Saturday, September 08, 2007

Blackberry Quilting Days


Today I decided to take a day off of everything and just play in fabric. I finished two blocks for a group baby quilt, finished piecing a backing, and have two more rows of a quilt that has been in-process for at least 6 months.

I also picked lots and lots of blackberries while I was walking Macbeth this morning. I put three bags into the freezer and with the remainder I made a blackberry and apple crumble. It is fun to use the apples from our own tree and berries that I gather myself. Makes me really feel like I am living in the country! (The pears in the photo came from our gardener's trees...)


I love fall food. One of my latest favorites is making a curried squash soup. I've made it every week for the last month! Maybe I do need to branch out....


The photos of my current project didn't come out very well so you'll get them tomorrow. The photo below is my leader and ender/mile a minute mess! I've kept the small pieces of my repro fabric in a basket next to my sewing machine and sort of randomly sew them together...ok, very randomly. I've started to wonder what I could do with them...it is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to put them all into a quilt top and since the pieces do get very tiny it is even a bit buzy for me! I was thinking of maybe trying to make a bar quilt...any ideas?

Doing something with these is part of my clear out process. I have two bags of fabric that will find new homes soon. I've even put aside some buttons and other "stuff" that I know I will never use. I now have enough space to turn around!


8 comments:

Gypsy Quilter said...

A bar quilt is a lovely idea. The berries look quite delicious.

mereth said...

I used to make blackberry and apple jam every year from wild bushes along the side of the road, but they are actually considered a noxious weed here and the council sprayed them all and killed them. Damn, no more pies and jam for me.
I think you just need to put in some larger areas of colour, sashing, bars, log cabin style strips around these crumb blocks and they'll all play beautifully together.

Kim said...

Your berries look wonderful! I wish I had somewhere nearby to pick them, but I always have to buy them in the grocery store--and even though they're expensive, I can't resist when they look that good!

Tonya Ricucci said...

oooh, dinner at your house! yum. Love your blocks. A bar quilt or making them all the same size and adding sashing and posts would be great to unify them. Fabulous - my favorite kind of quilt. Glad you're feeling better!

atet said...

The blackberries look so yummy! A bar quilt would be fantastic for those blocks -- and isn't being able to turn around great? I wish I were that far along -- but I'm getting there! (it looks worse before it gets better right?)

sewkalico said...

I used ALL the blackberries I picked for jam and a pie, I never thought to freeze them!! duh! I will have to try go blackberrying again this week.

I would alternate those busy blocks with plain blocks, or make HST's with them and plain blocks... just a thought?

Patti said...

Looks to me like a wall of parts for one of Finn's orphan quilts. Have you checked out her new Orphan Train blog? I made two tops out of parts just like those and I love how they turned out. I just kept sewing on strips or triangles and whacking things off until I had big squares and rectangles, then figured out how to put those together. Didn't use math - just laid strips alongside other strips and whacked them off at the right length.

Lynda said...

The 'blocks' look a bit random, in a good way. Just keep adding strips and crumbs to each block until it's big enough to square up (6 1/2" is a good size) and then sew them together into rows and then a top. The mix of colours, sizes and shapes looks good when it's everything, trust me! Look forward to a completed top, soon.