Applique at Retreat

I appliqued three Stonefield blocks during the evenings at retreat. First are two blocks called Rosehip Tea. 

The pattern had several different views, you could select which views you to use for the blocks. For the first block I choose a single flower.

For the second block I decided on two flowers in the block. I honestly don't think these flowers look like roses but wouldn't blue roses be beautiful in real life?

The third block is named The Open Wreath which makes absolute sense! All of the circles were appliqued during show & tell except two of them, those I did first thing Saturday morning. 

The flower at the bottom doesn't look placed correctly, I wonder if it was appliqued upside down? Oh well, I'm not changing it. 

And a picture of all three blocks.

I have one more block to applique then all the 6" finished blocks for the center of the Stonefields quilt have been completed! 

These blocks will be safely stored for the summer. In the fall I will arrange them on the display floor for at least a week to critique then rearrange. After that the blocks will be sewn together for the center of the quilt. Next step will be foundation paper-piecing the flying geese border.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith.

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

What I Sewed at Retreat

Here is my update on my retreat last week. I had several projects prepped, just in case, but I only worked on two of them.

The main project was foundation paper-piecing Carolina Lily blocks, 20 of them! I had paper pieced the green stem sections ahead of time, all the lily sections were pieced at retreat.

Here are the other 19 blocks.

Foundation paper-piecing is time consuming but it doesn't take a lot of thread. I used one bobbin for all of these blocks and it wasn't empty when I was ready to leave for home.

I'm using fabrics I already have on hand, I have a variety of green and red fabrics to use. All fabrics are going into this quilt from fossil fern to my mother's old 80's & 90's fabrics.

Now I have a total of 50 blocks, just 50 more to piece!

The other project was to applique Stonefield blocks. Three blocks were completed but you have to wait until Sunday to see them.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, I Quilted This!, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

The Princess & the Pea

The two Stonefield blocks today are called the Princess & the Pea. 

The stars are EPP'd then appliqued onto the background fabric. After that, the circles were added.

Both blocks together.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith. 

I just realized that I made a mistake and I've got 2 posts today for handwork! Oh well, enjoy my blocks! Here is a link to Stonefields, Section 10 in case you missed it.

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

Stonefields, Section 10

The first four blocks in section ten of Stonefields are these pieced blocks called Fallen Rosebud. 

Foundation paper-piecing was used to piece these blocks.

The next two blocks are called The Dice. They were pieced then appliqued circles were added. 

These blocks remind me of the game, Tic Tac Toe except there are no X's, just O's. 

Just 6 more blocks then all the center blocks are completed!

These blocks were a good way to use up smaller pieces of background fabrics.

I'm home from retreat and playing catch up! I'll try to read missed blog post during the week sometimes but it's impossible to read all of them!

I now realize that somehow I published 2 posts today! Here is a link to the Princess & the Pea.

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

Stonefields, Block 109

The Lord is Risen! Have a blessed Easter with whoever you are celebrating with!

Block 109 from the Stonefields quilt is called 'My Bebe'. The star was EPP'd then appliqued. It's another very pretty block, it looked challenging but it didn't take as long as I thought it would.

Here are all the blocks in section 9 on the display wall.

I do have to say the next to the last block, Rollercoaster, is my favorite block of the group.

There is just one more section to stitch for Stonefields, just 12 more blocks! I'm so close to finishing the blocks for the center of the quilt. Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith.

Something totally unrelated to hand sewing is this apron I made for a little girl from church. She requested it from me, she enjoys baking with her grandmother and needed an apron. How could I refuse? The little apron sewed very fast, 3 hours from start to finish. The most time consuming part was when I turned the right side out and needed to pin the edge to press it. That took longer than the stitching!

I will not be having a Wednesday post this week. The Jane Stickle retreat starts Wednesday, I'll have a wrap-up retreat post coming later.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, 

Garden Party

I have been piecing the various blocks needed for Bonnie Hunter's Garden Party quilt at the Jane Stickle retreats the last several years. Sewing all the blocks together went fast, a lot faster than piecing the individual blocks.

I decided to take the flimsy to a new to me long arm quilter, Dana Stalter. I am well pleased, she actually had the quilting finished and returned the quilt back to me within 10 days! 

This is a very busy quilt and those little squares finish at 1". I selected an all over Baptist fan quilting (no surprise there) to secure all the little pieces. 

This is not a regular Baptist Fan design, it's the one designed by the Three Sisters Fabric. This isn't the 3 Sisters who design fabric for Moda (I think it's Moda), 'my' sisters had a store before the designers started designing.

Can you believe it? I've actually made a quilt in which the main color is red. The backing fabric is red wide backing. My quilt was 97" before quilting but it shrank, now it's 92" by 94.5". I wish that I had added another row but too late now. Garden Party is found in Bonnie Hunter's Addicted to Scraps book.              

                                                                               

Next week is another Jane Stickle retreat and I've been trying to decide what project I'll work on. Maybe it will be another long term Bonnie Hunter quilt? I'll let you know what I sewed at retreat on my next Wednesday blog post which will be April 15.

Linking to Wednesday Wait Loss, To Do Tuesday, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Rhapsody in Blue, the Checkerboard Border

The checkerboard border from the Rhapsody in Blue quilt is quilted.

This is an abbreviated selection of pictures, all of the checkerboard border looks the same. 

Here is the left side quilting around the applique.

A few pictures from the checkerboard border but not all the border.

The pictures don't show how quilting in the light background fabric makes the darker blue square puff up slightly. It looks so nice in real life.

And the right side quilting.

The next section is an applique border.

I've used over 500 yards of thread on this quilt so far, that happened when I was stitching the outside border on this side. I thought I had a 250 yard spool of white YLI quilting thread but found that I only have 500 yard spools. The thought of possibly measuring 400 yards of thread was rather overwhelming so that's not happening. There won't be an exact number for yards of thread in this quilt.

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

Tennesee, 2025 Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt

My 2025 Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt, designed by Edyta Sitar and now called Tennesee, has come home from Calico Point where the long arm quilting happened.

I really like this quilt, the house border is so cute!

It measures 97" square.

I had said that the binding would be a light blue stripe but it's not a true stripe. It is the difference in the floral print. 

The backing fabric is a dark gray fabric.

I don't remember the name of the quilting design. It shows on the light fabric on the front of the quilt and all of the backing fabric.

This was a fun quilt to piece, maybe someday I may make a second one from this pattern. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, March Favorite Finish, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Stonefields

Another Stonefield blocks is completed, #108 titled Rollercoaster. I personally don't think this block has anything to do with a rollercoaster but it's a very lovely block! This block is in contention as the center block in the quilt.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith. Susan did give a few instructions for this block but I ignored them and did it my way. I think the center was supposed to be a solid circle with the narrow circle on the edge. I like this better.

We had continual snow from Thanksgiving through February then it all melted and we had false spring. It was nice to have warmer weather but that also meant several days with tornadoes which was not nice. We weren't affected but there were many people who received damage, especially in southern Michigan.

Then we had winter again!

If you look closely at the picture of the applique block, you can see there was a dusting of snow on the little table I use for outside pictures.

Now the snow has melted and we're back to early spring. I guess you could say our weather has been a rollercoaster.

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

Carolina Lilies

I pieced the February blocks for my Carolina Lily quilt at the end of the month. This is my favorite February block.

Several years ago I pieced several Christmas quilts. Most of the fabrics were regular reds and greens but I did buy this special holly fabric.

Even though the stem sections are all the same fabric, each block has a different red fabric.

This green is a very different shade than most of the other greens but it adds a nice contrast. The two dark reds are different fabrics.

This light green is all used now. The tiny holly leaves are so cute.

I decided to just keep on piecing and pieced the March blocks. I made a change in the foundation paperpiecing process. I had been piecing a complete block at a time. This time I decided to piece all of the bottom stem sections then piece the lilies.

Just the left side of these blocks are trimmed. 

This is my favorite of the March blocks. I fussy cut the red fabric so the stars would show. There was just enough fabric of this red for one block.

Some of the blocks don't have the same green in them, like the above block. I'm trying to use up greens in my stash, that bottom triangle is the largest piece, sometimes a substitute is needed. These three blocks all have a substitute bottom triangle fabric. A couple of them even have a substitute stem fabric. I tried to substitute a similar shade of fabric.

This green is a different shade of green from the picture with the 5 lilies (photo below this one).

There was plenty of this fabric but I only made 5 blocks with this one.

Here are the 30 blocks on the display wall.

I haven't purchased special fabrics to use in this quilt, I already have plenty of green and red fabrics. I want to piece 100 or or maybe 110 6" blocks this year, it depends on how large I want the finished quilt to be. I'll make the final decision when 100 blocks are reached.

I also have to decide how I want to set these blocks. I like the setting on the original pattern but I also like how Sue set the blocks in her quilt. Here is a link to Sue's YouTube video #11 where she shows her red & white quilts and her red & green quilts.

I can picture this quilt hanging from the rafters in my home, she'll be on long time display, not just the Christmas season.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap