wip wednesday 2026.8

after i finished the quilting for "bright forest" with the tawny gold aurifil 2318 thread, i looked to see if i had any more quilts that would look good with this thread for a quilting color that would also be quilted with the walking foot. 

i was thrilled to decide that this combination, already on the machine, would work for my "improv in an afternoon" quilt that i adore so much but haven't managed to finish yet. this was a happy find for me and i quickly bumped the quilt to the top of the queue for working on. (did you guess right after i hinted which quilt would be next?)

i put the guide foot on so i could do some straightline quilting and it mysteriously allowed me to get much closer to the foot/make a smaller space than when i used it previously. in fact, i started out with something like 3/4" spacing, which i bumped up to a full inch after a few lines because it was going to take forever to complete at that rate. i did actually think the 3/4" spacing was attractive, but it was being so tedious and monotonous that i changed it. i timed myself: each line took about 3.5 minutes to complete. after a couple of sessions that were a ew hours each, i was done. it may have been monotonous endlessly feeding the quilt through the machine in a straight line, but i was constantly delighted by the fabrics and colors in the top, so it sort of evened out and made it bearable.  

this is a small quilt, to be sure. it's definitely in the toddler size category and it would certainly suit a little girl well. but i love it so much myself that i don't think i can send it away to be grubbed up by any little girl i know. i wish i had made it a lap size quilt, but i think part of the idea behind it was to use a specific piece of extra batting, which is what determined the size. so, small it is.

 

i'm glad to be moving these other projects along in addition to "pinky stinky" edna. i'm really looking forward to having handbinding to do soon once i'm done with the batch quilting of the six in the quilting queue. i also took out another piecing project just for a change and worked on that, too.

i have an actual report this week, not just an "i did more edna and here's what went wrong."

piecing

• i worked up the star points on all the sashing for the last two rows of "pinky stinky" edna
• d5 made 7 more 16-patch blocks (yay!!! - 3 left to go)
• 8 cute betsy hearts
• 2 quarter log cabin blocks with R for "robin nests"

quilting

• "bright forest" started and completed
• "improv in an afternoon" started and completed

fabric pulls

• i got to thinking about what fabrics i might like to use for "edna" so i can try the pattern again, doing the easy version (not organized scrappy and no 16-patches) this time. i'm thinking of black gingham for the stars and a soft blue for the background squares. i pulled a couple of vintage farmhouse type florals in yellow and red to use for the sashings. it was a fun exercise to match the fabrics, but i won't be cutting into it any time soon - too many wips to complete first!

fabric purchases

• none! still going strong on that front and just using stash. i was tempted to look for some fabric on etsy for some idea or other that i had, but i got over it.