Sleeping Porch, Squares

So.

Continuing in our Sleeping Porch Series,

(3 different quilts, made with the same line of fabrics,

Heather Ross' Sleeping Porch,

and some Art Gallery Fabrics' Specktackular, in gold)

next - we have Squares.

This one was a bit of trickster.

When I saw this quilt,

I knew it would be perfect to showcase the unique SP fabrics.

Instead of piecing it the way Shannon did,

(sew a corner onto 4 squares, then join those 4 units into a block)

I thought to myself,

'why not just applique those squares on?

that would be so much faster,

plus - no seams in your beautiful fabrics....'

I am here to tell you 

that it is not faster to applique those squares
on point

onto larger squares,

even if you don't calculate in the time it took 

to prep the squares

(also - do you know how hard it is to press 4 sides and 4 corners

into a perfect square??)

I took to Instagram to see if I was ignorant of some all-important

applique knowledge that would speed up the process,

but no,

the consensus was - it just takes a long time.

I foolishly thought that so many people enjoy this applique thing,

surely it doesn't take forever;

but I was wrong.

Applique takes for-ever.

But look!

Invisible stitches!!

Once I got the darn 2 1/2" squares sewn on,

sewing the 10" squares together into a completed top

was nothing.

Because I had anticipated

 I would have very little labor in this quilt

(cough cough)

I had decided to splurge on a yard and a half 

of the moths on green

for the backing.

I may have seriously underestimated my time,

but y'all,

that backing was a good idea,

because this quilt is positively the most delightful quilt

I've ever felt.

It is so light and airy;

it's the quilt angels dream about, I'm pretty sure.

After lots and lots of practicing,
I free-motion quilted feathers around all of my squares,
and I must say,

I am really quite pleased with how they turned out!

Then I added hand-stitching to all of the appliqued squares
with magenta perle cotton
and inside that,
machine quilted 4-petal flowers

I finished off the quilt
with pink lawn,
machine attached on the back,
and stitched down on the front
with big stitch hand quilting.

At approximately 40x48,
this quilt is perfect for growing with a baby for many years,
and it'd also be a good car quilt,
or even a small lap or wheelchair quilt.
It's beautiful to look at,
but honestly,
this one is far too scrumptious to hang on the wall!

Sleeping Porch Squares is available in my shop
😊
(and 100% of the profits
will go towards buying a sewing machine for Rahab's Rope)

more of the same

I'm on day 2 of a headache.

And I rarely ever get headaches.

~

After 13.5 hours of collective labor,

the kids and I finally got all of the drywall debris picked up.

This, of course,

doesn't include the mountain in the living room

that we still have to deal with,

once we figure out

what, exactly 

to do with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wrote that yesterday

~

I'm now on day 3 of this headache,
and
Tyler and I spent 2 1/2 very fast paced
hours yesterday evening
eliminating the drywall mountain.
Along with every trace that there had even been
almost a ton of sheetrock piled in our living room.
(You think I exaggerate,
but the pile was easily 4 ft at it's peak,
and 15-16 feet in diameter.
That is a dang lot of  'scraps')

ok. so. maybe not 'every last trace'....

I had big plans of finishing the Sleeping Porch Series
last night,
but of course,
those plans were derailed
by the need to remove the pile immediately
for the mudders/tapers.

Since the kids were all at TaeKwonDo,
it was up to The Man and me.

I was so worn out
(remember, I had, earlier in the day,
already worked on tiny drywall scrap & dust removal, too...)
I went to bed before 10:00!

(early bedtime ended up being especially smart
since it stormed,
so we ended up with a girl in our bed by midnight
(because we always end up with a girl in our bed when it rains loudly...)
which means not much sleep for the momma.)

Both my left elbow and my right hand
are a bit angry with me right now,
(as is my back - but that doesn't affect hand quilting ;-)
so I don't know if I'll get to finish today either : /

I tried something new for the binding on this one;
I sewed the binding on the back,
and then sewed it down on the front
with big-stitch quilting
(the other two I bound entirely by machine)
and I really love it!

~

I can't believe it's almost June.
June!

Where has the year gone?

~

Tyler has some work thing on June 10th
that we both need to go to.
I'm already stressing about it,
even though he prefaced the whole thing by saying,
"Now, don't go stressing about this, but...."
What can I say?
I'm not terribly comfortable around a bunch of  'professional' people.

Actually.
I'm not terribly comfortable
around groups of people,
period...

~

Jeremiah finished up the last of his schoolwork yesterday,
so it's officially summer for us.

Woohoo!