Elegant Garden, Block 8

Last week my evenings were spent appliqueing block 8 of the Elegant Garden quilt. Lots of Christmas special were watched.

Elegant Garden is an older quilt designed by Edyta Sitar. There are 25 blocks in this quilt, 24 of them are appliqued while the center block is a pieced star. I've been thinking about which fabrics to use in the center block but haven't decided yet. Even though the center block is in the center of the next row, it's block 25, the last one to make.

The instructions in the pattern are for machine applique but I'm hand appliqueing my blocks. The instructions also state how large to cut the background squares but Edyta hasn't added extra to the square. I cut my squares an inch larger. I'd rather trim a block than have it be too small. 

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

2024, How Did It Sew?

I have spent 2024 trying to stick to the list I posted about last January in my first Planning Party report. At times sewing my list and sticking to the plan became very tedious, however I am very glad I persevered when I see all the quilting that was accomplished. A total of 8 quilts were listed. Of those 8 quilts, 6 are completely finished and 3 of those quilts were started and finished this year. However I did have a squirrel sneak in and run around, I'll show you that quilt at the end of the post.

Hearts & Wreaths was finished in June. From start to finish, it took a little under 3 years for this long term project.

The piecing of Dresden Stars was completed in February, sent to the long arm quilter in May then returned to me in August.

The anniversary quilt (listed as gift quilt) was pieced and long arm quilted entirely this year.

The months of June and July were spent binding comforter tops for MCC and machine quilting small quilt projects which I'm not showing in this post. You can read about them here, here, and here.

However, I am going to show you Dots and Dashes, this was the largest of the compassion quilts I quilted and donated. Quilting compassion quilts was on the list.

Most of the blocks for Dots & Dashes were completed, I just needed to piece a couple more blocks then sew the blocks together. The pattern for Dots & Dashes is found here. I may make another quilt from this pattern someday.

Tula Hexies was one of the quilts I quilted. She's staying at my house for me to enjoy. Tula Hexies was a new project I started in November 2023 and she's finished!

Radiant Blues was started and completed in 2024.

Radiant Blues is my favorite quilt of the year. I have been wanting to make a feathered star quilt for years and now I have. I enjoy looking at it displayed on the wall. 

Pineapple Blues was started at the Jane Stickle retreat in April. I innocently thought I could actually piece all 49 blocks needed for this quilt in one long weekend! I managed to complete almost 20. The rest were completed in September. She came home from the long arm quilter in November, another quilt started and finished in the same year.

The outer blue borders have been sewn onto blueberry pie. She won't be going into the quilting frame though. She measures 108" and I won't be able to have the hand quilting finished by spring. I don't like to hand quilt during summer and I feel guilty if I have a quilt the frame and not be quilting.

One of the projects I listed was Garden Party, designed by Bonnie Hunter. Thirty-six blocks were pieced at the November retreat, that quilt is on the list again for next year.

What quilts didn't happen? Fire Island Hosta was the only project on the list to not make it out of the project bag, it is also on the list for next year.

The squirrel quilt is Blessed by Nature which was a kit I purchased at Lolly's during my July birthday outing. Donna and I both pieced our quilts together in October then I sent my quilt to Calico Point to be quilted. Here she is!

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

Missouri Star Quilt Co

The farmer and I drove to Missouri the week of Thanksgiving to spend time with his sister and BIL. Springfield is four hours from Missouri Star Quilt Co so of course I made sure we stopped for a visit.

When I tell people that we visited the town, they want to know what I bought, which was not a lot.

I bought a pattern that I thought looked simple but interesting, Four Patch Around the World. 

I also purchased two Kona white jelly rolls which will be used for piecing the above pattern. My purchases were placed into this really cute bag. It's a small bag but it was large enough to hold my purchases.

I did buy one more thing, a panel. In the picture it looks rather drab. Actually it has white background and is very bright and pretty. I thought this would make a nice compassion quilt. I didn't buy the accompanying fabrics, I knew I had fabrics at home that would coordinate with it just fine.

We were in Hamilton when the stores opened at 9 am Central time. I didn't take a lot of pictures but we enjoyed viewing the painted walls of the buildings.

The scraps shop was interesting, I don't remember the correct name.

The farmer was amused by the cow fabric cuts. He had no idea about the names of different cuts of fabric.

I didn't buy any scraps, I knew I had plenty at home. Of course I took a picture of the blues.

We visited all the stores but the yarn shop. I did forget that some of the stores had upstairs shops, I guess I'll have to make another visit some day.

I was asked by a friend if I thought it was worthwhile visiting Hamilton. I say yes, if you're in the area. I could have easily spent a lot of money but I can say that about any fabric store I visit. I like the idea of how MSQC revived the little town of Hamilton.

I'm sure most of you know that J.C. Penney was from Hamilton and everyone knows about his department stores. We toured his childhood house, it was TINY! I have no idea how they raised children in there! 

After the house, we walked to the Library/Museum. What you may not know is that J.C. Penney had a herd of Guernseys. The farmer really enjoyed viewing all the memorabilia.

There were a lot of trophies on display and pictures of award winning cows and bulls, very exciting stuff, at least for the farmer.

This is a picture of a Premier Breeder and Exhibitor award from a national show in 1937. They don't give awards like this anymore.

This is the Lieber trophy which is a production award. The Lieber was a traveling trophy which was awarded each year. The metal emblems around the bottom are the names of the award winning farms with the year they had the top production in the US. I guess the trophy was full so J.C. just kept this award. 

The American Guernsey Association still gives this award, kind of, nowadays you get a picture of the award 😒.

J.C. also had an award winning beef ranch but I'll let the ranchers talk about that.

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

Elegant Garden, Blocks 5, 6 & 7

Three Elegant Garden blocks were completed while I was in Phoenix visiting our daughter.

Block 5 . . .

Block 6 . . .

And block 7 . . .

These blocks were a nice transportable project to take and and didn't up much space in the suitcase.

I'm trying to use some of the unused fabrics in the civil war tub. I have limited pink fabrics but I think what I have will be enough to finish the blocks. 

Elegant Garden is an older quilt pattern designed by Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts. Her instructions call for machine applique but I'm appliqueing by hand. 

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

I'm slowly adjusting to being back in Indiana with the gloomy days of no sunlight. The light looks different though when it snows. 

This is the most snow we've had this winter so far. When it snows, I always think I need to make a quilt with gray/white and subtle dark grays and browns. I think it would be interesting. The yellow slide does give a touch of color. A red cardinal would be even more colorful.

This is heavy wet lake effect snow, the kind of snow that gives you a heart attack from shoveling if you are not physically fit.

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