It has been a good quilting weekend.

First - I found where I had stashed the vast majority of my 1930s-inspired fabrics. They're in a big big tub, but with a thin layer of juvenile-prints over the top of them, so I overlooked them before.

So now I have my Mighty Stash of Depression-era colors back, and I've been happily cutting tumblers for a quilt...I plan to make this big enough to fit my bed, which means it will be something on the order of 84" by 90". I haven't calculated how many tumblers that will take but I think 1000 is probably a conservative estimate. (I'm cutting four per different fabric and will cycle back to the beginning of the stack if I have to. I think what I'll do is cut tumblers until I think I have "enough," then start sewing, and if it seems that it's going to take a lot more, I can always cut more.

I really do adore the reproduction Depression fabrics - all the sort of greyed pastels, the not-quite candy-colors. They are the fabrics that first really got me interested in quilting, coincident with the FIRST "Aunt Grace" line that came out back in, I think 1990 or 1991.

I've been collecting them since then, and a lot of different companies have come out with lines, so I'd not be at all surprised if it did turn out I had 250 different pieces, at least in fat-eighth or scrap form (which is enough for four tumbler blocks). Or if not 250 different prints, certainly 250 different combinations of color and print - several of the prints I have in three or four different colors.

I'm also thinking, since I have these out - and since I found more of the bits of the Depression-era solids that go with them - I might cut more hexagons for the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that I keep looking at, but never quite get back to the hand-piecing of. I'm thinking about doing a big lot of cutting for this, then taking the pieces with me over Christmas (Thanksgiving will probably be too short a break) and enjoying some uninterrupted hand-piecing time.

(I think part of the reason I get away from it is, unlike knitting, I can't read while doing it and it takes more "visual concentration" than other things I do, so even watching anything on tv that requires much attention is out).

(Some interesting pages: mosaic quilts and English paper piecing, including flower garden quilts; Depression-era quilts.

Both those pages are from Womenfolk: the art of quilting, which looks like a really interesting site. That is, if you're not too busy making quilts to take time to check it out.

(One thing I find I have to do when I'm home is balance my 'surfing time' with my "making stuff time," because it's too easy to get sucked into surfing and then wonder where the evening went...)

2. I did a bit more hand-quilting. I really do want to make a commitment to spend at least 10 minutes a day on this.

3. I started a new quilt.



These are the first six blocks of the Houndstooth quilt I was talking about. The focus fabrics are from the "Vintage Violets" line - I got a fat quarter pack of these for my birthday several years ago and I'm glad I've finally found a fitting quilt for them.

I'm super happy about this quilt for two reasons: first, the method of cutting the pieces using a ruler you've marked the seam line on makes for a high degree of precision without too much fuss. So the quilt is going to be one of the better ones I've made from a technical standpoint.

I'm also really pleased with my color-picking ability again - I chose that grey-green background solely on the basis of the selvedge strip (they come printed with little dots representing each color in the print). I wasn't sure it was going to work at first but wow, does it ever. It's just the PERFECT fabric for the background.

Here's a closeup. The colors are even nicer in real life.



There will eventually be thirty-six blocks: six each of six different fabrics. (And for once, the fat quarters worked out just right, and I didn't have to throw in an "emergency" extra fabric at the end).

One of the other nice things about this quilt is that it's modular enough that you can do a little bit on it if you've got a little bit of time - there are the strip sets to sew together, then the blocks to cut (the fiddliest part), then the blocks to sew together (also a bit fiddly because you're working with a bias edge there).

But wow, does this quilt make me happy. I've already put my name in the rotation at my mother's church to have the ladies there hand-quilt it for me. (If things go really well, I'll have it done to take up there at Thanksgiving; if not, certainly at Christmas).