but may also ponder some simple applique for the outer border.  There's a ton of piecing still to go to get the outer borders added to the hexie blocks.  I am a long way off from having these blocks ready to applique onto the background!