i started a new quilt!

After the finish of the quilt last week, I was a bit at loose ends.

First, I finished the catnip fishies I had started.  No photos, but eventually I'll get a photo.  I'm not done making them yet, though, so it is gonna be an epic pile!  I can't wait to give them away, but Christmas isn't that far off.

That left me with two options.  One was a quilt that I bought navy background fabrics for and downloaded the pattern a few week back - for me - but apparently haven't shared anything about it yet?

The other option was to start the graduation quilt for my niece.

Well.

The graduation quilt has a due date, so it won.

First I had to get the pattern.  It was a better value to get the whole barnyard pattern than just the horse that I'll be using, so I went that direction.  And maybe someday the other animals will come in handy?

Then I had to gather fabrics.  I had bought some...

...and then realized I was woefully short on browns, so I dug through my stash to supplement.  (Did I plan it that way when shopping?  I can't remember...)

This was also the point where I had done some math and realized that these blocks are fairly small and the original quilt I was looking at was also quite small.  Which meant I was going to need a LOT more horses.  I'm still in the planning stages of how many I'll need (sashing and whatnot needs to be considered, but not overwhelming), but I decided I could start sewing.  This designer is notorious for LOTS of pieces with well-written instructions.  She did not disappoint!

A few hours and a few less hairs later, I had horse #1:

I mis-cut one of the pieces, so there should be a little lock of mane swooping under one ear, but, well, there are LOTS of pieces to keep track of and no more than two of the same size...

A day or two later (time is getting away from me again!), I dug in for another horse:

I modified this one a little because I ran out of the lighter brown.

But that spot looks boxy.  I mean, spots on horses can be any shape, but that just looks too forced.

A bit of ripping and tricky sewing later (you didn't think I was going to take out full seams, did you?), I had an improvement:

Better.  Not perfect, but better.  I was teasing with a friend that if those swoops in the middle went the other way, this would be Taylor Swift in horse form with those crazy bangs!

I'm sure this will be fine when in a field of many, many other horses, so I'm not sweating it.  And I wrote a list of needed pieces on a larger piece of paper than what the pattern provides (teeny) and slid it into a plastic sheet protector.  With that and a dry erase marker, I can check off each piece as I cut it and eliminate mistakes in cutting, if not running out of fabrics midway through cutting!  (I'm cutting each horse individually, as each horse needs a personality, though hopefully none quite as big as the Taylor!)

Otherwise, my week hasn't been very quilty.  I can't really say what else I've been doing, but I suppose the usual: work, cleaning, cooking, reading...and of course, attention for the kitties!  (Who have no new photos this week?!)

Off to either make another horse or fill out quilt show entry forms.  My guild is trying to plan a show for March of next year and I need to decide which quilts to enter.  The organizer says she will hang as many as I give her (we aren't juried in or anything, but if there are too many, display gets creative), but I don't want it to be the Katie Quilt Show.  I did that on my porch.  I can share the space with my other quilty friends at this show!

Happy quilting!

Katie