The final applique pieces went on yesterday afternoon. Today I will begin the whole marking and layering process. I don't think that is anyone's favorite part nor is it mine but there aren't other options. It's funny. My husband didn't tell me until I had sewn everything that when he first saw the photo of the quilt, he couldn't understand why I wanted to make it since for him those "cottage" colors obscured the interesting design. Of course he tells me that he likes my version very much but what else would he say?

 This is just the flimsy of course, no marking, no back, no batt.

We had some friends visit this week. They were on the east coast to meet their very first grandchild and got in touch with us. We had a nice visit but it culminated with the wife asking me if I would make her a king-sized quilt. She is not offering any recompense for this largely because I have told her in the past there is no way she could afford to buy one of my quilts even if she paid minimum wage by the hour. I did make her son and daughter quilts but that was a while ago and my tolerance for certain activities has gone down. Case in point is marking and layering and basting a quilt. The current project is not that big, about 65 inches square, but even that will test my back with all of its poor old vertebrae. I am considering making a flimsy for this woman but telling her she has to find her own machine quilter in Salt Lake City. I doubt she would go for that idea because even though this woman was Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate and went to Columbia Law School, she has not got a clue what is involved in making a quilt. I like to make quilts but this request seems a little out of line.

 I finished the last block today and sewed the center portion together. I am not sure that I have enough fabric of the Moda cream background for the next borders but I have several other cream background fabrics that can stand in.

Although the bottom right side looks askew it is straight just not heavy enough to hang straight without batting or quilting.

 The weather has been miserable here with the lingering remnants of Hurricane Ian. We have had torrential rain and a sharp drop in temperature for the last few days. My husband invariably says, "It's a good day to stay inside," but as a hand sewer that's pretty much true of every day. In any case I made some changes to my first two rows of blocks and then sewed everything together yesterday.

Neither my husband nor I liked the pieced block from the book so I went to my typical fallback pieced block of a Mariner's Compass. This one is a smaller size from the normal compass blocks and allows for lots of color choices. I also added a new border to the upper right block to off set the framed pieced border treatment of the lower left block of the original, not shown here. The original block arrangement was just a tad too asymmetrical for me. 

 On one of our walks this morning my husband and I noticed some "flyers" lying on most of the driveways on our street. To me, at first, they just looked like litter so I picked one up to dispose of in the trash cans at the park that we normally walk to. Once in my hand, I realized this was more evil and insidious than trash. These were solicitations and exhortations of neo-Nazi groups to "Rise Up White Men".

These are particularly distasteful on this street. My husband and I were the first mixed race couple on the street and remain so, but we also have new neighbors who are black. I don't think that any of the people who live on the street distributed the objectionable material but that doesn't mean that all of my neighbors are delighted to have a mixed race couple and a black couple on their previously (for about 100 years) lily white enclave. 

Everyone has the right to speak, but everyone also has the right to rise up against hate speech. I believe wholeheartedly in open discussion--so bring it on you neo-Nazis. Meet me in an open forum. 

 Here is a picture of the original quilt from Red Wagon. I have changed a few items and plan a few more changes. One of the  changes happened because I wasn't really paying attention to the whole "refer to photo for placement" so rather than the birds going in two different directions, mine go around in a circle. That does not matter to the design, at least not to me. Later you will see some other changes but I have been running around and cooking like a mad person so I have not done any sewing yet today. 

 

One of the dishes I am making for dinner is Thomas Keller's macaroni gratin, that's mac 'n cheese to us peons. I always hated macaroni and cheese because my mother's wasn't that good and Kraft boxed style is just sort of salty. Keller's is so good that I would practically dab it behind my ears as a perfume. It isn't really hard or complicated but the mornay sauce he uses instead of a plain old white sauce with cheese takes about 45 minutes to make and then you have to push it through a sieve before you proceed to make the gratin. Other than that it's easy and still cheap but it is definitely worth the time.