Bright Hopes and Bloom and Sew Quilt Progress

 To day is May 18, and three more days and I will be 3/4 Century old.  So hard to believe.  We celebrated May birthdays in my family yesterday and it was a fun day.  My birthday is the 21st, my Granddaughter Tess's is the 22nd and my Daughter-in-law Holli's is the 24th.  Add to that my 51st wedding anniversary is also on the 24.  

This past week I have worked primarily on my Bright Hopes quilt and the Bloom and Sew Block of the Month by Gail Pan.

APIP #1 - Meryton; this quilt top is now in the hands of my friend Martee who is going to baste it for Hand quilting on her long arm machine.  It is so nice to have her do this as I know it will be basted straight and without wrinkles.  When I thread baste them myself it can take all day to complete the basting on a Queen size quilt, not to mention the back ache that results after that is done.

APIP #2 - Bloom and Sew;  I completed two stitcheries, have two more ready to be blocked and then another in the hoop, almost done.  That leaves one more to get stitched.  Hopefully by the end of next week all stitcheries will be completed.  I would like to have the block completed by the end of the month.

My three blocks in process

Two completed blocks

APIP #13 Bright Hopes Quilts - I have decided to call this quilt the Bright Hopes quilt after the name of the block.  I now have all the blocks made, and have started the blanket stitch around the blocks and then the crochet.  I find I am really enjoying the crochet as I used to crochet a lot.  Since quilting took over my life most of my other hand crafts have gone by the wayside.  Lately I have gotten more interested in doing embroidery and crochet and enjoy incorporating them into my quilts.

 The instructions call for the blocks to be blocked and I ordered this blocking board to accomplish this task.  I have never had one of these before and look forward to blocking all my blocks.

 I have been playing around with how to arrange the blocks.  

This is option one, with the Bright Hope blocks making up the quilt top.

Option 1 - the floral side making up the quilt back.

This is option 2 where I flip every other block over to put the floral in between the Bright Hope blocks.

Guess I will study the pictures a little more before I make up my mind.