Calico Stars is a flimsy! This was another fast pattern from Issue 1 of the 2020 Block idea book which used a layer cake.
I made several alterations for my quilt. I wanted a twin sized quilt so I used only 28 squares . I also added cornerstone to the outside sashing.
The outside border is pieced. I would have preferred a one fabric border but decided to use what I had on hand. Another difference from the original pattern, my borders were cut at 5". I sliced the rest of the 10" layer cake squares in half and pulled other fabrics too.
Here is an April post about Calico Stars.
Here is a link to the digital pattern for Calico Stars. I couldn't find a tutorial.
Of course there was a breeze while taking pictures, this time from the southeast
The heifers always come to see what I'm doing whenever I'm close to their pasture. They're hoping I'm going to feed them something.
I went to the east side of the house to take some pictures of the flimsy on the stump, didn't work, the wind was worse! I took a picture of the cows lazing in their pasture on a quiet calm Sunday afternoon.
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Clever Chameleon, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday
Grandma's embroidered blocks wall quilt is in the hand quilting frame. Here is a picture, taken last January, of the 68" square flimsy.
The blue outside border has been marked with my favorite cable design. The embroidered blocks have been marked with a circle design.
The border has been marked with a white Sewline pencil. The embroidered blocks have been marked with Berol Verithin Eagle Colored pencil #753 silver. My mother gave me a box of these pencils 30+ years ago and I'm still using them. Some of the pencils are only 2" now but I'll still use them as long as they fit them in the pencil sharpener.
For the outside border and the pieced sashing, the quilting thread is a light blue variegated #12 Sulky. For the embroidered blocks, I'll use regular YLI natural colored quilting thread. These blocks are old and even though they look white, they an old white.
The batting is Hobbes 80/20 batting and the back is muslin. I always forget how nice quilting goes with a muslin back.
The cotton/poly batting will make enough puff to show the quilting but not a lot of puffiness. I'm going for subtleness in this quilt which is how quilts were back in the 40's.
I always baste the edge of the quilt to the backing, just makes binding go better.
This is how far the quilting has progressed when I took this picture Saturday morning.
More quilting happened Saturday evening.
You can see the fabric cover in the picture.
When I'm not quilting, I cover the quilt. My quilting frame is in a room with south and west windows. I LOVE sunshine but don't want it shining directly on the quilt so I use a cover. It also helps protect from little grandchildren fingers.
Other posts talking about these blocks are here and here.
Friday I celebrated May Day by visiting our neighbor's greenhouse/produce stand business. I bought geraniums to be potted and a flat of marigolds and impatience each, a few salvia also.
The impatience will have to wait to be planted, they don't like cold weather. Nights in the 30's are forecast for this week. I'll probably hold off on the marigolds and salvia too.
The geraniums have been potted but they're easy to carry into the garage for nights. I love the spring green of the grass but the geraniums add a pop of color. I like seeing them in the flowerbeds when I look out the door of the east barn.
These flowers perk up the grape hyacinths.
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Bambi's Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away
Here are the April blue Ohio Stars blocks.
These blocks are foundation paper pieced so I counted 11 papers to make 11 blocks. After they were pieced and I was trimming them to their 5" unfinished size, I discovered I had pieced 13 blocks! Apparently I still haven't learned to count correctly.
Linking to UFO Busting, Scrap Happy Saturday.
Our 7 year old grandson sewed two pillowcases this week with my assistance. The one he is holding is for his cousin who is celebrating his 5th birthday this week.
It was windy out so he was able to just lay the pillowcase on himself and it stayed! He thought that was really neat.
His younger brother is holding the pillowcase he made for him.
He sewed one for himself last week.
While we were outside taking the picture, I noticed some white in the corner of the yard under the old tree.
This picture got slightly blurry when enlarged. I don't know what kind of flowers these are. You can see the leaves, rather straight and pointy. The flowers are maybe 1/2" across, perhaps slightly less.
This is the first yellow wild violet of the season.
Linking to Peacock Party, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Brag About Your Beauties, Finished Or Not Friday
I've started the 2nd quilt from the 1st 2020 issue of Block. I noticed on the cover of Block, it doesn't call itself a magazine, it says Idea Book.
This quilt is called Calico Stars and uses a layer cake. I'm using a Summer Breeze layer cake that is dated 2008, time to move it out!
My quilt is going to be twin sized so I used 28 10" squares.
The units are pieced and I've started putting them on the design wall.
I only have room for 2 complete blocks at a time.
Isn't this pretty?
Then I decided I had better check the directions and make sure I'm setting the units correctly.
Whoops, wrong, this is the correct set.
Now I'm adding the broken dishes units.
This is a correct block.
Part of the fun of making quilts blocks is moving the units around to see what other designs you can come up with.
This is an incorrect setting but I'm just playing.
This way has the broken dishes set correctly but, no, doesn't excite me.
Let's set them differently.
Better but still not great.
The pattern way. I think this does look like the best setting.
It's so much fun to make quilts that come together faster than my normal projects!
Now, back to sewing!
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Clever Chameleon, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday
The redwork for the Christmas quilt is finished. I thought I could remember all the blocks I embroidered since the last time but I couldn't. There are more blocks than these but this is a good selection.
Some of the blocks look a lot like what has been shown before. There are several of the same designs that are different sizes.
I pressed these blocks with a hot iron to remove the pen markings. Now they are carefully hanging on a hanger in the to be quilted closet even though they're not ready for quilting. I think hanging projects makes them less wrinkly then folding them.
All the embroidery has been worked in 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread. I used both variegated and solid red thread.
These embroideries were designed by Gail Pan and were selected from two of her books, Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery and Simply Christmas No. 3.
Now I need to get the next quilt marked and in the frame to show you next Sunday.
Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.
Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan, Nanette, Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi, Bella, Daisy and Connie
Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, Bambi's Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away
This year I decided to subscribe to Block magazine from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. The first issue came February 20th, the same day I was leaving for Phoenix. I stuck it in my bag so I could peruse it while I was on my vacation.
I selected several patterns I wanted to make with some of the precuts I had on hand. When I told someone I was going to make some quilts from this magazine, they told me they didn't like MSQ patterns, they weren't challenging enough.
I wasn't looking for challenging patterns, I've made several quilts that took years from start to finish. I wanted fast and easy.
The first quilt to be made from Volume 1, 2020 of Block is Summer Stars. MSQ has the pattern for sale but you can watch the tutorial for free. Just click it and watch.
This really is a fast and easy pattern. I cut the pieces last Friday afternoon and started sewing Saturday. I finished on Monday. That's a record for me! It even finished at the same size the pattern said it would, that's another record!
Edited - I forgot to say that I didn't use the special ruler they called for. I used the 45* line on my regular long ruler. Worked just fine!
This is the first time I've ever made wonky stars and some of those stars are really weird but they're pieced.
I used a 30's jelly roll, I knew I wanted to make this quilt so I purchased the border fabric before the 'official' isolation started.
For now it's waiting in the 'to be quilted closet'.
As usual there was a breeze while I was trying to photograph the quilt on the clothesline.
These heifers were recently turned into this pasture, they've never experienced a quilt photo shoot so I took a picture of them by theirselves.
Linking to To Do Tuesday, Clever Chameleon, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday
