August Doings

 This month seems to have flown by with what seemed to be little accomplishment, but this morning I managed to stitch the last long diagonal seam and "Lines and Boxes II" became a completed flimsy. 

This is the second quilt made from a big box of scraps cut for a quilt several years ago, which was donated to our camp auction.  The first one was called Lines and Boxes and this one is Lines and Boxes II.  Both named for a comment my young, probably 4-year-old son at the time, made.  One night at supper he asked his dad "Why do you always wear lines and boxes (stripes and plaids)?  That innocent question has stuck in my memory for over 40 years, so it seems appropriate that this last quilt from that box of squares and rectangles should be named in his honor and given to him when it's eventually finished.   The top currently measures 86x96 inches and uses up a lot of semi-vintage 1980s and forward fabric scraps.  

It began with laying out the pieces on the floor of the church foyer at one of our quilt ministry get-togethers earlier this summer, since there is no place for anything this large in our house. The alternate nine-patch or puss-in-the-corner blocks were sewn during the first few weeks of our lockdown last spring.

Then the long days this month sewing all the diagonal rows together, trying to keep everything in order. Only a few of the shorter rows fit on the design wall.

So happy to finally finish this morning and the impending rain/wind storm has held off long enough to snap a few quick photos outside.  I'll be machine quilting this later this fall or over the winter as time allows.  But in the meantime, my sewing room will be occupied by three grandkids over the weekend so everything needs be put away to allow for all those air mattresses, duffel bags, etc. etc.  I'm so looking forward to their visit since we haven't seen them since Christmas!  Their mom and I will be busy sewing more masks for the beginning of school year (mom is a high school teacher), so there will be plenty to keep all of us busy.  Good times!

And now there is a nearly empty tote to fill with another future project.  Thinking about turning the few remaining blocks from this project into a couple of utility placemats for our table.  That should finish them off completely.  Yay, so good to have one of my oldest PIGS on the road to completion and the bin of scrappy pieces finally gone!