Even though it was the week of Christmas, it was quiet and calm, not much action around here. So not only did I finish the machine quilting on the feathered star quilt, I finished another row of hand quilting on Floral Triangles! Close up pictures of the individual triangles and borders.
I still need to quilt the seam line between the two rows. That was just a little too far for me to quilt nicely so I had to wait until I rolled. Row 3 is completely finished and the quilting on row 4 will start today. Row 4 is the middle row of the quilt, progress is happening!
The feathered star is quilted! I admit my machine quilting isn't the greatest, hand quilting is my specialty. I don't think it's too bad but there are some oops! I'm never going to improve though if I don't practice.
The thread I used was a white iridescent that I thought would look nice. The center was quilted using a Baptist Fan design. After the quilt was completely quilted, I added the decorative stitching in the gray border between the stars and checkerboard. I didn't feel like quilting a small design, I was quilted out!
The checkerboard border was quilted with diagonal cross hatching which I didn't mark, just eyed it.
The backing is fabric that has been waiting for years to be used. At first glance you wonder why I used it but the flower matches the color of the stars. I needed to piece the backing so I used some of the leftover checkerboard border for a nice touch.
The grass was too wet for a picture so I draped it over the glider on the porch.
I wish everyone a peaceful Merry Christmas no matter what you're doing or who you are with today. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Every year I like to set a challenge or two for me to accomplish during the year. One of the challenges of 2019 was to piece a feathered star, just 1 star, that's it! And then turn it into a crib quilt because I didn't want it to lay around. The year has rushed by, so I decided December was the month to make the star if I wanted to meet this challenge. Earlier this year, I had googled free foundation pieced feathered stars. One of the options that pulled up was the Threaded Quilting Studio. If you sign up for her newsletter, you'll receive the feathered star pattern in three sizes, 16", 12" and 8".
I used the 16" pattern for my quilt. The background fabric is a light gray and I decided to use a color other than blue, I like this reddish/pink color. Along with the pattern, she even tells you what size to cut the pieces for the foundation paper piecing. She is generous with the cuts but, trust me, voice of experience here, you want plenty of fabric to trim. It is no fun to have your piece be too small.
My original plan was to piece the feathered star then add a checkerboard border but when I saw the feathered star quilt with sawtooth stars surrounding it on Patchwork Inspirations, I knew I had to change my plan. Scroll down in the pictures until you find it, isn't that a lovely quilt? I didn't want to make that many sawtooth blocks but I did make 16. Then I made the checkerboard border and here she is! She measures 49" square.
She's in the process of being quilted, I had hoped to have her finished for a Christmas reveal but it took awhile to piece the sawtooth blocks. She'll be the last finish for 2019. I went with a two color project, I was auditioning the pattern and didn't want the distraction of more than 2 fabrics. I do plan to revisit the feathered star again sometime, and will use more than 1 fabric next time. This is a well written pattern with clear directions. Jess also has step by step videos. Linking to To Do Tuesday,Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down.
Not much hand quilting was accomplished this week. I had a piecing project I was excited about, that received first priority. How much quilting? The right outside border.
The right half triangle, a pieced triangle and partially quilted triangle. That's it!
Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
Project 6 was the last project of the retreat. Years ago I won a charm pack called Trail's End by Holly Taylor for Moda. It has lain around here ever since! On someone's blog somewhere, I came across the Moda Love Quilt pattern which is actually the same pattern in three different sizes and uses precut squares. Finally, a pattern to use that charm pack.
I prepped squares and stuck it and the pattern into my retreat bag. That project has lived there for awhile, waiting it's turn to be sewn. At the April retreat I pieced the HST's, at this retreat the star was finally sewn. I didn't use any of the light creams from the package, I cut my own fabric for background just to provide continuity. I like the way the block looks except for those light pinkish/brown HST's. I had used all the dark browns from the pack and pulled these from the pack. I have never liked that shade of brown. Oh well, this is destined to be a charity quilt. I know how I want to finish it, again just need to find the time. And again, another project to finish in 2020.
This is my last post about the retreat and I need to show you what I bought! I only shopped at the resale table and came across these 2 fat quarter bundles and the yardage. I'm very please with my purchases. I've been wanting to brighten my stash and these fabrics will make a great contribution to that. Linking to Peacock Party,Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
Project #5 was a last minute unplanned project. Remember all those flippy corners I cut off for the snowball blocks? I had originally thought I would save them and make a miniature quilt for myself but then decided no way! I tried to give them away to the miniature sewists at the retreat but no one would take them! I kept 16 of the little guys and made HST's with them, then sewed them into a little pincushion. This little guy measures 3-1/2".
This is the only project I've finished since I've been home. He's been filled with walnut hulls aka pet bird litter. My quilting wasn't perfect but it was fun. It would have been interesting to see what a mini quilt would have looked like made with all these little HST's that finished at 3/4" but I don't have that much patience! In case you are wondering what I did with the other pieces that didn't get used, I bagged them and gave them to my friend Elaine who will give to a friend of hers who will then give them to another friend who makes animal cushions for a humane shelter. Did you follow all those friends? Since I've been home, I've decided if I ever that many pieces leftover again, I'll give them away here on my blog. There is probably somebody out there would like 500+ triangles pieces. Linking to Midweek Makers, Put Your Foot Down
This week I made it completely across the row I was quilting. That's because the pieced blocks quilt faster than the applique blocks. I forgot to take a picture of the whole row and I've already rolled the quilt, ready to start quilting again.
From the left, side border. And the rest of the blocks.
I had finished the embroidery for the Happy Little Thingsembroidery sew along. I trimmed my blocks then sewed sashing to them. I used 2 fabrics, a dark blue and a light blue.
My quilt is going to be finished differently than the original. I hadn't taken enough of the light blue along to retreat but I've found more in my stash since I've been home. Now I just need to finish that block. I did strip piece parts of the alternate blocks, just need to get them cut apart and sewn into the finished blocks. I have plenty of projects to start off 2020. Linking toPeacock Party,Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, UFO Busting
I found 25 embroidered blocks in my mother's stash after she died in 2006. They were old blocks that I had never seen before. They didn't look like the type of embroidery mother did, they were traced onto the background fabric then embroidered with at least 4 strands of thread, maybe more.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but I think my maternal grandmother, Sylvia Jane Miller, embroidered them. One of the ladies at the retreat told me the embroidery patterns were from a newspaper series back in the 1930's. That fits with grandma's time frame. I've wondered for years what to do with them, how to set them, what fabrics to use; I decided earlier this year that 2019 was the year something was going to happen with them.
Originally they would have finished at 12" but I trimmed them to 9-1/2" so they will finish at 9". This is going to be a wallhanging, the blocks are too special to be a bed quilt. Friday morning, after finishing the quick & easy crib quilt, I started working. First I bordered each block with 1-1/2" blue sashing (1" finished). Then I figured how many of the rectangles I needed in between each block, cut the rectangles, then cut 4 times that many 1" squares and did flippy corners on the rectangles. The sashing rectangles are ready to go. Next step is to decide how to arrange the blocks. I won't have this project finished in 2019 but I've made a good start and will see a finish in 2020. Just in case someone wants to know, Yoder Department Store in Shipshewana, Indiana has quite an assortment of white fabrics, including a white that is an 'old' white'. Linking to Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday
I've gotten back into the rhythm of hand quilting again, another row has been completed. Two rows completely finished, five more to go!
These are the left side borders.
This is one of my favorite triangles. Those little grapes are so cute! I stitched in the ditch around all the applique.
Not much to say about this block, just quilted it.
I've mentioned before that I got tired doing the hexden flowers and used different designs. This is one of those flowers. Just made a hexie flower. When I quilted, I stitched 1/8" from the seam line. I didn't quilt in the center at all. I quilted in the center on another flower and didn't like the way it looked.
Another hexie flower quilted the same way.
This flower was made from yoyo's. It wasn't hard to quilt at all, just stitched the seam edge where they were stitched together.
I needed a quick and easy project after the marathon sewing of the snowballs. This was a last minute just in case project I had stuck in my bag, I was so glad I did! I don't work very often with panels but my 3 year old grandson spotted this at Calico Point and thought I should buy it. I'm sure he thought it would be for him, wrong! It going to be a cute crib quilt to have on hand to gift to someone who needs it. Don't worry though, my grandson has more than enough quilts for his bed.
This picture isn't the greatest, forgot to take one at retreat so I took a quick picture at home. You see the narrow green border? I added that and the outside borders too. See, quick and easy, it was fun to make something fast. Right now it measures 45" by 52" but some of that border is going to be trimmed off after quilting. This little guy will be quilted on my home sewing machine sometime in 2020. I think I know how I want to do the quilting, I'll see if my ideas can happen. Linking to Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, UFO Busting
It's been two weeks ago that I left for the Jane Stickle retreat in Shipshewana. I finally have time to write about the various projects I worked on. I'm going to write about each project in a separate post, one post would be too long. We're allowed in the sewing room at 3 pm Wednesday afternoon. It took a little while for me to get settled and organized but by 4 pm, I was ready to start sewing.
Project #1 was to sew the snowball blocks for Midnight Blues. I needed to make 161 snowballs, each has 4 corners so that means I sewed 644 flippy corners. They were so boring to sew which means they were a good project to work on at a retreat. Not much thinking was involved. I sewed all the flippy corners and pressed them. Then I trimmed the blocks and cut the unneeded triangles off the back of the flippy corners. I finally finished all the processes involved in making these blocks at midnight, Thursday evening. Linking to Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday
