Saturday, February 24, 2018

Stained Glass Stars and Dragon Tails

Whew, what an icy week!  JoJo had school Monday only.  The bigs and DH had school only Wednesday and Friday.  Multiple ice storms caused ice on freezing rain on ice.  The second storm was a slow freezing drizzle, which was by far the worst as it turned the world into an impermeable sheet of glass.  I slid down the slope to feed the chickens and inched back up when I was done.  With the water spigots frozen as well as a few doors, the outdoors were an adventure.  My least favorite moment occurred when the freezing rain iced up our outdoor unit to the furnace, causing it to shake violently.  Fortunately, I de-iced it and moved along with breaking ice elsewhere.

Needless to say, sewing time was both needed and a little harder to come by.  I worked hard to finish my Ohio star quilt, now called “Tell Colette I Love Her.”  I'll have a post about it up later today, including one pesky fabric that soaked up excess dye.

Next on the list to finish was my 16-patches, which I used as leaders and enders to more rows of the dragon quilt.  I have only 11 rows left of the 60 needed, so the end is in sight!  The bottom of the picture shows the last dragon rows, a wing and the end of the tail, and now I move onto my son's name.  I finally had to do the math on the remaining background fabric and then stash-dive for like-enough fabric to finish out the final rows.  I hope they won’t stick out too much, but I won’t know until I assemble a few more rows.  Either way, obvious or not, they'll have to stay.  There is no fabric ordering right now, per my own orders.

I love the 16-patches every time I make them.  The original quilt, finished in 2015,  still lives on the back of my rocking chair, where I nurse the baby and rock little ones to sleep.  This year, I'm only making 16-patches from cool colors, so I'll get to play around a little more on how to lay out the blocks.

On a side note (because I like squirrels as much as anyone else), do you have any suggestions for blocks that use 2" strips?  My 2" box is full to overflowing, and the churn dash blocks won't make enough of a dent this year.  Over spring break, I may indulge myself by starting a new quilt!

Be sure to check out all the other purple inspiration this weekend, and maybe we'll get a sneak peek of the new color!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

8 comments:

Katie said...

Mother nature sure knows how to put us to the test, doesn't she?! I'm very much looking forward to warmer weather! The purples are looking great, but those 16-patch blocks ate not something I've ever leaned towards. Of course, neither are about half the things I find myself squirreling to lately...blogs...dangerous places!

gayle said...

Ice is so scary! Driving, walking, or even just standing still - all are fraught! Back in the days I had chickens, there was many a time I had to hold my breath when carrying eggs to the house across a sheet of ice. (Especially when I'd forgotten to bring the basket again, and had all my coat pockets full plus an armload. Whew!)
Can't wait to see what you come up with for your 2" strips. There are a ton of 4-patch patterns out there (which I've been compulsively collecting to put my leader/ender 4-Ps to use), and I think it's Bonnie Hunter's favorite size scrap, so she's got a lot of patterns on her website that are worth a look.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

I love your 16 patch block collection! Makes me want to go right down to my sewing room and make some. Hope your wet and icy weather calms down this week!

Sue SA said...

My favorite use for strips is nine patches, but 2" is a good size for lots of things, log cabin, braids and definitely check out Bonnie Hunters blog for further inspiration.

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué said...

Beautiful purple blocks. Great job on the Dragon too!

Kate said...

We lucked out with both storm systems. Though it took us almost an hour to de-ice the car after work on Tuesday, the second wave of freezing drizzle wasn't so bad. Sounds like you got quite the dummy whammy on the ice storm front. Looking forward to checking out both of your quilts in progress. The dragon was looking mighty fine the last time you posted photos. Happy stitching for what's left of the weekend.

Deb A said...

Hope the temps warm up a bit to take care of the ice. Beautiful progress. lots of options with 2 inch strips - good luck deciding on a project.

Cathy said...

Brrrrr. After reading about your ice I'm glad I'm still not raising chickens. I also remember de-icing the well house many a time. I like rural living but some things can sure be a pain.

I have no suggestions for 2 inch pieces. For some reason that is one size I don't seem to accumulate much.

Batten the Hatches

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