Garden Party Prep

I have a retreat coming up in November. For the last several retreats Garden Party has been my retreat project. I almost finished the posy blocks at last spring's retreat but had to finish the rest after I returned home. I don't remember how many I made but enough for a bed quilt, that amount is written down and is in the bag with the blocks.

I started prepping the alternate chain blocks before I left for my vacation. I'm using red fabrics for the chain.

I didn't have a lot of scraps to use for the chains, most of the scrap pieces have been used in making 4 patch blocks. I used small pieces of fabrics that were too large to be called 'scraps' and was able to do mostly strip piecing.

A lot of the white background fabric was leftovers from cut off quilt backing fabric. I did piece one chain block to show you.

All the sections have been organized on a tray, ready to go to retreat.

I'm not sure how many blocks I need but I do know I'll need at least 100 blocks. If I figured correctly 😉, there should be enough sections for 100 blocks on the tray. The longer white pieces will be used for more 9 patch blocks or cut into the larger rectangles.

I did surround the single chain block with posy blocks to get an idea of what it will look like. It would be easier to visualize if I had sewn more of the chains but that will happen at retreat.

Probably not all the chain blocks will be pieced at retreat but hopefully I'll have enough pieced so that I can figure out how many more I need. I'll take another project along to retreat though, just in case it is needed.

These are little blocks, they finish at 5" so it takes a huge amount of blocks to make a decent sized bed quilt. 

Garden Party was designed by Bonnie Hunter and can be found in the Addicted to Scraps book. I did find a website to purchase only the pattern.

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

Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue went into the hand quilting frame in August, I gave you a preview in the August 31 post. Normally, when I'm hand quilting, I give you a week by week progress report. I'm not doing that with this quilt, I'll give you a monthly progress report.

I had a quilting goal which was to have the first border quilted before I left for my vacation at the end of September, that goal was accomplished!

The background fabric is a light gray fabric but looks darker in the pictures. I use overhead led light while I quilt but they're not so good for taking pictures. These pictures were taken using regular lighting, the quilting shows but the background fabric looks darker than it is.

The pictures are from the left side to the right side. There is some overlap of the design but that's how it is. All of the applique has been stitched in the ditch.

I always cringe when I view a quilt that has a pretty quilting design but the background is left unquilted. To me (this is my opinion, you don't have to share it) the quilt looks unfinished, it's baggy and spoiled. That is why diagonal background lines are added to my quilts.

The next section to be quilted is the blue/gray patchwork. The plan is to diagonal stitch both directions in the light gray fabric, this will make the blue chain more predominate.

The width of the border is 14". The quilt flimsy is 118", just 104" more to be quilted! This quilt will be auctioned in the 2027 Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.

Rhapsody in Blue is a collaboration between my friend Elaine and I. Elaine stitched all of the applique.

I thought about making all the pictures extra large but that takes up so much space. You should be able to click on the individual pictures to enlarge them.

I don't quilt every evening, I aim for 5 nights a week and quilt approximately 2 hours. Sometimes it's less than that, sometimes longer, I don't keep track of the hours of quilting. In my location hand quilters charge by the yards of thread used in the quilting. I've started with a 500 yard spool of white YLI thread. I'll let you know when the spool is empty.

YLI hand quilting thread is available from Red Rock Threads.

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

Orphan Block Compassion Quilt

Earlier this month I completed two compassion quilts. In the same post, I showed you some orphan blocks that were hopefully going to become another compassion quilt but they needed to sit awhile until the design appeared in my mind.

That happened last week and the orphans have become a flimsy.

I took some pictures along the way with the intentions of giving some measurements but I didn't keep up with writing down the measurements.

The blocks in the center are all 12" finished. The sashing and cornerstones finishes at 2". 

The top and bottom blocks finish at 10". 

They don't line up with the 12" blocks but I'm calling this an design element. I did have to add pieced coping blocks. It's 40" wide and 60" long.

The 9 patch blocks finish at 5". I sewed 2.5" rectangles on one side of them while the other side had 3.5" rectangles which means the length of these blocks becomes 10"by 5" finished. These blocks were sewn onto one side and the bottom of the quilt. It finishes as 53.5" by 77". 

I did stay-stitch along the outer edge of the flimsy to keep seams from pulling open. Some people say they don't have a problem but I do even though I make my stitching length shorter when I piece quilts. Prevention is easier than repairs!

I'd like it better if it was a little wider, adding an outside border of the yellow fabric would have made it the perfect width but . . . this yellow is the last of the yellow from the bolt I purchased when I started Hearts & Wreaths. All that is left are squares which will go into their appropriate box to be used in future scrap quilts. 

This flimsy used a lot of the orphans. There is one album block left, 4 of the 9 patch blocks and 2 of the patchwork blocks.  I did not buy anything to make this quilt which was a win-win! 

This flimsy, and the others I have made or will be making, will be quilted sometime next spring. I have absolutely no idea how this flimsy will be quilted but I have decided the best way to start is to stitch in the ditch along the main seam lines that run the full width and length of the quilt.

More orphans were pulled from the box and this is the arrangement I came up with for the next compassion quilt. This is not the final arrangement, it has to rest awhile before the sewing starts.

Someone once asked me why I have so many orphan blocks? What can I say, apparently I run an orphanage!

I am taking a blogging break until the middle of October. See you then and of course, happy stitching! 😉

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 42 & 43

Block 42 from the Stonefield's quilt, is named the Tulip. 

There was only supposed to be one tulip block but of course I made a second one which is block 43.

The tulip stems were embroidered and the applique was fairly simple.

The next several blocks are more challenging applique with smaller pieces. Stonefield's is designed by Susan Smith.

Except for some of the background fabrics, the blues have all come from my stash. 

You can view the quilts that will be in the Michiana Mennonite Relief sale here which will be held Saturday, September 27. Click on the picture of the quilt for a larger picture. Here is a link to the general website for the relief sale.

I have donated several quilts and have ties to another one. I'll give you the lot number and link to a blog post about the quilt so you can read about it. Feel free to bid if you so choose, thank you!

Lot 81 - Scrappy Dresdens

Lot 104 - Many Trips

Lot 124 - Stars in the Center

Lot 139 - Blue Churndashes

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

A Variety of Pieced Blocks

Blocks 42 & 43 from the Stonefields quilt are named Mulhouse Magic, they are the only blocks pieced in section four, they were fun blocks to make.

I fussy cut the center fabric in both blocks which is a square in a square block.

Susan doesn't really give you instructions when you make these blocks. For this block, she said to look at the picture for guidelines. I made QST's for the outer corners, half of them had the light blue on the right side while the other half had the light on the left side. That worked out okay, I had enough for both blocks.

Block 45 was also supposed to be the same design but you know me, two of one design is enough. 

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith. 

Week 3 of the 2025 Laundry Basket Mystery was to make flying geese, 24 of them. They are placed around the center star. I went ahead and sewed the star sections together, Edyta didn't say to do that but I did it anyway. Hopefully there will not be any unstitching happening.

The blue looks too bold for the rest of the fabrics but I'll wait and see how they look when it's finished before I make any changes. I assume next week we'll be making corner blocks.

The kit came for the Designer Mystery BOM, this is the 4th block in the series.

I think this is the prettiest block. 

Those tiny little birds in the brown fabric are so cute!

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 38, 39, 40 & 41

The first two blocks in section four of Stonefields have been completed. They are called 'Angel Wings'. There was supposed to be only one block with this design but I decided two were better.

Here is block 38  . . .

And block 39.

There was supposed to only be one Angel Wings block but I decided that block 39 should be the same as 38. Why? Because this is my quilt and I can do what I want.

In the patterns, block 39 was supposed be the same as blocks 40 and 41 which are called Mirror Mirror. Two blocks the same are enough.

Block 40 which has my favorite blue floral fabric,

And block 41 which also has a pretty floral in the center.

Both of these blocks appliqued very fast. I might come back to the Mirror Mirror pattern if I decide to replace another design.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith. Chris and Rebecca Grace are also stitching along with me, we're each working at our own speeds.

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 Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt, Weeks 1 & 2

I've been so good this year sticking to my list of projects and not getting side tracked however I got squirreled! I've succumbed to the Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt sew-along. It's weekly so at least I won't have to wait a month for the pattern like I do for the Designer Mystery sew-along and no, I did not order fabric from Edyta even though she has many beautiful fabric collections.

I came across several bags with fabrics that I had purchased for something else while organizing my sewing studio in July but those projects never happened. I pulled one of those bags for this project.

The fabrics are batiks that I purchased years ago. Yoder's had a quilt in display in their store that I thought was cute so I bought the kit. It was cute but I just didn't get it sewn, now it's time to use the fabrics.

Here are week one blocks, 9 square in a square blocks. I've used two different blue fabrics.

The fabrics actually have more of a slate blue appearance in real life. Don't worry, this isn't another blue & white quilt, there are also dark pink, green, brown and yellowish fabrics. The background fabric is a cream color, not white as they look in the blocks.

The blocks for week two have also been pieced.

These hourglass blocks are set with five of the blocks from week 1, they make a star for the center of the quilt.

I hadn't planned to use blue for this week but I didn't think another color would look right. That is what the challenge is about mystery quilts, color placement!

It's nice that Edyta shows us the location of the blocks in the quilt, this way I was able to use another blue fabric to make the star entirely blue.

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