It's a triple!

What's with this weather? It's cold!  And loads of rain!  We live in Canada so I guess it's expected. It just seems that the weather is getting colder, not warmer, although I have to say that the last couple of days, I haven't been freezing! That's a step in the right direction.

After a wee bit of a SNAFU start to last night (let's just say that I got the times mixed up a wee bit!), but the presentation to the Durham Trillium guild was well received. Thanks to everyone who came out. Looks like a great guild!

The theme was scrap quilts and I was on a mission in the last couple of days to get something finished so I could reveal it to them.

Now that they got to see it first, it's time to reveal it to you. This is one of my UFOs for 2018. The project had been sitting around the house for YEARS! And technically, it was a leftover from a class that I taught years ago. I think I showed you in a couple of previous posts. If you search my blog for "triple four patch", you'll see four references. Here's the link to one of them dated November 18, 2014!!! And it was years prior to that that I made the first quilt. I must check the label to see when it was made. Just checked - 2005.

OK - so let's have a look. A couple of weeks ago, I finished all the blocks - 144 of them.

144 blocks are laid out on the design wall and ready to sew

I started by sewing them into four patches and that reduced the number of blocks to 36. Yes, I twirled the seams on the back!!!!  The little teeny blocks do not have twirled seams, but all the others do.

And now there are 36 blocks

Then I decided to sew the blocks into 6 rows. Oh, there's supposed to be a picture of that. Ah - here it is.

Now the quilt is in 6 rows

BUT not before there was a wee bit of ripping involved. As much as I tried to keep things in order, that didn't happen and I was pressing the last row when I noticed that there were two LIGHT big squares (identical fabric) sitting side by side, right in the middle. Hmmm - I realized that the rows are symmetrical, so I ripped that row in half and rotate one of the halves and sewed it back together. DONE!

Ooopsy!!

Here is the finished quilt top!  It's very scrappy - more scrappy than the original one I made in 2005. I had wanted to do this setting from the moment I realized that I had leftover blocks. I love it!!!

Finished quilt top - 72" square

Well, I was on a roll and this is a UFO for 2018 after all, so I had already dug out some fabric on a bolt that I thought would have enough to make the backing. I needed two pieces about 78 " long. There were two pieces about 85" long. DONE! The backing is now sewed together.

If you read my QUILTsocial blog posts last week, you know how I get my scrappy bindings. But in case you didn't, I save my leftover binding bits in a tin. The lid is popping on that tin. Time to get some scrappy quilts made.

Tin of leftover binding bits

Even though there's a lot of blue in the quilt, I decided to go with browns for the binding.

Brown binding bits ready to be sewn into one binding

When people look at this quilt, they often don't realize what is the block and how it's sewn together or even how it gets its name. Have a look at that link I posted above because I did explain it there. Whenever I show the quilt, I always show everyone how it's made.

What was hilarious last night was this. The guild has a pile of scraps that people can sort through and take. I had briefly glanced through, saw a piece of red that would have worked for the 150 Canadian Women, but I didn't take it. Then the program person brought me this.

Triple 4-patch blocks from the scrap pile

At first, I wasn't going to take them. I really don't need more. But when I saw what was there, I had no choice but to take them. You see, there were 2 1/2 blocks. Not one, not two, but 2 1/2.  Why was that so funny?

Because I had 1 1/2 blocks leftover at home. So I brought home those scrap blocks and added to my blocks and now I have FOUR complete blocks.

Four complete blocks

Now what to do with this???  NO - don't even think that I could make another quilt. Not happening. I have way too many other ideas on what to make without making a third one of these quilts. I only forged ahead with the second one because I wanted the different setting for the blocks.

I could sew these together and make a small wall hanging.  I could do that. Or I could release these four blocks into the quilt world as SEED blocks to feed someone else's scrap quilt fetish. Yes - that might be what I do! Hmm - now how to make that happen?????

I'm not crossing this one off my list yet as I think I should just forge ahead and get it quilted. So when the long arm comes back, this one is getting quilted. Then I'll call it done! Well, after it gets an official label as well.

I've been working on my Trend-Tex challenge. Things are coming along nicely. The more that I work, the more that I finalize the plan. I'm trying to keep it no larger than 24" square or thereabouts. It'll all depend on how the components fall into place. I do have a wee bit of paperwork, but most of it can wait so I think I'm off to the sewing machine.

And if you might be inclined to get a seed block, let me know, otherwise, those four blocks go in the orphan block box.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!