Pineapples On the Design Floor, With Border Bliss!

Pineapple Log Cabin Layout Finalized

I had a hunch that my church would be pretty quiet on a Saturday morning in June, so I packed up my pineapple log cabin blocks and label stickers and used the floor of the Lower Commons (a large lobby/fellowship area outside the Sanctuary) to lay out my quilt blocks.  It took me about an hour to get my 36 blocks laid out in a 6 x 6 grid without any of the same fabric strips right next to one another or too close to one another where any of the corners meet up.  

Aerial Shot Taken From Upper Commons Balcony

My blocks still have foundation paper backings, so I wasn't worried about getting the blocks dirty from the floor.  Once I'd finalized my layout the way I wanted it, I used permanent label stickers from an office supply store to label each block with its row letter and column number, to ensure that I get the blocks sewn together the same way I laid them out.

Labeled With Stickers

Yes, I could have written on the foundation paper backing, but those papers need to be removed just prior to sewing the blocks together.  I'll have slight fudging to do at the outer seam intersections due to imperfectly aligning the foundation sections prior to photocopying them, and/or photocopying distortion.  Who knows how long it will take to carefully remove all those little bits of paper, and it would be all too easy to accidentally rotate or flip a block and sew the wrong side to the next block, so I went with stickers -- and "permanent" label stickers rather than the "removable" kind, too, because I don't want them coming off accidentally.  I don't think there's any such thing as a sticker that would PERMANENTLY adhere to cotton fabric, especially to cotton fabric that has been so heavily starched as my blocks have been throughout construction.

When I headed to the church with my stack of blocks, I was planning to just lay out 30 of my blocks in a 5 x 6 grid, to which I would add a border of partial blocks around all four sides with scalloped edges to get the finished quilt large enough for my California King bed.  That would have looked something like this:

Scalloped Partial Block Border Plan

I would have had to take apart six of the blocks I worked so hard to piece, and I would have had to make twenty more partial pineapple blocks in addition to the butchered blocks...  Since each full block took 6 hours to piece, this scalloped partial block border would require approximately SEVENTY-FIVE additional hours of piecing.  And once it was done, this would not be some amazing show quilt, because I'm going to be quilting it myself with my wobbly, newbie longarm quilting skills.  

But I have already made 36 blocks, and you know what?  I just do not want to make any more of them.  I want to be DONE with this quilt; I want it out of my studio and onto my bed, this pineapple log cabin quilt that has been exactly FOUR YEARS in the making.  If I had any idea this quilt would take me so long, I would never have started it in the first place.  

I don't know if this is just a summer phase, but I am moving away from clutter and overscheduling and overcomplicating and working on simplifying my life right now.  I've backed out of some commitments that were taking up too much of my time and energy, I've whacked a bunch of things off my To Do list that don't really need to get done, and I'm looking at this sewing hobby that is supposed to be relaxing and holding myself accountable for turning every single project into a giant flying stress monkey!  I have 6 quilts in progress right now, none of which are ready to be loaded onto my empty longarm frame, and I know that I also need -- WANT -- to make a special quilt for my son's high school graduation about a year from now.  

And so, I am not making any more pineapple log cabin blocks, and I am using all 36 blocks that I have already made. In order to get to the size I need to fit my bed comfortably, I will be adding a 3/4" solid blue border, same width as my pineapple strips, and then I am going to add a 6" wide outer border in this large scale Kaffe Fassett Collective print that I selected at my not-quite-local quilt shop on Saturday afternoon:

Kaffe Fassett Dream Floral in Red

I like the Bohemian folk art quality of this floral print, "Dream Floral" in Red from Kaffe Fassett Collective.  It is bright and cheerful without being too juvenile, and it has a vintage vibe.  I like the splotches of blues and greens that tie into the primary colors of my pineapple blocks, and I like that this fabric is predominantly the coral color that I used for the centers and corners of every pineapple block.

Border Fabric Auditioned in EQ8 Software

In the computer rendering above, the quilt blocks are represented by a tiled photograph of a single completed pineapple block, whereas the border is from a scan of the print fabric that I got from the fabric manufacturer's web site, imported into EQ8 software, and scaled to represent the size of the fabric print accurately.  The big difference between photos and scanned images is that photos have more muted colors and shadows, which makes the scanned fabrics look too garish and bright.  This couldn't be helped; the flat bed on my printer/scanner is not big enough to scan one of these enormous blocks!  In the photo below, you can see that the actual fabric is much softer than it appears in the computer rendering, and the colors tie in with my blocks beautifully.  I like how it plays with my drapery, pillow and upholstery fabrics, too.  

Final Border Fabric Audition, In Situ

Doesn't that border fabric look PERFECT with my blocks?!  Including these borders, my quilt top should measure approximately 120" x 120" when I load it onto my 12' longarm frame.  It should end up somewhere between 108" to 114" square after quilting and laundering, taking 5-10% shrinkage into account.  

I am SO EXCITED about this new plan that moves my pineapple quilt so much closer to completion!  Woo-hoo!

Today I'm linking up with:

• ·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com
• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• ·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/
• ·       BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts: https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/  

Thanksgving, Simplified: Profanity-Free Pumpkin Pies

The Crust that Saved Thanksgiving

Go ahead -- judge me.  I don't even care.  Every time I bake a pie, I dread making the crust.  It's always too crumbly, except when it's too sticky.  It slides around all over the counter when I try to roll the dough into a circle, no matter which fancy plastic pie baggy or silicone pastry mat or sheets of parchment paper I attempt to control it with.  And it never fits into my pie plates with enough overhang to make a cute little fluted edge like it's supposed to.  Yes, you have more choices when you make your own pie crust, and the cinnamon pecan pie crust that my molasses pumpkin pie recipe calls for is probably tastier and slightly more interesting than a plain, ordinary crust.  Then there's that whole "I made it from scratch" thing, and it's only once a year...  So this morning, I dragged out all my ingredients, and read through the recipe yet again, biting my fingernails, beads of sweat glistening on my forehead, and snarling flames shooting out from my ears and eyeballs when anyone dared to interrupt my concentration by speaking to me. 


DON'T TALK TO ME!!  I'M BAKING PIES!!!

I examined my glass pie plates, an assortment of Deep Dish Pyrex jobs ranging from 9" to 9 1/2" diameter, and contemplated dashing out to Target or Bed,Bath & Beyond in search of shallower, "standard" 9" pie plates.  Then I envisioned the hassle of parking, holiday shopping crowds, and the distinct possibility that neither store would even have the kind of pie plate I was looking for, that I'd hunt all over town for it all day long, and that I STILL would have to come home and roll out pie crust afterwards.

 

Well, nuts to that -- Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time to relax and count your blessings, not a time to teach your children new swear words as your pie crust disintegrates all over the kitchen counter.  I'm making my molasses pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, but this time I'm using these delightful Pillsbury Pet Ritz frozen pie crusts from the grocery store that come already shaped in their own little disposable pie pans.  I blind-baked the crusts with my pie weights, mixed up a batch of my favorite molasses pumpkin pie filling, poured it into the crusts, and baked them as usual. 

 

Cinnamon-Molasses Pumpkin Pies with Profanity-Free Piecrusts

This Thanksgiving, I will be thankful that the folks at Pillsbury make pie crusts so I don't have to do it anymore.  And, if anyone in my family misses the original pecan pie crust enough to give me grief about it?  Well, they are welcome to sell their souls to the pastry devils and learn to make pie crusts on their own.

 

Now, with a smile on my face and a latte in my hand, I'm going right upstairs to my sewing room to make another Dresden plate. 

 

"Thanksgiving Pie," Norman Rockwell, 1930

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!