Snow Day, Snow Day - Honduran Twist

Looks like the valley is in for it today.  It started kind of snowing yesterday, but it continued overnight and the roads were a little slick this morning.  I didn't think it was bad enough to not go in to work, so I did, but some 2:30 it was getting pretty bad.  Let's just say this afternoon, my usual 15 minute drive back home took about 45 minutes (I can drive in snow fairly well, since I had to learn straight away when I got my license, but I don't have 4 wheel drive).  I got to the shop just fine but it was coming down hard enough and the roads were getting bad enough that we decided to close up shop and get home. 

About 6", with more supposedly to come.

So, what to do with a snow day?  Turn it into a "Sew Day!" I know, that's terrible, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, it is time to get some old projects together and finish them. 

Nothing shows you the progress you've made than going through old, unfinished projects.  This one was a clusterbomb.  I haven't worked on this one in maybe 4-5 years. This is the pattern I was working on:

Twisty and cute! So I opened the box and found twelve finished partial seam blocks. (That's a lime green, by the way, not a heinous looking yellow)

...and then I found a bunch of these weird chopped off pieces in both the blue and green.

 I guess I must have miscut a bunch of these, got frustrated and put it away.  Your guess is as good as mine.  At this point, it was a lot of very carefully piecing these odd little square-triangles.

What I DID learn in finishing these blocks, is that 4-5 years ago I did NOT understand the difference between "ironing my blocks" and "pressing my blocks."  Holy warpage, Batman!  Some of them were warped enough from the ironing that I couldn't trim them straight enough, and I didn't have enough of any of the fabrics to redo them.  Lessons learned!  



Another lesson learned?  Color choice.  If I had to do this quilt again, I wouldn't have gone with that green.  LOVE the blue...but not so wild about that green at this point.  C'est la vie. 

As I got it pieced together more, I was a little happier with it, but surprisingly John really loves it.  Since it's not his usual manly style, I had to ask.  He said that he loved it because it reminded him of the art from Honduras, all the bright colors and things he remembers from his childhood.  The fabric is actually called Guatemalan Flora, which makes sense...while it's not Honduran themed, Guatemala is one of their neighbors and the art style has a similar flavor to it. 

 

So here is the almost finished quilt, with John hamming it up on the top there...It would be done now, but he wants it a little larger so he can curl up in it (understandable, after all, isn't that what quilts are largely for?), and luckily we still have some of the border print at the shop.  I'll probably get the border slapped on this week and it'll go in the "ready for quilting, someday" pile.