Beginning the Belfast Bulletin

The chase is on. I have the beginnings of the quilt based on Sarah Goer's Ombre Quilt.

 

 I labelled all my fabrics.

 I have cut all my squares out, labelled them all. I have paired them up with their partners, sewn them together. Cut them  up, ironed them with seams open and labelled all the quarters. I have kept them all in their respective piles, 1 (1 square of each, making 2 blocks), pile 2  (2 squares of each, making 4 blocks), and pile 3 (you get it, 3 squares of each, making 6 blocks). Whilst doing this, I thought this would be great to do with young kids who were interested in numbers and number games.

I got out the plan, the numbered diagrams. I hoovered the floor. I started to lay the labelled blocks on the floor in accordance with the diagram, taking the blocks from pile 1, 2 or 3.

I decided this was far too hard.

I reorganised the blocks in a new system. All those that shade 1 in block, all those that shade 2 in the block, etc, all the way up to block 7. Again the numbers game. I didn't have to a shade 8 pile as all those were accounted for already. Where are 10 year old children when you need them? Sorry no photo of this step of organisation!

This made the laying out so much easier. It wasn't long until I had 10 rows of 8 blocks. All except those which were supposed to be blocks of shade 4 and shade 1. Four of them. I strangely had four blocks left of shades 3 and shade 2. Mislabelling? In my system.

I also had one space with one random block left. I must have muddled  a couple up whilst crawling around the floor. Unlike a jigsaw piece, these blocks all have straight sides and it fitted straight in. And it looked ok.

There was a momentary panic when I thought this isn't going to big enough. Then I remembered. Sarah in her plan has a handy helpful slide rule. If you want a bigger quilt, you make bigger squares. The actual plan remains the same. I, however, don't like very big blocks but am happy with medium blocks. I would need to make 10" blocks to have a quilt measuring 72.5" by 90.5". This would also be too oblong for my taste. I know historically quilts should be oblong, but I like my bed quilts to be square. We don't have a lot of "real estate" at the end of our bed. An big overhang takes up walking past the bed space. I like my bed quilts to be just over 70" square. I had forgotten this in my enthusiasm crawling about the floor. So the plan always was to make my blocks 8" cut and add two extra rows. I haven't made these blocks yet, as I will see what "fits" and make accordingly.

I took a photo of the quilt on the floor, minus the "rogue block". I then labelled all these blocks yet again. Each row is labelled 1 to 10 and each block is a - h.

 All neatly put in Ikea jiffy bags.  My husband was marginally amused by this, but if I am not organised I have no chance. I then cleared away to "allow" him to make the tea. It was St Valentine's Day after all.

Every day we should learn something new. On Wednesday I learned I need more pins. I used every pin I had in the house in this labelling. I also learned that when taking tiny labels off and replacing with big labels, be careful.  Tiny labels go soggy when accidentally thrown in the cup of coffee rather than the bin.

I love how this quilt is taking shape. From breaking away from Sarah's ombre, I was worried it would muddle her design.  I love how the green and blue run into each other like seaglass. I posted a few photos on instagram, and got a great response. I sent a photo to my son and his fiancée. His comment was "nice". Understated as always, my son. His fiancée was rather more enthusiastic, thankfully.

Now I have broken the back of this, I will cut out my blocks for my Postcards from Sweden quilt this weekend.

Helen x

linking up with Myra, Busy Hands Quilts and not quite finished Friday