My Name Was Drawn!

Do you read Melissa Cory's Happy Quilting blog? Tuesdays are her Tuesday Terrific Giveaway Day. Online fabric stores provide gift certificates for her giveaways. 

My name was drawn and I received a gift certificate of $25 to Lou Lou's Fabric shop.

I selected a Fresh Fig jelly roll, something with no blue fabrics!

I have no idea what I'll be making with this jelly roll but the fabrics are very pretty.

Thank you Melissa and thank you to Lou Lou's fabrics for this lovely gift.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss

Blueberry Pie, 2nd Applique Corner

The 2nd corner of Blueberry Pie is appliqued. You will have to settle for an indoor picture, it's been very breezy this week then it rained. I didn't want the flimsy outside in those conditions.

And, in case you are wondering, no, I never did find the missing fabric. You can't tell it though in the picture, the substitute fabric is the same value as the first fabric.

I want to add a dark blue border to the outside of the gray borders but I haven't decided how wide to make them. Originally I had planned to have all four corners appliqued but I've run out of applique energy. I can quilt faster than I can applique. I haven't measured blueberry pie because I need to trim off the selvage before adding the blue border.

The pattern for Blueberry Pie is found in the Red, White and Sometimes Blue book but it's not called Blueberry Pie, you'll find it listed as Writer's Block. I thought the name was rather unimaginative so I changed it to reflect the blues used in my quilt.

The pattern in the book does NOT have an applique border, this is my addition. The border is a variation of the center medallion from the Lady Jane pattern, designed by Nancy Rink.

I was informed by someone in the 'know' several years ago that floral couches are out of style. I don't have the patience to keep up with trends, our grandsons love that couch and would miss it if we got rid of it.

I'm getting ready to leave for the Jane Stickle retreat Wednesday so there won't be a post next Sunday. 

Here is a picture of another one of my Christmas cactus. It's a very pretty variegated salmon and white.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Trip Around the Cottage

One of the stops on my birthday shop-hop was at Caroline's Cottage Cottons where I purchased two kits. Are you seeing a trend here?

Today's post is about one of the kits, a store kit called Trip Around the Cottage, a play on the store name.

Caroline this kit in several colorways, I liked these shiny fabrics so that's the kit I selected.

This quilt top sewed together so fast. I could have easily pieced the flimsy in one day but other responsibilities took part of my time so it was a two day sew.

It measures 68.5" square and is hanging in the to be quilted closet. Eventually I will quilt it with my sewing machine then donate it as a compassion quilt. I think this quilt will be a good one for a man.

There was yardage of the dark blue fabric (which looks black in the pictures) for the binding. That has also been made and is waiting with the flimsy.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Elegant Garden, Block 2

I did complete the applique on Blueberry Pie this week but I didn't get a picture taken, sorry 😔. Since the Blueberry Pie applique is finished, I pulled another project.

Last August I wrote about starting a new applique project to use as a take-along project, Elegant Garden, an older applique pattern by Edyta Sitar, Laundry Basket Quilts. I had completed block one.

I finally finished block 2 which was started in September.

There was a LOT more applique on block 2 than block 1 and those pieces are very small, at least for my fingers. There was supposed to be more leaves on this block but I left several of them off, I thought this was enough.

When I opened my tub of civil war fabrics, I found several fat quarters of background fabrics I had purchased some time but I don't remember when. I cut the squares for each block then arranged them on the display wall. This way I shouldn't end up with the same background fabric next to each other.

Elegant Garden will be my main hand work project for now. Next Sunday I hope to show you Blueberry Pie.

I brought all of my Christmas Cactus into the house last week after they spent a week of quarantine in the garage. I sprayed them several time with an insect spray.

Most of the plants have buds and the yellow cactus is blooming! I normally get a second round of blooms after the new year.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Blessed by Nature

My birthday is in July and again, like last year, I went shopping/browsing at several local fabric stores to celebrate. This year I took Donna along.

We made several stops in our birthday celebration and made several purchases. You'll hear about those during this autumn but today I'm going to tell you about our stop at Lolly's.

At Lolly's we both thought the Blessed by Nature sample quilt on the wall was very pretty. We both purchased kits and made plans to get together this autumn to sew them.

Basically the blocks are sewn using the 'stack & whack' or 'one block wonder' method. I suppose those are copyrighted terms but that is the method for cutting the block triangles.

I cut my fabrics at home, I can concentrate better when I'm on my own. But I did sew two blocks ahead of time to make sure I had cut them correctly.

I do need to say that the instructions are not clearly written and are hard to follow. This is definitely not a project for a beginning quilter. 

We persevered in spite of the challenging directions and have finished flimsies. My flimsy measures 64.5" by 80.5" but we all know it will shrink when it's quilted.

My quilt has been delivered to a long arm quilter. It will be 8 weeks until it is quilted and ready for display. That means I should be able to show it to you just before Christmas.

I needed to go to Shipshewana Tuesday so I stopped at Lolly's and looked at the original quilt. What I thought I had cut incorrectly was exactly the same as the sample quilt. Obviously that sewest had the same problem I did. 

Lolly's no longer has any kits but they have quilted the sample. The quilt is for sale at $675 in case any of you are interested.

And yes, on the way home from my birthday shopping, we did stop at the Essenhaus bakery to buy a raspberry cream pie to celebrate my birthday. Birthdays only come once a year and I only have raspberry cream pie once a year. 😋

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Blueberry Pie

I really thought I would have this corner applique finished by today but I was distracted by another project instead.

Just one more leaf needs to be stitched onto the right side, that should happen today. 

Then I need two leaves on the left side and it's finished!

The problem (of course there's a problem!) is I can't find this fabric! I know I didn't use it all but I just can't find it. I could substitute another fabric but I'll need to take three leaves off, I don't want two different fabric leaves.

I'll look again. 😞

I was in Wakarusa last Wednesday and was surprised to see the quilt garden hadn't been cleared yet. The participating garden committees decide when their garden is 'finished'. They can't be cleared before September 1. Most leave their flowers in place until the middle of September but some want them cleared because they're ready to be finished for the season. 

We had the first frost of this autumn Thursday morning but it wasn't a hard frost. The farmer didn't have any frost on the truck windows when he went to the farm to milk his one cow at 6 AM.

Some of the flowers in the front look finished but most of them are still colorful.

I'm sure they will pull the flowers this week. Cold weather is coming!

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

More Comforter Binding

Elaine dropped off seven comforters for me to bind. I used this tutorial for binding.

Sometimes the comforters are rather bland but these comforters are very pretty! 

Fern pieced these tops then passed them along to Elaine who then took them to be knotted at Prairie Street Church. The bindings have been turned, stitched and delivered to the Depot to be sent with the next shipment to wherever they're sent.

Isn't it interesting how we all have our different niche in the process?

Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts