Despite my determination not to get sidetracked from the projects I'm already working on, I did. On Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting, I saw a project she was piecing called Bright Hopes. She shared the link to the original designer, Red Pepper Quilts. It really intrigued me. No matter how I told myself no, I couldn't resist.
Do you remember Lucy? I had decided on the border fabric last winter. I've finally attached it. I decided the easiest way to go was to just baste the flimsy to the fabric then hand applique, obviously I removed the EPP papers first.
After I finished appliqueing, I carefully cut the center out of the backing. I had planned to hand quilt Lucy but now I've changed my mind. The seam allowance on the backside is wider than 1/4" which makes quilting 1/4" from the edge difficult. I've decided to quilt 1/4" from the edge with my sewing machine. I'll still hand quilt the outside border.
Here's a close up of the back.
Since Lucy isn't going to be hand quilted, this means Sweet Surrender is next on the quilting frame. This is a link to my last post about Sweet Surrender. Some people mark their quilts as they quilt. I don't, I'll get the marking done in August and into the quilting frame. Here's a link to a BOM called Happy Little Things which starts in August. The information is found on Jacquelynne Steves website. Looks like fun! I'm going to take the month of August off from posting. See you back here Sunday, September 1st! Hopefully Lucy will be finished by then and Sweet Surrender will be in the hand quilting frame.
Here is my Spring Splash or maybe I should call it Summer Sun since it's July. It measures 41" square unfinished. Even though I've taken these pictures in the shade, it's very bright out today and the yellow doesn't show as well as it should.
The runner with the darker Give Thanks words measures 16 1/2" by 23 1/4".
And the back looks like this. You don't see the clam shell quilting on the front very well.
The runner with the yellow Give Thanks measures 15 1/2" by 22 1/2".
And it's back looks like this.
My friend Carol was the embroiderist (that may not be a word but I just invented it), I attached the borders and did the hand quilting. I also sewed the single fold bindings. The embroidery is from the Give Thanks Table Runnerdesigned by Meg Hawkey for Crabapple Hill Studio. I'll let Carol choose which runner she wants to gift to her friend, either one is fine with me. Now I have an autumn table runner and it's still summer! Two more small projects finished! I've stumbled across another hand embroidery sew along over on Days Filled With Joy. I don't know when it started or ends but the patterns are free for now. You're all adults, you can do the checking to see what's it about. Next Sunday I'll show you the next small project I'm working with. This one will keep me busy for the rest of the summer. I took more pictures of flowers from the beds. Next winter I'll come back to these posts and look at the flowers, so colorful!
The lilies I had shown you earlier have finished blooming. Now the asiatic lilies have started. I have 3 separate plants. They look similar but they're all different.
The day lilies are also blooming, I have several different colors.
Those were all single blossoms, here is a double bloom.
The tall phlox are starting to bloom now. I did thin out some of these but they need more work. The yellow day lilies got in the picture too.
I don't normally sew Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts or sew along with her leader & ender project. I was curious though to see what she had planned for this year. This year's Bonnie Hunter's Leader and Ender project for the next year involves piecing shoo fly blocks.
I've been wanting to start a shoo fly project ever since Jayne posted about her project back in December 2017. My shoo fly blocks are going to finish at 4 1/2". I pieced 5 blocks so far, just wanted to see how they look.
And I made a couple snowball blocks, just to see what they look like with the shoo fly blocks. For now I'm going to concentrate on sewing HST's before I piece anymore blocks. A year from now Bonnie is going to have a bright bold colorful scrappy quilt. My quilt won't look like hers. My quilt will have the quiet gentle dignified beauty that comes with a two color quilt. The important thing is that we'll both be happy with our own quilt. After I took this picture, I remember another 2 block quilt from Kathy's Quilts that I bookmarked. I see that this quilt involves churn dash blocks and 9 patches, not shoo fly blocks.
But still I wonder, what would shoo fly blocks look with 9 patch blocks? So of course I made some 9 patches to see. First 9 patches with dark corners. Interesting but I don't like the big light center blocks next to each other but I do like the corners. Can you envision a dark chain running through the quilt?
Next the 9 patches with light corners. I like that the center light blocks aren't next to each other but I'm not sure about all the light fabric in the corners. Both these settings have potential but I think I'll stick with the original alternate snowball block.
I even purchased a special stencil that fits perfectly in the snowball block, because, as you know, hand quilting is what I do. Since I took the picture, I did peel the lower left sticker off since it was covering up part of the marking line. If sewing shoo fly blocks isn't your thing, Kevin the Quilter is hosting a Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt mystery this summer. Meadow Mist also has Mosaic Mystery in progress. Her mystery runs through April 2020. In the mood to piece a Christmas quilt? Check out Sarah and her Christmas in July sew along. And then there's the Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt Along that Julie is hosting. It's happened in June - July, so they're at the end of the quilt along but the pattern is still available. Here's a link to week 5 where the participants are displaying their quilts. Linking to Let's Bee Social, WIP's on Wednesday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party,TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday
After finishing the quilting on Miss Jane, the first Give Thanks table runner went into the hoop quilting frame. Now remember, I did NOT do the embroidery, my friend Carol did.
It's quilted and the 2nd runner is now on the frame. I'll wait until it's finished to sew the bindings.
Here a close up of the center. I hand quilted around the embroidery with regular weight quilting thread. For the 1 1/4" cross hatching I used #12 Sulky thread. It's a variegated cream/beige color. I also used the same thread to stitch in the ditch by the narrow dark brown border.
I made our children quilts when they were married as I'm sure you have or will. My daughter told me that she'd be happy with whatever I made, the quilts would be lovely. OK, that gave me free rein. After my mother died, I was looking through some of her old quilting magazines (black & white newsprint!) when I ran across a photo of a Dahlia quilt. I hadn't seen any dahlia quilts for many years. There used to be several dahlia's at the relief sale every year but they aren't popular now. I showed our daughter the picture and she said she'd like one of her quilts to be a dahlia. That was 10 years ago. She's been married 8 years now so I decided it was time to get the dahlia quilt made. I pieced the flower center at the guild retreat in February. The pieced border was pieced at the Jane Stickle retreat in April. I sewed the rest of the quilt together in May.
Those bias seams about drove me crazy! I have never been so stressed about piecing a quilt, it was puckery and wouldn't lay flat. There was no way I was going to hand quilt this thing. I had told Tammy and Allison from Three Sisters Fabric that I would be sending them a quilt for quilting so they'd be ready. I had also told them to quilt this thing into submission! They said that was the first time someone had told them that.
Tammy and Allison did a lovely job, the quilting is beautiful! But I'm never!, EVER!, EVER! going to make another dahlia quilt again! One is enough for me.
She measures 88" by 91".
I persevered and made the flimsy. This quilt did not beat me!
Originally she was supposed to have been larger but this quilt had a mind of her own and wanted to be this size. Enough said, she's gone to her new home now and will be loved.
I almost forgot to show you the label. Normally I make a triangle and sew into a corner with the information on it. This time I used a preprint label. It doesn't really fit with this quilt but I wasn't in the mood for anything else, just get 'er done! I forgot to take a picture of the back of the quilt. The backing fabric is wide back fabric from Connecting Threads.
To end on a cheerier note, here is a nest of young barn swallows ready to take the big step out of the nest and soar away. There are actually 5 birds in the nest.
I'm enjoying working on small projects this summer. It's so rewarding, especially compared to piecing a queen or king sized quilt! Miss Jane is finished. She didn't take long to quilt at all.
I quilted the center as Lori suggested, 1/4" from the seam lines in the embroidered squares and also the QST squares. She had suggested drawing a free hand curved line in the outside border. I'm not good with free hand drawing so I used this little design. It's perfect for small borders. I also used it on one of the borders of Weeds N Tweeds. I didn't wash Jane, just liberally sprayed her with water to remove the blue markings. She shrunk up a little though. She measures 14" by 17".
And the backside. I used squares folded in half diagonally to make holders for the dowel rod. I was lazy and didn't make a separate label, just wrote the information on the back. I always add my maiden name to labels. If you can't see it good enough, it says: Miss Jane's Best by Lori Smith. Embroidered, pieced & quilted by Gretchen Garber Weaver July 2019. There was a slight bit of bleeding onto the backing. There are 4 pieces of this fabric used in this project. I'm surprised there is only 1 bleed. I'll just leave it the way it is, not a big deal to me. This wall quilt was a kit designed by Lori Smith titled Miss Jane's Best. I purchased the kit several years ago at Lori's booth at the AQS show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I did make one change from the pattern. Lori says to use doublefold binding. I thought that was too bulky for this little quilt and used singlefold binding. I'm glad I did.
I also finished the 6 larger hexden flowers for the guild quilt.
I took more pictures of flowers this week. The butterfly weed is blooming now. I haven't seen any monarch butterflies yet but that doesn't mean they haven't stopped in. The clematis is still full of blooms too.
I haven't seen the hummingbird back either but again, that doesn't mean it's not around.
These impatience are looking perky but for some reason the hostas along this wall aren't growing like they should. The hostas in the other beds are huge, it certainly can't be for a lack of water!
Two little roses are blooming. These are a hybrid type, lovely to look at but be careful, they have a lot of thorns. Have a great week!
I've always been intrigued with monochromatic quilts that have a splash of color. I decided to see what I could make. This is the quilt I've designed. He measures 42" by 45" and was straight line quilted on my Elna 720 sewing machine.
You can barely see the one gray flying geese that is very close to the background fabric. You can tell the difference in this picture.
I didn't have enough of the gray for backing. This piece of beige was laying there so I decided to use it. It rather blends in being blah itself. To make it wider, I used the extra flying geese segments. I do wish now I would have off set the backing geese but oh well, it's finished! This isn't my usual style of quilt but I had a lot of fun! I guess I do have a modern quilt gene lurking inside of me somewhere. Right now this is hanging over the door into my sewing room but it could also be used as a crib quilt. Here are more pictures just for fun.
