Another Sunday-Fun day

I spent the day in the studio enjoying the bluetooth speaker I got for Christmas and sewing. The speaker sat upstairs for a month, and I decided it needed to be where I usually am...in the studio! I put on Pandora and listened to the John Denver channel all day while sewing the diagonal quilt on the design wall. Here is where I started, in case you don't remember what I'm talking about. These are leftover 6 inch squares from other quilts I have made.

The squares up on the wall

I decided the finished quilt had to be bigger, so I added strips to the block sides to make a drop-shadow look. This increased the finished size from 39x49 to 61x69 with borders. A good size for a growing boy to use for a few years.

After using this technique on a tee shirt quilt, I am obsessed with how the optical illusion looks.

Here is a close-up of how I achieved the look. I added sashing 1 1/2 inches wide, with a 1 1/2 inch square of background fabric at the ends. I cut the gray fabric for the first side in 4 3/4 inch strips sewn to  1 1/2 inch strips of the white dot fabric. Then I subcut the 1 1/2 inch sashing strips. I did the same with the bottom sashing, sewing strip sets of 5 3/4 gray strips to 1 1/2 inch white and sub cutting them. Easy peasy. Add the 7 inch white sashes between the blocks, and you're off to the races to be finished!

In my haste to get the flimsy sewn together before the start of the Super Bowl, I measured, cut and applied all the borders...and then discovered I had left off the bottom row!! Crap! Oh well, I left the quilt as is, and it is 7 inches shorter...still a good size. On the happy side, I can now look for a backing and get it quilted!

Oops...the last row was waiting on the ironing board, and I totally missed it!

Meanwhile, I had a great birthday, and the Patriots finally lost. The planets are now realigned and Eagle fans everywhere are rejoicing. I don't really care for either team (Packer fans are die-hard) but wanted the Eagles to win and make some history. Good game, iffy half time, 'meh' commercials. I watched Victoria right in the middle of the game, and still caught the final 10 minutes and the sweet victory. 

Back in the studio today, and back to customer work!

Mr W got the cake at the grocery store. I think the decorator needs a bit more practice! ha ha ha. Our lips and tongues were purple from the food coloring, but the cake was delicious. Next year, my birthday is on Super Bowl Sunday. Packers?...