Almost-Almost Amish

Hi everyone! How was your week? It has gotten cooler and drier here, but I think hot summer will be back by Sunday. This past week I finished quilting and binding my Almost Almost Amish little quilt, from last fall's mystery sewalong on Humble Quilts. The sewalong was called Almost Amish; I add the qualifier because my version doesn't ''pop"! like many other participants' versions did/ should.

In the end, I like it a lot.

Here it before and after washing. Not much crinkle when washed, a useful way to hide any flaws. I think the leftover batting I used was Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 or similar, from cutaway leftovers, maybe from a crib quilt where I asked Lori C for soft and puffy. My usual Warm and Natural shrinks much more.

This project started on a sour note---I was so excited to be making an Amish quilt, my first love of quilt styles long ago. On FB I wrote about the color challenges and how I had pored over web fabric stores' virtual swatches, what to order, what would work? You know me, I am always very enthusiastic and positive, maybe a little too?---and a commenter  shot me down so meanly, saying, "What's the big deal, it is only 18" square. [insert implied Yeesh here.]"

Boy did I ever feel stupid.

 My intent, besides just loving the project idea was to start a discussion of choosing colors, especially for a mystery sewalong. I deleted my post and scuttled away in tears.

Once my fabrics came I rethought the incident, and decided to sew along anyway, but the poor little quilt, actually more like 24" square, never really charmed me. But come summer days when my intended handwork project has not been prepped yet, end of August, I was happy to have it to hand quilt.

Oddly it was hard to do the final piecing. There's a lot of crossings of blocks and lines that had to line up.

And a flaw because it was a mystery [non-quilty friends, this means we get instructions to make components but do not know what the final outcome will be],

...it is plagued by poor color placement. The pink squares visually form circles or wreaths; the turquoise squares remain stodgy nine patches and don't glow or create the wreath-y optical illusion. If I had known ahead of time what/ where I would have corrected that. As it is, it seems asymmetric or lopsided.

Add in my choice of backing, sweet fabric, but I made many mask this spring using that fabric and hair tie elastics, when the virus raged here and no elastic was available to buy. Bad memories, one of the worst times of my life.

This week I could NOT for the life of me find the turquoise binding fabric. I spent a whole day looking and yes, in the end it was right where it belonged.
sigh. This quilt is jinxed.

Now it is done, and pretty? Would an Amish child have loved it, c. 1950? Did the Amish even make doll quilts? Can't say as I have ever seen one. HERE

Below, auditioning it round the cottage, where should it be displayed?

Will the ocean sunshine fade the black to nasty brown?
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Off topic, Penny made the quinoa salad I recc a month or so ago. Has avocado, bacon/ ham, etc. Penny served hers warm, as it is chilly right now in her home in South Africa. Don't forget to try this, it is delicious. And visit Penny on IG, her name is penecat; she is a talented photographer.

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Mo is doing well. I am back to stage one retraining him, in regard to separation anxiety. So far all is well. Still on soft food, and no chews, though, makes a puggy sad. Tonight I made him ice cream for tomorrow's deck time, to cheer him up.

Have a good weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...