Americana Sampler

 Completed a couple more blocks on the Americana Sampler.  The first was the Country Angel.  I first made this one using Helen Stubbins Faux Applique technique.  It came out nice, but did not fit into my Americana Sampler Quilt - so I made a baby doll bag with it that my granddaughters love to play with.

So I decided to make one using David Taylor starch applique method.  I am please how it came out and using the French General fabrics like the other blocks.  This block is so far the largest block coming in at 18" finished.

My next block is the Rambler block which is a 12" block.   Rather than fight to keep all the seams at 1/4" and the points from getting chopped off, I used EQ8 to come up with a paper piecing pattern.  I do love this block which will be on-point in the quilt.  This will be the block that I do a lesson on at the March Stitchin' Friends meeting.  We will be meeting at SewEndipitous Quilt shop, owned by my dear friend Lisa.

Birds in the Air

I have started putting together a quilt for my niece.  She works at a Wild Bird store and has developed a real interest in birds.  I received a new bird feeder for Christmas, and she and I got to talking about birds.  The bird feeder is supposed to appeal to Chickadees, and she said they were favorite, which was a surprise as they are also my favorite wild bird.  I think they are just the cutest birds with their little top notch,

So I had told Joy that I would make her quilt and I had a Chickadee block I had made in a David Taylor class that I could incorporate into her quilt.  I showed her the block and she loved it. 

So I started using EQ to design a quilt around this block which is approx 14 1/2" square.  In the meantime I came across the beautiful panel of bird pictures.  The selvage says Tracy Lizotte for Elizabeth Studio, Pattern 4309.  It has 12 images, one of which I have already prepped to use in the quilt, but here are the other 11.  They are so realistic, look almost like paintings.

In EQ I decided to use the Birds in the Air block for my quilt and intersperse the bird pictures and my Chicadee block.   Here is the EQ drawing I came up with.

I spent a couple weeks cutting out blue fabric for the blocks, as I really want it to look scrappy. Joy did tell me her favorite color is blue, all shades of blue. My blues can be prints with other colors, as long as the blue is the most prominent.  Also, I wanted true blue - no teals.  I think I accomplished that for the most part.   I started making the blocks, but since there are 10 in the first row, it took me a few weeks to get 9 blocks of different fabrics for the first row, which also includes one of the bird images.  I need 104 Birds in the Air blocks, and so far I have 52 made.  I raided my stash, and got between 2 to 8 blocks cut from each fabric.  I may need a few more, but will see when I get closer to have it done.  I finally put the first row together on my design wall, and must say, I like the way it is looking.

I am paper piecing the blocks using freezer paper....so back to the sewing.

Brimfield and Gentle Gems Completed!

 Yea, for January I have two "completed" projects to show.  

The first I will share is my sweet little Gentle Gems, a Val Laird BOM for 2021.  Her 2022 BOM is a Calendar one that looks really cute, but I have already committed to a different project and better hold off on that one.

The next is my Brimfield block quilt.  This quilt is English Paper Pieced blocks that are hand appliqued to the background.  I hand quilted using big stitch with Bold weight Coats and Clark hand quilting thread.  I decided that rather than make a label, I would just "sign" the quilt the way my mom always did.  She embroidered her name and year the quilt was finished on the back. Sometimes I want to write a little about the history of the quilt, so I do a label - but in this case, I just wanted to sign it.

Now on to another UFO and also getting ready to start a new project.  

January Organization

 At a recent retreat of my club Stitchin' Friends, Linda D challenged us to get organized and is going to get us started by giving us one task to do each month.  Well for January, it was actually two tasks:

1 - Clean out all your pens, pencils, markers, etc and throw away what no longer works.

2 - Clean out the wheels of your chair

Well I have a new chair and the wheels are nice and pretty and clean, so I did not have to do that one, but now the other was quite a challenge.

Here is the before picture: This is a nice tray/box that someone gave me years ago and it sets in a file cabinet drawer beside my sewing table...over the years, I have just dumped so many markers, pens, hi-highters, mechanical pencils and other stuff.  So I took every thing out, decided what I wanted to keep, threw away pens and markers that no longer had ink and put away stuff that did not belong in there.

Before

This is the box after.  I was amazed at the pens and markers that no longer work.  I used containers that sugar free drink packets come in to sort what I had left.  The plastic storage box will hopefully go home with the grandkids - its full of mechanical pencils and pens that I no longer use or want.  I even had room to put my note pads that I can never find when I need them.

AFTER

I did find some stuff in the box that did not belong there and have either throw away or put away where they belong

And there is one mystery - any idea what this is?   I don't know where I got it or what its for, but its just too darn cute to throw away, so it went back in the box:

Gentle Gems - Val Laird

 Last night I completed the blocks for November which were the last two in the Gentle Gems block of the month by Val Laird.  I so enjoyed working on these blocks and will hopefully get them sewed into a wall hanging while at a retreat in a couple of weeks.  Not sure where I will hang it, but I know I will always like looking at the pretty stitcheries.  Below are the pictures of all blocks stacked together, the November blocks and a layout of the blocks that hopefully I have in the order I will use.

Gail Pan - Bring Me Flowers quilt top

 I finished the quilt top for the Gail Pan Block of the Month - Bring Me Flowers.  I added a flange in the border, the first time I have tried this and I do like the look it gives.  I made the flange 3/8" and wish I had just done a 1/4" flange, but its done now.  I hope to do a mixture of machine and hand quilting which I have done on other quilts and liked the look.  The embroidered blocks will be hand quilted and the remainder of the quilt machine quilted.  Can't wait to start on it, but need to finish the quilting on the Brimfield first.

Brimfield - quilting

 I have started quilting my Brimfield quilt.  I have had more trouble deciding on thread choice and pattern for this quilt than any other I have done.  I started out with just regular hand quilting thread (40wt) and the dark green just did not look dark enough on the back of the quilt.  So I ordered Bold (25wt) Coats and Clark hand quilting thread from Sewing Parts on-line.  It is almost impossible to find local sources of C&C thread other than Michaels and they have a very limited selection. This is odd being that the C&C threads are headquarted in Charlotte. I can drive to Charlotte to Joanns and they have it, but once again a limited selection.  Once I had my thread, I then debated on the pattern to use.  It took me quilting three blocks and ripping out the stitches twice to finally get what I am satisfied with.  Now I can really enjoy the process.

These are pictures of the quilting on the front.  The area in the dark green sections are done with Forest Green thread.  I use a white chalk pencil for marking and left it on for the picture just so the quilting would show up better.  The actual EPP blocks are quilted in white bold thread.  I did not like the way the dark green thread looked against these blocks.

And here are a couple pictures of the back side of the quilt.  The white thread does not have a strong contrast against the backing, which is a golden yellow.  In person you can see it better, but in a photo it is hard to see.

To me there is nothing more relaxing than hand quilting and I am thoroughly enjoying quiet times in the morning and afternoon, listening to a book on Audible and doing my quilting.

Spikes and Specks - Katrina Hadjimichael

Here is my finished Spikes and Specks quilt, designed by Katrina Hadjimichael (https://katrinahadjimichael.com.au/ ).   I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt. It will be a gift to my special niece, Cindy, and right in time for her wedding :)  My dear friend, Donna K, quilted it for my on her long arm.   I will give it to Cindy on Thanksgiving Day when she and her future husband will be here.

My sweet niece Cindy with her quilt

Chickadee Workshop with David Taylor

 I attended the first in-person workshop yesterday since this Pandemic started.  It was great fun to spend a day with quilting friends and learn some new techniques. The workshop instructor was David Taylor. 

Three techniques that will especially impact my future applique were:

1. How and when to use a lining behind the applique pieces to keep a shadow of the fabric from showing through, as well as what fabric to use for the lining.

2. When David applique curves, he only turns the fabric under on convex curves.  For concave curves, he does not turn the fabric under, but rather fits the adjoining applique piece such that the adjoining convex curve overlaps the convave curve.  Hard to put this into words, and can be a little complicated doing it as well, but was an interesting technique to learn.

3. How to use a finger stilletto.

    I finished up my little 12" square Chickadee block this morning. Sweet little Chickadees are among of my favorite wild birds, right up there with blue birds.  Not sure yet what it will become, but I am considering a pillow, and maybe more "bird" theme pillows to put out in the spring.

Gentle Gems Block of the Month update

 An update of my progress on the Val Laird, Block of the Month - Gentle Gems.  These are so fun to make!

September blocks

 

Blocks January - September

English Paper Pieced blocks

 I have been doing a lot of English Paper Piecing lately, working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt and some additional blocks to use in the border of this quilt.   My plans are to make a series of 7" EPP blocks to put all around the border of the quilt.  To date I have 3 rows of the GFG sew together, and additional 1 1/2 rows of completed blocks for Row 4 and Row 5.  I have made 5 blocks to go around the borders.

Daisy block- Sharon Burgess block

Geranium Delight; I first saw this one on Samilia's Mom blog.  I elected not to include an outer round of pieces.

May Blossom - Elise Baek pattern

Tenderness - Sharon Burgess pattern

Round We Go - Sue Daley pattern

Mosaic Tile Quilting

 I recently became interested in Mosaic Tile Quilting and found a book on Thriftbooks called Tile Quilt Revival. I believe I saw a reference to this book on Barbara Brackman's blog.  I also did some researching for YouTubes showing how to do the technique, and nearly all  involved fusible applique, which I am not interested in.  I did find one site that was all sewn by machine and I did not like that either. 

The Tile Quilt Revival book shows how to do the technique with needle turn applique and gave excellent pictures and instructions on the technique.  I am somewhat comfortable with needle turn applique so was anxious to try.

One particular difference in this technique is to only fold under 1/8" seam allowance, I usually try to allow at least 1/4".  I wasn't sure I would like this, but I am game to try anything.  After a few efforts, I found that I really like the 1/8" seam allowance.  This is the piece I chose to work on, and I had already appliqued the blue bird, but you can see how close the pieces are.  The way you cut out the pattern, they should fit exactly together like a puzzle, you baste in place and then applique with the 1/8" fold under.  This will reveal a 1/4inch "grout" once all the pieces are appliqued.  Obviously I did not cut my pieces exactly right, but not too bad for a first attempt.

I would have preferred a white fabric for the "grout" but because I used light fabrics for the block backgrounds, they did not show up well on the white base fabric.  So here is my finished block:

Obviously I have a ways to go, but I enjoyed the process and will do better on the next block.  I am making the table runner below:

Spikes and Specks

 Yesterday I finished a quilt top called Spikes and Specks.  This is a Katrina Hadjimichael pattern, one of my favorite Australian designers.  The quilt will be a gift to my special niece Cindy.  I had shown her the pattern and asked if she would like a quilt made with this pattern, and I let her choose the type of colors she would like in the quilt.  She sent me color swatches that she liked and I matched those colors in the backgrounds of the blocks.    I took the quilt to my dear friend, Donna, who will quilt it for me on her Handi Quilter long-arm quilter.   Here's the quilt top and next picture will be a completed quilt :)

The fabrics are all batiks.  I used two different hombre batiks and these were used in piecing the rings.  The  leaves are all the different batiks used, both for the backgrounds, center circle and pieced rings.

August blocks

 I did get my August blocks of the month blocks completed.  Cutting it close on the Gentle Gems by Val Laird but was determined to have them done before the end of the month.  

Gail Pan - Bring Me Flowers:  One of her August blocks had a very cute Bumble Bee, but I am just not a big fan of any kind of bee - so I did a hummingbird instead.  Its fun when you can take a block of the month and choose your own fabrics and in cases designs to use.  

Val Laird's Gentle Gems: Ok so one of the blocks is sideways.  But I had already put them away before I saw this oooops - so just have to tilt your head a little to see the bike :)   This pattern used bullion stitch which I love to do, but do find it awkward.  I am considering getting a hoop on a stand to do some of these stitches that are challenging. I did message Val Laird (and she replied promptly) asking if she used a hand held hoop, hoop on a stand or no hoop when she embroiders.  I was surprised she said she does not use a hoop.  Hmmmmm...maybe I need to try this again.  I find it hard to get my stitches the right tension and consistent this way, but then practice would probably help.

Ooooops

Got up early this morning to complete a row on my Grandmother's Flower Garden.  Got it done and laid it out on the floor to admire my progress.  Ooooops - maybe I should have waited until I had more coffee!

 So got out the ripper, moved the block and fixed that - sigh - took about 45 minutes out of my morning.

Have to admit, not the first time I have done this oops on this project :(