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Sunday, August 19, 2007

A week of tomatoes, sewing and circles


Gosh, the week sure has flown by! The weather has been pretty hot, and I've tried to stay inside as much as I can. Today, Hubby did his "every other day" garden thing with his tomatoes. All our neighbors benefited today, and tomorrow the doctor's office will get some, too. Aren't they all so pretty? There's about 5 different varieties there, including some heirloom ones that are my favorites.


I spent most of the week behind the sewing machine or on the other end of a sewing needle. I managed to hand sew the binding completely on the Kitchen Sink quilt. The one thing left for it is a label - why I didn't make one for it at the same time I did my other two is beyond my memory.

The second and last circle class was Saturday, so I spent most of Thursday and Friday preparing for that. We had a lot of fun, and both of the students had all twenty of their circles complete before class began. Of course, they needed to make another 20 in class, so unfortunately, their quilts are not to a where they can be photographed yet. The "girls" assure me that they WILL finish them, though. When they do, I'll post pictures of them for sure!

In the meantime, here's a little trick to get a pretty cool background or even an entire quilt, just by making four patches. You end up with bias edged squares, but if you handle them carefully, you can manage.

We started with 6.5" squares of darks and lights, and made them into four patches. Then when they are done, take a 9.5" square ruler, and cut half of them on one direction of slant, and the other half on the other slant.



When you are done, here's how they go together:


Does this look familiar in some way? Well, golly, I just couldn't stay away from my Cherry Limeade. If you look close, you might see a couple of surprises in my "cups"! The border will have to wait until I return from Tennessee on Friday. Between the AQS quilt show and my genealogy sleuthing, I'll be one tired, but very happy camper!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sharon,
That is one cool quilt! Love how you made the background.

Kathy B

loulee said...

I like that, it's a neat idea, I'll have to try it one day.
I found the two surprises! Cute. :-)

Libby said...

Fantastic tomato crop! There's nothing like having them to share with neighbors and others. Back when I worked, I loved when some kind soul would bring in their garden bounty to share with up poor saps with no time for a garden . . . now I try to pay it forward *s*

May Britt said...

I love this quilt. Thanks for showing us how to do the background. This is one quilt I would make some day.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh how fun is that quilt! And I love the colors! Way cool! Glad I'm finally starting to catch up!

Judy said...

love it, LOVE it, LOVE IT!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Sharon, Those tomatoes look wonderful. There's nothing better than fresh homegrown tomatoes. Thanks for sharing the 4 patch background/quilt block. I've wanted to do that for ages. Like the looks and ease of it. Your Cherry Limeade quilt looks wonderful. What great colors and love your little surprises. Sherri

Carol E. said...

Love that quilt!! I'm so glad to have that idea and hope to do it some day soon. THanks!

Carol E. said...

I hadn't been here in a while, so I went back and looked at some past entries. You do some really gorgeous quilts!!! I'm in awe. Thanks for the zucchini bread recipe, also. I used to make it years ago and then lost my recipe, so I'm glad to finally have one back.

Anonymous said...

Where can I find the pattern for Cherry Limeade? It's fabulous!
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Love the tomatoes! We got a few this year, but not a lot.

Also, I love the black and white and lime and pink! What a great color combo!

Anonymous said...

Do you what line the green with pink dots border is from?

Hedgehog said...

Just love the cherry limeade quilt!