Star Dance

I started piecing the original blocks for Star Dance way back in January 2017 in conjunction with the RSC. I had thought this would be a 2 year project but it's been 6 years and she is finally finished!

I requested Lori Null use Raindrops on Water for the quilting design and it is perfect! She set the curves 1/2" apart.

Star Dance finishes at 94" by 105" which I consider a large queen sized quilt. She's a little small for our king sized bed but we're using her anyway. I think she makes a lovely quilt for summer.

I know the border looks green but it's not. It's a soft white but there are very faint light green ghost leaves in the background and my phone pulls out the green.

I decided I would use brighter fabric for the binding. I looked in my brights box and found these strips from a jelly roll. I thought they would kind of give a striped effect. There were 5 different colors of the same design with 2 strips of each color. I was concerned there wouldn't be quite enough length so I added 2 short strips of yellow/orange fabric.

You can see in the above picture that the background of the border is white and not green. See the ghost leaves?

The backing fabric is a very subtle white floral on white fabric. I can't capture the flowers with the phone. The fabric reminds me of the tablecloths my mother used to use for holiday meals.

It feel good to have a long time UFQ finished. 

Here is a link to the Star Dance pattern.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party,  Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

Little Charity Quilts

I use leftover batting pieces in small quilts. Lori recently finished long arm quilting two of my large quilts so now the stash of batting pieces has been replenished. 

I used those pieces to quilt 3 small charity quilts which will be donated to the cancer center at Goshen Hospital.

First is Indian Hatchet which measures 33" square. 

I couldn't figure out what was wrong while I was quilting it. It just wasn't quilting smoothly. I know I'm not the best machine quilter but this was so much worse than normal.

It hit me while we were eating dinner, I forgot to use the walking foot, DUH!

I quilted the green & white broken dishes quilt after I attached the walking foot. This little sweetie measures 22" by 30" and used flippy corners from the trees in Peppermint Pines.

The third quilt is also a broken dishes quilt made from flippy corners leftover from Sunny Lanes. This quilt measures 28.5" by 33.5".

The borders on all three quilts was fabric that was gifted to me to be used for charity quilts. There was enough fabric to be used on the backside of each quilt also.

I wouldn't have purchased this bird fabric but it was perfect for this quilt!

The fish fabric was so cute but I wouldn't have purchased it either.

I would have purchased this floral fabric, it's beautiful!

I hope they bring some comfort and warmth.

I had signed up to participate in Sarah's Hands 2 Help challenge but my quilts weren't finished in time to be counted. That's ok, they're finished now!

Here is a link to an Indian Hatchet tutorial.

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

9 Patch Beauty

I spent last week hand sewing the binding on 9 Patch Beauty which I pieced last winter. It was originally called the 'Get Together' quilt and is a pattern from the April 2020 issue of American Patchwork & quilting magazine.

After quilting, she measures 92" by 102" which is a decent sized queen quilt.

One of the changes I made from the original pattern was to put the flying geese along the outside of the quilt instead of in the center. I think it looks better this way.

I really need a clothesline to hang my quilts outside for pictures, that is so much better than the bed.

Lori Null long arm quilted this quilt using the Raindrops on Water design which was created by Three Sisters Fabric. This is one of my favorite overall quilting designs and Lori bought it especially to use on my quilts. I told her to program her machine to quilt the circles 3/4" apart.

For backing I used this mottled beige fabric. It shows the quilting quite nicely.

I always try to make the binding when I finish piecing a quilt so I don't misplace or use the fabric I need for the binding. This binding was pieced last January, I didn't realize I was going to be playing binding chicken! Well, I did and I won, barely!

That little piece of binding is around 2.25" because I trimmed it to a 2" square for the box. Whew, that was a close call!

For the last several years I've donated a quilt top to a quilt auction that benefits the school my Pennsylvania grandchildren attended. I would piece the quilt, they would hand quilt it then auction it. 

Our son and his family have moved so I no longer feel obligated to donate a quilt top for that auction. Since I started piecing this quilt with the intention of donating it, I'm still going to do so. 9 Patch Beauty will be selling in the 2023 Michiana Mennonite Relief sale which will be held at the Elkhart County fairgrounds on September 23rd. 

Several months ago I sent an email to American Patchwork & quilting to make sure I wasn't breaking any copyright law. I did make changes to my quilt and it looks different from the quilt in the magazine. I never heard back from them so I'm going to go ahead and donate it. I will NOT receive any financial benefit for myself. I am stating that my quilt is a variation of the Get Together quilt.

Here is a link to all the posts I've written about 9 Patch Beauty.

One of the first things I moved to our new home was my Christmas cactus. They were here all summer but I guess they weren't in sunny enough place. They didn't bloom well at Christmas.

They're all sitting on the front porch now with plenty of bright sunshine. This plant is full of blooms. A couple of the other cactus have buds, all of the plants have new growth. Hopefully this winter there will be a bumper crop of flowers. 

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings, Magic Craft

Blueberry Pie

The center of my Blueberry Pie is finished! This was a fun and easy center to piece. He measures 74.5" square.

Doesn't he look like a woven coverlet?

I did change the pattern and made my quilt larger. Math and I don't always agree but I was very pleased when two out of the three types of 9 patches were exact the number of blocks I needed for the quilt.

Blueberry Pie is going into a closet until I'm ready to applique the border.

The original pattern doesn't have an applique borders but I'm envisioning 12" applique borders followed by a 9 patch border.  The 9 patch border will be followed by a more narrow border on the outside. 

Blueberry Pie's original name was Writer's Block. The pattern is found in the Red, White, and Sometimes Blue book which was published in 2011 by That Patchwork Place. Kelly Corbridge is the designer of this quilt. The background fabric is a light soft gray called Whisper Weave Cloud by Benartex.

I changed the name from Writer's Block to Blueberry Pie. I didn't think the name Writer's Block had anything to with the quilt! Cynthia suggest the name Blueberry Lattice but I went with Blueberry Pie.

Perhaps someday I'll make a Cherry Pie but with more pieced blocks and no applique, someday being the key word here!

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap

Blueberry Pie

Last week was a chilly week so there was no problem spending time in the house piecing Blueberry Pie.

Sashing has been attached to the checkerboard squares. The checkerboard squares plus the sashing measures 15" finished. There are 16 of these blocks and they need to be trimmed.

Only one strip of the next sashing set has been sewn.

More details about Blueberry Pie can be found via this link.

Here are answers to questions asked in comments - I was asked if I pieced the 9 patches tiny small square by square or if I'm strip piecing? Strip piecing all the way! I might have pulled a few 1.5" squares to add but not very many blocks happened that way. I'm a stripper!

I was also asked if Blueberry Pie is a candidate for hand quilting? I don't know, I am planning on a hand appliqued border and I do like to hand quilt projects with applique. But . . . . it will be awhile before the applique happens, I want to finish appliqueing Hearts & Wreaths first.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

3/4" Grandmother's Flower Garden Tablerunner

I'm finished with the 3/4" hexies for the Grandmother's Flower Garden table runner. As of now, the runner measures 24" by 50".

For a change, I decided to take some pictures outside. First the right side of the runner.

This what the backside looks like. Only the outer edge papers are still basted into the runner.

Last week several people commented they couldn't see the mistake in the placement of the blocks. I think it's more clear in these pictures. If I don't make a disclaimer, some well intentioned person will comment that the outer edge isn't lined up correctly. I know that but I refuse to take it apart!

Then I decided to take a picture inside the house.

Next step for this project is to applique it to a border fabric. I had bought fabric several months ago but I've decided I don't like it. I'm going to need to do some shopping! 

Several people have commented on the quilt hanging beside the blanket chest. That quilt is Floral Triangles and you can read about it here.

I was in Wakarusa last week to have my hair trimmed so I took a picture of the quilt garden. I think the flowers in the center of the quilt are growing but those little begonias along the outer edge aren't doing much. 

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings

Scrappy Sprouts

One of the projects I want to finish this year is my Scrappy Sprouts quilt which I started piecing several years ago.

The pieced blocks have been sewn into strips. Now I need to get the flowers pieced for the top of the strips. I've changed my mind several times  about which flower I'm going to use. I had settled on hexie flowers but I'm not sure about that anymore. 

I want to get Blueberry Pie pieced then I have some UFQ's to finish before making the flowers. There is plenty of time to decide that but I do want this quilt finished before the end of the year.

Here is a link for a general pattern of Scrappy Sprouts. Here is a link to a picture of Scrappy Sprouts with interesting flowers. I've also seen scrappy sprouts made with Dresden flowers. And sometimes scrappy sprouts is made with no flowers.

Several years ago there were many scrappy sprout quilts in progress on the RSC link ups. Here is Kathy's start. Here is Sue's quilt. Vireya was piecing one too. Animated Librarian made her sprouts with tulip flowers, very pretty! I know there are a lot more scrappy sprouts out there but these are what I could find right now.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down,  TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday.

Blueberry Pie

It's chilly outside, perfect sewing weather! The 16 checkerboard blocks needed for Blueberry Pie have been pieced. Sorry the color isn't good in this picture. The background is light gray.

The next step is to add sashing and cornerstones. The color is correct in this picture. I must have moved over  a bit when I took this picture.

The Writer's Block pattern is found in the Red, White, and Sometimes Blue book which was published in 2011 by That Patchwork Place. Kelly Corbridge is the designer of this quilt which I have remained Blueberry pie. The background fabric is Whisper Weave Cloud by Benartex.

Linking to To Do  Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

3/4" Grandmother's Flower Garden Tablerunner

Slow progress is being made with the flower garden tablerunner. You can see part of the side hexies have been filled in. You can also see that I made a mistake when I sewed the main body together and I was off sewing the hexies together!

I know now what my mistake was but it's going to stay like that. I freely admit that I'm not perfect, there is no way I'm going to take these flowers apart! 

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings

I'm behind in posting. Several weeks ago I showed you a picture of the tilled soil for the 2023 Wakarusa Quilt Garden. I was in Wakarusa the following week and the garden had been planted!

Here is a picture of the design.

Here are more current pictures of the garden.

There are several benches around the outside of the garden. 

For more information about quilt gardens, click here!

Blueberry Pie

I didn't plan on taking such a long break but life happens! Besides, it's finally summer!

I had asked for suggestions for a new name for the Writer's Block quilt I'm making. Several names were suggested which were good names but Cynthia came up with a great name that I modified slightly. She suggested Blueberry Lattice since the 9 patches look like lattice on the top of a pie. I've decided to go with Blueberry Pie as the new name and she agreed with me.

If you make your quilt with reds, you can name your quilt cherry pie!

Over 100 9-patch blocks of each type have been pieced. I need to figure how many I need exactly since I'm making my quilt larger. Quilting would be so much more fun without math!

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts