Hearts & Wreaths

The 18th block for Hearts & Wreaths has been completed and she's another cutie! I purposely fussy cut those turquoise hearts to highlight the butterflies.

I'm going to be gone almost a week in August and then again in September. I'll prep hearts for blocks 19 and 20 to take along as a hand project. 

My main hand work focus will be hand quilting Welsh Beauty.

Here is more information about Hearts & Wreaths. Here is a link to the 16th completed block for Hearts & Wreaths. The post shows a photo of all the finished blocks to date. 

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Triple Treat or Kitty Corner?

Bonnie Hunter's new Leader & Enders project has started named Triple Treat. I was excited when I saw this pattern, mainly because it has no HST's!

I thought I made this same pattern 22 years ago when I found the pattern in the January/February 2000 issue of Fons & Porter magazine, For the Love of Quilting. I used that pattern to make a college quilt for son 2. I know how long it's been because he graduated from high school in 1999.

After comparing the two patterns, I realized it's not the same design at all. They both utilize 4 patches but they're not the same. Kitty Corner has more 4 patches which means I'd use more of the 2" and 2" strips!

Triple Treat has diagonal chains in both directions white Kitty Corner has only 1 diagonal chain.

Kitty Corner calls for 2" squares while Triple Treat uses 1.5" squares.

I'll have to decide which pattern I'm going to use but for now piecing has started on the twosies. I've decided to make my quilt in blues and close cousins of blues. I might change my mind but I'll decide that later.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Another Squirrel

Cathy, from Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilts, is all the time coming up with quilt blocks that I've never heard of. She's done it again, this time with blocks called Horizon. She's made 3 small quilts with the blocks.

Of course I had to stop what I was working on and piece a couple blocks to have a sample to look at. I have lots of Kona fabrics so that's what I used.I also decided I'm going to use black for contrast in all of the blocks.

Cathy gave the size of the pieces she cut but she didn't say where she cut the large rectangle to insert the contrast fabric. I cut the rectangle at 3.5".

My favorite of Cathy's 3 quilts is the one where she alternated the contrast section so that is what I plan to do. 

So far only 2 blocks have been pieced but there will be more coming, someday. This will be a great project to piece at a retreat, it doesn't involve much thinking.

For now those 2 blocks are hanging out on the design wall with the other squirrels.

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

Welsh Beauty

I decided to put Hearts & Wreaths on the back burner this week and spend my hand work time quilting..

The center medallion is quilted! Here are pictures from the right side of the quilt to the left side.

Here is a link to the first post about Welsh  Beauty. And here is a direct link to a picture of Welsh Beauty from the Stencil Company. There is going to be a lot of crosshatching until the outside swag border starts.

I'm excited to be this close to a finish but there is still a lot of quilting and several months before sewing the binding.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Sunny Lanes

More than a year ago, Cathy from Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting showed Sunny Lanes blocks she was piecing. I had never heard of this block!

After viewing her lovely quilt, I immediately (squirreled) pieced one block. I posted about this block way back on February 5, 2021! It has been hanging on my display wall ever since.

This is the UFQ I worked on this week, piecing 15 more Sunny Lane blocks.

I'm finishing projects. After I pieced that individual block, I stuck the orangey/yellow fabric in the box with the 2" squares and there it's been all this time, waiting for the finish.  I didn't have quite enough of that fabric so I pulled a slightly lighter, more yellow fabric to use. It worked just fine.

This quilt has turned out so pretty! I love how I made 16 blocks of the same design but my quilt has 2 designs!

The individual blocks finish at 12". My quilt measures 48.5". This pattern has used a bunch of 2" squares from the 2" box but the box is still more than half full.

Wouldn't a full size quilt in this pattern be wonderful? Maybe someday.

I'll be machine quilting this quilt on my sewing machine sometime this winter. I'm not sure if she'll be donated as a charity crib quilt or if I'll keep it for myself as a happy wall hanging.

Here is a link to the Sunny Lanes pattern from Quilter's Cache.

I have a lovely quilt and I'm happy to have another UFQ pieced.

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

Welsh Beauty

Another swath across Welsh Beauty has been quilted. And it looks like Blogger has actually placed them in order, from right to left!

As you can see in the center pictures, the next swath across will finish the top of the center medallion. Then it will be just cross hatching most of the way except for the right and left side borders.

As usual, a link to the first post about Welsh Beauty. 

Kathy from Sewing Etc, is hand quilting this same quilt! She hopes to have her quilt finished by November. Happy stitching Kathy!

I was recently in Wakarusa and took photos of the quilt garden.

This garden is one of many in the Quilt Gardens, Along the Heritage Trail.

The Quilt Garden journey was started during the recession of 2008. More RV's are manufactured in Elkhart and LaGrange Counties, Indiana than anywhere else in the US. 

The RV industry was extremely hard hit and had to lay off most of their employees. Some of these factories employed over 10,000 people!

The Heritage Trail was developed to draw tourists to our counties to bolster the economy. I don't know how well that idea worked but I do know people (quilters) who come to our area and drive the trail.

There benches located in the park for people to use.

Another small town close to Wakarusa is Nappanee. Connie lives there and wrote a post about the Nappanee Quilt Garden.

I'll take pictures again later this summer when the flowers are larger.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Indian Hatchet

The Indian Hatchet blocks have been sewn into a flimsy. I love this quilt!

A variety of light fabrics were used as the background. They seem to give a yellow tint in some places.

Most of the corners are triangles left from flippy corners or from mitering binding.

The little blocks finish at 2" so there are a lot of side seams. I cut a 1.5" red border to add a stop to all the happy scrappiness and to keep the seams from unsewing.  

The flimsy measures 67" by 83". I'm going to be keeping this one. This quilt is as improv and modern as I get.

I first posted about this project in June 2020 when I was calling these blocks the nameless blocks. 

If you go back and read the June 2020 post, you'll see that I didn't originally plan to make Indian Hatchet blocks. 

The original idea was to sew a scrap triangle on one corner of the background fabric. The plan at that time was to use the Remainders pattern from Amanda Jean Nyberg's book, No Scrap Left Behind. (Here is a link to Amanda's blog when the book was first published. If you scroll down the post, you'll see her Remainders quilt.)

The Remainders quilt is nice but, for me, it was just too much background fabric and not enough color. I decided to make a change to my block and I'm very glad I did!

I've used a lot of bonus triangles in this quilt but there are still a lot left in the box! Someday another bonus triangle quilt might be pieced, but not right away.

Linking to Stitch Sew & Show, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap, Favorite Monthly Finish

Hearts & Wreaths, Block 17

Block 17 of Hearts & Wreaths is appliqued! Just 3 more blocks and all of the center blocks will be done!

I'm not going to include a picture of all the finished blocks this post, you can't arrange 17 blocks into an organized arrangement.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday,  Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Purple Shoofly Blocks

I made 19 purple shoofly blocks for my Star Dance quilt. 

Now I have over 200 blocks which is enough to make the border around the center of the quilt. I don't know how fast that border is going to happen though, summer is just a very busy time of year!

The pattern for Star Dance is found here. My Star Dance is going to be larger than the pattern.

Linking to RSC, Oh Scrap

Indian Hatchet Blocks

Another UFQ is the Indian Hatchet blocks that have been sewn as leaders/enders. I'm tired of this project and ready to have it finished. I counted how many more blocks I needed for an 8 by 10 block setting. Then I took that number and multiplied by 16 because there are 16 little blocks in one block.

After I  sew the odd triangles onto the 2.5" background square and press them, they get trimmed to size. Then the background triangle is trimmed off the back. 

Those triangles I threw in the trash. I wasn't struck by lightning and the quilt police didn't come smashing into my house to arrest me for wasting those corners! 

Four squares are sewn into into a small block. 

And then those 4 blocks are sewn into the larger block.

Now I have the 80 blocks I need. Next is to trim all the blocks to 8.5" then arrange them on the display floor.

Most of these triangles are leftovers from one project or another but I do admit to taking a few odd sized scraps and cutting them into triangles to add some zing colors.

Linking to  Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap

String X Quilt

Instead of starting a new quilt, I've decided to finish up some of the UFQ's starting with the red string X quilt. I posted about this project back in March. Now it is finished.

I didn't have enough of mom's darker red fabric to finish the quilt so I pulled a lighter dark red. 

I was afraid this quilt would be dark and dreary since I used these old dark red fabrics but they play nice with the more colorful fabrics used in the blocks.

I had planned to donate this flimsy to be knotted then donated as a charity comforter. When the farmer saw the picture on my phone, he really like it. That surprised me, he's not one for bright quilts. This flimsy will now be sticking around our house for awhile, it's in the to be quilted closet.

It finishes at 60.5" by 81.5". It ought to be nice and warm, the blocks were pieced using muslin as a foundation then cut to size.

String X is a Bonnie Hunter pattern and can be found on her website here.

If you linked to the post about this quilt back in March, you read about the Indiana hatchet quilt. I'm still making blocks for that quilt. Indian hatchet has moved to the top of the list. I'm going to piece the squares until I have enough to finish the quilt. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday

Welsh Beauty

Another swath has been quilted across Welsh Beauty. Another week and the center medallion will be finished.

Here are the quilting photos from left to right . . . well . . . they were supposed to have been left to right but Blogger decided they needed to be rearranged. 

The first three photos are of the center medallion. The last two photos are of the left side border then the right side border.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday

More Churn Dash Blocks

Fourteen more churn dash blocks have been pieced for Chooky's SAL.

I've pieced a total of 30 blocks, 20 more are needed. I'll work on those in August.

I know how I want to set the blocks but I need to shop for sashing fabric. I think I can handle that easily enough.

Most of the fabric used in these blocks was given to me by my friend when she moved, thanks Deanna!

Linking to Stitch Sew & Show, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts