Fun With Geometry

I am up to 47 Ritzville quilt blocks. I need 61 for a king-sized quilt. I am beginning to understand the extent to which I overestimated the number of half-square triangles I would need for the Ritzville quilt (1096 total). These are how many I still have left:

I probably have enough to make another king-sized quilt. Clearly I got a bit carried away with making HSTs. Note to self.

HSTs are so versatile, though, and patterns abound for various quilt blocks using them. What’s most fascinating to me is how turning a couple of the HSTs in a different direction morphs the layout into a new block. For example, here is the Ritzville block layout:

If I turn those corner HSTs so the dark half is pointing to the inside instead of the outside, I get this:

A Dutch Pinwheel block. I’m leaning toward this one for the next quilt. We’ll see.

Yesterday wasn’t a terribly productive day; I went to town in the morning to run errands, and the afternoon was punctuated by several visits from friends and neighbors. I have to remind myself that relationships are important, too, and it’s good to spend time catching up with people I haven’t see in a while. We got about a foot of snow last night (finally) and it’s still coming down. The husband is out making the plowing rounds. I put together a peach pie for him from the peaches I canned in August and it’s in the oven baking. I bought organic limes yesterday at the health food store in town (on sale for $0.33 each!) and am going to make batch of lime curd today. I got a lemon zester, too.

My supply of industrial serger needles came:

I ordered 100 each of 80/12 and 90/14 needles, so I should be set for a while. The Rhapso-T project is waiting for me to get back to it, and of course, there are all those HSTs to sew together. I am not lacking for things to keep me busy.

******************************************************

One of the quilt stores in Spokane is having a String Along on Saturday—quilters bring strings (long strips of fabric) to trade and make a quilt in the process. I would love to go. The weather is supposed to be decent and getting over the passes would be relatively easy. I still have a couple of free hotel nights. It would be another one of those quick over-and-back trips, though, because I have to play at church on Sunday. We’ll see. If I go, it might be a spur-of-the-moment decision.

For my blog readers in Oregon, I note this:

It’s a quilting workshop to be held at Zion Mennonite Church in Hubbard, Oregon, Thursday-Saturday, February 21-23. If you’re in the area, I am sure this would be fun to attend, and of course, the food will be delicious!