I like that I made it to Family Weekend this year. Heading to the Cape was an adventure.
I picked Mom up at the commuter train station in Waltham. Rob was
tracking my phone and was highly entertained by my wrong turns getting to the
train station and then my inability to get back on 128. All 'round Robin
Hood's barn!
Huzzah! I got the baby quilt done in time for Family Weekend. Well, finished at Family Weekend. I wrapped up the binding and buried the last quilting threads down on the Cape less than four hours before the festivities began. Luck was with me - I had sunshine, nearly no breeze and some excellent places to photograph at the cottage.
I held onto the quilt long enough to confirm I got good photos and then gifted it on Sunday. Whew!
The quilt pattern is called Woven Jewelbox. I wanted the throw quilt design as a baby quilt size. So I cut my strips just shy of two inches wide, which resulted in a quilt roughly 40x50 inches. The diamonds are about 11 inches tall.
It took a while to piece the backing for this quilt. I had put together
the diamonds in tumbling blocks format, which I really liked. However, I
didn't have enough fabric to surround it properly. I then rearranged
them into a vertical stripe. Not bad. I was able to use the big
chunk of blue fabric as well as some of the grey and off white. The
little bit of dark gold that didn't work at all in the front fit nicely on the
back.
I was working in the kitchen when I caught sight of a deer in the front yard. I saw a flash of white and thought it was a dog, but I wondered why the deer was so calm. When it came into view from around the bush I realized it was a fawn: mostly white, with some brown spots. What a surprise!
As I watched, a second fawn appeared, even more white than the first one with
a light brown face. I've never seen anything like these two.
Obviously twins, although one was noticeably larger than the other.
I spent most of the first weekend in July wrestling with the quilt. Wow, I would not have thought I would have so much trouble on the center diamonds. I started with scrappy blues, blacks, greens and orange. I abandoned the scrappy look to make the outer edge diamonds with navy blue sides with orange-gold centers. I tried grey diamonds in the middle - way too much contrast and it looked washed out. Then taupe, which really dulled the color of the whole quilt (very surprising because it matched nicely with two of the zig-zags). Then a minty green similar to the zig-zags. That looked great in small quantities, but as soon as I finished the four diamonds and placed them on the wall, they completely overpowered the quilt. Damn.
I cut, pieced and ripped apart most of three sets of middle diamonds before
I settled on a slightly lighter green.
A few weeks ago Rob and I headed to my mother's to help clean out her basement. I fretted over the undertaking for weeks prior to the date. However, the planning and research were rewarded! Amazing how much disappeared in less than 24 hours. Freecycle, Craigslist and nextdoor are wonderful resources! So many things walked away on their own. (And some people made out like bandits with the items they picked up.) Win-win as far as I'm concerned.
Added bonus - I had time on Friday evening to pick blueberries from Mom's massive blueberry bush. I ate a bunch of them but the rest are in my freezer.
