Adapting the Adaptions

A little news, the Belfast Bulletin is moving forwards. We have progress but rather a sideways curved ball too. As of last week, there were 10 rows x 8 blocks. That made 80 blocks in total. This week I have sewn together the first 6 rows, but slightly wider than planned.

 The dimensions are as it stands, each block is 7" finished, so that is 56" wide by 70" deep. I wanted a bigger quilt, so was going with two extra blocks per row, making it 70" square. Well ... never say I am not creating and thinking. I was in bed, thinking about quilting, as you do, and I thought 70", that's 5'10".... our own bed is king size, 6'. A quilt of those dimensions doesn't even stretch over our bed. The average double bed is 5'6", so that is only an overhang of 2" each side. Now, I would never cast aspersions on anybody's marriage, but after 30 odd years of happily married bliss, I have come to this conclusion. The secret to a happy marriage, or one of them, is to have big enough bed coverings. NOTHING  causes an argument as quickly as one person hogging all the bedclothes. I got up in the morning and measured our quilt. It is 82 1/2" wide.

So......... in the interests of a long and happy marriage for my son and daughter in law, the quilt has grown. The quilt now has 12 blocks per row. This makes it 84" wide. Still not as wide as the previous wedding quilt I made for his brother. That daughter in law, asked me how big do you think our bed is? Well, these cold nights when they are up through the night with the baby, they are very glad of the big quilt!

This quilt has been growing rather organically anyway, I have followed Sarah's original layout, but introduced more shades of tone, or tones of shade. I decided just to wing it, not to be scientific about it. I made a ton more blocks, added two more blocks before block A, one block at the end of the row, after block H, and one block tucked in the middle where it seemed to be appropriate. Four per row. I chose the new blocks just as I thought they seemed to fit in. Hopefully this won't change the ombre dynamic too much.

Here's my two photographs one of after the other.

 

 

                                                           the original layout, last week

                                                       the beginnings of the new layout
                                                  
As you can see, I am still super organised. Labels everywhere. That's how to do it. I must buy more pins, or at least some sticky stickers.

I am one block short of 6 rows., some might say I am a sandwich short of a picnic.  There are 4 more rows to sew together, An extra 4 blocks per row. That makes 17 more blocks to make, Crumbs. Hoping my fabric lasts out. 

Helen x
linking up with Beth and Cooking Up Quilts
linking up with Lorna and Sew Fresh Quilts and Let's Bee Social