Nine Patches

If you work on something steadily, eventually it has to get done...even if it's 225 nine patch blocks! That was a task better done by breaking it into smaller groups and taking it one at a time.

But as I got closer to being finished, I was getting more excited about laying out this quilt. I was looking forward to figuring out how to put all these colours and patterns together.

When I was finished all the blocks that I was going to hand sew and was left only with blocks containing batiks, it was time to pull out the machine.

Instead of moving into my current sewing room (and away from the woodstove and the TV), I moved the sewing machine onto the coffee table and sewed from the couch. No, Troy doesn't get to use very much of the living room but that's why we built him a shop, right?

So I sewed and sewed and sewed and couldn't stop working on these blocks. And then one day I was done. 225. Well, if I counted right before. I didn't recount them.

At that time, I was still working long hours and had other stuff going on so I promised myself that I would get to lay out these blocks over Thanksgiving weekend. On Sunday, I got started:

I think it was going ok. You can see that it's lighter in the middle and gets darker toward the edges. Although I don't think you can make it out in the picture, but it's also organized by color (other than red). The blues are in the top left; yellows near the bottom; oranges going to the bottom right; pinks and purples in the upper right.

But my design wall is just not big enough. There are only 14 rows top to bottom and less than that side to side--I need 15 going both ways. Plus I need room to spread out the blocks that aren't in the layout yet so I can see what I have. I could possibly do that on the floor, but not where this wall is located. So I admired it for the rest of that day and pulled them all down--more or less in order so it hopefully will be less work to start next time.

I'm thinking I may take it to my church and lay it out on the floor there. Not as good as a wall, but better than what I have here. You don't think anyone will notice all the little thread tails that will be left behind, do you? :)