Nearly Insane & a Flower Garden

It felt so good to have sewing time this last week. Here is what I've accomplished, two whole Nearly Insane blocks and two half blocks. I could have pieced one more block this week, but I'm leaving for a week and decided this would be a good time to take my sewing machine to the shop for a cleaning.

I'm not using any certain fabric line for my Insane blocks. Just a variety of blues and some yellow. 

I'm taking a short break from applique to work on another one of the 12 projects on my list. Not all of the 12 projects are start from the beginning projects.

The EPP flower garden crib quilt has been in progress for several years. This has been my go to project when I had no other hand work but now it is time for her to be finished.

This week I finished sewing the rows together, then removed all the papers from the back of the hexies. Since I took this picture, the center has been appliqued to the border fabric.  After I finished piecing the rest of the Nearly Insane blocks for this month, she'll be quilted.

I'm catching an eastbound train and traveling to visit my Pennsylvania grands, and, of course, their parents too. I will be gone all week returning home on Sunday the 23rd. There isn't going to be much time for hand work so I'll take along my dishrag knitting.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, A Quilting Reader's Garden, Confessions of a Quilt Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, Show Off Saturday

Quilt Finish

The last of the quilts for the grandchildren has been quilted, I really like how she has turned out. Her name is Scrappy Rainbow. The quilting was done on my home sewing machine with stitching in the ditch on the horizontal seams. Diagonal stitching completed the quilt and she finished at 60" x 75".

More of my mother's purple fabrics for the backing of the quilt and I used various fabrics for the binding.

This aren't the greatest photos, but how could I resist placing the quilt on the porch glider in the wonderful sunshine?

We have 7 grandchildren but I only made 6 quilts. The youngest is still sleeps in a crib and uses the quilt I made him before he was born. He doesn't need a new quilt, I made him a pillowcase so he won't feel left out.

In January I mentioned 2 UFQ's I wanted to finish. I have completed one of them. I had been undecided about the border I wanted for the Cherry Blossoms quilt. I had put her away until I decided on a border and this is what I came up with. Nothing fantastic but I feel it finishes the center better than just a 1" narrow border and a plain fabric border. The quilt measures 90" x 102" at this point. She will eventually be long-arm quilted but I don't know when.

The pattern is from Karen H's blog, Faeries & Fibres. It was a free pattern when I downloaded it but now there is a pattern charge. I made the quilt larger and added the pieced border.

Now it was time to get back to making some Nearly Insane blocks. I hadn't pieced any since December; it was fun to do paper-piecing again. I'm piecing a diagonal row at a time, starting at the top left corner. Row 2 has block 8 in it. This little 6" finished block has 150 pieces! I'm showing you a separate photo of her.

Several people have e-mailed me and told me about the Nearly Insane Quilts blog. She far more skilled and dexterous than I am. Those inside HST's are 1/2" finished! If I want my blocks to be accurate, then the blocks have to be paper-pieced, not regularly pieced.

The yellow sashing looks brighter than it actually is.

In the evenings I've been working on an old EPP crib quilt that has been in progress for several years. I only work on her when I don't have any applique prepped. 

The papers are 1" hexies. There are more rows coming.

The spring Jane Stickle quilt retreat starts on April 13th. I need to get prepping! 

Linking up to Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday
Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Love Laugh Quilt
Esther's Wednesday WOW
My Quilt Infatuation
Crazy Mom Quilts
A Quilting Reader's Garden