I managed to put together three of the nine blocks tonight. Only six more to go!
They were a bit too large to photograph in my cramped little studio, so I didn’t get any photos of the ones I finished tonight. But trust me, they look pretty good. If all goes well, I should be ready to assemble the top this weekend. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even finish it …
Hey, don’t laugh. It’s possible, right? I mean, anything’s possible. Right?
In other creative news, I had a design in my head today, and work was extremely slow, so I fiddled around in Excel, of all things, and developed some new (to me) blocks that I can’t wait to try out! The first one developed into the second one (I just inverted the lights and darks, which created a cool effect), then the third one showed up, which led to the fourth one. I printed them out and brought them home, so I could play with them, when I get time. I might even be persuaded to publish them.
It was interesting to find that I could make repeatable patterns in Excel, as long as I didn’t want any triangles. This opens up some design possibilities for me. I have some quilt design software, but it requires Windows, and I’d have to drag out my laptop (since my big Dell had some serious problems last time I turned it on), and I’m not even sure it will run on my laptop. I guess I could try it one of these days.
The biggest problem with using Excel is that you have to color in individual cells, unless you have several in a straight line that are the same color, and you can’t mirror the pattern. I need a programmer friend to make a user-friendly and inexpensive app for Mac to design quilt blocks. Kickstarter, anyone? I can provide a list of features…
I’ve decided that I really like the simpler blocks that use squares and rectangles. They are much easier to piece and can go together quickly. I’ll be looking for my quilting books (I’m sure I have several boxes of them in storage somewhere), and checking out all my strip-piecing and “jelly roll” patterns for ideas.
Well, that’s about it for today. Time to hit the hay…
