Americana Sampler as of May 9

Being somewhat limited in what I am "allowed to do" under Doctor's orders while my elbow heals, I set aside hand quilting and hand work to do some machine sewing.  I am not sure it made that much difference, but he did say to ease off on the handwork.   I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend though working on the Americana Sampler, and actually made some good progress.  Yesterday the stitches came out and I am free now to drive and do handwork - but I see the doc again on Monday, and want to finish a hand quilting project before then just incase he puts me under restrictions again. :)

Here are the Americana Sampler blocks I completed Friday through today:

I had already completed the posy, but had to do the rail fence strip to finish it up.  I actually made 16 rail fence blocks, the other 14 will show up somewhere else on the quilt.

Had fun with this Bear Paw block.  I found this fabric in my patriotic stash and the squares were just the right side for me to feature different scenes from the fabric.   This morning though I noticed I had placed some of the HST's wrong and had to do some re-sewing :(   

Well this is all applique - guess I disobeyed doctor's orders in making this one, but I had to have it to complete the row I was working on.  I tried to keep my left arm still while I did it, and just held the fabric with the left hand and did all the applique with the right.

This is the quilt layout I have finished to date.  there will be one more side row and two bottom rows.  Shown are the blocks completed for the next row to be added.

This Grandmother's Fan block instructions kind of surprised me.  This is a Fons and Porter very old pattern and the instructions said to machine piece the fan and then applique it to a back ground square, and then applique the "handle".  I did it with curved paper piecing and not sure why Fons and Porter did it with applique

This is Jacob's Ladder - a fun block to make.

Hollis's Big Girl Quilt - Beginning steps

 A friend recently asked me if I still blogged as she had not seen a post in a good while.  Well, I do, just have been neglecting it.  So thought I would share the beginning steps of a quilt for my Granddaughter Hollis.  Her birthday is October 18 and I do hope to have this quilt ready to give to her.  I am thinking of hand quilting, but that will determine on when I get the top done.  If I do, it will be big stitch and will only be around 65" square, so I might be able to get it done.

Hollis loves flowers and butterflies, so that is my theme. My inspiration for the quilt comes from two books: Granny Quilt Decor by Darlene Zimmerman and Rose Sampler Supreme by Rosemary Makhan.

This book had several quilts that I liked and pulled different ideas from.  The butterfly arrangement around a center block and the use of 9-patches for the background blocks.

Then I pulled 9 flowers from this Rose Sampler Supreme book to use on the quilt instead of the Southern Belles in the quilt above. 

This is my layout, I drew in EQ8.  I made the applique blocks grey just to show how they fell in the quilt, but the background will be white, just like that used in the 9-Patches.

Next step was fabrics to use.  I had already started selecting some fabrics, but needed some solids and few more to complete the selection.  That is done now and I do like the way the fabric all seem to be friendly with each other.

I am going to hand applique the butterflies and flower blocks, but since Hollis will only be 5 when she receives the quilt, I want to make sure it is up to the use/laundry challenge it will receive.  I am blanket stitching applique following a technique my mom taught me.  Basically you baste the applique in place with 50wt thread matching the fabric.

Then you blanket stitch over the basting stitches, leaving them in place to strengthen the applique. Momma always used embroidery floss for the blanket stitch, but I am using white hand quilting thread

as I feel this will hold up better with wear and tear.  I also plan to quilt it with white thread.

Doing small stitches so they are not that noticable, but found I did more even stitches if I put a sticker on my thumb marking how far apart the stitches should be.   I have completed two of the four butterflies in the quilt, and am satisfied with how they look.

The butterflies will all have the same fabric pattern for the wings, just different colors. 

That is where I am this morning, having fun making the butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by. 

 I noticed two people have quit following me, that is kind of sad.  I have tried and tried to figure out why I cannot respond to comments on my blog.  I used to get an email when I received a comment and I simply responded to that email, but they just quit coming.  I have checked my profile many times, and I have it marked to send me email comments and my email is correct - just not working.  I have tried to contact blogger, and they do not respond to my questions.

Delaford - by Katrina Hadjimichael

 As if I do not have anything to work on, I have started a new project, designed by Katrina Hadjimichael called Delaford.  When I first saw this quilt on her website, I knew it was destined to be in my projects, but had to wait until she offered if for sale to the public.  She does the workshops for new patterns and does not release them until at least a year of workshops - so I patiently waited.  Oh how I would love to attend one of her workshops - but they are all in Australia or England.

I had been collecting fabric for awhile now in anticipation of starting the project.  I love the Bohemian fabric I found at SewEndipitous and have added some batiks to it to complete my palette todate.  I have started working on the border beside the flowers, mainly because I wanted an EPP project to take places, and had none in process (well I do have that pi quilt, but I keep forgetting about it.)  

This is my fabric palette to date, I am sure I will probably add more.

So here is the border as shown in the picture above:

And the one using my fabrics:

My background color not showing up so great, but it is a pale yellow - the color of butter.  I am using white in the blocks and the white will show up other places on the quilt as well.  These are not sewn to the border fabric yet, and will be spaced correctly.  I am excited to have begun working on the quilt :)

I am also progressing on my second Dear Jane Quilt - making this one as a teaching quilt for a class I am currently conducting.  I have completed all 169 blocks (made between mid-October thru mid-February) which was a feat for me, considering my first DJ took me three years to get to that point.  I am now working on the triangles and 26 of the 52 completed. I completed the last two after I took this picture.  This is the top and bottom borders.

Also trying to keep progress moving along on my Americana Sampler quilt and completed these blocks since my last club meeting on February 8:

.....and one last picture of my progress on my guild's block of the month.  A quilt called Lasting Legacies and I am doing mine from my stash of batiks.  There are the March blocks:

Ahhhhhhh....quilting

 There is something so soothing to my spirit when hand quilting.  I just sit in quiet and hand quilt - enjoying the relaxing peace and thinking of my many blessings.  God is so good to me!

Hampton Court Table Runner

 Last night I completed the Hampton Court Table Runner, designed by Katrina Hadjimichael of Australia.  She is one of my favorite designers and I have a gorgeous quilt-in-waiting named Delaford which will be my next project. All the flowers are English Paper Pieced and then hand appliqued to the background.

I used fabric from my stash that has gold metalic designs, hand quilted it with gold metallic thread and added a string of gold seed beads around the border.  Following are some close up pictures of the flowers, beading and a couple of the hand quilting on the back.

Dear Jane Squares done

Today I made M11 Dear Jane block and that finished up all the small square blocks for me.  I did not do them in order, but rather in what I thought was Easy - Medium - Complex.  I started this around Mid-October and finished the squares this morning.  The blocks are sewn into rows, but I have not sewn the rows to each other yet.

I have 4,382 pieces so far.  Not using sashing but putting borders around the blocks and then squaring to
5 1/2" , which is what I believe Jane Stickle did.   

Now - on to Triagles for the borders!

I have also started a Block of the Month my Guild (York County Quilters Guild) is hosting called Lasting Legacy.  Doing mine scrappy style from by Batik stash  and also some bright "near" solids I have been saving in my stash.  Each month we make the same block twice.  Here is Block 1.  I have challenged myself to not foundation paper piece these block like I usually would, but work on my machine piecing skill in making 1/4" seams.  I am not the best at being precise, but these came  out ok.

Goodness - Where as my time gone?

 I can't believe I have not posted since October - it cannot have been that long!

Since then, I have started hand quilting my GFG quilt - but I notice two of my fingers had gone numb on my left hand.  Mentioned this to may doctor who sent me to a neurologist, who diagnosed nerve damage in my hand originating from a pinched nerve in my left elbow.  This will require surgery to fix, but really????  I have no pain, just two numb fingers. The neurologist and my doctor have both told me to either have surgery, or risk losing the use of my left hand as it will have permanent nerve damage that will continue to get worse.  The neurologist also told me to stop doing any handwork - which is like telling me to stop breathing.  My new year's resolution is to take care of this problem.

Needless to say, I continue to hand quilt, embroider and work on other projects.  There is just so much time I can spend reading and I am still concerned about going out among crowds because of the Covid, and now flu.  Most of shopping is on-line, except visits to the grocery store and quilt shop to get essentials.  I do my grocery shopping early in the morning (like 7:00 when Food Lion opens) to avoid crowds and sanitize that cart handle when I go in. Sigh.....I am probably over-doing it, but I do what I feel is the least I can do.

I am enjoying quilting on my GFG.  This is the first time I designed my own appliqued border.  I am using different colors of thread for the quilting.  To get the colors I needed I ordered some 40wt aurifil fabric and am not happy with it as it breaks too easily.  I use Coats & Clark hand quilting thread when I could find the right color and am trying some Gutermann hand quilting thread that I am very satisfied with.  Below are some pictures of my quilting and borders.

I also started another Dear Jane quilt in October and have completed  over 130 of the 169 quilt center blocks.  I agreed to start a Dear Jane club in October which will begin in February and felt the need to make blocks again if I plan to teach them.  I finished my first quilt in 2019 - so I definitely needed a refresher.  Looking forward to sharing this project with others, but it sure is a lot of work to prepare for teaching.

I have also purchased the Delaford quilt pattern from Katrina Hadjimichael.  I knew I had to make this quilt when she first posted it  on-line, but had to wait a year or so until she made the pattern available to the public.  Have started collecting my fabrics and hopefully can start working on it soon.  Lots of English Paper Piecing and applique.

Back to my DJ Blocks.  I will post some pictures of them soon - but here is one of my favorites: