What is this mess? My exploded Orphan Quilt Box. I’ve been putting things in here for nearly two decades (the little airplane blocks are for my grandson’s baby quilt, and he just went off to college), and it was time to excavate and see what to toss and what to keep.

I pretty much threw out all blocks with red fabric. I love reds, but that color of fabric went through a hard time for a while, bleeding every time it was used. I started to test the blocks one-by-one, but then just tossed them all. What’s that old song say? Know when to hold ’em and know when to throw ’em away. Yep.

I found several blocks that were orphans of a different quilt. Baby Hurren is getting a little sibling, and we don’t know yet whether it’s a boy or a girl, so I tried to make a jolly quilt that could go either way for his mother. (I need to change out the February quilt behind it.) Here’s a wee pattern for it on my pattern shop–for a tiny price!

A simple outlining of the blocks did the trick. It was a fun project to sew while we feel like we are watching our world collapse. (Baby Hurren’s mom is Canadian, and I feel like I need to apologize all the time.) The last time I felt this chaotic was when I had three teenagers living at home.

Now to switch gears: when we stayed in my daughter’s home last time, in our room were these cute cactus pots. In fact there were several of them. So yes, that cactus quilt you’ve seen being made is to hang out in this room, which has huge shelves on one side, filled with pillows and blankets and quilts, as the teen uses the room to watch movies with her friends, and to hang out (it also has a small kitchenette, complete with microwave and fridge — Teen Haven!). I thought this next quilt could join them all:

She’s received it now, so I can post about it.

We took Kingman Cacti out to a neighboring street where the cacti were in wild profusion.

It was a dance…close enough to get the quilt with the cactus forest, yet far enough so as not to get stuck. And to get a photo with an almost-in-bloom yellow cactus flower (in the upper left).

Thanks, always, to my Quilt-Holding Husband, Dave. He suggested the location and it was perfect.

I tried a new-to-me edge-to-edge pattern: Edgy from Intelligent Quilter. I like how it almost looks sharp-edged and then it doesn’t. I make a diagram so my quilter knows my preference on size:

My friend Lisa is teaching me how to do binding by machine (shown here being attached to the back). I’ve started using it on quilts I think will get a lot of abuse/use as I’m hoping it will make them nice and sturdy. I think I’m getting the hang of it.

The cactus quilt in process–so many tiny pieces! And the quilt “packages” all wrapped up in selvages, with the edges to go at the top all marked with a removable and reusable tag. Yes, that’s my selvage quilt on the left, and the next post will feature that one, and that’s all I’ll say about that. Baby Hurren is Quilt #303 and Kingman Cacti is Quilt #304. I’m not trying to hit a goal or anything. Writing them down on my Quilt Index is more about keeping track.

And since this will publish the weekend of March 9th, Happy Daylight Savings Time Day, haha. I’m a morning person, and the thought of being dragged back to dark mornings is not a fun one. The sun will do what it does, and I’ll get up when I want — the blessings of not having to awaken to an alarm.

A reminder: turn your clocks forward on Saturday when you go to bed–

More posts on the Kingman Cacti quilt:

Incomplete

Back of the binding

Front of the binding