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.