Why Marigolds?

Maybe I should have explained yesterday that marigolds are a traditional Day of the Dead flower, used to decorate altars. The marigolds are supposed to attract the spirits of the dead.

Creepy, right? Who wouldn't want to sleep under a quilt of stylized marigolds knowing that? 

 

Anyway, this is a completed block, the Dresden plate machine appliqued to the background. The block is fourteen inches square, which is pretty big for a quilt block, actually. (Blocks are generally in the six to twelve inch range, with eight, nine and ten inches being more common than the others--at least in my experience. When I first started making quilts, I had two rulers, a 3x18 inch ruler and an 8.5x8.5 inch square ruler. So my blocks were all 8.5 inches square. Go figure. I don't, in case you're wondering, have a 14x14 inch square ruler.)

 

I'm babbling.  

 

Anyway, I'll admit that these blocks only somewhat resemble marigolds. I tried making layers of rounds, getting smaller toward the center, but the block became too bulky quickly so I abandoned that approach. There are other techniques I could try to get a more marigold like effect, but I wanted to get the basic Dresden plate down before moving on to more complex things. 

Making the blades for the plates is tedious. This is a pile of blades in the works, enough for three Dredent plates. The Bob Newhart Show is playing on the iPad in the background. (I can't focus on it too much because watching--actually watching--television is even more tedious than turning and ironing the blades. 

I've made six complete Dresden plate marigolds so far. Those blades when completed will make nine total. Nine is enough to start to think about assembling a quilt. Twenty would be better, but I don't know if I have the patience for that. 

Other Stuff 

It was gawdawful hot today, 98 degrees. We keep the AC cranked up all the time so that the house is never much outside the 71-75 degree range. I am not doing well in the heat recently, so when the temp in my sewing room gets to 75, I have to abandon ship. 

My stomach has been giving me trouble recently, too. I am back to a very simple diet and lots of Mylanta trying to calm things down. (I made the mistake of eating a handful of salt and vinegar chips three days ago and things have been riled up since. Hopefully it's not a sign that my gallbladder is going bad...ugh. Won't that be fun?)