Ta-Daa!

Do you remember this--my youngest son's memory quilt from his time as a missionary in Brazil? I've blogged about it plenty, here, and here. You may recall that at the last sighting I was asking opinions on border choices, and I received many helpful suggestions, all of which I tried out on the design wall. But as I sat across the room from the design wall and pondered the look of the different borders, one thing became very apparent to me. The cobblestone blocks were overpowering the quilt. I wasn't about to scrap them altogether, but somehow I had to tame down the look. I struggled with this for some time--this has been on my design wall for months, which seemed like forever. Finally I knew I had to pull out my trusty seam ripper and deconstruct those cobblestone blocks--all 17 of them. What you see above is the almost finished product. In an attempt to make a quilt that wasn't a square, I had not put the cobblestones across the top of the quilt, but I wasn't crazy about that look. Once I took apart the stones, I was able to string a single row of stones across the top. Now the quilt is just barely not a square, but I think the addition of  blocks on top helps the look immensely. I also decided that all of the straight inner borders needed to be double colors and narrow. The three strips of color along the outer edge of the quilt have not been sewn on yet, so they look a little wider than they will actually be. Everything else is stitched together. I am much happier with this result, and I hope to finish sewing on those borders tomorrow.
You be the judge. Look at what I was showing you last time around with this project.

See how much bigger the cobblestone blocks are--and none of them go across
the top of the quilt. And the borders are wider and not so plentiful. I like
the new version so much better.

Tonight I got my weekly block for John'aLee's Fallen Soldier Project made. Most of my red/white/blue fabrics are remnants and scraps, with an occasional FQ. I love the challenge of pulling out all of the possible red/white/blue combinations and trying to choose the right pieces to make a star that is a little different than the last one. But that is just my idea of fun--take something easy and see how you can complicate it. Kind of warped, huh? BTW, the above link is John'aLee's original request for help with making blocks. If you can help out, remember that she has extended the deadline to the end of November. 

I'll leave you with this scene from the back door. Remember those mountains in a recent post that were blanketed with snow? Well, here they are again. It has been above normal temps, the snow is gone and the leaves are changing on the mountainsides. I love this time of year. We took a drive up through the canyon this evening and the colors in the mountains were gorgeous--but I forgot my camera. : (

Until next time, from the little mountain valley where fall has arrived,

Janet O.