Blessed by Nature

While I was in Phoenix, I received a phone call from Calico Point, the long arm quilting was finished on the Blessed by Nature quilt.

Here he is with the binding completed!

He's displayed on the glider because the grass/flowerbed is wet. It's a dreary drizzly day in northern Indiana. I'm going through sunshine withdrawal after two weeks in Phoenix with  bright sunshine every day!

I had striped fabric left from the cutting so I used that on the back of the quilt. I guess you could say the quilt is reversible.

Blessed by Nature measures 58" by 75". I'm not sure what I'll do with this small quilt, probably gift it to someone who needs a quilty hug.

I never remember the names of quilting designs, I just look at the samples and select one.

I previously wrote about Blessed by Nature here.

Blessed by Nature was a squirrel project I purchased during my summer birthday shopping. The kit was purchased in July and now it's a complete finish in December, just five months from start to finish! 

Warning!, the instructions were NOT well written at all, just in case you were thinking about purchasing a kit.

Linking to TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Home Again!

I have been  gone for several weeks, it seems like much longer. We drove to Springfield Missouri for Thanksgiving then I flew to Phoenix to visit our daughter for two weeks. Now I'm catching up on everything!

My pineapple quilt came home just before we left for Missouri. I'm glad she's back and I am very pleased how she looks quilted. There is no picture of her hanging on the outside display line because it snowed the morning I took the pictures and the grass was wet.

She measures 99" quilted which is larger than the 98.5" she measured when she was a flimsy. Being pulled tight while being quilted stretched her out completely. There are so many seams in this quilt!

Here she is displayed on the bed.

A straight view. We slept under this quilt one night, this is definitely a heavy quilt!

When I first started piecing these blocks, I made sure the fabrics were only blues and the lights. The blocks looked rather boring, it's the colors in the fabrics that add zing to this quilt. I used a lot of small pieces that have been accumulating over the years.

Calico Point did the long arm quilting, this is the design I selected. I know this design has a name but I don't remember what it was.

I selected a white whole cloth for the backing fabric. I like how it shows the quilting design which doesn't show on the front side of the quilt, it's too busy!

This design looks big but it was close enough together to quilt across the millions of seams.

The striped binding fabric was part of the Tea Garden collection I used for some of the Lady Jane blocks. I ordered the striped yardage to use as binding for that quilt but then it didn't look right. Lady Jane was very particular about her binding.

The pineapple blocks were foundation paper pieced using papers from Gigi's Thimble. She had a sew-along in 2022 which I missed but stumbled across later. Gigi's quilt looks very different from mine since I used blues in my corners while she used lights in her corners. 

A pineapple quilt was on my list of 'someday quilts to make', now I can cross her off the list.

I won't say I will never make a pineapple again but I will say it will be several years before it happens.

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

After I wrote the above post, the farmer got the ladder out of the shop and we hung the pineapple quilt for display.

He's really getting into hanging quilts, he used a tape measure to make sure she was evenly spaced on the rafter!

Elegant Garden, Block 4

Block 4 in the Elegant Garden quilt is finished. Sometimes a block just doesn't turnout like I hoped which is what happened with this block. The fabrics looked nice in the civil war box but just rather blah in the block.

The bright gold/orange fabric definitely added color but the flower and buds really needed help.

For help, I embroidered the outside edge of the flower and buds. I used a slightly darker thread on the edge of the light lavender. 

The fabric in the buds and flower center has a small mulberry colored motif so I outline the edge with a mulberry thread while the bud leaves and the bottom of the flowers were embroidered with a dark purple thread. 

The block still needed help so I added the gold french knots, that helped the most.

I used 12 weight Sulky thread for the embroidery. I'm going to keep the box upstairs, more embroidery might be happening in the future.

Fabrics always blend so well and compliment each other in fat quarter bundles, that doesn't always mean they're going to play well together in a block.

Elegant Garden is an older quilt designed by Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts. 

I am taking a blogging break until the middle of December. Chat more later and hope you find some time for stitching during the rest of this year!

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

Three Flimsies

I spent the last week finishing several projects. 

First on the list were the Twinkle blocks I pieced at retreat. They've been sewn together with sashing then finished with a red floral fabric from the My Summer House fabric line. Of course I changed the pattern, my twinkle quilt has 16 blocks and the sashing finishes at 4". The finished flimsy measures 94" square.

This flimsy will have to wait until the new year to be quilted. There are two flimsies at Calico Point waiting in the quilting queue while a 3rd quilt is at Lori's. Lori is still doing physical therapy, recovering from the broken bones in her right arm. It takes time to regain mobility when we're in our 60's. Lori was in the process of quilting my quilt when she fell last August, that quilt is still in the frame waiting for it's finish.

Back in June I was finishing some quilt tops into the flimsy stage but they still needed borders. Two crib quilts were listed in the post.

While at Caroline's, during my July birthday outing, I purchased fabric for the borders of the crib quilt a granddaughter embroidered the blocks for. 

Of course Caroline no longer had the original floral print but I thought this border fabric looked good. I also sewed the binding for this quilt. I like to sew bindings immediately after finishing a quilt top, that way the fabric isn't accidentally used in another project. This flimsy measures 48" by 59", a nice size for a crib quilt. 

I pulled this lovely periwinkle floral yardage from my stash to use as the borders on the jewel box crib quilt.

These blocks were leftovers from a big girl quilt I pieced for our oldest granddaughter many many years ago, she's 21 now. And again, the binding is pieced and ready to go. This little quilt measures 43" by 52".

These two little quilts will be quilted during a quilting marathon sometime next summer. I'll save the embroidered one for my granddaughter while the other one will probably be a donation quilt.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Elegant Garden, Block 3

While at retreat, I  finished the applique on Elegant Garden Block 3 and that happened Sunday morning.

Elegant Garden is an older quilt designed by Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts. The fabrics I'm using are from my civil war fabric tub and I'm determined not to buy any new fabric for this project.

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

Home From Retreat

Or this post could be titled 'What I Sewed at Retreat'.

I worked on several projects at retreat. First I pieced Indian Hatchet blocks.

I hadn't intended to start another Indian hatchet quilt but those triangles keep accumulating. I didn't trim the blocks at retreat, I'll do that at home. Here are a few blocks that have been trimmed.

At every retreat, Clothesline Creations gifts everyone a Villa Rosa card. Several retreats ago, the pattern was the Twinkle card. I thought it was really cute so I made blocks for a Twinkle quilt. Of course I made more blocks because I want a larger quilt. Instead of two charm packs, I purchased a layer cake at Clothesline Creations last summer during my birthday outing. I cut the layer cake into 5" squares then pieced the HST's at home so they would be ready to sew.

The fabric line I used was My Summer House by Bunny Hill Designs. The above picture is not a good picture but you get the idea. 

For my third project, I pieced 36 posey blocks for the Garden Party quilt. I had the pieces prepped for last spring's retreat but never got to them. 

I think Garden Party will be a retreat project and live in the retreat bag until next spring. The blocks have not been trimmed, I'll wait until they're all finished to do that.

Garden Party is designed by Bonnie Hunter and can be found in her Addicted to Scraps book.

Lolly's Fabrics provided door prizes during show & tell Friday evening. My name was drawn for one of the prizes, it was a project basket filled with all sorts of goodies!

I always have a great time at retreat but there is nothing like coming home and sleeping in my own bed. 😉

Since I've returned home, the farmer and I switched the east wall quilt, Radiant Blues is now on display!

Someday I want to make this quilt again but make it large enough for a bed. I'd change the feathered star size to 18" finished, or maybe even the 24" size. Colleen did an excellent job with her quilting.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

My Name Was Drawn!

Do you read Melissa Cory's Happy Quilting blog? Tuesdays are her Tuesday Terrific Giveaway Day. Online fabric stores provide gift certificates for her giveaways. 

My name was drawn and I received a gift certificate of $25 to Lou Lou's Fabric shop.

I selected a Fresh Fig jelly roll, something with no blue fabrics!

I have no idea what I'll be making with this jelly roll but the fabrics are very pretty.

Thank you Melissa and thank you to Lou Lou's fabrics for this lovely gift.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss

Blueberry Pie, 2nd Applique Corner

The 2nd corner of Blueberry Pie is appliqued. You will have to settle for an indoor picture, it's been very breezy this week then it rained. I didn't want the flimsy outside in those conditions.

And, in case you are wondering, no, I never did find the missing fabric. You can't tell it though in the picture, the substitute fabric is the same value as the first fabric.

I want to add a dark blue border to the outside of the gray borders but I haven't decided how wide to make them. Originally I had planned to have all four corners appliqued but I've run out of applique energy. I can quilt faster than I can applique. I haven't measured blueberry pie because I need to trim off the selvage before adding the blue border.

The pattern for Blueberry Pie is found in the Red, White and Sometimes Blue book but it's not called Blueberry Pie, you'll find it listed as Writer's Block. I thought the name was rather unimaginative so I changed it to reflect the blues used in my quilt.

The pattern in the book does NOT have an applique border, this is my addition. The border is a variation of the center medallion from the Lady Jane pattern, designed by Nancy Rink.

I was informed by someone in the 'know' several years ago that floral couches are out of style. I don't have the patience to keep up with trends, our grandsons love that couch and would miss it if we got rid of it.

I'm getting ready to leave for the Jane Stickle retreat Wednesday so there won't be a post next Sunday. 

Here is a picture of another one of my Christmas cactus. It's a very pretty variegated salmon and white.

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

Trip Around the Cottage

One of the stops on my birthday shop-hop was at Caroline's Cottage Cottons where I purchased two kits. Are you seeing a trend here?

Today's post is about one of the kits, a store kit called Trip Around the Cottage, a play on the store name.

Caroline this kit in several colorways, I liked these shiny fabrics so that's the kit I selected.

This quilt top sewed together so fast. I could have easily pieced the flimsy in one day but other responsibilities took part of my time so it was a two day sew.

It measures 68.5" square and is hanging in the to be quilted closet. Eventually I will quilt it with my sewing machine then donate it as a compassion quilt. I think this quilt will be a good one for a man.

There was yardage of the dark blue fabric (which looks black in the pictures) for the binding. That has also been made and is waiting with the flimsy.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Elegant Garden, Block 2

I did complete the applique on Blueberry Pie this week but I didn't get a picture taken, sorry 😔. Since the Blueberry Pie applique is finished, I pulled another project.

Last August I wrote about starting a new applique project to use as a take-along project, Elegant Garden, an older applique pattern by Edyta Sitar, Laundry Basket Quilts. I had completed block one.

I finally finished block 2 which was started in September.

There was a LOT more applique on block 2 than block 1 and those pieces are very small, at least for my fingers. There was supposed to be more leaves on this block but I left several of them off, I thought this was enough.

When I opened my tub of civil war fabrics, I found several fat quarters of background fabrics I had purchased some time but I don't remember when. I cut the squares for each block then arranged them on the display wall. This way I shouldn't end up with the same background fabric next to each other.

Elegant Garden will be my main hand work project for now. Next Sunday I hope to show you Blueberry Pie.

I brought all of my Christmas Cactus into the house last week after they spent a week of quarantine in the garage. I sprayed them several time with an insect spray.

Most of the plants have buds and the yellow cactus is blooming! I normally get a second round of blooms after the new year.

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

Blessed by Nature

My birthday is in July and again, like last year, I went shopping/browsing at several local fabric stores to celebrate. This year I took Donna along.

We made several stops in our birthday celebration and made several purchases. You'll hear about those during this autumn but today I'm going to tell you about our stop at Lolly's.

At Lolly's we both thought the Blessed by Nature sample quilt on the wall was very pretty. We both purchased kits and made plans to get together this autumn to sew them.

Basically the blocks are sewn using the 'stack & whack' or 'one block wonder' method. I suppose those are copyrighted terms but that is the method for cutting the block triangles.

I cut my fabrics at home, I can concentrate better when I'm on my own. But I did sew two blocks ahead of time to make sure I had cut them correctly.

I do need to say that the instructions are not clearly written and are hard to follow. This is definitely not a project for a beginning quilter. 

We persevered in spite of the challenging directions and have finished flimsies. My flimsy measures 64.5" by 80.5" but we all know it will shrink when it's quilted.

My quilt has been delivered to a long arm quilter. It will be 8 weeks until it is quilted and ready for display. That means I should be able to show it to you just before Christmas.

I needed to go to Shipshewana Tuesday so I stopped at Lolly's and looked at the original quilt. What I thought I had cut incorrectly was exactly the same as the sample quilt. Obviously that sewest had the same problem I did. 

Lolly's no longer has any kits but they have quilted the sample. The quilt is for sale at $675 in case any of you are interested.

And yes, on the way home from my birthday shopping, we did stop at the Essenhaus bakery to buy a raspberry cream pie to celebrate my birthday. Birthdays only come once a year and I only have raspberry cream pie once a year. 😋

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Blueberry Pie

I really thought I would have this corner applique finished by today but I was distracted by another project instead.

Just one more leaf needs to be stitched onto the right side, that should happen today. 

Then I need two leaves on the left side and it's finished!

The problem (of course there's a problem!) is I can't find this fabric! I know I didn't use it all but I just can't find it. I could substitute another fabric but I'll need to take three leaves off, I don't want two different fabric leaves.

I'll look again. 😞

I was in Wakarusa last Wednesday and was surprised to see the quilt garden hadn't been cleared yet. The participating garden committees decide when their garden is 'finished'. They can't be cleared before September 1. Most leave their flowers in place until the middle of September but some want them cleared because they're ready to be finished for the season. 

We had the first frost of this autumn Thursday morning but it wasn't a hard frost. The farmer didn't have any frost on the truck windows when he went to the farm to milk his one cow at 6 AM.

Some of the flowers in the front look finished but most of them are still colorful.

I'm sure they will pull the flowers this week. Cold weather is coming!

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

More Comforter Binding

Elaine dropped off seven comforters for me to bind. I used this tutorial for binding.

Sometimes the comforters are rather bland but these comforters are very pretty! 

Fern pieced these tops then passed them along to Elaine who then took them to be knotted at Prairie Street Church. The bindings have been turned, stitched and delivered to the Depot to be sent with the next shipment to wherever they're sent.

Isn't it interesting how we all have our different niche in the process?

Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Blueberry Pie Applique

Applique on the blueberry pie border is making slow progress. I've lost my enthusiasm for some reason. 

The original plan had been to applique all four corners. This is the second corner and that's going to be it. This quilt will be hand quilted and feathers will quilted in the other corners.

The pattern for Blueberry Pie is found in the Red, White and Sometimes Blue book but it's not called Blueberry Pie, you'll find it listed as Writer's Block. I thought the name was rather unimaginative so I changed it to reflect the blues used in my quilt.

The pattern in the book does NOT have an applique border, this is my addition. The border is a variation of the center medallion from the Lady Jane pattern, designed by Nancy Rink.

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

Radiant Blues Finish!

Radiant Blues is finished! The binding has been hand stitched, the sleeve is hand stitched and the label is hand embroidered.

Coleen Gall did a wonderful job with the custom long arm quilting. For the quilting designs, I told her what I would do if I were hand quilting the quilt, she took my suggestions from there and adjusted them to machine quilting. Radiant Blues measures 76" square, a perfect size for a wall quilt.

The next group of pictures are closeups of the quilting. Some of the pictures are long and narrow but I don't know how to put them side by side.

A light blue fabric was used for the backing.

And a close up of star quilting on the back.

The label is hand embroidered. I don't know what I was thinking that  one line is over to the left side but it is how it is. The small tree and bird is a design by Gail Pan.

Several years ago my friend Linda and I were perusing through a tub of quilt magazines when she came upon a pattern that she said was me. She was so right, Radiant Blues is definitely a quilt for me to make.

I started the piecing at the end of March, the flimsy was pieced then sent to Colleen Gall to do her wonderful quilting the first of June. She was returned in July but it has taken me several months to sew the binding and attach a sleeve. 

In January I posted a list of projects for 2024. One of those projects was called Radiant Blue hereafter to be known as Radiant Blues. The pattern for Radiant Blue is found in the January/February 2007 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine and was designed by Marsha McCloskey.

Marsha is famous for her method of piecing feathered stars, however I did not use her method. I'm a foundation-paper-piecer and I used the free 16" no Y seam feathered star fpp pattern from Threaded Quilting Studio. I used the same pattern for the first time when I made this little quilt.

The 16" star is a different size than the size star Marsha specifies for her pattern. I made a sashing change. Another change, my wall quilt is larger than the pattern and includes 9 stars instead of the original 4.

Radiant Blues is going to hang on the east wall in our living room but not until after the Jane Stickle retreat in November. I want to present her at show & tell.

Thank you Linda for alerting me to this lovely pattern.

I love this quilt so much, I'm going to post it on every linky party I'm involved in this week!

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

If you didn't get enough of quilt show quilts from my posts on September 22 and 29, click here to view pictures from the Quilted Twins visit to the Jacksonville show.