Oops.  That’s all I have.  Just “oops”.  I’m making 2 quilts for the boys based on a double bed.  One boy has a twin but I wanted them to be the same size so I’m making them both for the double bed.  I went to QuiltMaker’s site for suggested sizes and failed to notice – until I had the blocks all sewn together and hung on the wall – that I had looked at the mattress size…not the suggested size of the finished quilt including a drop.  Ack!

I sewed a 3″ border using the red fabric until I ran out.  I’ll also add a 5″ white border and then the outer border will be 5″ of the black; those are all from the Moda grunge line so they’re easily available.  So I probably have another 30 minutes on both of these quilts once I get the additional fabric and then they’ll be ready to be quilted.

I could’ve caught up on the last 2 Splendid Sampler blocks but since I’m taking tomorrow off, I may do that tomorrow or later this week since they’re both blocks that shouldn’t take too awfully long.  Instead, I start cutting out the Libs Elliott quilt which she’s named “Just Like Heaven”.

I picked out the fabric based on the blues and greys used in her original pattern and swapped out  an off-white/cream for the white fabric she used.

The big difference though is that the fabric I’m using is wool flannel which has a very different feel to it than the cotton fabrics I typically use. When I was buying the fabric at the LQS last week, the owner’s daughter suggested shortening my stitch length to 2.0 which was a huge help.  I forgot on the first block and the stitches were too loose. This is a really fun pattern that uses entirely half square triangles, but it’s the way they’re laid out and how the colors work together that really make it pop.

The pattern uses 13 different colors, so staying organized is the key to success on this quilt.  There are 8 rows and 8 columns, so she numbers each block as A1, B2, C3, etc. so it’s so easy to see exactly where each finished block will go – each row and column specifically.  The first set of blocks just attached 2 HSTs together – easy peasy.

But the remaining blocks all have a twist to them, so I started writing the block number on the back of the partially finished blocks with a Frixion pen so that I knew that I had the right block when adding in a small corner square for example.  Then when I have a block complete, I put all the A blocks in a pile, then another for B, etc.  When I’m done, it will really quick to sew them all together.

The pattern uses 8″ finished blocks, but it’s probably pretty apparent that when it comes to cutting…I’m kinda lazy!  I had the dies on hand to make 6″ finished squares so even though I’ll end up making additional rows and columns to get it to a larger finished size it was worth it to me to not have to cut all those pieces by hand.