Dilly Dally July

I dilly dally almost the first three weeks in July before I finally was able to concentrate on finishing three quilts during the last full week of the month. I have participated in Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge for the past four years and I had been busy compiling my list of seventy-five projects since the middle of June. I only needed twelve but I like to have lots of choices. I was sad and somewhat lost when Mary Etherington announced  at the end of June, that there will be no more Dirty Dozen Challenges. 

Participating in the Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge has given me focus and a commitment to finish a UFO or a current project for the month. These are the forty-eight quilts finished during the past four years and there were some months which there were more than one. I finished at least five UFOs which were over twenty years old and many five years or more. So without a project to focus on in July, I was left with choosing from my list numbering one to fifteen with each number having five categories. I chose #15 which I finished three and you will see them later in this Post.

I have to mention the dilly dally I did which included reorganizing some quilts around the house because Demando gave me a nice bookcase for the upstairs sewing studio, taking photos of quilts made before I started blogging and never took a nice photo of them, probably because most of them were 84” square and larger, some scavenging for fabrics and patterns, even organizing my scrap batting and making the above two 24” square wallhangings. These were another inspiration from June’s Luminous Layers/Magical Stars QAL. Michelle @michelleinscotland, who was one of the pattern testers for the Luminous Layers quilt shared a photo of her quilt in which she accidentally sewed the bottom star points facing the wrong way and I told her it looked like a Mermaid Star but after more thinking if that point was on the top it would be like a Unicorn Star which would be very befitting for her living in Scotland. Of course before I could start doing any serious quilting, I had to see if a Sawtooth Star could be a Unicorn Star. The first one made is on the left and I thought something was missing with just having one point and then the second one on the right was made which I added two quarter points which I think looks more like a Unicorn Star. 

It also helped that I used leftover Unicorn fabrics from the wallhanging in the darling granddaughter’s bedroom and she also happened to need two small wallhangings to flank it. She now has a total of ten quilts in her bedroom now in addition to the new bedroom set of three quilts which I’m waiting until she’s a little bit older to change out, especially since I made the Unicorn Star quilts. She has other quilts in other rooms in the house, enough for a quilt dowry if she had made them herself but why if she has a grandmother who loves making her quilts.

And now to explain these three quilts which were finished last week and will try to be brief as possible with just a few details.

Cicada Colado was the first one to be finished and was rather serendipitous in its making. I missed  another phenomenon this year, the other one being the Aurora Borealis appearing in the Midwest, and it was the emergence of the Cicadas. The only one I saw was a dead one and I did admired its colors and thought since I still had a nice stash of browns and tans I should made a Cicado inspired quilt. Later I found a stash of Michelle Amore/Marcus Bros fabrics which was perfect to make this simple quilt of 4”x8” blocks of strips and plain square blocks. Cicada Colada measures 60”x72” and will be given to someone who happens to love these colors too. I think the Cicadas are now gone but it would be just my luck if I finally get attacked by a swarm of Cicadas.

I always wanted to make a Scrap Vortex quilt with my Basic Grey scraps of mostly PB&J prints and started making scrap panels last year. Since this was one of my projects listed for this month, I finally sewed all the panels together and made it a quick finish by making this a Baby Boomer Blankie and backed it with a wonderful faded denim blue plush purchased several years ago. The PB&J Blankie measures 60”x90”and needed to be hung outside the screen room for the photo. A lot of the scraps were from the Gypsy King Quilt made several years ago and from other quilts mentioned in that Post.

Since there were still days left in July, I decided to finish the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society Broken Dishes flimsy by also making it a Boomer Blankie by backing it with another wonderful zig zag plush in Steel Gray. Most of the 6” HST were leftovers from the Kaleidoscope Krosswalk Quilt also made several years ago and measures 60” x 84”. This is definitely my favorite finish for this month as I just love how the older and newer C+S/RSS prints go together and just makes my heart sing. I should also mention besides the Baby Boomer Blankies being a quick finish, I also wanted them for an upcoming road trip and will be taking these two along as I prefer to use them when traveling. Both of these blankie are so soft and snuggly and making me look forward to the cold days especially after the heat wave everyone seem to be experiencing this Summer.

Due to hubby’s Band  playing three shows out of the four scheduled during the past two weekends, we’ve only been to the GP House just once in July. We’ll be leaving later this week and can’t wait to see the darling granddaughter. I love Hubby’s shirt which was custom made with her lovely face printed all over. It was nice being able to stay home for more than two weeks straight which contributed to my dilly dally days. During these days, I did mull over about how the future of my Blog and if I want to continue writing Posts which reminds me of the pressure of having to write term papers and weekly status reports from my past. I do like having a Blog to keep track of my quilt life and activities and thinking I may just post and provide details with less chatting and showing less processes, i.e., fabric selection, quilting, etc. Also, I should post when a quilt is finished and not waiting until I have several and thus having longer Posts. Since I don’t have the UFO Challenge to keep me on task, do I need to finish a quilt each month? Before blogging, I used to make a lot of flimsies and it was unheard of for me to start and finish a quilt in the same year let alone the same month. I do like creating lists but I like even more not following them. Maybe I need some que sera’ sera’ sewing time and sew whatever I want and ignore my list. I’m sure I can compromise with the Studio Squirrels and Eunice, my Quilt Guilt Queen who resides in my head and tells me what I should really be sewing. I do love all of the projects I listed and maybe need some guidance to help me decide on which one to make next. Mary Etherington/Country Threads did say she would be glad to give me a number each month and that is what quilt friends are for, right? I’ll be spending the last days of July cleaning the Studio because the dilly dally days were messy.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT