Baby Pineapples Quilt

Good evening on this glorious summer day. Storm Fay has passed, my umbrella table and window wall survived the wind,  and the day has been very lovely. I'm writing ahead because I have a clinic thing early Monday and am not sure when I will be able to deal with  blog issues, which by the way, are issues on BOTH versions, so it is NOT a case of my being unwilling to learn or try. Later this week I plan to investigate Type Pad, may have to move on. 11 years in October! I don't want to quite blogging, but that is at the moment a serious option.

I finished Baby Pineapples yesterday during the rain storm.

Here it is hanging sad and limp and saturated with damp from the air, 100% humidity rain and dense fog yesterday.

I don't have a good design wall to take indoor pics, but I'm not worried. You may recall how awful Blue Baskets looked pre-quilting too. It will be fine.

I think BP is so pretty!

It is a little low contrast. I chose the mid-tone fabric group with its boho style, thinking the background would be white, but the person for whom it's being made requested the grey instead. Hence the value problem.

BP is soft, sweet, and a bit girly.

The project took quite awhile because of the long wait for the final grey border. I ordered the grey twice, with 5 and 6 week delivery waits, only to find both colors were not a good match. One grey was the original Bella solid "Silver"---it looked tan! And then I tried Kona Cotton "Platinum", it looked too blue. Oddly in daylight all three greys looked identical but under artificial lights at night were wildly different and really ugly. I was supposed to make the quilt as large as possible; it went from a wall quilt or crib quilt to a ''big girl quilt"or throw.

In the end I eked out just enough of the original grey  [I do think it was Bella Silver, sorry Nancy, who warned me off] and managed 4 1/2'' or 5" borders. They are sewed round robin or log cabin style instead of the traditional framing plan but probably no one who is not a quilter will ever know. It measures as a top now 57" x 63"
I love the sweet colors.

And the funny stems!

This is the backing print. I have enough extra to make two full sized pillow cases; I overbought. I think I'll go ahead and make the cases too. Surely by the time the child has her daybed, she will have pillows? I can't recall but am pretty sure my kids got pillows by age three.

I have to sit and de-thread the back seams for my quilter, a good mindless project for after clinic days. I must say solids fray horribly, all those grey strings hanging.

And then off to Lori C for her magic touch. Wish she had a hibiscus quilting design, but we'll find something cute.

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I picked up more seed packs at the grocery store on Thursday. Burpee---which are very $$$ and don't do well for me, poor germination if any. But I just need to try, so I maybe have late summer flowers.

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Today no sewing and no beach. I feel like I did food prep all day, getting ready for a week of not wanting to cook [too groggy, too painful].. I made a big casserole of the ground beef, macaroni and tomato dish that blog friend Kel's mom and my grandma called ''goulash''. Comfort food, nice and hot. Lots of salads--ham salad, roast beef salad, egg salad, pitas stuffed with roast beef and tomatoes. Sliced and seeded cukes to also stuff in pitas, but not ahead. And I made the quinoa salad I mentioned two posts back. It is really delicious!

I used 90 second prepared grains:

The quinoa and brown rice is especially good and both types cook up nice and al dente, chewy and nutty. I love quinoa but it's easy to have it overcook and be mushy.

The avocado is a really nice subtle touch. I didn't put bacon but it would be good and I forgot to add the corn. Skipped the beans. Needs lots of lemon juice and seasoning. Delish!

Have a good week.

My bed is too hot ,mommy,
the floor is too hard. Wah! Wah.

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach....

Mo at the finally reopened washing spigot. He has been very sad not to get his drink after bench treats.

PS This is for those who asked me what a button flange was, when I said I wanted to try one on my Basket Collage, see sketch below.

Baby Pineapples Quilt

Hi friends, another Monday, as April slowly rushes by.

Well this is discouraging - all the photos in my recent blog posts have gone lost on Blogger. I don't know if I should reload them or just let it go. Usually they return but these seem truly lost. I love to do photos for my blog, but they're a lot of work, so that is many hours lost. How annoying.

This weekend was typically springlike---cold and windy, so I got quite a lot done on the Baby Pineapples project. Here are some of the inspiration quilts, though I made my fruits smaller and drew my own pattern.

I made my planned eight blocks:

They go together quickly and are, I think, cute.

This is the layout I had planned.

Lots of grey spacing and wide grey borders with a turquoise frame border, to make a medium sized crib quilt. Small enough to use as a play mat or even hang on a wall, since the child's room is quite large, until she is old enough to use it for naps.

Her crib will become a daybed around age two? but then it also becomes a twin headboard. As I showed the mom the design, she indicated that she wanted a larger quilt that might work on the future twin bed even. This is difficult and confusing, as crib mattresses are very narrow and oddly long at 25" x 51" --a twin quilt would be far too much fabric and unsafe.

We compromised by deciding on this layout,

which will need 18, not 8! blocks, and will be a random size somewhere between crib and twin. Much tighter spacing, narrow or no borders? Use the turq for binding?

Because of course by the time the child can talk clearly she will instead want whatever TV cartoon thing is popular. [Dora the Explorer, My Little Pony, Power Puff Girls? I am out of touch... but I'm sure there will be something she wants instead of Pineapples. (I remember making my son, aged about three, the cutest western, Ralph Lauren-ish, bedding, and he hated it! He just wanted some superhero junk sheets from Walmart!]

The quilt will be more throw size or lap quilt size, so it can be used in the home or as a beach blanket when the little one's taste outgrows it.

Later I'll choose ten more Pineapples and cut all those greens.

The good news is I think it is very pretty in a subtle way. We all love the turquoise ''stop border'' or frame border. The baby's room is palest aquamarine seaglass color, too pale for a stop border, so this picks it up in a slightly punchier way. [sigh] Just a six week lag in fabric orders, as warehouses follow distancing requirements now.

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Out and about: My neighbor finally took down her Christmas wreath and put up her silk sunflower wreath.  She only has two, so we see them for quite a spell each season. I felt a bit hopeful seeing her summery vibe.

Another neighbor put up a lovely herb wreath but they have left their Christmas candles [electric] burning in their windows all winter and spring. So pretty and so comforting when I walk Mo at bedtime in the cold dark night.

And Mo and I saw a robin! The quiet days must have made it come for a visit, if not to nest. I haven't seen a robin here in years---we have few songbirds; conditions are too harsh.

Welcome to new readers/ commenters! I hope you all have good week. Is the stay at home thing becoming more normal feeling or you're getting the house arrest blues? I hope you all are well.

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach...


photos from my friend LK's portfolio, as I'm staying home except for Mo's non-beach walks. The wind has been so strong.

sequin waves, in summer/ happy sigh

ships

PS I hope to do an Out and About post of readers' sights and enjoyments as you all walk during your brief outings. I have great pics [w their permission yet to be requested] from Kel and Penny and new friend Lynda, so if you have some beautiful spring pics to share, pls send to me at lizzzz.d@gmail.com.