Sewing Sunday

Yep, that's carrot bread again. It came out a little better this time, but I think there's still something wrong. It seems to be a much darker bread than what I've gotten at Mimi's and I'm really thinking Mimi's doesn't use molasses (probably because I don't much like molasses and it just doesn't taste right--plus the molasses would make it dark like this). The recipe I have is off the internet and I found a couple versions, but this one appeared most often, so I figured it was more likely to be "the" receipe. Maybe I'll check again and try the other one. Maybe I'll just give up and go to Mimi's. Yeah, that's probably what I'll do. Zuchini bread though--I'm good with that. Maybe next weekend.

Okay, here's what I'm working on. These are the blocks I started with and there's a little story that goes along with them:



Several years ago, I joined an online Thimbleberries group and met Diane. We soon became good friends and chatted online quite often, usually exchanging a couple e-mails a day. Both of us collected older Thimbleberries fabric, and one day I came across an eBay auction for something like 20 or so blocks, a book of different patterns for 8" blocks, and a bunch of fabric from the old Blue Skies line. Diane was also interested in the auction, and since we had an agreement not to bid against one another, we decided that we would split the blocks and fabric if we won. Well, we won and split everything up, but several months later, I received Diane's share of the blocks and fabric in the mail as a birthday gift. What a dear friend! I have to admit that the fabrics in this line are kind of odd and I'm not a huge fan of that teal/blue color, but as a collector of "vintage" Thimbleberries fabric, I appreciated the blocks nonetheless.

A few months later, Diane was diagnosed with cancer and died within a couple weeks. The blocks and fabric have sat underneath my sewing table, along with some of the other fabrics from the line that I've collected over the past couple years, and I finally decided it was time to put them into a quilt. I had co-hosted a year long swap of 8" star blocks for my group, and I used some of the Blue Skies fabric to make up sample blocks, so when I pulled out all my blocks this morning, I found I had 30--just enough to make a quilt that is 5 columns by 6 rows. The only problem with these blocks is that some of them weren't constructed very precisely and the block sizes were a little off. I had recently been looking at Sharyn Craig's Twist 'n Turn book, which presents some excellent solutions for somewhat mismatched blocks, so I decided to try the method out. Here's what I have so far:



I'm not sure whether I'll keep the blocks in this same configuration or change things around a bit. I also haven't decided whether I want to add some sashing between the blocks or leave them "as is." I'll have to look at them a bit and play around some.

The weekend's over and it's back to work tomorrow. I'd much rather stay home and play with fabric but no one seems to want to pay me to do that. So sad. I must go get some tissue so I don't cry all over my keyboard!