Alayna's Grad Quilt, Blocks and Problems!

The first thing I did was sew black framing strips around the saying pictures.  This should have been an easy thing.  However, I made an incorrect assumption that came back to bite me!  I ASSUMED that the panel pictures were SQUARES. I measured across, and cut all my framing strips from the black fabric.  WRONG!  The pictures are actually 1/2" taller than they are wide.  So, half of my strips were too short, and I had to cut them again.  Wasted fabric?  Maybe not, since they are 1.5" wide strips, and I can probably use them in a different project someday. However, it WAS a waste of time and energy! Lesson learned.  OK, so I adjusted the pattern. Onward.  Here is how it looks so far:

The turquoise background fabric was from a piece leftover from another project.  If I framed the block in the normal way, sides first, then top and bottom, I would not have had enough to do all four center blocks.  As it was, I had wanted the turquoise blocks to be in the corners and center, but didn't have near enough for 5 blocks, so 4 had to do.  I could only get the 4 framed turquoise blocks if I cut all the strips the same length and sew them using partial seams around the black-framed saying.  Not really a problem, but not the usual way of doing things.  It didn't take long to do the turquoise blocks.  Next, the split color blocks.  Nothing complicated here, and it didn't take long either.:

I auditioned black strips as dividers on the outer border but didn't like it.
I will use the blue background around the pictures as it is.  I will use a
black binding though.

Tomorrow: Borders go on!!

Alayna's Graduation

Last fall I stopped in at my local quilt shop, the Pins and Pieces.  There happened to be a rep there from some fabric wholesaler showing samples to Heidi.  There was a collection of fabrics that I fell in love with.  It had bright happy colors, and a panel with positive sayings.  I expressed interest in it, and Heidi ordered the collection.  It arrived this winter at the quilt store, and I was able to purchase some before the CronaVirus hit the world.  I had in mind to use those positive saying squares for a graduation banner for my granddaughter Alayna. I couldn't decide which of the positive sayings to choose for the banner, so I decided to use them all and make a quilt for her instead.  I'm not sure if there will be an actual graduation or a party, we are all under lockdown still, and social distancing is the rule.  Can't have a party if everyone has to stand 6 feet away from each other!  But I did make the quilt, and it went really fast.  I can't wait to give it to her!

These are the positive sayings:

Alayna's school colors are red and black, so I was thinking of something like this to frame the sayings:

However, the red and black just didn't fit.   Trying again, I auditioned yellows, golds, creams and then a turquoise.  

The tangerine batik was a great choice, and I chose the softer yellow with small orange dots (hard to see.)  The softer yellow reads almost as a cream and matches some of the backgrounds around the sayings.  Perfect.  And the turquoise spoke to me! (No surprise there!)  I didn't have much of the turquoise, but it was enough.  I had to sew the turquoise frames with partial seams around the black-framed sayings because I didn't have enough of the fabric to do the longer top/bottom strips.  But it WAS enough, and I only had about a 4 x 6" pieces left over at the end!

Choosing fabrics always takes me a long time.  Maybe because I have such a large stash, there are just too many choices. It took me more than a day to choose my fabrics, but once I did, The sewing went fast.