Moving right along

Do you see that? Do you know what a different quilt under my needle means? That means the Dreaded Dresden Plates are done! And not only are they done, but also, Old Town is done as well!! I've been quite productive this week. I finished the Dresden Plates Sunday afternoon, and while I was intending on taking pictures as I was working on burying all the threads, I never actually did. So you just get finished photos.

It was quite windy on Saturday so I was only able to get "action shots" while outside. But it's the best lighting to get accurate colors. But the clouds didn't let me get accurate colors either. The colors in the plates are correct, but the sashing color not so much. 

The backing has more accurate colors. And you can see my quilting in this one too. And now that's it's done and washed and I'm on the other end of it, I can appreciate how it turned out without looking at it with dread. I'm not sure why, but this feels like a formal quilt. Is that even a thing?

And here is my completed Old Town Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. This was a super fun mystery quilt and if you've been following along, this is the one I planned on making half size (half the blocks), but changed my mind around clue 4 and decided to make it the full size. That meant I was able to include light blue with my aquas by making those clues half and half. I think it makes it sparkle more.

And because I can't seem to help myself, I had to change something to make it more mine. I changed the cornerstones to square in a square blocks which I felt slightly insane for because those suckers are tiny! I also made my sashing strips look like lemons so I could have more stars. and I think the biggest difference between my quilt and Bonnie's is that I decided to go the crazy route and make more four patches for my outside border. I did ask myself a few times while making all the extras what was wrong with me, but I do love my finished quilt.

This is also the quilt that I picked my backing fabric first and then picked the front colors. I don't think I've ever worked backwards like that before, but it turned out perfect. Old Town was quilted on the diagonals with light blue thread.

And in case you've forgotten, this is what I started with. I needed to add more fabric once I decided to go full size, but they were the same shades.

The rest of my weekend was processing the scraps that have accumulated over the last few months. I try to make it a habit to process my scraps as I go, but sometimes it just gets out of hand. That's what happened this time. That and finding a box of fabric I was using for a foundation paper piecing project. That project is definitely a UFO. I got about a third of it pieced and realized that I really don't enjoy foundation paper piecing. Don't get me wrong, there are beautiful patterns out there that utilize that technique, but I don't enjoy it. And it produces the oddest shaped scraps. I like my squares and rectangles thank you very much.

All of my scraps were processed, that is to say, cut down into usable sizes and strips for me. I know there are some people out there that cutting scraps up into strips would give them anxiety, because what if I need it for a certain project. But for me, I noticed that I actively ignore the not cut up scraps and will reach for yardage because it's easier and quicker to cut. So I just cut whatever size makes the most sense for the scrap of fabric. And when in doubt, cut strips. I'll share more about my process next week when I talk about fabric storage and how quickly things get out of hand. 

But the motivation behind this project is that last Thursday, someone contacted me that had sent me some scraps in the past and asked if I wanted more. What kind of scrap quilter would I be if I said no? Very quickly a bag of scraps turned into a "I'm moving and need to downsize, would you be willing to take more?" So now, for the price of shipping one box, I am getting two boxes of mystery fabric and scraps in the mail tomorrow. And because we all like to play with the new shiny thing, I knew my basket of scraps would be ignored if I didn't deal with it now. And the light is at the end of the tunnel, because the pile of scraps to process is almost gone!

Happy Quilting, I'll talk to you again next Sunday!