Another quilt done! Title: Hearts Together

It's done! Yes, it took way longer than it should. All quilts seem to do that for me. I guess I just have too many other things I want or need to do.

Since the front of the quilt was so plain I decided to jazz it up with an interesting print on the back. 

Yes, the quilting is all done big stitch.

Stencils

I ordered some new quilting stencils.

This is "Simple Flower" Circa 1850. It fits an  8 inches block.

Price is $3.35

Next is "Sunwheel" it comes in both 7" and 9". I can't wait to quilt this design. In fact, I have just redesigned the scrap log cabin blocks quilt I am making. I think now I will made every other block a solid one and use this design for quilting in the plain blocks.

Price is $3.00 and $3.75.

My next big hexagon quilt.

I have to tell you, when I got done with my Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagon quilt I was at a loss as to what project to have in my traveling hexagon box. Not to mention, what project to work on at home in the evenings watching TV. Well, after a couple of days of sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I decided to dig out an old project and make it work.

What I found, while digging around, were 17 diamond shapes that I had made sometime between the years 1997 and 2002. Each diamond has three small flowers with a solid yellow center. The center flower is surrounded with a white print and a neutral finishes off the diamond. Next question to ask myself was, do I have any of the white fabric? I thought I had but, where! Good news, I found the white, almost a whole bolt of it. Considering it was bought before I opened the shop I have wondered where I got it.

While looking for the diamonds I found a cigar box with precut squares in groups of six for the flowers. It's nice to have a head start with the flowers. Then I started wondering if I still had the soft yellow for the centers. The first thing I found was a small piece that would cut about 100 squares. Not enought! Last night I just happened to glance in the fabric stash cupboards and guess what I saw, yup, a great big hunk of the yellow. One more ingredient ready to go.

 

 Then it was on to the neutrals. My original plan was to have each hexagon using a different neutral. This must have been on my mind when I've gone shop hopping with friends. I found a bunch of  fat quarters in the cupboard, also. Add to that a group of 2-1/2" strips of neutrals from Blank Quilting and the 2-1/2" strips that I received in an exchange with the Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild, that will give me a very good start. In fact, I think I will have enough

.

 So now we come to the design. My original idea was to lay them next to each other. I laid out the 17 finished blocks and said, "No, I didn't like that." Then I laid them out another way, I didn't like that either.

Then I thouht about laying them out and putting a new diamond between them. That appealed to me so I went into my EQ7 and came up with the new idea. 

I like this a lot. The new diamonds will have only two flowers but I will be adding three green leaves. The green will be all the same fabric. The neutral border will be made scrappy using all of the neutrals. This will be a combination of planned and scrappy. Always my favorite. 

This is 1/4 of the quilt. I was too lazy to color a whole quilt!

Shade Cascade quilt

I decided to show you my current quilting project.

Shade Cascade was a collection from Blank Quiting. I loved it and sold a bunch in the shop. It consisted of four shades of a one color on each bolt. Finally, Blank Quilting told me they were out of the fabric and would not be reprinting it any more. With only a few bolts left, I decided to see what I could come up with using the end of brown bolt. I ended up with a rail fence block. I used the lightest and darkest shades for the outside rails. I used the light-medium shade for the centers of half the blocks and the dark-medium for the other half of the blocks. Then, when I laid them out all the horizontal blocks had the lighter fabric centers and the vertical blocks had the darker fabric centers. What I like best is the larger area in the center of the block for some nice quilting.

A closer look.

Please note: The blue that is showing is the blue water soluable pen I used for marking. It will soon be washed out.

And, of course, I hand quilted it using the "Big Stitch" and Presencia's Size 12 Perle Cotton.

Since I did not have enough of the fabric to make the quilt as long as I wanted. I added a 2nd & 3rd border to the top and bottom. (The white is batting since I have not finished the quilting yet.)



My large hexagon quilt #2

I DID IT!

Yes, my second large hexagon quilt is now completely pieced.  Also, I will add, the quilt has been nicely folded and put away in a box awaiting the year 2012 when (hopefully) it will be brought out and quilted.

For those who might be wondering about how long it took me, I think it was started in the year 2005. It is made with the 1" hexagon, using approx 3,564 of them.

Since it is so big, it was very hard trying to figure out where to photograph it. Finally, I just laid it on the bed.

Corner view

End of bed view (our bedroom is very small. This was as far back as I could get. :-)

Close-up.

When I think of a traditional Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt I usually think of each flower surrounded in white. So you ask, why didn't I put my flowers totally surrounded in white? Because I figured that was just too many white hexagons to baste. I think I got by with a lot less. Then again, maybe I didn't. What do you think?

The travels of a JoQuilter Fabrics bag.

Wow! This time my "shop bag" has gone to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Wow! What a view.

Another hexagon quilt visits the shop

Barb B. brought her hexagon quilt in for me to see. The quote is, "Bloom where you're trans planted." I think Barb quoted that her family has lived in 29 cities, that includes the cities where their daughters have lived. And to think that I thought the 9 places Fred & I have lived was a lot!

A close up of the flowers.

Note, the leaves on each flower are dimensional and loose (only attached on one side).

Way to go, Barb.

 

The mural is done.

The mural in the shop entry is done. I love it! And it is definitely getting attention.

I had a husband tell me he noticed the mural and stopped so his wife could shop.

How about these details!

I just love my entry mural. You have to admit that the artist, Barb from The Cellar Urchin shop, did a great job! I love being unique and my entry is now different that any other shop in town. Have a great day!

Block of the Month

I can't believe it has been so long since my last conversation with you. Tonight we are going to focus on the Block of the Month for JoQuilter Fabrics. I believe my last update was to show you blocks 8 thru 11. I did get block 12 done but I did not take a picture of it alone. You will find it in row 2, second from the left.  Notice the half blocks in each row. I loved making those. Someday I am going to make a whole quilt of those blocks (a four-patch in a square in a square setting), they are so much fun!

This is not the final arrangement for the quilt. I will try to get a picture taken and get it posted in a few days. In the meantime, stop back and see the final pictures on the mural. Take care, and have a good day!

BOM blocks 9 to 11

Yes, I did get a little more sewing done on my Block of the Month. My goal is two a day but that hardly ever happens. Now you must remember, you will be picking the colors for your blocks. Or, I suppose, you can use the colors that I have used but my guess is you will enjoy picking your own colors. Have a good day!

Block 9

Block 10

Block 11