Shady Lanes (formerly Sunny Lanes) Update

I'm crediting Janet of Rogue Quilter Blog with the idea of renaming my Sunny Lanes to Shady Lanes.  Since I'm not using yellow it doesn't look very sunny and I had started referring to this one as a dark sunny lanes.  I like Shady Lanes better.  Thanks for your input Janet.

Making these sashings takes a little thought. I need two left leaning neutrals and two right leaning neutrals for each block (not sure yet if the quilt will be 5 x 6 or 6 x 7 blocks). And the corners have to be sewn on just so or you end up with a flying goose, something a distracted person like me can do very easily.

I've developed a rhythm of sewing one square to the right and the next square to the left as I chain piece.  This reduces the chances of miscounting my squares and sewing too many of the wrong leaning sash strip.  I chain piece enough to sash six blocks, then over sew my corners to create the bonus HSTs, stop to press, cut off the HSTs and press them open.  Then I head back to the sewing machine to do the other colour squares.  Finally, I square up all the new bonus HSTs from the latest batch of sashings.  I stack the finished strips in alternating pairs as well.

This would make an effective quilt border for some project.  I have seen and admired this zig-zag effect on other people's quilts - though it was achieved by using two flying geese blocks instead.

So far, I've completed the sashing strips for 18 blocks.  When I get to 30, I'll start putting blocks together and then decide if I want to make it bigger.

I dutifully trimmed up my daily quota of scrappy HSTs (from that box of over 1,000).  I have to say I am really surprised I stayed the course on that tedious bit of work.  After trimming 30 HSTs a day since August, I am so pleased that I'll finally be done with that little chore this week.  Hooray!

I made my blocks for Modern Monday then sewed labels and binding on the next two UFOs, all the while playing tug-of-war over the binding strips with Lucas.  This time I didn't make the mistake of wrapping the binding around my neck twice in a haphazard noose fashion like I did the last time.

I'm trying to get a lot of little things done or caught up in preparation for this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, as I'll be traveling and away from my sewing for five whole days.  I'm not into sewing the hexies that are currently all the rage, and not skilled at applique so I don't have any handwork to carry with me.  The last time I went to visit family, I took two quilts that needed hand binding.  I may do that again, or I may bring cotton yarn and knitting needles and make dish cloths.