I've been sewing like a mad-woman for the past several days... my two teenagers are each at high drama points at this time (one about to be suspended from school for misbehaviour, the other graduating this June with a new boyfriend complicating things...).  So what does a quilter do?  Sew, sew, sew.  All my frustration and worry went into each slam on the foot pedal, each rotary cut, each stab of the pin.  When I wasn't in the sewing room, I was out on the porch, working on a redwork piece so furiously that I have bruised and peeling skin on my needle pushing finger!

I finished the centre portion of Stars for a New Day

 And, I finished the quilt top of Select Six, but I'm still thinking of adding a small narrow border, the same brown fabric as in the sashing.

Eureka!

I have been trying, for weeks I think, to re-design a quilt pattern.  I have so many quilt sketches in my EQ file for this quilt, at one point there were over 28 design variations (despite deleting many), all using the same sampler blocks and nine patch blocks.

Here's the original block of the month quilt, which I fell in love with - the colours, the setting - I just had to have it!  It is called Select Six, designed by Karen Montgomery at The Quilt Company.   The finished quilt size is 76" x 89".  This picture does not give a good idea of the wonderful variety of fabrics in the blocks and nine patches, and the setting triangles for the sampler blocks are actually a variety of golden browns.

As the months went by, though, I realized that the quilt was just a bit too big (we really need a new couch quilt, and I also have a couple of people in mind who would like to receive a quilt that size).  Mostly,  I was awfully afraid of quilting those large open areas - some people would be looking forward to creating some wonderful quilting in those areas, but me?  Nope.

Here, finally, is my redesign.  There are butterflies in the corners, just because I've always wanted a chance to put butterflies on my quilt!  The finished size is 69" square.  The sampler blocks aren't all the actual ones in the quilt, and the colours are just to give me an idea of what's happening on the quilt.

So now this is becoming a habit, joining b.o.m.s and then redesigning the quilt...this makes three this spring.  So why join the b.o.m. in the first place?  I enjoy the pace of receiving the monthly kit; I enjoying sewing it, putting it away, and not having to think about when I'll do the next part, or storing or searching for fabrics.  Second, I do enjoy the process of redesign - its a wonderful challenge!

Stars for a New Day

The Quilt Show presented a block of the month for 2009-2010, Stars for a New Day, by Sue Garman.  Here's a picture of the quilt -

 
For the past several months, I've been going back and forth on deciding to do this quilt.  The design really appeals to me...but finding all the "right" scraps, plus all those unpieced borders, kept putting me off.  Finally, I decided that I had likely collected enough civil war period scraps to make up little kits for each month's steps, still sort of following the original colour scheme.  The big sticking point was still those borders! Sew Sisters recently had a great sale, and I got very lucky, and found the just the right fabrics.  In the meantime, I pieced "month two" which were the first pieced borders to go around the centre feathered star.  So here's my work so far, along with the selected border fabrics -
 

Soon I'll be sewing the centre feathered star block, which will mean I can put to use some of these border fabrics and see how it all looks!

Summertime quilt - variation

I've finished this quilt top - it is a wallhanging size quilt (about 45" square).  It started out as block of the month hosted by Homestead Hearth, pattern by Primitive Gatherings (the original can be seen here)

I felt that the background fabric chosen for the b.o.m, was a bit dark, so I machine appliqued the pieces with a heavy gold coloured thread, which did lighten them up a bit.  And, because I almost always want to make a pattern "my own", I set the applique blocks with a churn dash block on a slightly lighter background.  The churn dash blocks are slightly stretched - a churn dash block is made with three equal proportions of 2" each for a 6" block, these are 7" blocks so I made the centre section 3".

 
I have the quilt top pinned to my design flannel, and I don't want to take it down to quilt it!  I'm just so enjoying looking at it, I think it will (or has) become my favourite wall hanging.

Garden at Dusk - done and delivered :)

I so much enjoyed quilting this quilt - lots of spaces and places to vary designs, although I did mostly did straight stitching arrangements, and some free motion meandering.  I  finished this quilt about two weeks ago, and my husband delivered to his brother, who will pass it on to Emily when she next comes for a visit. 

The pattern is "Secret Garden" by Cindy Lammon in her book "Gathered from the Garden".  I added the extra triangle border, just to make the quilt a bit bigger.  

I started using the leftover fabrics from this quilt for the Crossed Leaves applique patterns, as written about in the previous post....but that's another story!

Orphan Blocks...or Oops!

I think I'll call myself the Queen of Orphan Applique Blocks.  I have countless applique experiments stuffed and hidden away - I am just too critical of my colour choices in applique, and there doesn't seem to be a darn thing I can do about it! 

Here are three crossed leaves type blocks from Sue Garman's block of the month, called Hugs and Kisses, from the Quilt Show website.  Nothing terribly wrong with them, but I just don't like them.  I think its the choice of the dark stem that is bothering me.

The top left is my favourite - and using Electric Quilt I've drawn and idea of a small quilt to use this block, and some elements from other blocks in the vine.

I am so addicted to using Electric Quilt - and a new version is coming out in just weeks!  I am almost counting the days to see what can be done with the new EQ7!