Spoke too soon

My new friends yesterday at the guild sew day were talking to me about living in rattlesnake country, and all of the great ways to control their population. Well, we haven't seen any rattlesnakes on our property. That was yesterday.....

Today I came home from errands, and Husband tells me we just added a new critter to our list. Before he could even tell me what, I thought--rattlesnake. Sure enough, in his storage shed, he heard a hissing sound, and he was quite sure there were no leaking containers. He got to employ on of his favorite methods of pest control, so he was amused. I, myself, was much happier being in denial about the hazards of our hillside living.

So meanwhile, I just opened up the rollup doors to enjoy the perfect 77 degree day while I quilted. I finished 2 of yesterday's service quilts.

This first is a pattern I handed out in classes past--Underlines. The bare roots on this one--9 12 1/2" squares and 9 2 1/2" strips, plus a border. Randomly sew 3 strip sets of 3 each, cut into 3 12 1/2" sections for a total of nine. Sew 3 vertical rows--the 2 on the outside with the strip sets below the squares, the middle with the strip sets above. With a 6" border this finished up a generous 47" x 65". It took little more than an hour to sew, and it's nifty for showing off a theme print. It is also very flexible if you can't cut squares exactly 12 1/2"--these were in fact, just 12", so the strip sets were cut 12". The squares don't even have to be perfectly square--for instance, if you have only a yard, you may need to cut 12 1/2" wide x 11 1/2" tall or maybe less to squeak it out. Nothing has to match, so the exact size is not critical.The second quilt finished is our Patty Cakes. It's simply made from 40 5"x9" Pam Cake slices. Laid out 8 wide by 5 tall, adding a 3 1/2" border, it finishes up a sweet 42"x49". I have drawers of these pieces already cut out of scraps. This also makes up from the Little Bloom packs of 10 11"x 22" pieces.
Actually, I have decided to change the size of the Pam Cake slices to 5 x 9 1/2". This will make the Patty Cakes quilt a little longer. It is also a better size to do more layouts and to combine with 5" charm squares--two charm squares sewn together makes a 5 x 9 1/2" section. So now all of my scraps are cut into 5"x 9 1/2" and 5" squares. The only size smaller I might consider is 3 1/2"--but that's another program.

















Today's best....being gone when our latest critter was discovered.