Row 6 is done! Quick review of small tool.

I finished row 6 on my quilt top.  I have one more row to go.  Then I will applique this top to a grey border fabric.  I bought the border fabric almost 2 years ago so it's been very patiently waiting to be used.  Here is a picture of the 6 rows.  I'll be using the grey fabric for the backing fabric as well.

My quick review is of the cute flower threaders I bought last year.  I have been using the same threader for the last two rows of the quilt and it has held up very well.  The wire is sturdy but its not too big to fit in a small needle eye.  I bought the threaders from Amazon.  The link is here:   Flower threaders for sewing needles

I Made A Quilted Christmas Table Runner

   I have been planning this table runner all year.  I made this one for my dear daughter.  I am going to make a second one for me. 

    Trying to find the best block to use in this table runner took me almost all year.  I knew I wanted to use solid pieces of the pretty Makower fabric alternating it with a pieced star block, I just couldn't find one a block I was in love with.  I finally found a block in one of my Civil War quilting books.  I found the New England block in "Civil War Sampler" by Barbara Brackman.

     Here is a picture of the runner out.  It's 84 inches long and 12" wide.

    I think the New England block looks like a Christmas gift wrapped up and it still has star points.  I love it.  The book only includes cutting instructions, so I was careful with my piecing.

    Here are the individual blocks up close.

 

English Paper Piecing.

  I have part of row 5 put together now and I've been busy basting hexagons in my spare time.  I don't have quite enough to finish the next three rows, but I'm working on them. 

   

A Quilted St. Patrick's Day Decoration

   I'm calling these St. Patrick's Day Stars.  I made these small wall hangings in green, orange and white for me and DD.  We love to decorate a little bit for the holidays and I like to make her little things to put around her house with the holiday color.

    I used a free paper piecing star pattern from the Carol Doak website.  The link is here.  It's the star pattern that is called Introduction to Paper Piecing and it's about half way down the page.  I've used this free pattern before I love it.  With the borders and binding they measure appoximately 13" x 13" square.  I gathered my fabrics for this project right after Christmas.

    These were fun to make and DD loves it.

Getting Back to Hand Sewing on the Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt Top

   I pulled out my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top on last Friday.  I had to add three flowers to the third row to finish it and I finally finished those tonight.

     I started this quilt top way back at the end of May, 2017 and I can't believe that I am still working on this.  I have never had a project linger this long.  I really, really, really need to get this one done, so I am committing two hours each day during the week and more on Saturday and Sunday to sew on this top until it is finished.  I have four more rows of flowers and path to add.

    I notice in the second row that the half flower on the right hand side is wrong.  It should have an orange outer ring and a pink inner ring.  I will be taking that half flower off and fixing that. 

    I fell out of love with this project before, but looking at this picture reminds me how much I like this and I am excited to work on this again. 

    Here's a picture of the three rows finished.

More Pumpkins, This Time It's Fabric

    I need a fall table runner, nothing fancy, just a little something on the table that says fall.  I was hoping I could find fabric for the entire thing in my stash and I did.  I have at least a couple of yards of the orange fabric, perfect for the pumpkins, backing and binding.  The purple and green are the canvas I have leftover from making bags with my souvenir fabric from Hawaii.

    There are loads of free pumpkin block patterns out there.  Here's how I made the pumpkin.  The orange fabric is cut 10" square, the snowball corners are 3" squares, the stem is a 1.5" wide by 3" piece and the purple sashing is 3" wide by however long each side needs to be.  The bottom sashing was trimmed down to a narrower width to accommodate the length of a side piece.  Easy.

   Here's a picture of my first pumpkin block.  I know my piecing could be neater and more uniform, but I don't care.  I will make two more of these to finish this table runner.  I love this project.

Still Hand Sewing

    I don't sew everyday, but I try to sew a few days a week.  I get a lot more accomplished on the weekend.  Here is an update on the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.

    I have started the second row.  The second row flowers still have to be attached.

A Slow Start To My Slow Stitching Project

   I finally started my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  I started this on a day I spent at the beach with dear daughter and friends.  I knew I wasn't going to be swimming in the Gulf and that I wanted to spend my time on the beautiful deck with a sea breeze and some hand stitching.  I finished my first flower for my new Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt during that beach trip.  I have since added the green path.  I am totally in love with this project.  I can't wait to see more of these lovely flowers appear.

  The green fabric almost looks minty or blueish, it's not. I tried to get a good picture using my faux Ott Light.    I will try to get a picture where the colors are more life like on a day with more sun.  We have had some rain the last couple of days and it's hard to get a good picture indoors.

    I was kind of worried about the pink and orange clashing but it looks stunning in this picture.  I originally bought a very pale yellow for the center, but I changed that to a bright yellow when I saw how dark the orange and pink are and I'm so glad I did.

   So there you have it, the beginning of a another quilt top.  

 

I Decided On My Next Quilt Project

   I finally decided on my next long term quilt project.  It will be a slow hand sewing project making little hexagons with English paper piecing.  I'm going to make another Grandmother's Flower Garden ("GFG"), but this time I want to make the quilt more traditional.  I will be using three fabrics for my flowers.  The center will be yellow, of course, and the two rows of petals will be orange and pink.  Here are the fabrics I purchased from Fabric.com this week for this project.

     Here is the green I found for path which I think is perfect.  It's a Kona cotton in the colorway Pond.  I can't wait to get started.

    Here's a link to the scrappy GFG I made last year.  It was totally different from a traditional GFG.  I don't know what I was thinking of when I bought the dark green and greyish fabric for this.  I should have made the flowers with two rows of petals and then used a lighter green for the path, but I made only one row of petals then I used that concrete color before the dark green path.  It it unusual to say the least.

One more thing,

   I did some more paper piecing and made up this pretty block to decorate my front door in between specific holidays.  I used a fat quarter set that I won from Barbara at Cat Patches blog.  It was eight fat quarters of Junebug Fat Quarter Bundle by Dear Stella Fabrics. I used the free paper piecing pattern from Carol Doak.  If you go to Carol Doak's site and click on Free patterns and scroll down to this one which is the 11th picture, it's called "Introduction to Paper Piecing" and it's pretty simple, but I think it super pretty.  It looks great no matter what fabric you use.  I would love to make an entire quilt with these blocks.

Another Great Way to Use Up My Stashed Fabric

      I started a second quilting project today.  I made my first scrappy string block using a paper towel as the foundation.  This was fun to make.  I will have to take some time to cut fabric strips, but that's as easy as sewing the block together.  I will make the center strip white on all the blocks so when I put the blocks together a border will be created with the white strips.  Very cool.

     And I'm still working on my scrappy 16-patch blocks.  I have 12 made so far.  I need 23 more for this quilt top.

     I have the fabric for my paper pieced stars (wallhanging) and it's been washed.  I just have iron the fabric and print out my paper piecing patterns to get started.  You can see the pattern and the fabrics here.

Change In Sewing/Crafting Strategy

    I'm changing my sewing/crafting strategy.  Instead of only working on one project at a time, I'm going to try to work on a couple of projects at the same time, one big quilt project and one smaller project. I'm hoping I can work my way through my big storage box of projects which include all the patterns/fabrics/findings to make each one.  The projects include:  a doll pattern, a teddy bear, a Gadget Girl Tool Kit bag, several embroidery/cross stitch projects, another dog harness, a table topper kit, a lap quilt, and a jewelry project.  

  I had no business planning two new projects with all the items I have waiting, but I did.  I'm cutting fabrics for a scrappy 16 patch block quilt with a white sashing.  I'm making the scrappy blocks with 3" squares cut from my stash.  I also ordered the white fabric for the sashing on Saturday.

    I have this almost full box of 3" squares ready to be sewn together.

   And yesterday I picked out a lovely foundation paper pieced pattern on etsy to make a wallhanging for my living room.  I also bought some fabric (on sale) at Connecting Threads for the wallhanging.

   Pattern:

Fabrics:

   I've only done a couple of small paper piecing projects so this should be fun.  I'll probably get the fabric next week and I should be finished with my current project by then.  

   I'm currently working on my red plaid Christmas nightgown.  I finally ironed the fabric last night, next step is cutting my pattern pieces out.

Fabric for nightgown:

   That's all I'm working on now.  I'll let you know how the new sewing strategy is working for me. 

My First Hexagon Block For My Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt Top.

   I have to make 34 more of these for my quilt top.  This quilt top will definitely take me a while but it's a lot of fun to make.  I love the scrappy flower center, the third round looks like cement pavers in the garden, and the fourth round is the green grass growing around the pavers and the flowers.  This is my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt in progress.

 

Found: Fun Video Quilt Block Tutorials

   I have been enjoying the video tutorials on 3and3quarters.net blog by Amanda.  I watched several yesterday.

   I love the foundation paper piecing tutorial on the friendship circle block, link here.  She does a great job explaining foundation paper piecing and showed me a few tips I had never seen before.

   Another video tutorial I watched was her instruction on the morning star block, which is one of the blocks in her HST sampler quilt.  The link to that blog post and video tutorial is here.

  Thanks, Amanda for the inspiration.

Update On Pretty In Pink Quilt.

   I finished trimming and ironing the rows on Tuesday night and I just finished sewing the rows together.   Here it is.

       Next week I will iron and piece my already washed solid light pink backing/binding fabric.  I'm going to piece in some blocks from the tops across the back to give it some interest.

       I still have to buy a batt for this quilt project.  I'm going to do some on line shopping for that after the first of January.  My local stores do not carry Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting (my favorite) so I always have to buy them on-line.  I usually order from the Connecting Threads website.  They seem to have the best prices even with shipping charges.