Whack n Wonder - aka - "Another Opportunity for Creativity"

The Quilt from Hell

I really do love quilting - but some are more fun than others. Last year I worked on a pattern that had a major mistake - leaving me short of material for the setting triangles. I was angry but my wise sister told me that quilters see these circumstances as "opportunities for creativity." My latest quilt has been such an opportunity right from the beginning!

My opportunity began I signed up for a class at my local quilt shop with 3 of my friends. A couple of weeks before the class was to begin we all headed to our very favorite shop in Trenton, FL to buy fabric. We had our supply lists in hand. Right away we should have suspected something was wrong because the list called for A LOT of material - 13 1/2 yards, not counting the backing, for a single-sized quilt! To make matters worse, my material had a smaller repeat - so I doubled the amount of the main fabric. The larger star blocks have a border and we were told to get a stripe - so I did. All my fabrics looked beautiful together in the pile and I couldn't wait for the class to begin!

Our pre-class instructions included making two plastic templates from the diagram in the book (one diamond and one triangle)and cutting "B" and "D" triangles. Since I had a triangle ruler, I used it to pre-cut the triangles instead of using the template. This turned out to be a good move on my part as the diagram was incorrect.

In class, we proceeded to cut strips for the diamonds - lots of strips and lots of diamonds. When I started asking questions about the diamonds - we were told to cut 66 "sets." At that point, I counted the 11 star blocks on the sample and asked why we needed so many since there are only 11 blocks with 11 sets of diamonds. My teacher looked dumbfounded - deer in the headlights dumbfounded. Long story short, she had totally miscalculated and now I had way too many cut strips - and not enough material to cut the larger strips for the "one-block wonder" diamonds. Good thing I had extra material - except she had miscalculated these triangles also and, again, I didn't need as many strips as she called for. Same with the stripped border.


Once I started putting the blocks together - I realized the stripped border was way too strong for the quilt. It jumped out and you missed the neat kaleidoscope stars and circles. Let me put it this way - if you laid a baby on the quilt, the poor child would throw up. An adult would have an instant migraine. Good thing I had all those extra strips!! I used them for borders. Now I had extra blocks - so I added two rows to the quilt making it wider than it is long. To correct this, I added an extra border to the top and bottom (yep, using even more of the extra strips). Now it's square. Using the main fabric for the borders instantly settled it down - maybe too much. I don't like that I used the same fabric both places but at least I didn't waste it.

This quilt is a long way from being my favorite - but it's OK. The fabrics that looked so beautiful in the pile did not go together any where near as well as I thought they would. Even though the yellow was the exact yellow in the main fabric - it is too bright for the purple stripe. I should have stuck to one color instead of using both the yellow and green. I still have blue that I haven't even used. I don't think I'll put another border on it - and I'm not sure I have enough backing fabric. I'll probably use the stripe cut on the bias for the binding - but we'll see.

I welcome suggestions and discussion. Oh, by the way, our teacher? The poor dear was taking pain medicine that was way too strong - and she literally couldn't think straight. She felt terrible when she realized her mistake - but I told her it was just another opportunity for creativity!

Quilts for the Kids

I can finally share pictures of the two quilts that I made over the summer - one for son John and the other for daughter Pamela.

This is a One-Block Wonder that I made for John. I really enjoyed working with the blues, greens and yellows. The kaleidoscope effect comes from cutting triangles from 6 identical pieces of fabric.

And this is Pamela's quilt - a French Braid. We selected the fabric together just days before she delivered my newest grandson, Leandro. I am currently in Maryland visiting and celebrating Gabriel's 7th birthday.


Before I left Florida, we had a visit from one of my favorite squirrels - the Florida Fox Squirrel. I'm sneaking this blog entry in while Pamela, Orlando and Gabriel are saying good-bye to the birthday guests. I'd better go help clean up.

New Quilt

This is one of the projects I have going. Yes, one. I have another quilt top that is almost finished - I just need to add the boarders (but it hasn't told me yet what it wants) and still another that is finished, just waiting for the backing and quilting.

This is a stack and wack variation. It's similar to a one-block wonder, except there are two different blocks - one with diamonds that make the star and the other with triangles. Both are cut from the same material. This is not the final arrangement - I just laid what I had completed out on the bed to see where I am. I have enough fabric to add two more rows and make it queen-sized, but I don't know whether or not I'll do that.

I'm heading to Maryland tomorrow to surprise my grandson on his birthday. Gabriel is turning seven and mommy is away on a business trip so I decided grandma needed to be there for his big day. He was just elected class president (I'm SO-O-O proud of him!!) and I found a book about his idle - President Obama. Gabriel doesn't have any strong political feelings about Obama - he just likes that he has big ears - like he does!

Bill and I spotted this big guy out back of our lanai last night while we were eating dinner. It was just starting to get dark, so I had to lightened the picture to identify him. I'm pretty sure it's a Red-tailed Hawk - very common around here.

Unique Birders

Today the On Top Of the World (OTOW) Unique Birders had their first field trip of the season. A dozen birders met at the nearby Shalom Park at 8:30 this morning. The weather was cool, but the sun was shinning and the skies were bright blue. Anne Merrick lead the trip down and around the various garden paths that criss-cross the well-manicured grounds.

It was difficult getting our resident birding expert Norm Lentz (far right) to put down his binoculars long enough to take this group shot.

This is the underside of a Yellow-throated Warbler. It's a lousy picture - but it sure shows how this small bird got his colorful name!

Action shot! We watched this Eastern Phoebe for quite a while while he scooted around looking for insects on a dead limb. According to Donald and Lillian Stokes' Field Guide to Birds, "25% or more of phoebe nests are parasitized by cowbirds."

Another shot of the Eastern Phoebe sitting high and mighty.

I believe this is a Palm Warbler. Norm adds "This [Palm Warbler] is a good, crisp representation of the Western (Brown) variant in non-breeding plumage. The Eastern variant is yellow in all plumages. Both are common in Florida during the winter (non-breeding) season."

He was shopping in the moss and it looks like he has some stuck on his beak.

This looks like a Northern Parula - but that wasn't on our list, so it probably isn't. * Norm confirms my identification and Northern Parula Warbler has been added to our list.



I love the adorable Tuffted Titmice.

It was difficult getting a good shot of this Red-bellied Woodpecker with the sun in the background.

The State Bird of Florida, the Northern Mockingbird. We saw quite a few on our walk. This one was enjoying the beautiful bright purple berries on the Beautyberry bush.

I thought I was going to have to crawl under the bushes to get a decent shot of this Brown Thrasher. He was hunting in the leaves for a meal of insects, lizards, snakes, or berries.

The Eastern Bluebirds are not as blue this time of the year as they are in the Spring - but they are still beautiful. We have lots of them in our backyard.

After our walk we went to the Oasis Restaurant for brunch, and compiled our list of the 25 birds seen on our walk. Nice outing! Thanks everyone!

Finally Finished

It's finally finished! This quilt is HUGE. I pieced it last winter from pre-cut strips (which I said I'd NEVER use again) and left it with a long arm quilter to sandwich and quilt. I didn't care if I ever saw it again as I really didn't like it - but Bill loved it.

It looks much better now that it's finished. It's a long way around when you are hand sewing the binding - but I enjoy that part.

Vicki Cooley did a great job on the quilting. One of the shops here in Ocala has a long arm machine that you can rent and my new machine is much bigger with a 11 1/2 inch throat, so I'm going to try my hand at doing my own.

All the fabrics are batiks and they are beautiful. I did not like the pre-cut strips because they were not consistent and just sewing together a bunch of strips was boring - no challenge.

I have two more quilts that I finished over the summer - a French Braid and a One-Block Wonder - but they are gifts for two of my kids so I can't share the pictures yet.