Rainbow Gardens

(from here)

Sometimes I feel like this lady here, moving at snail’s pace, trying to make my entrance, but know I’ll miss it somewhere.  Slow-jo, or Missing the Sew-Jo seems to be a topic of conversation on Instagram and on blogs.  It’s the end of summer for the northern hemisphere, and we’re all a little out of sorts with the hot weather and all.  Frankly, I’m just happy to be on the snail these days, as for a long time I wasn’t doing anything but Recovery (it gets a capital letter around here).  So here’s some of my snail-sewing for the last while.

Rainbow Gardens
Quilt #148
18″ square

This started when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to finish the block I had planned for the Kaffe Fasset Mini Quilt Exchange. My friend Lisa and I had been talking about patterns that were from the 1960s era, and this morphed off of that, as I wanted to subdivide the center to allow for greater color gradation.  I have the pattern and templates for sale in my PayHip shop.

I had fun customizing the quilting, using floral motifs in the floating center square, and geometric designs in the outer corner backgrounds.  Someone on Facebook said it looked like the glowing camera lens from Hal in Space Odyssey, which is a completely creepy thought, if you’ve ever watched the movie.  I prefer to think of it as walking through a large botanic garden, the rows of plants giving way in color as the varieties change, hence the name, Rainbow Gardens.

This was the original block, “Unnamed” from Woman’s Circle in 1963.  This is from Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, which has been out of print for ages.  However, the other day I noticed on her blog that she now has an e-book version of this amazing publication (scroll down on the left of HER blog for the link).

Here’s I how hang the minis: cut a large square and fold diagonally in half (this one is 6 1/2″ for an 18″ quilt) and sew it into the two seams top and side.  Cut a dowel to fit across–it works great.

And the back of the quilt.  I love this cheery print. Yes, I’ve obscured the name of who gets this, as we don’t send it out for a couple of weeks, and it’s forbidden to tell who our partner is.  I hope she likes it, though.

I had intended this one to be made for  the swap, but when I got to here, realized I just didn’t want to push forward on this, so went with the Rainbow Gardens design.

Love the back, with all the papers.  This is an enlarged version of one of my circle blocks, and as soon as I get the mini quilt finished, I’ll put the PDF up on Craftsy.

Of course, once the pressure is off, the sewing can proceed apace, so then I was able to put the outer arcs on the design.

Then I got this far: center circle on and the background chosen and just didn’t like it.  But since I’m not under a deadline, I had time to un-pin, re-think.  I had put up this photo on social media with its twin (but with a different center circle), asking which center circle people liked.  It was so evenly split, it told me that I hadn’t hit the home run on center circle choices.  Back to the drawing board. . . and the quilt shop.  (Can you tell I’m still riding a snail?)

I did get this far on Rosette #4 of The New Hexagon Millefiore block, then stalled.  Later, ‘Mater.

The one day had a craving for Bibimbap (recipe *here*) and no energy to drive the hour to Orange County to get it, so had to make our own.  While it sounds complicated, dicing and slicing and blanching all those vegetables, it took way less time than driving to my favorite restaurant and back, and now I have another recipe conquered.

Earlier I’d written about my mini-quilt for the Houses swap, posted a pattern and a brief tutorial, keying off another popular tutorial online.  I’m sending off the quilt today (one day early–I just can’t stand waiting any more!), so here is the label for my quilt, a clone of the mini I’m mailing off to Indiana:

It was finished in that anxious week before surgery, and boy, was I weepy and sentimental, not knowing if I’d survive the surgery, or be diagnosed with cancer, or if they’d carve something up they shouldn’t.  I just wanted to hide in my lovely home with my beautiful quilts and out-of-control vegetable garden.  Yes, my mind can ruminate and imagine Worst-Case-Scenarios like no one else.  So this is how I felt, and six weeks post-op, I still like the message.  I’ll tell you what I put on my partner’s label. . . later.

And when really, it all is just too much, there’s always a spin through your Instagram pictures. . . or someone else’s.  This is from a new follower of mine.  I love all her knitted clothes for Barbie, plus all the cool poses in which she places Barbie.  I say, let the fashion doll come up with the moves.  I’m headed back to the snail while we get through the last hot month of summer.  Yes, here in SoCal our summer always lasts until the middle of October.  Can’t wait for fall, y’all!