Sew Everyday

I'm making good progress this week on Evie's quilt.  Evie is my adorable four year old granddaughter.  Her favorite color is pink, and she needs a warm flannel quilt for her big bed.

When last seen on this blog, her quilt looked like this.  All the pieces were cut, and it was stored in a basket, waiting for its turn to be pieced together.

As you can see from the first photo, it's a Bricks quilt.  In order to work out how many pieces I needed from each fabric, I had to make myself a chart.  I had to be careful working this out, because some of the fabrics were just scraps.

Once I had it graphed out, I made this color chart.  The fabrics are labeled A through N.  I cut a small scrap from the leftovers of each fabric and taped them to the page.  (Not an original idea, of course;  Eleanor Burns had this is in all her books.)

As you can see, I alternated light and dark fabrics.  I had to repeat one of the lights.  Fabrics F and N are actually the same.

Once I had the charts done, I laid the piles of rectangles out on an old card table so I could keep things straight.  Then it was just pick up and sew.  This quilt is done in rows, instead of blocks.  I made 18 rows.  Odd numbered rows have 14 rectangles each.  Even numbered rows start and end with a smaller rectangle.  If I had planned it out differently, the smaller rectangles would actually be squares.
I cut my pieces 4.5 in. wide and 6.5 in. long.  Before borders, the quilt will be 72 in. wide by 84 in. long.  There is nearly an equal amount of fabric used for each print.
All of the rows are pieced, and I only have 4 more to sew onto the top.  Then it's time for borders (probably only one).
You are not going to believe me, but I only had to buy ONE of these fabrics in the store.  The rest were in my stash.  Which just says how ridiculously huge my stash is.

So that's the main event in the sewing room this week.  In other news, I'm binding the Star Blossoms quilt.  I'll be sending it to its new home by the end of November.

One of my favorite modern quilting blogs is Crazy Mom Quilts Crazy Mom Quilts Blog.  She has a regular feature she calls Finish It Up Friday.  I don't have any quilts finished today, but here are some things I actually got done this week.

I knitted a hat for the Mittens and More project of Milwaukee Public Television.  I still have to knit the mittens to go with it.  I knit for this project every year, and I feel it is really worthwhile.  I can't stand the idea of kids enduring the Wisconsin winter without mittens or hats.  The deadline is fast approaching:  Oct 23rd is the last day this year.  For more information, click here:  Milwaukee Public Television Mittens and More 2015

Yesterday, I canned six pints of beets.  My husband won't eat them, but I'm fond of them, and six jars will be about all I need this winter.

I had to dig out the pressure canner instructions, since I mostly use the water bath canner for fruits and jams.

Here's what  I should be working on right now!  It's a half bushel of Cortland apples, destined to be pies and crisps this winter.

In spite of all the fall things to do this time of year, like canning and baking and going out to Holy Hill to look at the leaves, I am trying to make time to sew every day.  It really shows in how much I can get done, and how happy and productive I feel.

What are you working on this week?  I hope you have time to sew every day.