Sashing and Bordering the Giants Baseball Quilt Top

There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened.

~Tommy LaSorda

Quilting

The red and white stripe worked so well on the Wheel quilt so once I realized I didn't want wide sashing, this black and white became the hands down choice. Orange and black are Giants colors plus the black and white reminds me of umpires... although baseball umpires wear solid colors. Plus the stripe goes so well with the border fabric, I piece I've held for many years not knowing where to use it.

Sashing the Giants baseball quilt

But the sashing is still too wide. So I trimmed the interior sashing down by half an inch. On to the next problem.

Despite yards and yards of the border fabric, my decision to highlight the white diamonds left me with too little to fill the corners of the quilt. Grr.  OTOH, DH purchased several Giants decals when I made the first {Phillies} baseball quilt for one of my son's friends. They will fit into these corners if I choose the right base. Solid black sounds best.

Still, here are two black and white print possibilities just to make sure all my choices are covered.

Two border post choices

And yes, solid black it will be.

Now to sew these long seams and start thinking about the back.

Reading

My father, who enjoyed native art and western stories, introduced me to Tony Hillerman's Navaho detective series. I loved reading each and discussing them with him. Now I'm re-reading. The Blessing Way opens with anthropology professors arriving on the reservation. One is an old friend of Joe Leaphorn who wants to research Navaho witches.  A young man is killed, livestock go missing, and the Navaho hold an Enemy Way ceremony to get rid of the problems. 

Tony is a wonderful writer with excellent knowledge of Navaho culture and history. 

Monthly FUR (Fabric Use Rate) 

One finished quilt this month. June = 3.75 yds. YTD =  81.875 yards.

Happy Fourth of July! 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Adding a Catcher to the Baseball Quilt

The first and last duty of the lover of the game of baseball, whether in the stands or on the field, is the same as that of the lover of life itself: to pay attention to it. When it comes to the position of catcher, as all but fools and shortstops will freely acknowledge, this solemn requirement is doubled.

~Michael Chabon

Quilting

Nine men out and they mostly look alike. Who on the field looks different? The catcher. His shin guards extend over the top of his knees and his chest protector covers shoulders to waist. Redrafting the shoulders to create the chest protector actually makes the sewing easier. 

Baseball catcher

This was the busiest green background but it had to be included because of the orange eyes. Finding a skin tone that showed up against it was tough. This is the only solid I used because even the "tone on tones" faded into the busy green print. He should have a face mask but I couldn't get one to work. It always looked like he had long hair. I gave him a ball instead although it doesn't show up well against the light skin tone. 

Working out these three players has been an enjoyable exercise. The minor variations should make the quilt more engaging. 

Now for a few southpaws.

Reading

Some days I wonder about myself. It's hard to keep track of book series I like, especially when I find them from the beginning. That just means you have to wait a year or more for each new installment.  So it is with Katherine Hall Page. The last I recall reading was The Body in the Bog so I started by re-reading it. Faith finds children's preschool teacher crying in the arms of Tom, her minister husband. Someone has been harassing her. Then someone turns up dead... in the bog. It's good to get back in the game. And this time technology helps me remember my reading history. 

Enjoy the day, Ann

Playing in Knickers

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; 

the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. 

Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

~George Bernard Shaw

Quilting

Ballplayers wear uniforms on the field so it can be hard to differentiate them but I wanted to try. Several recent {and many past} Giants players wear knickers. The top half is the same but I redrafted the legs. The pieces are casually set on the background but don't they look delightfully alive. I love the casual way he's standing but it would require appliqué and I'm piecing this. 

Baseball player in knickers

Here's a right-handed baseball player in knickers. Pieced and ready to go.

Baseball player in knickers sewn

This is so much fun! What else can I do with nine men out?

It is so hot. We had a couple of weeks of rain but now it's terribly hot and dry. The weeds grow but the plants we purchased wilt if they aren't watered daily. Watering and weeding takes lots of time so I haven't been quilting as much. We are having salads and iced drinks every meal to keep the heat out of the house.

Reading

M.C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney) is another writer I've enjoyed in the past but haven't kept current. With so much time on my hands, I'm restarting the Hamish Macbeth series with Death of a Gossip. which concerns the death of an extremely unpleasant woman during a week of salmon fishing  classes in Scotland.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Starting Another Baseball Quilt

The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after you fall.

~Vince Lombardi

Quilting

Rarely has my dear husband (DH) been as excited about a quilt as he was about the Phillies baseball quilt I made a few years ago. He insisted it had to have decals on it. I demurred but he ordered them anyway. One was not enough. He purchased four. And... he purchased several Giants decals, too, then looked at me with his sweet blue eyes. Because, of course, he'd love a Giants quilt. 

And I love him. I intended to make it immediately after the Phillies quilt but family emergencies intervened. So I bundled a collection of fabric and set it aside. Now is the time to get this one done. Except, the templates can't be found. 

Looking at the first quilt, I was sure it could be improved. Here's my first baseball player, a right-hander. The socks are gone; his trousers reach his shoes. His legs are shorter; still longer than his torso but the block is now square. 

RHP baseball player

And here's the second one. Including skin tones of all the players required different greens for the background. A couple of days were spent moving the fabrics around until everyone shows up reasonably well. 

Learning from my first foray, the caps and shoes the same color. Teams have limited colors and it's a faux pas to use any others. When caps are a different color than the shoes, one of them tends to fade into the {future} sashing.

Stay tuned for more players. 

Our lilies are blooming. The first is as bright an orange as Giants shirts but I've forgotten what type it is.

Reading

The Crowded Grave is my next book in Martin Walker's Bruno series. As Bruno is drawn into preparations for a summit between France and Spain, archeologists looking for Neanderthals instead turns up a skeleton with a Swatch. Martin’s love of this region is evident in every page and makes me wish I could visit for a year or two also.

Enjoy the day, Ann

The Last Blue Squares

I will continue to entertain the hope that there has emerged a cadre of leaders in my own country and region, on my continent and in the world, which will not allow that any should be denied their freedom as we were; that any should be turned into refugees as we were; that any should be condemned to go hungry as we were; that any should be stripped of their human dignity as we were.

~Nelson Mandela

Quilting

Of course, once I started cutting these scraps of blue and green and lavender, there were many more than expected. I thought about using them as part of a larger quilt since they would make a good border or a round of a medallion. But what is needed around here are baby quilts and lap quilts. So here's another Cross quilt. {I did have to dig around for five more background squares to fill out this quilt but that's all to the good since the point is to use them up.}

Cross quilt 3

This time I pulled a delightful yard of bees sparsely printed on chartreuse. It reminds me of Napoleon. A yard is never enough to create a back so I added the remnants of an octagonal print used here {Hey, it was in the scrap bag} and some odds and ends for a center post. And look. It's an improvised reprise of the Cross blocks on the front.

Cross quilt 3 back

The blue flowers were a wonderful back for the previous quilts but this one is just as charming to me.

Cross quilt 3 folded

And wouldn't you know, it's already in the mail. They never stay around long.

Quilt Specifics

Size: 42" x 42"

Design: Plus block

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose cotton

Thread: Gutermann blue cotton thread

Quilting: SID with walking foot 

Approximate yardage: 3.75 yds 

Previous posts:

1. Cutting the Cross blocks

2. Cross quilt 1 and 2

Gardening

Lots of rain recently but we had a four-day break so I've been busy in the backyard weeding. Many of the original plants are Texas area natives but this one is aggressively taking over the borders. It's taken several days but I've taken out all but two small clumps... and my eye is on those.

I've forgotten what is is - dayflower or spiderwort. The blue flowers bloom one day only and close in the afternoon heat. Then it puts on another kudzu-like growth spurt.

 

Reading

When books aren't available online at my library, they suggest others. That's how the Scumble River series by Denise Swanson came to my attention. Murder of a Small-Town Honey begins with Skye Denison's return to her small Illinois hometown as a school psychologist. She was fired from her previous job for insubordination or refusing to ignore her standards, take your pick. Then a relative dies in suspicious circumstances and her brother is implicated. I'm looking forward to folding this series into with the others I'm following.

Enjoy the day, Ann