Hearts & Wreaths

I'm still having problems with downloading pictures, now something else has changed! I'm in a holding pattern until our daughter arrives mid November for Thanksgiving, she'll figure it out!

I just wanted to let you know, even thought I can't post pictures or even retrieve pictures that are stored in Blogger, I am still making progress with Hearts & Wreaths. 

All of the borders have been appliqued and attached to the center. All of the corners have been embroidered and one corner has been appliqued. Maybe it will be completed by the time I'm posting pictures again, I sure hope so anyway.

Here is a link to a September post about Hearts & Wreaths.

Here is a link to my first post about Hearts & Wreaths.

The Hearts & Wreaths pattern is found in issue 138 of Quiltmania magazine.

I'm still taking pictures and I'm writing post drafts. I'll have lots to show you whenever I can post pictures again.

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

Scrappy Sprouts Finish!

Several years ago I started piecing scrappy sprouts blocks using the color of the month with RSC. Earlier this year I sewed the sprout blocks into columns but I was undecided about what flower to use. Not everyone adds flowers to their sprouts but I wanted flowers.

This summer Preeti hosted 2023 Positivity Sew Along on her blog then designed a flower for the stem blocks. That is the flower I used for my sprouts. The flower pattern is no longer available on her blog.

I did modify the flower for my blocks adding a pointy part to the bottom of the flower to set into the stem. It's not perfect but I can live with it. I also had to add spacers to the sides of the flower blocks to be the same width of the scrappy sprouts.

Since the quilt is going to hang on a white wall, I used a black floral for binding. I cut the binding at 3" so I would have 1" on the top for a nice frame.

I'm not that good at machine quilting larger quilts with my sewing machine but I decided I was going to quilt this quilt myself.

I taped a large piece of plastic to the garage floor, (after blowing it off several times) then layering the layers like normal except I used spray adhesive. I also pinned those layers to help to make sure it stayed together. I should have used more adhesive but there wasn't as much in the can as I thought there was.

Scrappy Sprouts is based on a 2" grid so I thought I would just stitch 1/2" from the edge of the vertical seams. I didn't like it, I thought she looked baggy so I ended up stitching more seams which for the most part are 1/2" apart.

The quilting on the left side of this picture is 1/2" apart. The right side is 1" apart.

My stitching rows aren't perfectly straight but this quilt isn't meant to be viewed closely. You need to stand back several feet then look at her.

For the backing fabric, I used sheets from a sheet set I no longer need or use. I did have to piece the top sheet with part of the bottom sheet.

I've got a curtain rod and hangers for display purposes but she's not installed yet. This quilt will be hanging in my basement sewing studio where I will get to see her every day. I'll show you a picture when she's displayed. Flowers in the winter always bring a smile to my face.

Since I had used spray adhesive to hold the layers together, I was concerned about what effect this might have on the cotton fabric fibers. I washed the quilt and set the washer control to add an extra rinse beside the normal rinse. After washing then drying, my Scrappy Sprouts now measures 73" wide by 75" long.

Here is a link to instructions for the Scrappy Sprouts quilt.

The best things about this finish is that an UFQ is finished! Now there is just one unfinished project from the RSC, Dancing Stars! The problem is I know they are in the sewing studio somewhere but I don't know where somewhere is! I'll work on another UFQ until I find them.

I'm still having a problem downloading photos, I don't know if I'll have a Sunday post or not.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday

Wakarusa Quilt Garden

I did have a picture of Hearts & Wreaths to show you but my download didn't work. Hopefully I can show you next Sunday.

These are September pictures of the Wakarusa Quilt Garden. She's definitely showing some age but she's still lovely!

This picture is a slightly different angle than the first picture.

The flowers in these planters have been replaced with mums. The planter to the right isn't blooming very much anymore.

These trees are on the the same street as the quilt garden. This photo was taken September 27th. These trees are completely orange now.

The flowers are usually removed the first of October, flower season is finished. I'm always rather sad to see summer leave. It's just after 8 in the morning and the street lights are still on!

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings

A Blogging Break

I hadn't anticipated taking a blogging break but I am. Unfortunately my phone is not communicating with my computer and I can't airdrop photos! I won't be blogging until this problem is solved, I think blogposts without pictures are BORING!

I'm including this picture I took several years ago at the farm. The trees here at the new house don't have long spreading branches since the trees are closer together.

Have a lovely autumn or, for southern hemisphere friends, a lovely spring with lots of Happy Stitching! I'll have lots to show you when I return!

Charity Comforter

The Sunday I picked up the 4 comforters for binding, I noticed the comforter that was in the frame for knotting was one I had pieced.

 Last Sunday I took the 4 comforters back to church and placed them in the cupboard. I noticed there was a knotted comforter ready to be bound in there. I opened it to look at it and saw it was the one that had been in the frame the Sunday before. I brought it home to bind.

Normally we just turn the backing fabric over and use that for binding but I had used some blah striped pink fabric from my mother's stash for the backing. I thought it needed prettier binding than that. 

I have a basket where I put the leftover binding from projects. I pulled them out of there, sewed them together and made a scrappy binding for this comforter. 

This comforter will end up with MCC.

The sixteen pieced blocks in this quilt were made with the RSC color of the month. I have no memory though of piecing the puss in the corner blocks! 

I think I'll sew along in the RSC next year and make 16 pieced blocks again. They're such an easy block to piece for charity quilts.

When I posted about the comforters I bound last week, someone asked how they hang together since they're not quilted? A comforter is NOT quilted, it's knotted. My church uses crochet thread to knot, some places use yarn. If you look at the comforter I wrote about today, you can see the knots. If you look at the 3rd one in the prior post, you can see the strings which have been sewn onto the comforter. Those strings will be snipped then it will be  knotted. Those strings held the layers together while I sewed the binding.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday

Hearts & Wreaths, Border 2

I had more time for applique this week than I anticipated. The number of leaves that were on the first border was 62 so that is how many I need on this border. Fifty-five have been applied, the next seven should easily finish this border if I get an early start in the evening.

You can see the embroidered vine at the top where the leaves go. 

This is the 2nd long border, the next border to applique will be short side.

The pattern for Hearts & Wreaths is found in Quiltmania #138. Here is a link to my first post about Hearts & Wreaths which is dated August 29, 2021 which is a little over 2 years ago.

Once the borders are attached to the center of the quilt, I'll applique the corner leaves. These leaves don't seem to be taking that long. Maybe I can have this quilt the quilting frame by New Years?

I was busy with quilt stuff for the Relief Sale last week. Friday night I thought my legs were going to fall off, I'm not used to standing on concrete all day! 

We had a perfect autumn day for the Relief Sale. The 9 Patch Beauty quilt I donated to the sale sold for $1500 which is a respectable amount. Now I need to decide which pattern I'm going to use for next years quilt!

Northern Indiana has been extremely dry in September, we haven't received even an inch of accumulated rain. The edges of the leaves on the maple trees are turning brown and leaves are falling because it's so dry. This dryness is abnormal for us, usually we get rain in September after a dry August. 

We're hoping it doesn't start raining during harvest time in October, that's when we need it dry.

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

Scrappy Sprouts

The flowers for the Scrappy Sprouts quilt are pieced. I took the pictures outside so the colors are more true looking.

Here is the first arrangement.

Or they could arranged like this.

I'll probably move them around a dozen times before this quilt is finished.

I wasn't sure what to use for the green flower so I used this coleus as my inspiration. It has been my surprise plant for the summer. I had no idea this would grow to be so huge, I love it!

The flower pattern came from Preeti. She provided the pattern as part of her 2023 positivity quilt sew along. In an earlier post I had provided a link to the flower but that link no longer works. I knew when I saw the flower it would be perfect for my scrappy sprouts. Thank you Preeti! 

The next step is to fill space with neutrals to make all the columns the same height.

Here is a link to the pattern for Scrappy Sprouts.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday