Wild Ernie--The Twill is Gone

I decided that I wanted to make my second Ernie quilt now with the fabrics I posted earlier, the wonderful dyed dots/checks with the colorful twill and planned the quilt to be 56"x72" which I would make 24 blocks with the dots/checks and 18 with the twill/black combination.  After making the 8-1/2" x 12" blocks I started thinking that I really didn't need another big quilt and could instead make two smaller quilts 40"x48" if I made additional blocks in the twill combination which I had enough fabric to do.    I was really happy with the way the layout look.

Unfortunately, the two fabric combination type did not play well with each other when I sewed the blocks together, I could not get the seams to line up with each other so I decided what I needed to do was to separate the two; make one with the dyed dots/checks blocks and one with the twill/black blocks.  For some reason, I was planning on using another backing for the dyed dots/checks blocks and the Ernie fabric for the twill combination but divine inspiration made me realized that the Ernie fabric would look great with the dyed dots/checks since the colors are so bright and happy.

Another change from the plan was to make this a throw instead of a quilt; I used fleece instead of batting which meant minimal quilting which I'm a great proponent of doing.  I have done this with several other quilts after much research to see if this could be done and happily there are other quilters who have used fleece.  It feels more like a blanket, soft and wraps around the body nicely and keeps you very warm.  I've already washed a quilt with fleece and there were no problems. When I quilted the layers together, my safety pins did not work well plus I didn't like the way they poked through the quilt top so I ended up using my quilting straight pins--when you use fleece instead of batting, you need to pin more since it tends to shift more than the batting.  I wore my quilting gloves to keep pin pokes at a minimum.

Wild Ernie measures 40" x 60" and is a wonderful size to keep the lap warm.  I needed 25 blocks to make this quilt but only had 24 blocks and no more fabric to make the 25th block so I improvised and  made it with 2.5" scraps leftover; you can see this block on the right bottom of the quilt.  If you ever met Ernie Jo Mauer, you will see that this throw captures his essence, such a fun and lovable orange cat who loves to sit on quilts.  The next time I see him, I plan on bringing Wild Ernie so he can bless it.

Meanwhile, I think I'm all "Ernie" out so the twill combination blocks are being saved for another day and will be thinking about my next quilting adventure or I should end this post with a funny situation.  I bought the dyed dot and check fabric at a quilt show over ten years ago and it came in two color ways, one with black and one with red.  My friend Carol and I split the two bundles, giving us each (48)  9"x20" pieces.  I used some of the red in an earlier baby quilt and never found the right pattern to use the black until the Ernie pattern.  So when I took the fabric out of the bin which held it for many years, I thought when I put the remaining pieces away there would be a more appropriate bin to put them in and now I have no idea where I put them. The more appropriate bin is not where it is and it's really bugging me but I rather sew than search for it since I really don't need it yet.  As my husband always said, it'll be in the last place you look.  Plus, Carol said I could raid her stash.

Sew, Sew for now!