It's Not Easy Being Square

The garrison quilt's inner border was finished yesterday. I wound up using a free-motion stitch after all, one based on Leah Day's 'Square Spiral' pattern. It's more or less a nod to the crenels on the tower battlements, and it was a welcome change from all the less structured free-motion lines I'd been stitching on the trees, sky and grass.

The first three square spirals were lightly drawn with a ceramic pencil (white lead). After that, my brain had the pattern down and I could stitch without marking. I tried to be consistent, but also managed to be more forgiving than usual of any imperfect lines. That's progress!

Now comes the wide, dark-gray outer border. As of yesterday, there was no real plan for it but, after thinking about it for a while, I decided to use Leah's 'Gentle Flame' stitch.

That's as far as it's come for now. My work's cut out for me this weekend!

Speaking of squares (or not-so-squares), my other ongoing project is the quilt-as-you-go blocks being sewn on the beautiful old Singer 403 (running great now, with a grand total of fourteen dollars invested in buying and repairing it), using only pieces from my scrap drawer. The blocks aren't really very square, but I'm sure having fun with them. These are cropped photos of the ones done so far:

This was the first, at which point it became clear I needed my walking foot!

Each one obviously has its own color scheme, so there definitely won't be anything coordinated about the quilt when it's finished, except maybe for the joining strips.

But that's ok, because this project, besides being a good workout for the 403, is really a lesson in color values--something that has occasionally presented a challenge for me in landscape quilting (I favor mid-tones). However, I'm really liking some of the color combinations. As for the others...well, let's just call them 'interesting.'  :)  Here are the backs:

Joining Leah Day's FMQ Project Linkup--check out the photos of the finished Building Blocks Quilt! Also linking up at Whoop Whoop Fridays (since I'm whooping it up about finishing my inner border). Sarah has a very cool giveaway going on there!

Signing off with good-luck wish to the Louisville Cardinals--from my hometown--on their NCAA tournament game tonight with the Kentucky Wildcats--from my home state. It's an intense rivalry, and only rarely do they play one another. The sports bars around here will be absolutely wild. (VVHH and I will watch at home. Go, Cards!)

Have a wonderful weekend~~

Linda