Rainy Day Books

We finally are getting the rain we so desperately need here. It is a beautiful sight as I gaze out my sewing room window into our backyard. Everything looks so fresh and clean and the colors of the pink blossoms on the plum trees and yellow leaves on the euonymus bushes are so vibrant.

In keeping with the rain-inspired mood, I sewed up two cloth books that were wet-day related. These are two books I already had in my stash before I bought the ten more books at the quilting and sewing show in San Mateo. (See my February 23, 2014 post about those ten books.) They'd been cut out and just needed the batting added before being sewn. First is The Tale of Jemima Puddle~Duck. The first photo is the back cover on the left and the front cover on the right. The subsequent photos are the pages of the book in reading order. The last photo is manufacturer's information for the book.

Next up is a book about what to do when the weather is not sunny called Rainy Day Games. I bought this book at the San Mateo show in February of 2013, only one year ago, and I am already sewing it up after only twelve months residence time in my stash! The first photo is the back cover on the left and the front cover on the right. The subsequent photos are the pages of the book in reading order. The words of the verses of the poem are cute. If you cannot read them in the photos, they are all typed out in my February 23, 2013 post titled Went Shopping. I really must have liked the poem back then, too. The last photo is manufacturer's information for the book.

A grey day does not make me feel very ambitious, so making up these two books was just the right amount of effort to expend. Counting two cloth books remaining in my stash from a year ago (February 2013 show), plus the ten I just bought this week (February 2014 show), I only have twelve left to complete. Any progress whatsoever in the fabrication and distribution of my cloth literary collection is a good thing.

WIP: Ghastlies Quilt – Tree Top Assembly

At the end of my last Ghastlies post I was decided tree strips. I committed to one double height green tree row and, while my mind was churning on others, I made some tweaks on the polka dot brick rows. I had one brick on the left edge of the quilt where a little boy was hiding behind his mom's skirt. Had I left it that way, once I trimmed the edge, none of her skirt would have shown and a smidgeon of the boy would have been covered by the binding.

I removed that brick, trimmed a half inch off the right edge and re-inserted it so more of the skirt showed and the 3/8" binding will just come up to the little boy's pudgy cheek.

Back to those trees... Oh, how I agonized on how much more tree fabric to include, how tall to cut each tree strip, and where to place them! If I had trees on the top should they be on the bottom also? Did I need equal amounts of white/grey/green trees? Should I save some green trees for the back? In the next photo the trees look grey but it must be my lighting because they are really green as in the preceding photo. As a backing, I'd been planning to use that yellow fabric whose olive dots matched the tree fabric so exactly they seemed meant for each other. Now, I was reconsidering. 

Tucking in a few tree rows in all three colors here and there, I experimented with repeated layouts. I reforested that quilt with trees many times over! After rearranging yet another configuration, I stood back and stared once again at the quilt on the wall. "Stop!" I scolded myself. "Enough!"  So I added no other strips, joining together only what was currently on the wall. Here is the assembled top on my design wall, with a bit of sunshine streaming in on the lower left side edge. I decided that asymmetry was good, tree edge on top, dot edge on bottom, uneven tree row heights. The grey and the green double tree height rows only appear one place each but hey, that's OK. If I'd included all the fabric combinations I was considering, this tall, tall, quilt would have been more appropriate as a floor runner down a long hallway.

After saving the green trees to use with the yellow fabric with olive dots, I changed my mind for the backing material. I will use this pink and grey stripe instead. The uneven stripe widths are unique and, since I know this is for a girl, I no longer have to pretend to be gender neutral. I plan to break up the length of the back with a grove or two of grey and white trees, just to add a bit of a surprise.

In the game of Scrabble, I view Q and Z as partners in crime. I am pairing that duo again for the edges of this quilt so it will have a Quirky Zebra binding. It should be fun!

Now I am at my typical stall point of backing, batting, and FMQ. I plan to prepare the backing and batting today. I just might distract myself this evening with sewing some of the cloth books I bought this weekend (see 2/22/13 post) and put off starting the FMQ with the lame excuse that I'll be fresher in the morning. To quote Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind...

Here are my stats updated relative to last week's WIP post. I have completed nothing and started nothing new since I have been actively working this Ghastlies quilt exclusively. The ongoing projects are unchanged from my 2/19/14 WIP post and mostly awaiting FMQ so I have not repeated them here.

Stats since 02/19/14 WIP:

     Completed  projects - 0

     Currently in progress - 7 - but actively working only on Ghastlies

     New projects - 0 thus far - unless I cave and sew cloth books

I will further delay my FMQ by linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP to check out what has been keeping others busy.