Stonefields, Blocks 30, 31

Blocks 30 & 31 are named Cara's Surprise Block. Block 32 was also supposed to be a Cara's Surprise block but I thought two blocks of this design were enough. I'll show you what I substituted for block 32 later.

Here is block 30 . . .

And block 31 . . . 

Blocks 33 & 34 are pieced blocks and were displayed in this post.

I'm going to be slowing down on appliqueing the Stonefields blocks, I've put the relief sale quilt, Rhapsody in Blue, into the quilting frame! I had originally said it would go into the frame in October but it is marked and ready to go so I decided to start quilting. This quilt has a deadline so I've got to keep stitching!

I don't think I've shown you the flimsy since Elaine has completed the applique corners. 

The corner applique is based an adaption of the center applique which is from the Lady Jane quilt.

The corner applique is the same applique I used for my Blueberry Pie flimsy. Elaine is a very precise person, I'm sure she was rather appalled with the cobbled together design I put together for my pattern but it worked!

There is a quilting design marked on the outside border which doesn't show in the pictures. When you mark on light fabric, you mark lightly, just so you can see the design when hand quilting. I took a picture of the stencils so you can see what the design is, a cable of feathers.  There are diagonal background lines so there aren't empty background spaces.

Here is a picture of Rhapsody in Blue in the quilting frame which is in the basement of my home. I'm thankful to have the space to put this large quilt into the frame, it's 118" by 118".

I am using my old sticks & stands frame for quilting. I think this setup has much better tension on the sides than the roller frame I used for several years.

You can see on the left side that the frame isn't large enough for the whole quilt top. Once I've quilted just past the center medallion, I'll move the part hanging off and onto the frame. This is going to take a long time to quilt so I've covered the top with a sheet so it doesn't get dusty.

I've been asked if I don't feel out of touch with my sewing studio located in the basement? No I don't, I'm thankful to have such a large studio. I don't have a huge social life, I like being by myself and doing what I enjoy, sewing and quilting. 

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

Ugly Quilts?

I decided to go ahead and sew the 'ugly blocks' together. Since they've been pieced into flimsies, they don't look as bad as I feared. They'll never be favorite quilts but I won't be ashamed or embarrassed to donate them.

Last week you all gave me several good suggestions as to how to set the blocks but I decided to just keep it simple with easy patchwork.

The first finished flimsy measures 59" by 79".

There are forty-eight 8" finished blocks in the center, set 6 by 8. The narrow brown fabric is leftover from a long ago project. The outside border is fabric from my mother's stash so it's old, from the 80's or 90's.

Here's the flimsy displayed on the grass.

I didn't mean for the quilt to become as large as it is but that is what the quilted wanted to be, why argue with a quilt flimsy?

The second quilt is made from the same blocks, again arranged 6 by 8.

This time I didn't add the narrow border, just the dark brown fabric so it's slightly smaller measuring 58" by 72".  I'm not sure why this flimsy is that much shorter than the first quilt, I probably measured wrong, oh well.

The dark brown border adds some zing to the flimsy. The first quilt looks more dull and muted but the same fabrics were used in both quilts!

I know I had said I had over 100 of these blocks pieced but guess what, I miscounted! I needed to piece three more blocks for this quilt which was okay, I'm glad to not have leftover blocks.

The backings for both quilts have been pieced, a soft yellow fabric that was gifted to me years ago with the understanding it be used in charity projects. 

The binding for both quilts has also been sewn. It's going to be very scrappy, using whole and partial strips that are similar to the fabrics used in the blocks.

Sometime next spring I'll spend a month or so quilting compassion quilts to be delivered to the cancer center at our local hospital. 

Someone commented last week that they only sew with pretty fabrics, they don't have any uglies. I didn't buy all those yellow toned background batiks, they were gifted to me by Nanette. She joined in some summer sew-along several years ago, I don't remember how long ago but it was before covid. She became frustrated with the project, took all of the bits & pieces and shoved them into a bag then mailed the whole mess to me. I looked at the pattern and decided I didn't want to deal with the pattern. That was my evening work that winter, taking all those blocks apart. That is where all of the yellowish background fabrics came from.

It feels good to have these fabrics out of the 2.5" box. Now I need to finish piecing the blocks from the 2" box, I might as well go ahead and get those blocks sewn into a flimsy also.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Stonefields, Blocks 26, 27, 28 & 29

I've started section 3 of the Stonefields quilt. Blocks 26 & 27 are both the same design called The Semi Circles. I looked at that design and thought no way, not in my quilt! I think Susan was struggling to think of something pretty when she came up with the semi circle idea.

I changed block 26 to an embroidery design I came across several weeks ago. Those are little 1/2" hexies around the center. 

I tried to fussy cut the hexies, they didn't turn out like I had planned but I'm not changing them. I might substitute this block again for another disliked block but I'll add circles instead of hexies next time.

This cute little embroidery was designed by Karen Styles, Somerset Patchwork. You can find the Somerset Patchwork website here then click Love & Hugs from Australia.

For block 27, I appliqued this floral circle onto background fabric. 

I really like this floral fabric, I've used it in several other blocks in the Stonefields quilt. The hexies in the embroidered block came from the same fabric, this is border fabric left from the Lady Jane quilt.

Blocks 28 & 29 are named Paper Flowers.

I wish now I would have added leaves, they look rather stark.

I used the same stems for both blocks, it's bias vine left from the applique of Blueberry Pie. I hadn't intended to use this dark of blue fabric in this quilt but I way over estimated the amount of stem needed for Blueberry Pie. Waste not! I think that blue bias will be seen in future quilts also.

As a reminder, these blocks will finish at 6". 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

2025 Designer Mystery Block, Stonefields, Blocks 33 & 34

The August block (block 3) from Fat Quarter Shop for the 2025 Designer Mystery quilt has been pieced.

Last month someone asked if there was enough fabric in the packets if you made a mistake in cutting. I supposed it depends on how big of a mistake you make but I would say there is enough to correct mistakes.

The floral white background fabric has been in all three of the blocks so far. I had enough leftover from the first two blocks that I didn't even need to cut into the fat quarter that came with this block.

These floral fabrics have not been used so far, in fact none of the floral fabrics have been repeated so I'm accumulating a nice assortment of fabrics for a future project.

I'm ready to start Section 3 of the Stonefields quilt. There are only two blocks in this section that are pieced. Blocks 33 & 34 are named Bordered Four Patch, all the other blocks in this section are completely appliqued.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Stonefields, Blocks 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25

Block 19, from Stonefields, is called The Oscillateur. When I saw the applique design, I immediately thought of a poinsettia. At Christmas time there are a variety of different colored poinsettias. I don't know if they come in shades of blue but my first one is light blue . . .

while block 20 is a mottled cobalt blue.

I really like the soft blue vine/leaf background fabric, it's one I bought during my birthday outing.

Blocks 21, 22 & 23 are named O for Oscar.

Block 24 is called Four Little Stars, there are a LOT of points on those stars.

I wish now I had used several different fabrics for the stars but it's finished and I'm not going to redo it.

Block 25 was also supposed to be Four Little Stars but I didn't make the second star block, instead I improvised and designed Four Little Birds. 

It is so much easier to applique circles than pointy stars!

This completes section two from Stonefields.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith. I am stitching Stonefields along with Chris and Rebecca. Click their name to view their progress.

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

Ugly Blocks!

 After finishing a project, I cut the scraps into usable pieces, strips if it's long enough, otherwise into squares. I use these in on going projects or scrappy quilts.

I've slowly been diminishing the squares in the 2.5" box. What was left in there were the 'ugly' fabrics, to me anyway. A lot of the background fabrics had a yellow cast to them which I didn't appreciate and there were a lot of dark beige squares also. There were a lot of green squares but also browns, blues and a few reds. I did let some of the 'pretty' squares participate because they were also in the box.

I had placed them into a bag to take along to the April retreat to start sewing 4 patches but that didn't happen. Earlier this summer I put the bag beside my machine to run the squares through as leader/ender blocks. I guess I should clarify I really sew ender blocks. When I stop sewing, I stitch 2 squares together then turn off my machine. They sit there waiting for me to start sewing again.

Once the blocks were foursies, I sewed them into 16 square blocks. I have over one hundred 8.5" blocks pieced. For now they're on a shelf waiting to be trimmed then sewn into a quilt top. I don't know what I'm going to do with this quilt, I feel guilty giving it away as a charity quilt when it's made with mostly ugly fabrics! The trimming and finishing will happen in the winter. I'm glad to have those squares gone from the box.

Do you have ugly fabrics in your scraps? Do you sew them into charity quilts to be given away? And please don't tell me Bonnie Hunter says to cut them smaller so they're harder to see! I already have a box with plenty of 2" square and 1.5" squares to sew together. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Stonefields, Blocks 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18

Blocks 14 & 15 are called Bordered 3/8" Hexagons. The blocks have a pieced block base with an added EPP flower.

Obviously the patterns calls for 3/8" hexies but I don't have that size on hand, however, I do have 1/2" hexies so that is what I used and they fit perfectly.

Blocks 16 & 17 are named Square Peg in a Round Hole.

Again the applique has been stitched onto a pieced block.

Block 18 is named Star in a Star

A perfectionist would redo the center circle because the flower design is not centered perfectly, I don't claim to be a perfectionist.

There are a lot of layers in this block. I have tentatively thought I might possibly hand quilt this quilt so I've cut away some of the layers on the backside as I appliqued the layers for ease in hand quilting.

The center circle is appliqued onto the small star layer, the other layers have been cut away.

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