Elegant Garden, Block 17

 I'm enjoying appliqueing the Elegant Garden blocks. Block 17 was completed last week.

I did change the size of the orange/yellow circles, they were so tiny! These circles are the size of a dime, much easier for me to applique.

Elegant Garden is designed by Edyta Sitar. These blocks will finish at 9".

Elaine stopped in one day to show me her progress with Rhapsody in Blue, the quilt we're collaborating together for the 2027 Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.

And a side view. It's approximately 73" across the applique borders. 

She had hoped to be farther along by now but she had that nasty deep chest cough that has been going around. Fortunately she didn't have the sore throat that a lot of people got.

The plan is to have the top completed and ready to be put into the hand quilting frame this fall. That's the plan anyway, but we all know how plans go awry.

I will not be having a Wednesday post this week, the Jane Stickle retreat starts Wednesday and I'll be there stitching away!

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

First Quarter Check-In

It was easy to find time to sew in the first quarter this year. I was so busy last autumn with various activities then there was Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was glad to stay home for New Year's and started the year off with sewing!

Around the World Four Patch was the first complete finish in 2025. 

Around the World Four Patch is #13 on my long list of projects for this year.

I have completed severals flimsies for granddaughter Joanna.

Teal Stars has been pieced and delivered to a long arm quilter for quilting. This quilt was #6 on my list of quilts to make this year.

And Peter Rabbit, Book Adventures is also a flimsy. This was # 17 on the list of projects.

I will quilt this flimsy sometime this summer when I have a quilting binge.

Log Cabin Hearts was #7 on the list of quilts to make and it's a flimsy!

Spring is showing signs of coming, the temperature has warmed up and soon spring flowers will be on display.  Then it will be harder to sit and sew but until then, I'll keep my foot on the pedal and sew, sew, sew!

Linking to First Quarter Check-In, Favorite Finish, To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Elegant Garden, Block 16

Block 16 of Elegant Garden is finished.

I do wish I had used the brighter orange/gold fabric for the center circle and little circles but I'm not going to change it.

Elegant Garden is designed by Edyta Sitar.

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

Log Cabin Hearts, a Flimsy

Log Cabin Hearts is a flimsy! I didn't hang the flimsy on the porchline since it's mud season here. In this picture Log Cabin Hearts is displayed on our bed. That pinkish/lavender fabric gives the quilt a glow.

And in this picture she's displayed on the porch glider.

The outside border is a darker fabric that does not appear in the blocks but I think it looks fine, it calms the vibrant colors.

At this point, Log Cabin Hearts is 97" square but we all know she will shrink after being quilted and washed. I have decided I am not going to hand quilt this flimsy. The fabric the hearts are appliqued onto is a batik and I could tell, when pinning, that they stuck harder than regular cotton fabrics. She has been delivered to Calico Point to be long arm quilted with an overall design and should return home sometime in May.

Log Cabin Hearts was designed by Esther Hershberger back in 1996. This pattern is in desperate need of updating, Esther has paper templates for you to use to cut the fabrics. I got the size for the log pieces by measuring the size of the templates. 

This pattern is NOT for a beginning quilter, the instructions are definitely not detailed. 

Log Cabin Hearts is quilt #7 on the long list of projects for 2025 and beyond!

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

Elegant Garden, Block 15

Block 15 of Elegant Garden is finished and I don't like it. When I select the colors/fabrics for the blocks, I usually follow Edyta's lead and use the same fabric where she did. In this case I used the same green of the leaves/stems for the square in the center. It doesn't work and the block looks dreary and sad.

I removed the green square from the center flower then debated between adding the orangey/yellow fabric or the pink fabric. The orangey/yellow won, look at the difference! I also decided to change the square to a circle because I didn't like the square.

This color certainly woke this block up and added the necessary zing.

Another change to the block is I did not applique the doodad onto the body of the corner flowers. If I would have, I probably would have used the pink fabric but I like the flower without it.

Elegant Garden was designed by Edyta Sitar in 2007.

Last week I mentioned I've started watching quilting videos and Gail, at the Cozy Quilter, asked me to share some of my favorites so here they are.

Stitch With Rachel - She's an enthusiastic young quilter trying to do it all. She reminds me of myself when I was younger.

From Small Things - Sue retired last year and is able to quilt full time now. She is a hand quilter and she really get them completed!

The Quilted Forest - I really enjoyed the videos about all the quilts she made with her 2.5" scrappy strips.

Sew Charming Quilt Shop - I don't even know the lady's name who does these videos but she own the shop in Alabama. It would be an enjoyable visit to stop in and browse.

Inspired by Lea Louise - She's into the potato chip quilts and has made many variations.

Just Get It Done Quilts - This lady does it get done. 

Emma Jones Vintage Sewing - If you are into EPP and handwork, you will enjoy these videos.

Stitch and Sew with Jo - I've been reading Jo's Country Junction for many years. She has gotten into counted cross stitching the last several years and isn't making as many quilts. Cross stitching isn't my thing so I don't enjoy her blog as much as I used to. She has retired so hopefully more quilts will be happening in the future.

Sew the Distance - Kris does talk rather fast but I use the closed captioning and keep up by reading what she says.

These will get you started, there are many many more! 

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

Log Cabin Hearts

The corner blocks for the Log Cabin Hearts quilt are finally all pieced. Piecing these corner blocks took me longer than I though it would. Now it's time to start sewing them onto the corners of the appliqued heart blocks.

I showed you a completed block last Sunday. I'm in the process of completing the rest of them. 

The fabrics used in the log cabin blocks are not all the same. Over the years I had purchased some very pretty fabrics which were used first, then I had to substitute.

The fabrics in the top right corner are my favorites. I've had that center square fabrics for years, probably 20 years. The next fabric was another older pretty swirl fabric but again, not enough for all the blocks. The next strips are the floral I purchased to use in Teal Stars while the outside strips are also left from Teal Stars.

You can see in the blocks on the left side that the center fabric is different. I couldn't find any fabric even close to the small floral use in the top right center square so I substituted this large floral. Teal, purple and blue are those flowers but I thought it added some more color without being intrusive. 

The last 20 blocks are made with a fabric I don't like but it was the only thing close to the shade of the swirl fabric. It works but definitely not my favorite.

The first thing was to mark the corner of the hearts. You sew to within 1/4" of the edge with a Frixon marking pen. I wasn't thinking clearly and marked on the front side of the blocks. Fortunately the markings were dark enough I could see through the fabric onto the backside.

It takes awhile to sew the log blocks onto the applique blocks. Hopefully they'll all be completed by next week and I can show you a completed flimsy.

Log Cabin Hearts is designed by Esther Hershberger.

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

Log Cabin Hearts

The log cabins hearts are appliqued. This was much faster applique than the little pieces in the Elegant Garden blocks. I usually appliqued 3 blocks a day, one day I managed 4 blocks so it took me less than a week to finish all 16.

The pinkish/lavender fabric kind of throw off the tone of the picture but it does have tiny dots of teal in them. 

I pieced four corners log cabin blocks so I could finish one block to show you.

This block is 22.5", finishing at 22".

Four corners pieced, just 60 more to go.

The Log Cabin Heart pattern is designed by Esther Hershberger.

What did I watch while bing appliqueing (and sewing those log cabin corners)? I watched quilting videos on YouTube. I liked the videos from ordinary quilters the best, not the designers who sell patterns/fabric lines and have picture perfect sewing studios.

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