Rag Dolls quilt continued and Max is ONE!!!

It is rare indeed for a project to turn out the way you envision it!  I am so happy with the way the Rag Dolls quilt top is turning out.  I found the perfect background material at Joann Fabrics on Friday and finished cutting and sewing the blocks together today!  It took some pondering to get the staggered arrangement to work out.  Now on to designing complimentary borders and figuring out the best designs to use for hand quilting.  I also need to figure out what I want to do for the back.

Watched some adorable videos of Max on his first birthday!  Wish I could have been there to give him grandma hugs and kisses :-(.  He is such a darling. 

Rag Dolls Quilt

I have enjoyed creating rag doll blocks since September and now am struggling with how best to assemble the blocks into a quilt.  Just lining them up didn't appeal to me.  A staggered arrangement gave them more life.

My first attempt at sashing overwhelmed the blocks I worked so hard to create, since there was just too much color and the eye was overwhelmed.

After doing some research on line to look at different examples of sashing I came across an exciting presentation possibility using "wonky" sashing to tilt the blocks. http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2011/11/topsy-turvy-sashing-tutorial-wonky.html

This combined with a single color cream background may be the best solution to make them stand out and to give them even more movement.  My next consideration was whether to frame the blocks or to leave them unframed.  I think I have decided to leave them unframed.

Now I must decide on borders, yeah or nay?  I sort of like the patchwork borders, but I'm not sure.  Again, I don't want to take away from the rag doll blocks.... Maybe a white border on the outside?  I can see 'spirals of wind' stitches for the quilting around the blocks.  Lots more thinking needed!

To be continued!

Back in the Saddle!

I haven't posted for quite some time in this blog due to time constraints, and life in general, but now that I am 'less-employed' I will have more opportunity and inclination to blog.  I am looking forward to this!

Currently I am busy pursuing massive reorganization of our home and indulging in crafts that I've never had the time to tackle. I have completed a first sweep through the top floor of rooms (which included my craft room and our office so those were both VERY time consuming and still need a bit more work).  Since my craft room is now functional again, quilting and other sewing is my current time consumer :-). (Ah, the benefits of being a good girl and biting the bullet and cleaning!). We also tackled the dreaded garage, which was in a rather sorry state of mass confusion. We have made significant progress in that area (maybe half done) and donated a pick up truck full of furniture, a dryer, books and other items to the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  I've also donated about 15 bags of clothes, and other household goods to Easter Seals and Purple Hearts Veterans.  Several large bags of trash were also generated and dispatched, and there is still more!  I confess that the lure of quilting has slowed progress in reorganization..... I still need to finish going through 2 cabinets in the living room and a few in the kitchen.  The dreaded basement awaits and is gathering more items from elsewhere that I just can't deal with yet. (This is called the 'anaconda' method of cleaning - the bulge travels from room to room until it escapes the house!)  Gardening is slowing down as the Fall progresses, and I worked on clearing the large back garden bed yesterday.  I hope to get out there and seriously weed all the beds before bad weather sets in so I can enjoy the Spring splendor without the Spring sore body!  I bought 120 bulbs to add to the Springtime joy and have about 30 more of those to plant yet.  I am working on a crocheted baby blanket, that is mindless, more-or-less, just for the fun of it.

I am also trying to organize all important information in one central location so that it will be more easily accessed by us and others, in case that were needed! I have wanted to do this for some time so I bought this book from Signals catalog with the rather grim name "I'm Dead. Now What?" to help with this task. The book has helpful pages for just about everything you would want to know all  organized in one place once it is completed.  It is going to take a while to fill out and some of the topics we need to get busy and decide on.  I'm going to work on filling it in every day.  I made a good start on it last night and this morning. I also wrote up a list of travel destinations we would love to visit - a bucket list, I guess!

My other pursuit includes physical activity (which I need more of!) and photography.  I discovered that I am truly happy exploring the natural world and discovering, photographing and identifying organisms is a passion. It is a useful activity as well, since I am still working as a part-time Naturalist. I have been spontaneously hiking or biking the many lovely little parks and reserves near us or just walking our U shaped neighborhood, which is a lovely walk of about 1 1/2 miles. I hope to obtain a better camera soon.

Last, but not least, the cats really appreciate my increased presence :-)