More Scrappy Celebration Blocks + a Big Decision

Hello, Friends!  I finished all six of my double 9-patch blocks for my Tilda version of the American Patchwork & Quilting Scrappy Celebration quilt the other day, so now I have two tidy stacks, six of each style.  The center square of my double 9-patch block is a dusty pink Tilda Solid that coordinates perfectly with the tiny ditsy pink flowers on the green print, by the way.  It's looking weirdly gray in the photo, and my cutting mat that is actually pink IRL is looking more red in the photo.  Not sure if it's some difference in the camera of my new phone or something different with the lighting in the new sewing room.

9 inch Finished Blocks for Scrappy Celebration

Having no design wall (yet?) in my new house, I am using my EQ8 quilt design software (this post contains affiliate links) as a virtual design wall instead.  Below you see the EQ rendering of the Scrappy Celebration quilt from the pattern designer, and as I finish a set of blocks I just take a picture of one of them from straight on and crop it square, import it into the software and set the scale to 9" (because they are 9" finished blocks), add the block photo as a fabric, and then change the appropriate blocks in the quilt to plain blocks that I can just "paint" with the photo of my completed quilt block.  That was probably clear as mud to those of you who don't use this software, but if anyone out there is new to EQ and wants a fuller explanation of what I'm doing here, feel free to email me for more complete instructions.  

Why do I bother to do this at all?  Because swapping out the generic solid colored blocks in the pattern rendering with my actual blocks helps me to get a better sense of how my colors and prints are working together and guides me in selecting fabrics for subsequent blocks.  I'll also be able to print out the final image, once all of the plain blocks have been replaced with photos of my actual blocks, and use that as a roadmap for assembling the quilt top.

EQ8 Scrappy Celebration Rendering Showing Finished Blocks

Not that I have any idea what I'm going to do with this quilt once it's finished.  I just thought it was pretty when I saw so many versions of this quilt online during the QAL last year -- and immediately I started thinking about how I'd want to quilt it...  so I had to go ahead and start making the top just so I can quilt it!

Rebecca's New Sewing Room Tour

I don't have much appreciable progress on any of my personal quilts in progress to share with you.  I have been really busy with remodeling and furnishing our new home, since we got rid of so much worn and outdated furniture when we moved.  I'm still working on piecing those double nine patch Tilda blocks that I wrote about in March, just in 5-10 minute increments here and there when I get a chance.  I've managed to finish piecing only two of the six double 9-patch blocks that I cut out eight weeks ago.  How's that for "slow stitching?!"  

Two Nine Inch Blocks Completed, Four More In Progress

Much more progress has been made in the Herculean task of trying to fit all of my sewing and craft goodies from our 3-story home in North Carolina into our MUCH smaller home here in Florida.  The solid maple butcher block top that I had for my giant 97" x 42" cutting table in North Carolina underwent a major amputation in order to repurpose it for a cutting table that would fit in my new 11' 4" x 11' 6" sewing room:

Bernie Sawing My Butcher Block Cutting Table In Half

You can read all about my old cutting table in this blog post from 2013 if you're interested.  

New Cutting Table, 42 W x 61 L x 39 H

My new cutting table utilizes the same custom MDF base units that Bernie built for me in 2013 in a different configuration, and it measures 42" wide by 61" long.  I'm about 5’7” tall and my cutting table height is 39".