Crisis Averted

 and an Evening Out

My major Rainbow Scrap Challenge project last year was Tiny Tuesday that Angela/sewscrappy sponsored.   She introduced a different 4.5" (finished) block each week and suggested either straight or on-point setting frame for each one that would expand the block to finish at 7".  You probably anticipate that I had to complicate matters by not only making two each week -- one positive, one negative, but also alternating light and dark gray Grunge for the setting frames, on top of the already alternating straight and on-point settings... sheesh!

I abandoned the project about mid-year so I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had almost enough blocks for a 7x9 setting.  Last week I made the last two Tiny Tuesday blocks and finally arrived at an acceptable arrangement.

However, I felt that even with all the color, the gray frames were a little dreary.  Maybe a small sashing would lighten things up and make the quilt a little bigger at the same time.  This 2014 Alex Anderson print seemed to be the perfect option.

 

Hard to see in that photo, but it has both shades of gray in it, as well as a touch of yellow which I wanted to use as cornerstones.  So I cut several 2" strips to test it.  Happy with the look, I did some calculations and I wasn't going to have enough fabric!  Time to regroup ...

Friday I drove to my LAQ to deliver the Christmas secret quilt and I used that long drive time to think about my dilemma.  What if I cut 1.5" strips?  Still wouldn't work because I could  only get five 7.5" chunks out of each strip and there would be a lot of waste.  (I complicated matters by trying to calculate if I had enough miles-to-empty to get back to Crossville at the same time all that strip math was going through my head!)

Then I had a eureka moment.  What if I cut 7.5" strips and subcut them at 1.5"?  When I got home with a "real" calculator I saw that I could get 27 chunks out of each strip and not only did I have enough fabric, I had more than enough!  So the sashing is cut, the yellow is ready to cut and all is ready to assemble at the next retreat.

I am slowly getting the sewing room ready for window installation next week so there probably won't be a lot accomplished.  There are no windows in the cutting room; maybe I can do some prep work in there ...

On to the evening out ... Yesterday was our 39th anniversary and we decided to be brave and go out to dinner for the first time in months.  There is a very nice little restaurant in our community called The Cottage.  The couple who own it started the business in a very small location in a strip mall. At the end of last year they purchased a new property and started remodeling it to reopen just before CoVID-19 hit.  They used that downtime to make further improvements and have worked hard to meet all protocols for restaurants.  Tables inside and out are widely spaced, all servers are masked and gloved.  We had made our reservations for prime rib and brought our own bottle of wine.

The food was delicious, the atmosphere so pleasant.  We will definitely be back!  We drove home to a beautiful sunset.

Linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap!