Starry Sampler - all handquilted

 I have mentioned before that my Guild is making the Starry Sampler for our 2026 Block of the Month.  There are 16 beautiful EPP blocks in this pattern, but we are only doing the first 9.  I am hand quilting mine as I finish them, and today I finished quilting #9.  Whew, now to get them attached into a quilt with a Quilt-As-You-Go technique.   Here's the first 9 blocks:

I have also made progress on the Sunbonnet Sue - Completing Block 2 (Falling Leaves) and 3 (Ice skating)

I will add buttons to the dress after it is quilted.

This dress gets buttons, too.  The Gingerbread man is a button as well. I will attach it to the quilt with a thread that allows it to be removed from the pocket but not removed from the quilt.  I also have some snowflake buttons that I plan to add in the background.  All buttons will be added after the quilt is quilted.

And not to be neglected - I covered 320 white hexies and 140 green hexies and selected 17 flower hexies for the left flower border of the Insanity quilt.  Now that I have the 9 EPP blocks quilted, I can start working on the flower borders :)

SunBonnet Sue - Block 1

 I finished the first block and really had fun doing this.  So here she is.......

The Ultimate Sunbonnet Sue Collection

Never let it said that I let a stack of UFO's stop me from starting another.  I have always wanted to make a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, but had looked for patterns that had various Sue's doing different things.  Never found one that struck my fancy, until I found this book at a second hand store that sold quilting supplies and fabrics.  The quilter had made a couple blocks, but the fabric she used was bright bold colors, and not to my liking.   So I set it aside until I found fabric that I thought would look nice.  Since I finished the center of the Insanity Quilt (previous post) and need to cover several hundred hexies for the flower border, I decided to start another project!  haha, that makes insane sense.

The book is called "The Ultimate Sunbonnet Sue Collection" published by Leisure Arts.  I could not find an author's name.  It has 24 of the cutest Sunbonnet Sues and I just could not resist.  Publshed in 2000 and I don't think it is still being published.  Several in my quilt club love it too, so through Thriftbooks, Amazon, Etsy and Ebay they found old copies at great prices.  

 

The fabric line I chose is Cottage Charm by Moda.  I bought a pack of 1/8" inch strips that had all 34 pieces in the fabric line.  I have had to add a couple other fabrics so far - one a brown for the shoes and other various items the pattern used black  but I think the black is too "strong" for the other fabrics.  Also bought some "flesh" tone fabric for arms.

There is also one print in three colors that I am going to use for corner stones - at least that is the plan now.  I am considering embroidering a little flower in each cornerstone.  I am going to use 1 1/2" sashing strips which is just the right size for the fabric block below.  I chose a butter cream kona solid or the background and a light blue for the sashing.

This morning I got the pieces prepped for the first block - a Sunbonnet Sue  with Butterfly Net.  I am keeping a list of the embroidery and embellishments to be added to each block and therefore have to number the blocks and identify them with a name.  Some embellishments, like buttons, will have to be added after the quilt is quilted.

I am doing prepared edge applique technique that I learned from Katrina Hadjimichael, but some small appliques with lots of  points are with needle turn.  That is why the bow is set off to the side.  I drew the embroidery on with a brown ink pigment pen and will do the butterflies and net  by embroidery.

Well that is my kickoff for this project.  Hopefully this week I will have a finished block to share.

 

 

Insanity Quilt - Center completed

 Today I completed the center top of the Insanity Quilt.  There are 3,480 hexies in the center and I am approx 33% done on the quilt.  My next step will be the flower border and I can hardly wait to get started.  Before I can start that border, I need to cover a several hundred white hexies and the green border hexies.

Jasmine Bag - Finished!

 Today I completed the Jasmine Bag by Katrina Hadjimichael.  Its a nice big bag for toting a quilt or other project to guild or a friends house.

Jasmine Bag - Katrina Hadjimichael pattern

 Last night I completed the applique panels on my Jasmine Bag by Katrina Hadjimichael.  On to the quilting step next.  This was a project I took to my Stitchin Friends quilt retreat and so excited to be working on it again after over a year, I think,

Backyard Birds

 My quilt has a UFO Challenge going on for 2026 - but it is a manageable one.  You just list 9 projects that you will work on during the year, setting a specific goal for each project. Each month the project manager (Martee) selects a number and you work on that project during the month.  If you meet the goal you set, you get 2 tickets in the prize bowl, if you worked on it but did not complete it, you get one ticket.  At the end of the year there will be a ticket drawn and that person gets a special prize :)

 For February, the number chosen was #3, and my #3 goal was to complete the quilt top for the Backyard Birds quilt.  I already had all the bird block completed, just needed to do the quilt layout, which involved making 10 checkerboard blocks.  So this morning I met my goal :)

I have decided to make another set of birds but a little fancy ones - using floral and other types of prints.

So far, I have completed two of these birds:

These are really fun to make - Foundation Paper Pieced.   The background is actually a pretty green but just does not show up well in the picturess