More Welsh Beauty

A lot has been completed on Welsh Beauty since it's my sole focus for hand work.

When I'm quilting, I like to quilt the cross hatching in an area first then fill in with the blue thread. It's just my preference.

The above picture is the right corner. 

I've quilted 5 of the swags.

I get so much pleasure watching the quilting design come to life. You can see the stencil marked on the fabric but quilting adds such depth.

The cross hatching is 3/4" squares.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Lady Jane, the Finish

I purchased the floral fabric specifically for the border. I had a challenging time cutting it accurately so I could match the design.

The border is attached but it's not the best match job I've ever done but it's finished! I added an outside darker blue border, it really makes the floral fabric sing.

I will probably hand quilt this quilt sometime and gift it to one of the grandchildren. Right now the flimsy measures 90" by 99".

The border fabric is from the Tea Service 2 fabric collection from Connecting Threads. The rest of the fabrics in the quilt came from my stash.

The pattern for Lady Jane is found here.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap

Lady Jane

I'm working on Lady Jane again. I have altered the pattern to make the quilt larger. I made this decision after I had already cut the fabric for the center applique. Fortunately I always cut the fabric for applique background fabric larger than what the pattern requires. I trimmed the applique center to 34" and added a 2" finished dark blue border. 

The pattern has a striped border and I actually bought a stripe fabric to use. When I laid the cut strips next to the applique, I didn't like how it looked so I just used the blue fabric.

I had puffed the circles with batting while appliqueing them. It did make trimming the center a little challenging.

The churn dash blocks on my quilt finish at 7.5". The pattern has 3 rows of blocks on the top and bottom of the center. I only have 2 rows each. If I had added those two rows, the quilt would be 15" longer than wide. I don't want a quilt that long.

I could have added a bottom row of pieced blocks and squares but I didn't want to make more blocks.

Instead I pieced a checkerboard border and another strip of the blue to add a total of 8". The center now measures 71" by 79".

Most of the fabrics I used for my quilt came from my stash. I didn't order the fabrics used in the original quilt. The square blocks are all gray fabrics. Some of the gray I had in my stash, I did purchase a few others to have more variety. I didn't add any dark grays, I wanted to keep it light and happy.

The next step is to add the outside borders. 

The pattern for Lady Jane can be found here.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch Sew & Show,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

Hearts & Wreaths, Blocks 3 & 4

 Block 3 of Hearts & Wreaths has been appliqued! It's so relaxing to applique these leaves in the evening. I'm getting into the routine and they applique fast!

Block 4 has also been finished. The darker hearts in the center of this block slightly overshadow the leaves. When all the blocks are sewn together into the flimsy, they will look fine though.

Some people like to see what the back of applique looks like. You can't really see much, just the colored thread. I haven't cut the background fabric out behind the hearts. As of now, I'm planning on stitching in the ditch around the hearts, not in the hearts. I'll have to decide for sure before I put the quilt in the quilting frame. If I would decide to stitch inside the hearts, the extra layer of fabric makes small stitches challenging.

I've said I know how I want to quilt this quilt eventually when it's finished. All the leaves, hearts and black embroidered circle will be stitched in the ditch. It's the space where the four corners meet that I'll quilt some special designs. I see some feathers happening in those spaces.

If you look at the circle embroidery of the top two wreaths and compare them to the bottom two, the top circles are slightly more bold. Those two were embroidered using a chain stitch. This was an experiment to see if back stitching showed as well as the chain stitch, it doesn't. The rest of the blocks will be embroidered using the chain stitch. 

I had planned on appliqueing 4 blocks then deciding if I want to make a larger sized quilt. I enjoyed appliqueing the first block so I went ahead and purchased all soft yellow fabric I'll need for the rest of the quilt.

It will be awhile before I have block 5 completed. I want to cut the background fabric into squares for applique and then zigzag the edges to keep them from fraying. 

After that, I need to mark the circles for embroidering and then the hearts and leaves.

I'll keep on appliqueing 4 blocks at a time but I'll also need to cut leaves for those 4 blocks. My friend Elaine is also creating this same quilt. She suggested it would be a good idea while prepping the leaves for the wreaths, to also cut leaves for the outside border. Those leaves are a different size than the wreaths.

There are also small leaves in the border but many of you gave me the great suggestion to embroider those when I first showed this project which is what I plan to do. 

The only problem with this project is I'm enjoying myself so much that I've been neglecting my hand quilting! I'll have more time to quilt Welsh Beauty until I get all the prepping completed.

Here is a link to more information about the Hearts & Wreath pattern.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Jumbo Granny Squares Crib Quilt

Back in June I pieced two purple jumbo granny squares to be used in a crib quilt. I've pieced two more blocks and finished piecing the crib quilt. The fabrics used in last two blocks had nothing to do with the RSC color of the month. I just made two blocks that I thought would look nice, they do contain purple!

I thought adding some pink fabrics would add a nice touch. As you can see, not all my squares are matching fabrics but they work!

The block below is my favorite of the 4 blocks. That blue fabric with the red roses just looks good.

I especially like the center of this block. I had a small piece of the 2.5" printed border left from the Caught Up in Stitches quilt. I fussy cut these cute butterflies and now that fabric is all used!

I'll machine quilt this crib quilt this winter and it will be donated to The Center for their well baby program. Right now the quilt measures 42.5" but I'm sure it will shrink during quilting.

Click here for the pattern for jumbo granny squares.

Linking Put Your Foot Down, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

More 9 Patch Quilts

I sewed a LOT of 2.5" strips to make 9 patch blocks for crib quilts. The orange 9 patch was the first one. For the 2nd and 3rd quilts, I actually used a pattern!

I recently purchased the book Scrap School by Lissa Alexander and decided to make a smaller version of the County Fair quilt. I had already made the 9 patches using 2.5" squares.

I glanced at the directions and made sure I cut the side triangles the correct size and started sewing the blocks together. Everything went great until I tried to sew the side triangles onto the rows, they didn't FIT! So I checked the pattern again. I thought the quilt was based entirely 2.5" squares and strips, wrong! 

I certainly wasn't going to take these rows apart to trim the sashing so I improvised and finished the flimsy. It measures 35.5" by 47".

Then I started the next quilt making sure I used the correct sashing size. Those triangles fit the sides perfectly. I sewed the rows together, pressed the center then sewed the corner triangles onto the quilt. Something was off on two of the corners. 

After checking the pattern, I realized I had sewn a sashing piece onto the outside of those two corners. I sewed the triangles on anyway them trimmed the outer edge of the quilt. You wouldn't even know it wasn't supposed to be that way. This quilt measures 42.5" by 54".

By now I had enough of the Country Fair pattern and arranged the rest of the blocks in a 5 by 6 straight set. 

I was digging around in a box and found some older fabric that needs to be used for borders. 

This little quilt measures 45" by 53".

Now I have 3 more little quilts to quilt this winter. I'm done piecing 9 patches for awhile. 

After I clean up the sewing room, I'm going to trim the applique center for Lady Jane and see how long it takes to piece this flimsy. My 100 days are going fast!

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Stitch Sew & Show,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Oh Scrap

Welsh Beauty Progress

I finally have an update on Welsh Beauty. The hand quilting has been slow because I'd rather applique in the evening but if I'm ever going to finish quilting this quilt, I need to start quilting every day.

Since I'm right handed I quilt from right to left but I'm going to show the pictures from the left side of the quilt to the right side.

This is the left side. Since the quilt is preprinted with blue marking, it's hard to differentiate between the cream thread and the blue thread. All crosshatching is quilted with cream thread, the swags, feathers and flowers are quilted with blue thread.

In between the left side and the right side, there are 8 swags that look the same. I'm not going to show you each individual swag. The swags come to a point with a flower at the point. Those flowers will be quilted in the next pass across.

And we're finishing with the right side of the quilt.

Here is a link to the first post about Welsh Beauty. In the post I wrote about about whole cloth quilts, the fabrics, threads, batting and backing. 

I was in Wakarusa last week and took pictures of the quilt garden. They don't leave the garden in place to die a natural death, they'll remove all the plants some time in October. I'll take an end of the year picture if the plants are still there the next time. The flowers in the center don't show much color.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Flower Patch Mystery Quilt

The components are made for several quilts, blue split 9 patch, Lady Jane and the embroidered double wedding ring. I'm also trying to sew the RSC blocks into quilt tops. So what did I do? I joined the Flower Patch Mystery Quilt sew along, I never participate in mystery quilts!

Of course I'm using my favorite color blue and pulled these three blue batiks from my stash. I have plenty of the darker blue (which looks more gray in the photo), hopefully there will be enough of the other two blues. I know there is plenty of the cream batik, I bought it many years ago for another project. That project was abandoned making this fabric perfect.

My daughter approved these fabrics when she was home earlier this month, she also asked if this quilt could be hers! I'm always glad for her affirmation and I'm glad to know she hasn't become saturated with quilts yet.

Block 1, Wedding Ring Tulip, has been completed. All the blocks in this mystery quilt will be foundation paper pieced. Denise, For the Love of Geese, has organized this mystery.

Denise has done an excellent job designing this block so the seams are pressed alternately. 

There is not a lot of contrast between my fabrics but I still like my block. Who knows, I will probably end up making some of the blocks completely with 1 batik fabric and the background fabric.

Linking to Flower Patch Mystery, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap

100 Day Challenge

I've been reading about the 100 day challenge on several blogs. Some people are challenging themselves from September 25 to Christmas Day. Some are challenging themselves through the end of 2021.

I've decided to challenge myself too. Of course I'm a week behind in the challenge and I won't have a full 100 days because I'll be spending 2 weeks in lovely, sunny, warm, no wool socks and no long underwear Phoenix during December. I will have access to a sewing machine though, I may be starting a new project there!

My challenge is starting now and running through December 31. For my challenges, I want to finish sewing the components of several quilts into flimsys!

First on the list is Lady Jane. You can read about this project here.

Next is the Embroidered Double Wedding quilt. It makes sense to finish this quilt next since I'm using a lot of the same fabrics as Lady Jane. Here is a close up of the embroidery.

These are some of the stars that are going to surround the embroidered center. You can read more about this project here.

3rd to be finished in the Split 9 Patch flimsy, click here for the info about this quilt. And yes, I know, there is a mistake in the arrangement of these blocks. I'll make sure that doesn't happen in the final arrangement.

I also have some blocks to be sewn into flimsys for the RSC challenge, mainly the 16 patch blocks. I want to piece puss in the corner blocks as alternate blocks.

Can I do it, can I actually complete 4 quilts in 100 days? Since most of the blocks are pieced, I think I can. It is safe to lay blocks on the display floor now, the windows are shut for the year (unless it really warms back up) so blocks won't be blown out of place.

What about you, what are you going complete during the last 100 days of 2021?

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch Sew & Show,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday

Blue Stars Around the Garden Sold at Auction

The Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale was held yesterday and blue Stars Around the Garden was auctioned in the quilt auction. She brought $3000!!!! What a sense of gratification, even the farmer was impressed!

I am thankful that I could play a part in raising funds to be used in various programs for MCC.

Here is a link to the quilts sold in the auction and the prices they brought.

The pattern for Stars Around the Garden is here.

I won't have a quilt for the auction next year since Welsh Beauty is in the frame. She's going to take all winter to hand quilt. I do have an idea running through my mind for the sale in 2 years . . .  of course another blue & white quilt.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

9 Patches in Orange

I've been reducing my 2.5" box and the 2.5" squares box. There are still strips and squares but not enough for larger projects.

In her July 17 post, Cathy told us how she had used the last of her 2.5" strips and squares and made 9 patches. She also gave us some ideas of how to use the 9 patches.

I've take some of my strips and squares and made 9 patches. Since the September RSC color is orange this month, I sewed orange squares and made this little crib quilt. It finishes at  43" by 50".  

This simple quilt is a straight set. It will join several other crib quilts I've made this summer and will be quilted this winter.

As I've said before, orange isn't my favorite color but this bright crib quilt is going to definitely stimulate a baby's sensory development!

I'll be making more 9 patches in a variety of colors, you'll see another crib quilt sometime. I think the next crib quilt will be set on point just to be different!

My goal has been to reduce the amount of strips and squares, not to completely empty the box and it's happening!

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Needle & Thread Thursday, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

Hearts & Wreaths, Blocks 1 & 2

Two blocks for my Hearts & Wreaths quilt are finished, I've decided I'm going to stick with the soft yellow background fabric. The fabric is not as pale as the picture shows but it's hard to photograph.

Block 1 - 

And block 2 - 

The yellow fabric shows more true in this post where I show the bolt of fabric.

Most of the fabrics in these blocks were from my 30's box. I've prepped 4 blocks and cut enough leaves for the first 4 blocks. There will not be fabric repeated in each individual block but there will be throughout the quilt.

Not all of my blocks are going to have 30's fabrics, the theme for my quilt is to use bright fabrics.

The directions called for brown embroidery thread to be used for the vine/circle. I've done the embroidery for the first 4 blocks but I used black embroidery thread. Also, I chain stitched these 2 blocks, the other 2 I used the outline stitch just for a little variety.

When I showed the cover of the Quiltmania magazine to a nonquilting friend, she asked me if I have enough different fabrics to make this quilt, she was serious! I said I don't think that will be a problem.

The pattern for Hearts & Wreaths is found in Quiltmania magazine #138.

Just a side note - Here's a link to the Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale website.

Here's a link to the Quilt Auction. You will be able to view all the quilts in the auction so far. Be patient, it takes a little while for all the quilt photos to pull up, at least it does on my computer!

You will be able to bid online during the live auction this year. The sale is Saturday, September 25. This auction is where my Blue Stars Around the Garden is selling.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Orange Scrappy Sprouts

I pieced 5 orange scrappy sprouts blocks. Orange isn't my favorite color but I pieced them anyway. I'm not sure about the top block, the light peach fabrics don't blend with the orange fabrics. I think they have a pinkish tint. That block just may not make it into my quilt.

Here is a link to the pattern for Scrappy Sprouts.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

Easy Breezy Flimsys

I've managed to stay on track with piecing the monthly RSC blocks this year but I've had enough, I'm ready for some finishes!

Bonnie Hunter's Leader/Ender project for 2020 was the easy breezy block. She gave the directions for two sizes, 6" finished and a smaller one that I didn't pay attention to.

I adapted the pattern to use strips from the 2.5" box and made blocks that finish at 8". I've made these blocks for over a year and have enough blocks to make at least 3 flimsys. 

I'm tired of piecing these blocks so now I'm sewing quilt tops. All 3 of these flimsys have sashing and cornerstones.

Flimsy 1 - I pulled all the soft, pastel, light blocks. There were also some blocks made with older fabrics that didn't have a sheen, they were included in this bunch. 

I arranged those 48 dreary blocks then pulled brighter or darker strips from the box and cut the 8.5" rectangles I needed for sashing. Of course I added yellow squares for cornerstones. It's too busy for my taste but I'm sure someone will love it.

Flimsy 2 - I used leftover gray charcoal fabric for the rectangles. When I saw there wasn't enough, I pulled a dark blue batik. 

When it's in the  90's with a heat index factor of over 100, at grandma's you get to run around in your swimming suit so you're set for a quick dip in the little tub. He's showing you his muscles.

Flimsy 3 - I said in one of the above paragraphs that I had enough blocks sewn to make 3 flimsys. It turned out I was 8 blocks short so I sewed 8 more easy blocks. I used orange strips since orange hadn't been used this year, then it was the color chosen for September! There were plenty of orange strips in the box.

After these blocks were pieced, I arranged the last 48 block for another flimsy. This time I used a brighter blue batik. I had no plans for this fabric, time to be used! It's surprising how much fabric it takes for the sashing. I think this flimsy is my favorite  of the three. Those orange blocks and bright blue sashing certainly light up the quilt!

All of these flimsys measured 63" by 83".

The easy breezy blocks were a fun easy project to sew along with RSC. Now I have three more comforter tops for the comforter bash.

Our daughter is visiting now. We're keeping her busy doing odds and ends on the farm website and my blog. After she did some research, she decided Mail Chimp was right for my subscription link. It's at the top right hand side, you can sign up for post deliveries by email again!

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

Auction Quilts

For several years I've been donating quilt tops for the school auction my Pennsylvania grandchildren attend. They are hand quilted and sold in the quilt auction.

The last auction was held Saturday, August 28 and two of my log cabin quilt variations were sold. These two quilt tops were pieced in 2019. No auction was held in 2020.

The first quilt I called Scrappy Log Cabin. It measured 92" by 105" and sold for $900.

And a picture of the finished quilt, compliments of the Country Fest Catalog. The hand quilting was basic stitch in the ditch.

Quilt 2 - I called this quilt Log Cabin Star. After quilting it measured 97" by 107" and sold for $1000 in the auction.

And a picture of the finished quilt, compliments of the Country Fest catalog. I couldn't make the photo any larger than this. I think the quilting is more than stitch in the ditch but I can't tell for sure. Hopefully you'll be able to click and large the photo.

This 3rd quilt was pieced at the same time and sent west in 2020 to be quilted and donated to a family who lost their home to the wildfires. It's the same as quilt 1 but without the center star.

All three of these quilts were made with strips from the 1.5" box box. You can read about these quilts and others made in 2019 from the 1.5" box.

Here is a link to view other quilts sold in the quilt auction. They don't have all the quilts that were sold in the auction pictured, I don't know why.

Our daughter is visiting now. We're keeping her busy doing odds and ends on the farm website and my blog. After she did some research, she decided to go with Mail Chimp for the subscription link on my blog. It's at the top right hand side. You can sign up for post deliveries by email again!

I have been informed by several followers that they continued to receive their posts by email all along. One person said they received my posts in their email through Google. Another person commented that feedburner was Google. Whatever, however, if you're already receiving the posts by email, don't sign up again, you don't need double delivery. If you want to subscribe, then sign up.

I wonder what the next blogging challenge is going to be?

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch Sew & Show,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday

Welsh Beauty

The quilting has started on Welsh Beauty. I actually started the quilting in August but I took my time. My goal was to get the bottom crosshatching quilted up to the swag and feathers.

The quilting from the left to the right

There is slight puckering at the top of the cross hatching. That will quilt out when I quilt the feathers and swag. 

There are 6 or 7 swags on the bottom of the quilt, I'm showing you one section since they all look the same!

I know last week I said I was going to use a thread called parchment for the swag, feathers and flowers but I changed my mind. I looked at the thread and looked at the quilt . . . it just needed more color so I'm using the same variegated blue #12 Sulky thread that I quilted the cable and feathers on Blue Stars. The thread isn't overly bright but will add some variety. Since the marking on the quilt is blue, the colored thread doesn't show well right now. You'll have to wait until the quilt is completely finished and washed to see hot it looks.

This picture shows the quilting before I roll the edge under.

Blogger is messing with me, for some reason it won't let me eliminate that space above the side photo!

The edge of the quilt is rolled. You can see the blue quilting design on the whole cloth. The swag and feathers should quilt faster than the cross hatching, at least I think it will.

I'm not going to report on the quilting every week, I plan to alternate between Welsh Beauty and Hearts & Wreaths.

Just a side note - Here's a link to the Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale website.

Here's a link to the Quilt Auction. You will be able to view all the quilts in the auction so far. You will be able to bid online during the live auction this year. The sale is Saturday, September 25.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away