Several years ago, I bought a kit from Connecting Threads called City View. The kit contained fabric from the Emma & Myrtle collection designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg.
I finally pieced the kit and spent the last week machine quilting on my sewing machine.
I did my usual straight line 1/2" quilting with white thread. She measures 52" by 72".
I had wanted to take pictures outside in the snow but it was too windy so inside the house it was!
I always like the way the straight lines look when they cross in the corners.
I know the spacing in between the lines isn't perfect but, hey, it's quilted!
This was a very easy pattern to make. I like the bright colors and the binding stripe looks lovely!
For backing I used fabric from Amanda Jean's Good Neighbors fabric line which also came from Connecting Threads.
I don't have plans as to who the recipient of this quilt will be but someone will need a quilt and I'll have one ready to go.
Linking to Midweek Makers, Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, Free Motion Mavericks
I did a lot of hand work this week. First I quilted. I didn't get to quite the center of the quilt but I'm ok with that.
One of the reasons I didn't accomplish more hand quilting was because I was busy appliqueing the rest of the leaves onto the center medallion of Stars Around the Garden!
I had thought I might applique circles onto the corners but I'm going to hold off on that idea awhile.
Also, not only did I finish the applique for Stars Around the Garden, I traced off the November blocks for Happy Little Things . . . and . . . I embroidered them, October blocks too!
I had planned to use blue and yellow fabrics from my stash but I found this lovely fat quarter bundle at Caroline's. There is a lovely variety of the yellows and I don't have any of those blue fabrics.
Jacquelynne has designed lovely finishes to these blocks but I'm going to do something different. I'll bag the embroidered blocks and fabrics and take them along to retreat later this month. Happy Little Things is project #3 so I may not get to it there, just depends on how projects #1 and #2 go.
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Bambi's Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away
A year ago, at the November 2018 Jane Stickle retreat, I pieced a king sized Boston Commons for our bed. I got her back from the quilter in October. She measures 98" by 120".
Lori Null did a lovely job with the quilting. The picture should be larger if you click on it.
The quilting in the braid part is orange peels which shows on the backing but the color is definitely not true!
It's a lovely medium blue batik fabric with white thread!
There are feathers in the white path and in the outside blue border. I'm sorry they don't show in the above picture. It was really hard to get pictures of the quilting.
Just for fun I added a yellow flange binding. I'm not sure I like it now but, too late, I'm not going to remove it!
Linking to Midweek Makers, Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday
This week I felt rather uninspired for my hand work. I did finish the hand quilting on the row I was working on last week.
Now the whole first row of Floral Triangles is completed!
There are 7 rows in this quilt. The next row should go a little faster since there are more pieced blocks in this row than applique.
I didn't even touch the leaves for the center medallion of Stars Around the Garden.
Last week I said I'd show you some of the trees around our home. The sky was very overcast and dreary when I took the photos so they aren't as brilliant colored as when the sun shines directly on them.
These 2 trees are in our yard.
There is a chartreuse undertone which adds a lovely contrast to the orange leaves.
Wouldn't these colors make a lovely quilt?
This old maple is huge!
She's already lost a lot of her leaves but she adds so much color contrast to the other trees along the lane.
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Bambi's Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away
Last January I had a post about cleaning and organizing my cutting room. I showed you a picture of a box of 1-1/2" strings or strips or whatever you want to call them. I said that a challenge to myself in 2019 was to empty this box. And I wondered how many quilts were in the box?
I've sewn the last flimsy, which measures 63" by 81". This makes flimsy #8 which is also destined for the comforter bash. Most of the quilts I sewed were log cabin blocks. I was tired of log cabin so for this project, I changed it up slightly and made courthouse steps!
These are regular courthouse step blocks. I started piecing these blocks before Bonnie Hunter made her crooked courthouse blocks.
The strings were picked over and there wasn't much variety. I refused to cut more 1-1/2" strips so I used 2" strips from the 2" strip box to finish them. I always trim to size after they're sewn anyway so I had plenty to trim off this time.
Originally, last January, I sorted the strings into 3 groups, autumn, brights and then the leftovers.
Flimsy #1 - I chose to make log cabin blocks with the autumn and bright fabrics. He measures 92" by 106".
This setting was popular in my area back in the late 90's.
I used all sorts of fabrics for the lighter logs. If it had a cream background, it went in this quilt, even it it had red roses! Some of the logs were more beige than cream but I used them anyway.
I did have to pull some fat quarters and yardage to cut more yellows/oranges. Apparently I don't use those colors a lot because there weren't many strips of those colors in the box.
For flimsy #2 - I chose a barn raising setting with a star in the center. Measures 90" x 106".
Flimsy # 3 is similar to the first quilt but has a star center and measures 90" x 106".
I don't have to quilt the 3 autumn flimsies, they'll be donated the my Pennsylvania grands school auction. Someone there will hand quilt them.
Most of the autumn colored fabrics were gone, certainly not enough left to make another quilt. Now onto the bright strings!
I made two large twin sized quilts with brights that have been long arm quilted
The first one has a regular barn raising setting with a star center, this is flimsy #4 and measures 70" by 98".
Tammy from the 3 Sisters Quilting quilted both of the quilts. She called this design rain drops.
I saw a star log cabin quilt on someones blog somewhere and thought I can do that. And so I did for flimsy #5 and it measures 67" by 94".
The quilting design I selected for this quilt was what I called orange peel but Tammy called pumpkin seed.
It's hard to see on the front side but shows up better on the backing.
Flimsy #6 has traditional strings on telephone book paper to make this 60" by 86" comforter top for the MCC Comforter Bash.
I'm not an overly patient person and I found removing the telephone paper from the back of the blocks extremely tedious! Not going to do that again!
For flimsy #7, I went back to piecing log cabin blocks and made this comforter top which measures 61" by 83" which also goes to the comforter bash.
I did cut yellows just to give this flimsy some color.
I have been pulling small pieces of yardage and fat quarters to cut for the light strings. I ran out of lights from the box while piecing the first 3 quilts!
So to answer the questions of how many quilts were in the box of 1-1/2" strings, there were 3 queen sized and 5 twin sized quilts. How many quilts are in your boxes of strings?
There were a few strings left, most of them shorter pieces. To use them, I am making 9 patches. I do have a 9 patch project in progress but the progress is extremely slow.
This was a fun challenge but I don't think I'll try to empty a whole box next year. The 2" and 2-1/2" boxes are overflowing too. Next year I'll see what I can make from them. There is no sense in having string boxes if I don't sew with strings.
Linking to String Along, Month 10, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, Oh Scrap
I'm halfway finished with the leaves on the center medallion from Stars Around the Garden! I think the brown from the leaves look rather heavy. I plan to add some brown circles to the medallion. I think that will add more balance.
My hand quilting on Floral Triangles is progressing.
The right side borders.
I'm quilting the top of the triangles and into the next row. I'm also stitching in the ditch along the horizontal seam line between the rows.
The right half triangle.
Here are 3 more pictures of completed triangles.
My quilt larger than the pattern. I don't remember what the original size was to be and I can't check since I no longer have my pattern. I made double the amount of triangles.
This flower on the right is made with hexdens and was what the original pattern called for. I was very tired of making these and thought they were rather boring.
There were several ladies making this quilt at the Jane Stickle retreat and of course we checked each other's progress. Cindy was making her flowers like the one on the left. I loved it, it looked so much more interesting then the hexdens so I incorporated that idea into my quilt with the 2nd round of applique triangles. The yellow flower in one of the above photos was also made using the circles.
I brought other ideas for flowers with the 2nd round too. You'll see them as I progress further on this quilt.
I did get the flower for Happy Little Things traced off but haven't gotten to the embroidery. I might as well wait until the November block is released then embroider them at the same time.
What do you use for hanging wall quilts? I have a couple hangers that you slide the quilt into, then clamp it tight. This eliminates the need for a sleeve on the back but they're a nuisance to change quilts.
The hangers were also challenging to put up on the wall. Both my son and son in law told me not to get anymore of them.
My son has installed some curtain rods which seem to work very nice. I do wish the quilts were more back again the wall instead of hanging away 6" but they are much easier to switch even if I do have to add a sleeve.
This is the Infinity bargello wall quilt I made a year ago.
This one was many years back. It's an Edyta Sitar pattern from her first book which is all about HST's. I can't seem to locate it right now but I know it's here someplace!
This was my first encounter with raw edge applique.
This was made years ago before I had a blog.
The Christmas cactus full of flowers. They will probably last through most of November. The color is more of a salmon than pink, just lovely!
Our maple trees have finally turned color. I'll try to get a picture this week, the orange/red color is so beautiful!
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Bambi's Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away, Moving It Forward
