Some assembly required

Two quilt centres sewn together...

The going-away-to-university quilt for my neice Laura, from the pattern High Cotton by Kim Diehl

And, the Antique Sampler centre blocks sewn ...I had to see it this way! Couldn`t fit the bottom row into the picture...I still can`t believe I hand sewed all those blocks (but I did machine piece them together!)

It`s been a great morning...finishing up these centres, and I found a great sale on a perfect blue print which is for finishing the Dear Jane, and a couple of half yards of batik that I think will be good for Stupendous Stitching!

Stitch good thoughts!

Stupdendous Stitching...a Craftsy class

The past week or so I've been working on Laura's quilt...which is now nothing like I had planned, but instead is from a pattern by Kim Diehl.  My "swirly layer cake" idea was a good one, just wrong choice of the accent colour, it was too muddy and when I laid out a few rows, the overall design wasn't coming through.

I'm nearing 80 blocks needed for the Kim Diehl pattern (simple blocks!), and now my mind is wandering with what next?  Lots of tops I'm looking forward to quilting...a few quilts that need more piecing or assembly... some garment sewing I'd like to do.  But nothing was getting me going with plans in my head...the fun of deciding how I'm going to quilt something, or the steps closer to finishing a top.

Into my mail box landed an email from Craftsy, describing a class called Stupendous Stitching...watching the previews, I realized this was just what I needed to get out of a rut I've been in with all my traditional  and pattern following.  Just play!  With all the threads I've collected, and all the stitches on my Horizon.  I'm not saying I'm going to become an art quilter (ha!), but I do think this class will make me stretch creatively and give me some things to think about, even in my approach to traditional quilting.

Honoring Emma, finished!

I finished this quilt on Friday.....I thought I had already posted its picture, but I guess I got too involved in the Antique Sampler blocks!  The quilt blocks were designed by Lori Smith, but I arranged them differently from her pattern (actually this is the third arrangement these blocks have been into!).

Antique Sampler, centre blocks all done!

It's a beautiful Victoria Day weekend here, even a little too warm yesterday!  I enjoyed a few early mornings sewing outside on the deck, and finished the last of the centre blocks for the Antique Sampler, designed by Sue Daley.

64 - six inch blocks, and 9 - twelve inch blocks, each with a reverse applique background, four each of sixteen different motifs on the centre,  plus three more motifs for the larger blocks, each either english paper pieced and appliqued or just appliqued.  A lot of hand sewing!!

I fell in love with this quilt just as it is shown in the pattern picture.  There was nothing I wanted to change...except maybe the centre block (which I did, by not including the red circles on the tree).  It isn't often I see a quilt that I want just like it is, with no, well I would do this colour, or this arrangement, or that border.  I could never have kept my commitment to this quilt without doing it as a block of the month - Quilters Paradise in Clovis, California, did a wonderful job on the monthly kits; offering lots of variety of fabrics in good sizes.  Next to sew are all the outside border tongues, these are made from the fabrics that were cut from the blocks when preparing the reverse applique.

Its been a long week...

I somehow ended up with a stomach flu which was not a good thing, lol.    Earlier in the week I had made some progress on quilting Honoring Emma

This morning I finished the applique block for the first May unit of Just Takes 2.  I could not have done this block as well as I did if I had not persevered in learning backbasting...this method of applique pretty much guarantees the accurate  symmetrical placement that some applique blocks require.  Gay has a good tutorial on her website, Sentimental Stitches, and a google search will bring up several other lessons.  I don't know yet that backbasting will be come my first choice method (as of now, my go to method is making templates and drawing the shape on the fabric for needleturn), but its good to have one more way of applique in my toolbox!

 Stitch good thoughts!

My Whimsical Quilt Garden - Top Done!

I found myself stuck on how I how to quilt the sashings on the Honoring Emma quilt, so I found myself working on the borders of My Whimsical Quilt Garden.

It was very hard for me to settle on a border design...almost immediately after posting a design here, I changed my mind.  Something about that original design was not right.  I ended up with about 18 border designs in EQ, everything from checkerboard, to triangles, various pieced blocks.  Then once I decided on the diamonds, I played with extra borders and sizing and such. 

I thought about adding an additional border of blue (like the sashing) or background in between the quilt centre and the diamonds...but I couldn`t get the math right to keep the smaller size diamonds that I wanted...adding the additional border would have caused bigger diamonds, or a bigger border, neither choice which I wanted.  Then I thought about adding an additional skinny border between the diamonds and the outer plain area,  but that just made the outer border look out of place.

I`m pretty happy with how it turned out!

Stitch good thoughts!