Inch by Inch

Three weeks have gone by and I really don't have a whole lot to show for it. Covid life has been rather restrictive. Which in turn makes work life hectic.  Plus home life has not been as productive as I would like. Allergies are not being cooperative despite the meds. But I am still inching along.  Haven't done a whole lot of purging as of yet.  Being tired has put me a little behind.  But Kim has gone through a lot of things in our room.  Killian has purged some stuff in his room. Perigrine is working on her room so we are making progress but it is slow going and not as rewarding as a big push would be.

Good news! I have finally finished the HST quilt top.  It is as cute as I thought it would be.  Not only did I finish it, but I measured it, calculated the size of backing & batting as well as the number of strips to cut for the border.  On top of that I went ahead and got the calculations done for the other 3 tops I have in the to quilt pile.  All 6 tops have the needed measurements pinned to them and are waiting to be quilted.

I hope to get some of the backs made this next week.  A lot depends on what happens at work this week.  My boss will be back from vacation tomorrow, so that is off my plate. Unfortunately they are remodeling the front offices and break room.  The office remodel doesn't affect me that much, I just stay out of there. The break room remodel however is impossible to avoid.  I ended up leaving at lunch on Friday because of an asthma attack.  When I got home, I was just too tired (or maybe too weak) to do much of anything.  I am hoping that they finished tearing up the floor over the weekend and I won't have to deal with the dust this week. I don't want to spend the next 3 days all worn out.  Especially since we are going camping Thursday through Sunday.  If I am using my precious vacation time, I want to enjoy myself.

I've mentioned before that I have numerous projects that I want to do.  There are so many quilts and so little time.  I actually have decided on the next piecing project.  I also have 3 UFO's I need to be working on. The two quilt tops that need laid out and the Irish Chain quilt that needs to be made more bed friendly.  

Despite having more projects than time, I like to look at quilts on Pintrest and Facebook. A couple of weeks ago I saw a quilt that just grabbed my attention.  I studied the quilt when I first saw it. But ti stuck with me. It wasn't on Pintrest or I would have saved it to my board.  Try as I might I could not find it again. But I still couldn't let it go. There was nothing left to do but try and sketch it out.  Time to brush up on those geometry skills.

First I had to find graph paper with squares on point.  Not an easy feat.  I ended up finding an excel file that had the on on point squares amidst the regular squares.  I just deleted the lines I didn't want. 

Here is my first sketch.  It looked too much like an argyle plaid to me.  The quilt looked like stings of diamond shaped ornaments hanging down.  I finally decided that it was the sketch that was throwing me off.  I decided I needed to sketch the block so I could understand how I would be setting it on point.  

Not only did I sketch the block, I determined the size of the components and the direction to press the seams. Basically I made a block map.  Now with the understanding of the block shape and components I was able to rethink the design.  I knew that I didn't want to have partial blocks along the edge. So I would need to plan on setting triangles for the on point design.

My second sketch was much more to my liking.  But I don't think I am done yet.  I am thinking I will offset the strings a little more with plain white squares.  As well as break up the strings of diamonds with plain squares. I am thinking strings of three blocks and a plain square. I figure I have a lot more sketching to do before I eve get started on this quilt.  But that is okay.

I have also started sketching another quilt that I saw and really liked. This one is going to be a little more difficult to do than the strings of diamonds.  But I do have a sketch to come back to when I am ready to work on either of them.

This planning out the quilt in advance is a quite fun.  Who knew that designing ahead of time instead of on the go would be as satisfying. I doubt that I will ever convert completely to planned out quilts.  I have too much of a improvisational personality to be that organized but I think I can handle it for a project or two now and again.

How about you? Have you every planned out a quilt from a picture? Are you strictly a pattern person?  Do you like to just start sewing and see where it leads? Or are you some of each?