Two projects finished!

Saturday I finished sewing the binding down on a little wall hanging (or baby quilt?).  It uses some of the same fabric as the Dresden Plate quilt I finished last fall.  The star blocks were paper pieced and sure took a long time to make.   I could only stand to do a few each day so it took longer.

I finally took a picture of the second landscape I made after the class I took with Beth Ann Williams.  This one shows the mountain in a more realistic and recognizable shape.  

I'm glad I took the class because it helped me figure out how to make a pattern from a photo.  I hope to make a few more quilts using Beth Ann's technique.  Putting the freezer paper on top means that you don't have to work backwards.  It makes it a lot easier to trace a picture.  I don't have a light box so I use a window which works well if you tape the original to the window and then the freezer paper over that.  Now when I go shopping for fabric, I will keep an eye out for fabrics that might be used in landscape quilts.  

I don't really care for applique using invisible thread, though.  I'd rather use cotton or polyester thread.  With Beth Ann's technique, you applique and quilt at the same time.  I used fusible batting for the landscapes, and it is stiff.  If you wash the quilt after quilting, it probably softens up, but these little things are wall hangings and will probably never get washed. 

Today my attention has returned to the Exploding Heart.  Not a lot of parts are left to stitch together, but then I'll stitch all 6 sections of 3 rows each together for the top.  After that, I'll add some borders.  My book (Murder at Highbury) may distract me, though!

"Exploding Heart"

Did you have a nice Valentine's Day?  Hope so!  We went over to Burlington to have dinner with our old friends Pauline and Bob.  They used to stay with us every year around Valentine's Day when we had the B&B.  We're reviving that tradition, and this year went to a Turkish restaurant for a delicious dinner.  We could see the sunset over Lake Champlain while eating, and that was definitely a plus.  We spent the night and drove home in the morning when the roads were surprisingly quiet.

Before leaving home on Valentine's Day, I started cutting pieces for Exploding Heart, a pattern I've wanted to make for a long time (that's a photo of the pattern at left).   I don't usually cut all the pieces ahead of time.  Most of the time, I cut enough to make a few blocks and then cut as I go.  But then I don't usually follow a pattern but go off the page quite a bit, adding "design choices" as I go.  

This time, it seems necessary as it's somewhat complicated.  There are a lot of 4" (finished size) hourglasses of various configurations.  Even though I thought I'd bought extra background fabric, I found I didn't have enough.  Hope I can get more at the quilt shop, but if not, I think I can mix in some other whites here and there.   The finished quilt measures 72" x 72".

I'm using fabrics similar to the ones in the picture - purples, pinks, and a small number of turquoises.  These are all favorites of mine.  So far, the sewing seems pretty straightforward, but it will take me some time to get all the hourglasses sewn.

When I'm not piecing, I'll be hand sewing the binding down on the Lily quilt.  I added a hanging sleeve just in case whoever ends up with it wants to hang it on the wall.  I know that's what I'll be doing with it.  I like the way it turned out and will show a photo when I get a chance.  It's snowing today and a bit gloomy for photo taking.  But snow days = sew days in my book, so that's what I'll be doing today.

Sashiko is finished

I finished the long-time sashiko UFO Saturday at quilt guild.  I really enjoy working on sashiko and will look for another project soon.  I finished the embroidery some time ago and added batting and a border.  I decided to hand quilt it, but the quilting is pretty invisible.  It will hold it together as it hangs on the wall over my desk.

Next on my list is sewing the binding to the back of the Lily wallhanging.  I finished quilting it yesterday and immediately sewed the binding on.  But I thought it would look more finished with the binding hand-sewn, so I'm taking my time, doing one side a day (or so).   I'll take a picture when I'm finished, but it measures around 39" x 39". 

I also made three mug rugs out of the scraps of the Lily quilt.  I decided I would make a few this year out of scraps from various quilts I finish.  

Next on my list is that set of placemats made out of a green and beige quilt I made my brother Axel in 2005.  I have eight 12" x 18" placemats and four mug rugs to bind.  He can give some away to friends or hold a dinner party.  That last seems pretty far-fetched as he has a small apartment.  I'll mail some when they're ready and keep the rest for when we visit him this summer.

Meanwhile, the purple shawl I'm knitting is coming along, albeit slowly (on #4 needles), and today I went to the library for a bit of aerobic walking in a group and baked a blueberry buckle when I got home.  After dinner tonight neighbors are coming over for a little poker, and we'll cap the day off with the buckle.  I have tons of blueberries in the freezer, so I will bake another one Friday to take to friends in Burlington where we'll celebrate Valentine's Day together.

Another finished top

This isn't the best photo, but I'm so happy it's finished!  This little quilt measures 39" square, and I put it together yesterday.  I really like the way it turned out, especially because I started it at the beginning of August.   I'll take a better picture once it's done.  I plan to quilt it with my walking foot, very simply.

The paper pieced threaded star blocks were fun to make although I still am not a fan of taking the paper out.   I still have lots of snippets of fabric left and, because I have so much, I am keeping it in a baggie all together for now rather than dividing it up by color.  This is the second quilt I've made using the same fat quarter bundle plus a charm pack and two yards of the large floral.  I do love the soft colors.

After putting the quilt together, I went down to Joann Fabrics for some batting (Warm and White).  The store was fairly quiet and all the stock seemed to be there, even though rumor has it that it's closing in the middle of the month.  I guess I'll be going to Walmart for notions after it closes because I refuse to shop at Hobby Lobby.  Or I'll buy things I can't get at my local quilt shop (e.g., Guterman thread, insul-bright) online.   I will miss the people who work there and hope they can find other jobs, too.  Since it reopened after the 2023 flood, they've been very service-oriented.    

At the checkout, I ran into a woman who used to come to our yoga class and to the state quilt guild meetings.  It was good to see Dolinda again.  We were just beginning to become friends when she stopped coming.   I was reminded once again how nice it is to live in a relatively small community, "where everybody knows your name."

The new quilt

I've been working on my Lily of the West quilt this week, using a bundle of fat quarters in the Riley Blake line called "Flora."  I love the fabric with its pink, yellow, periwinkle, green, and black colorways.  They called "Dresden Plate" to me, and the resulting plates worked out well.  I paper pieced (ugh!) some butterflies for the corners, and now the quilt is 30" square.  

My dilemma:  what to do around that 30" square?  Do I just finish it off with a couple more borders?  Do I piece around it?  How big do I want this quilt to be?  

Yesterday, after getting the center square all finished, I made one lily block using a pattern I found at the Fat Quarter Shop's website.  It finished at 14" square and wasn't that hard to make, but I do I really want to make a lot more?  Should I only make one for each corner?  If so, what should I put in between?   And do I really want to add 14" all around?  I'm not sure, but I do plan to applique the stem down.  Maybe it'll find a place on the back, and maybe I'll figure out how to work one in each corner with something in between.

Right now, I'm thinking about adding a 6" border using all of the colors in the bundle?    Visions of log cabin, card trick, rail fence, and other multicolored blocks woke me up at 3 am.   I will play around with those today, and most likely put the lily block on the back burner for now.   Stay tuned!

Testing out a pattern

My friend Debbie in Indiana is always up for a block swap.  Last spring, she suggested a bow tie block swap, so we narrowed the size down to 8" squares because two fit neatly into an envelope with a first class postage stamp.  She and I exchanged ten blocks each and mailed two to each other participant.  Yesterday I laid the blocks I had out and sewed a few rows together. The swap doesn't end until September, and I'm waiting for one or two blocks from one person.  So I put it on a hanger in the closet for a while.  I may also make a few more to get a twin-sized quilt.

Meanwhile, Debbie and I are testing possibilities for another swap.  More people signed up for the bowties because they were easy.  I saw a very nice scrap buster this week which she and I each made.  I'm not sure the other folks in our swap group will be interested, so maybe it will be a project for just Debbie and me.  But this modern looking block is really easy and addictive to make.

The "Butterflies are Free" pattern includes 6 plain 3.5" background squares and 10 background squares with 2.5" squares sewn on the diagonal for a 12" square.  I had a lot of leftover gray pieces and a growing box of precut 2.5" squares to use and ended up making three blocks in a short time.  These made a table runner with some Tula Pink zebra fabric for the back.  It has a modern feel to it and may just catch the eye of someone at the florist shop.   I'll take it down to sell this coming week along with the blue star table runner I made a few weeks ago.

Debbie also made a very pretty block using a cream background and bright blue and yellow batiks.  We will check soon with the swap group to see if they want to swap these blocks in the next few months.   Postage has been a problem for some, yet we still have active participants from London and Ontario, along with members from the US.  If they aren't interested, Debbie and I may swap all by ourselves, or we may do something else.

I made one more 12" block, and now I'm out of larger scraps of gray except the solid gray.   I'll turn my attention to a few other projects for a while.   Yesterday at the Calico County Quilters sewing session, I applique a couple of half Dresden Plates and almost finished a whole one for the Lily of the West small quilt I'm making using the Flora line by Riley Blake.  Today I'll be paper piecing some butterflies to go with the plates, and I'll probably make some oatmeal blueberry muffins, too.  Hope you're having a nice Sunday!