Scrappy Patchwork With Yellow

Last January I started a scrappy quilt using 2.5" squares. Then I remembered I wanted to make a blue split 9 patch quilt so I stopped sewing the scrappy blocks. I needed the blues for the split 9 patch.

Since those blue split 9 patch blocks have all been pieced, I've started making scrappy twosies again. I'm using lighter yellow fabrics from my stash. I hadn't realized I had so many soft yellows until I was digging through that tub last winter.

Once I have the twosies made, I'll sew them into 4 patches then into 16 patches.  I'm using Becky's Checkered! pattern as my resource except with 2.5" squares and yellow.

I'm sewing the twosies as leaders and enders while working on other projects and I have plenty of 2.5" squares! How many twosies do I need? I don't know, I'll just keep sewing until the squares are more under control. I'm planning on at least a double sized quilt. 

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

Hearts & Wreaths

Last January I masked up and did a little shopping at Yoder Department store in Shipshewana. Of course I browsed through the quilt books and magazines to see what had happened in the quilt world since I had been isolating at home. 

Yoder's has a good assortment of Quiltmania Magazines. They don't send the old ones back when the new issues arrive. They keep them on the shelf and they eventually sell. When I saw the cover of issue #138, I had to buy the magazine!

I'm starting this quilt, for now I'm only going to make 4 blocks and see if I enjoy this applique project. 

I didn't want a white background so I have selected a soft yellow Kona fabric for the background. I couldn't decide if I wanted a soft yellow or a brighter yellow. I'll make 4 blocks once and then decide for sure. I took this photo of the end of the bolt so I can remember which yellow it is!

Don't you just love this border? I'm not sure about those little tiny leaf branches though. I'll decide later about adding them.

I know how I want to hand quilt this beauty when it's completed, but first I have to finish all the applique!

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

Dancing Stars

I've made 6 teal/aqua Dancing Stars blocks for the RSC. I didn't realize I had such a variety of colors in the solids box.

These fabrics are more different shades than they look in the pictures.

Here is a link for Dancing  Stars. These blocks are foundation paper pieced. 

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

Antique Stars Variation

Even though my Antique Stars variation has been out of sight for several months, it definitely hasn't been out of mind. I've been giving a lot of thought about how to finish this center.

I decided I did NOT want to spend more time piecing blocks for another row around the center, I wanted this quilt finished!

I plan on donating this flimsy to a quilt auction which is a fundraiser for the school our Pennsylvania grandchildren attend. The committee will have someone hand quilt it then it will be sold in the 2022 auction. Several years ago, the head of the quilt committee told me to tell her if I ever have any suggestions about how to quilt the quilt tops I donate.

Yes, I know exactly how to quilt this quilt, most of it anyway.

I added a narrow black border to divide the center from the 12" finished wide background border then another black border on the outside. I would have like to made the outside black border wider but I simply didn't have enough fabric!

What's going in that wide 12" finished border? A beautiful hand quilted design with feathers and swirls.

Here is a close up of where the two stencil patterns are matched. See those notches at the top and bottom. You match those and the design fits together perfectly. Of course it takes some skill to make the design fit into the length of the quilt but the quilt committee takes care of that.

For the pieced blocks I'm going to suggest the Baptist Fan design which is a very nice overall design. For the center feathered star blocks, some feathers in the corners and some background design, perhaps cross hatching.

The flimsy measures 92" by 101" which will be a queen sized quilt. The pieced center will fit on the top of the bed while the quilted border drapes over the sides.

I'm glad to have this flimsy finished and out of the house! And best of all, I don't have to quilt it!

Ancient Stars is a pattern designed by Sue Garman. 

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

I'm including Scrap Happy Saturday as a link up because I pieced the Ohio Star blocks using the RSC color of the month.

This N That on Tuesday

I took more pictures of flowers, not much sewing happening here this week.

I was in Wakarusa last Wednesday so I took a couple pictures of the quilt garden.

Here is a close up, the colors are so vibrant! The begonias I plant in a flowerbed never look this good!

I don't know if the flowers look much different from the July pictures but they certainly have changed since June!

The phlox are blooming well these hot humid summer days.

The blackberries are finally ripening! I pick them in flat pans then place them on a tray in the freezer. After they're frozen, they're bagged in gallon freezer bags for winter.

Blackberries are not the same as black raspberries, they're much bigger. I have the seedless variety. Here is a berry with my thimble for comparison, the thimble is 1" tall.

I always think this bench at the quilt garden looks so inviting. There are about 10 large flowers pots around the outside of the garden.

Our neighbors to the east have a greenhouse/vegetable stand. I asked what they would recommend for the east side of the house.  I wanted a hanging basket that could handle direct early morning sun but is in the shade once the sun is higher in the sky. They recommended this begonia. They're a beautiful orangey/red color. Just brilliant.

A close up of the flowers. I think they very pretty!

Surprisingly the Japanese beetles are leaving my roses alone! They're never this nice in August.

The purple coneflowers have faded but the black eyed Susans are still going strong!

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

Lady Jane Applique Finish

This week was about appliqueing leaves on Lady Jane. Once I started I just couldn't stop until they were all attached, the applique on the center is finished!

Sorry the background has a yellow tint, it's not like that in real life.

All the applique I completed so far had been by the back basting method. Here is a link to a YouTube tutorial on back basting. My guild had a lesson on back basting many years ago, that was how I learned.

When I applique leaves, I don't use the back basting method, I use the freezer paper method.

For the leaves on Lady Jane, I decided to use a product I purchased years ago for another project which didn't happen. I'm always concerned when a product is 'iron on', they don't seem to work well for me but this one did. I was very pleased! The fusible stuck and added the stability I need to turn under the edge of the leaves. The starch will wash out, leaving a soft interior.

When I hand quilt this quilt, I will stitch in the ditch around the leaves. This product is not hand quilting friendly if you want to stitch in the applique.

Since the center is finished, this project is going to go into time out for several weeks until I am less busy. It won't take long to sew all the parts together for this quilt, the pieced blocks are pieced, I just need to trim the center, add the border and cut the gray squares. I've also found the perfect fabric for the outside border.

The Lady Jane pattern can be found here.

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

16 Patch Blocks

Four 16 patch blocks were pieced from the teal/aqua fabrics. I admit there were some 2.5" teal squares in the box but I had to pull fabrics to make these blocks. This is one color I don't use a lot of and had purchased a couple of fat quarter bundles from Quilted Twins several years ago.

I'm thinking about how to finish these blocks into a quilt. I'm planning on adding an alternate puss in the corner block with sashing in between the blocks.  I'm ready to get some of my RSC projects sewn into flimsies!

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

Finally, A Finish For Friday!

Lori dropped off the Bonneyville Mill quilt last week after she finished the quilting. I selected a simple Baptist Fan design and it looks great!

This isn't a beautiful quilt like Blue Stars Around the Garden, this is a functional picnic quilt that will see hard use. The blocks in the quilt are the bags that flour comes in from the mill.

I've had this yardage in the stash for years and years and decided it would be perfect for the backing. It's flannel with primitive  animals on it. I bought it because it's really hard to find fabric with brown cows.

The farmer is going to have a fit when he sees this cow. She's definitely not an ideal  dairy cow, he doesn't understand the concept of primitive art. There are also a bunch of hogs on the fabric.

He measures 80" by 73", yes, it is wider than it is long. I used a heavy comforter weight polyester batting so it's a bit softer when we sit on the ground.

Of course we had to try him out with cookies for snack!

Here is a link to the post I wrote after she was pieced. There is a link to the Bonneyville Mill Park in that post.

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

My Name was Drawn!

Several weeks ago, Susan had a give away on her blog, Quilt Fabrication for the Seasons of Life Quilt, a Baltimore Album quilt book. This is a new book written by Sandra L. Mollon and published by C&T Publishing.

I signed up and my name was drawn!

These Baltimore Album blocks are beautiful, a lot more detail than I normally put into my applique. A lot of the design in the blocks was added when the quilt was machine quilted. Of course, I wouldn't machine quilt my quilt, I'd hand quilt so I would need to add more embroidery for the highlights.

Thank you Susan for giving me the opportunity to win the book, thank you C&T Publishing for giving the book to Susan for her give away.

 

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

The Last of the Flowers

The last four flowers for Lady Jane were appliqued last week. I think these are the prettiest flowers of this applique projects.

This week I'll start appliqueing the leaves. I'm hoping I can be finished by the end of August and start September off with a new quilt in the frame.

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

Teal/Aqua Scrappy Sprouts

I made 5 scrappy sprouts blocks for RSC. 

I like blue teal/aqua better than green teal but I've used both shades. I don't know if I got the lights to darks staggered as well as I would have like to have done, that's challenging!

Here is a link to the scrappy sprouts pattern.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

Embroidered Double Wedding Ring Quilt

Last January I listed some challenges I wanted to accomplish in 2021. One of those challenges was to finish this double wedding ring center that I embroidered so many, many years ago. It's my oldest UFQ, at least 25 years.

The old narrow border has been removed, that fabric had actually faded! This center has been hanging over the door into the sewing room forever. I'm tired of it nagging at me so time to get it finished! I've decided I'm going to add a row of blue stars around the center. I've made two morning stars or sawtooth stars or whatever name these stars are called.

I'm using this lovely 'old' white with tiny rosebuds in it as a nod to the pink embroidery in the quilt. I'm not planning to make any pink stars.

There will be a border between the center and the stars but I don't know how wide it will be, math is involved you know. I'll wait until I have a lot more stars made then do the figuring.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch Sew & Show,  Wednesday Wait Loss, 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, UFO Busting

Four More Flowers for Lady Jane

Four more flowers were appliqued this week for Lady Jane.

Here is the applique to date. There are just four more flowers than it will be time to add all the leaves.

It would have been a good idea for me to have had waited to applique the circles until after the flowers and leaves were appliqued but I didn't feel like waiting!

The pattern for Lady Jane can be found here.

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

Teal/Aqua Circle of Squares

I decided in July that I was going to use teal and aqua for the August RSC no matter what color was selected and she chose aqua/teal! How cool was that?

With the addition of these two blocks, I now have enough to make a flimsy using cornerstones and sashing. I'll probably make the cornerstones orange since I don't have any orange blocks for the quilt.

Click here for the Circle of Squares pattern.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

RSC Jumbo Granny Squares Flimsy

I started making the jumbo granny squares pattern for RSC but then got tired of waiting and just sewed squares from my 2.5" box, does that ever happen to you? The best thing about piecing 18" finished blocks is it doesn't take very many to make a quilt top.

It didn't take long to sew these 12 blocks together using sashing and cornerstones. The yellow of the cornerstones was also used in all of the blocks, that was the only constant fabric in this quilt. The HST's were made with a variety of black fabrics. 

The sashing fabric was fabrics left from older projects, even the outside sashing was utilized from the cut off backing of another quilt project.

The flimsy measures 62.5" by 82".

This quilt top will be donated to the comforter bash. The normal comforter bash won't be held this fall like I had thought it would. They're concerned about having 200 plus people in an indoor area knotting comforters. We don't want to turn this fun day into a covid super spreader situation and the number of cases in my county is rising again. This year they're asking local churches to spend time knotting these comforters. I need to find out who the contact person is from my church and get this and other comforter tops to them to be knotted. I'll sew the bindings for this and any other comforters they knot.

The instructions for jumbo granny squares are found here on Becky's blog.

I'm going to be sewing more of my RSC projects into quilt tops, It's to get some of these projects finished!

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

More Flowers

For the end of July/first of August, the star of the flowerbeds is overwhelmingly the purple cone flowers.  These are all descendants of two plants I bought years ago. No one ever told me how incredibly invasive they are!

These black eye Susans have been in the flowerbed even longer than the cone flowers but they haven't spread. They do look pretty with the cone flowers.

Invasive or not, they attract insects. There were bumblebees and honeybees all over these flowers.

And then there was this beauty. There was a monarch butterfly flitting around too but didn't stay long enough to get a picture. I don't have any milkweed growing in the flowerbed.

What about these pretties?

The oriental lilies are flowering now. They are so elegant and dignified. I don't know what the names of them are. I bought a box of oriental lilies several years ago Lowe's, brought them home and planted them.

The day lilies are blooming now. I did read on someone else's blog somewhere that supposedly day lilies are invasive, not here. I've had day lilies growing here and there for more than 40 years and they've stayed completely under control.

After the cone flowers and black eyed Susans are finished blooming, I'll cut off the seed heads and taking a walk along the edge of the hayfield that a butts the road and toss them in the grass. 

Maybe next year there will be flowers blooming from when I did this a year ago. Wouldn't that be lovely, a half mile of purple cone flowers blooming. I don't mind if they spread along the road, I just don't like them taking over the flowerbeds.

Another wonderful thing about this time of year is local corn on the cob!

I am getting some time to sew but not lots. I'm enjoying summer and there is plenty of time for sewing during the winter.

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