Easy appliqué to work on this week!

See what the other quilters have on their design walls (or tables or floors) over at Judy’s.
The BOM rehab quilters are busy over here on their projects.

- – marcella

There’s me and my mom.  Happy Mother’s Day to all the women out there.

- – marcella

I did not finish any of the basket blocks this week.  I did get the July block all prepped and ready to appliqué and embroider.

I also realized that I really love to just sit and appliqué and not have to break up the hand stitching with more prep work.  With that in mind, I started prepping the last blocks. That way they’ll all be cut out and ready to sew.  I think I’ll like that better than doing it a block at a time.

I also realized that I hadn’t shown you one of my recent preemie quilt tops.  I had been trying to resist the granny block craze since I think we can all agree that I do not need another project to work on. But, if it’s small it’s actually finish-able, right?  So, using a packet of 2 x 5 inch rectangles from a Moda Candy Bar I made this cute little top:

The rectangles were all cut up into squares and I started playing.  There were enough squares to make four blocks and the leftovers were pieced with some white background squares to make the little triangle border.  The finished top is 33 inches square.  I think with a flannel back it will be perfect for a little baby at the hospital.

I did adjust the block directions.  The usual instructions use just squares to make the block, and then once it is assembled the block is trimmed up to a square.  That leaves all those background triangles with bias edges.  Instead of using squarers for the background, I cut triangles so the outside edge of the block would be on the straight of grain.

For the side triangles I cut two 4 1/4″ squares diagonally twice to make 8 triangles

For the corner triangles I cut two 2 1/2″ squares diagonally once to make 4 corners

The triangles are slightly oversized.  Then place the ruler with the 1/4″ mark on the points of the printed squares and the edge of the ruler on the background edge, and trim the block down to 9 1/4″ with a perfect 1/4″ edge.

See how the other Block of the Month rehab quilters are doing with their project here.
Visit Judy’s to see what people have up on on their design walls this week.

- – marcella

When I was rummaging through my unfinished projects looking for something to work on in April, I was happy to find not only all the blocks required for the quilt top but also border fabric.  In my stash drawer I had three other pieces from the fabric collection that I could use as binding.  I did order some flannel for the backing and the quilting did require more tan thread than I possessed necessitating a quilt shop run just before closing time last weekend.

The swirly quilt pattern was a stencil I had purchased at PIQF last fall.  I know stencils have fallen out of quilting favor but I like them.  I like having my patterns be so very even and exact.  It appeals to my picky nature.  Unfortunately, after I had fallen in love with the pattern I found that my white chalk pounce did not  show up very well.  I tried several other marking tools and finally had to pull out the big guns.  I marked the whole darn thing in fuchsia crayola washable marker.  Yes, it did take forever.  Then as I quilted and quilted and quilted, because that is one dense pattern, I fretted that the ink might not really all wash out. I had been too impatient to test the ink on all the fabrics – which I no longer had scraps of anyway.

Fortunately, luck was with me and I pulled the quilt out of the wash yesterday and all the very bright ink was gone leaving behind a lovely, crinkly quilt.

One more quilt finished.  Now to start rummaging through the pile for my project for May.

- – marcella

Nearly all of my quilting time this week was spent quilting my April ufo project.  I picked a rather involved pattern for the quilting and then had a time finding a marking tool that would show up on all those different fabrics.  Then, that involved pattern took a long time to mark.  Know that that means?

Yep, anything that takes a long time to mark also takes a long time to quilt.  Oh, and lots and lots of bobbins.  Probably more thread than you thought too, meaning you will be on a roll and run out of thread and have to scramble out the door to the quilt shop before it closes to get more.  Learn from me people!

But, the quilting is finally finished!

And there is the view from the back.  The front is still covered in magenta ink and it’s just a little distracting.  Today’s job is to bind it and wash it and then I promise a picture of the front.

I’m sure the other BOM rehab quilters have great things to show you so hop over to Pink Pincushion.

Over at Judy’s you can see all kinds of wonderful quilts that people are working on this week.

- – marcella

The pieces are all sewn down but the embroidery is left to do.  Poor bird needs a beak and an eye, the flowers need stems and there’s a garland that goes over top of the basket.

The goal is to finish up this block and get the next one done for next Monday’s bom rehab.

See what the more productive quilters are up to over at Judy’s blog.

- – marcella

I used a sampling of Denyse Schmidt fabrics for the quilt top.  I made the sashings a bit wider than the pattern suggested and added a border so that the quilt would be large enough.  The hospital gives us size guidelines to follow.

With a flannel backing this should make a nice quilt for a baby.

- – marcella

California poppies are one of my favorites and they were scattered about the gardens.

Most plants have labels, but this flower is a mystery.  Maybe Dr. Seuss blossom?

Some of the trees still had blossoms, like this apple tree.

This pear tree has moved on to setting fruit.  A little baby pear.

The bees were working hard everywhere.  This was the only ladybug I spotted though.

The camellia’s were all in bloom brightening up the shade garden.

Out in the parking lot the sign on this tree said Chestnut.  Is that really what is inside those spiky balls?

There were quite a few wild turkeys running around under the oak trees enjoying the spring weather too.

Hope spring is beautiful where you are.

- – marcella

Given how many appliqué blocks I have left, I’m sure my curves will smooth back out and my pace will pick up. On to the next block!

My UFO for April has been sitting on the design wall.  I had decided I wanted flannel for the back and none of the local shops had anything that worked.  Saturday a big squishy package arrived in the mail and the fabric has been washed so I can get everything basted for quilting now.

See what’s up on other design walls this week here.

Visit the Pink Pincushion and see how everyone is progressing on their block of the month projects.

- – marcella

The following year I thought I had the time and started making the blocks.  I got four made and then stopped.  I don’t even remember why.

I had bought two different pale green fabrics to use for the background.  Everything else is just whatever strikes my fancy from the fabric scrap drawer.

This past week I cut out all the pieces for the May block and will get sewing on that this week.  I love appliqué so it should be a fun one to work on again.

There are lots of great projects being worked on over at Patchwork Times, go see!

Sinta is keeping us all on track with our block of the month projects too, check out what ones others are working on.

- – marcella