Quilting and other Things

In April I finished my 2014 Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt Grand Illusion top after a delay of several years.  I didn't like the greens I'd used for the sashing originally -- it made for a very busy quilt top.  If you look at the top right you can see the original checker boards on the quilt.  I found that without the contrast in value, the block and sashing became one and I preferred to be able to see the block more.  The dark checker boards are now in my stack of orphan blocks and will find a home in a future project.   This year I re-made those squares and assembled the top.  Then in June I booked an appointment to go quilt it at Whirls 'n Swirls .  The binding, sleeve and label got attached and its been waiting for me to finish the hand sewing.  Tuesday started as a rainy day so I put on some programs I had recorded, put the quilt on a TV tray (its too hot to hold a quilt) and worked on the final hand stitching. Stitching to Great British Sewing Bee B

I sorted through the 20 triangle flower blocks and found 8 have the large leaf positioned so that the smaller inner leaf (circled) won't fit in.  That will work as I need 8 blocks for the corners so I won't re-position the big leaf.  When I get to those blocks, I'll look to see if a smaller version of the leaf will work or if I'll just skip it. I did get 4 of the blocks finished.  These are now ready to sewn together for a border. I'll wait until the other blocks are finished so I can sort the colours how I want around the centre medallion. I'm making good progress on this quilt.  I took the 4 blocks to a sewing day yesterday and finished the last little leaf just as we were ready to tidy up for the day.  I'll have to make sure I have more blocks prepped for the next Monday sewing day. Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal July Finish

Recently I found a stack of Courthouse step blocks made as part of a group exchange a long time ago (atleast it was this century as far as I remember).  There were 50 blocks.  I put them up on the design wall to see how I could use them.  Straight set first but that left me with one lonely block. So I tried an on point layout.  It used all the blocks but I realized I'd laid it out so I didn't have single blocks at the corners.   So I tried again and worked with odd number of blocks in the rows which worked much better and still uses all 50 blocks.  Perfect.  I looked up setting triangles and found the size I needed and then put the design into EQ8 to confirm my arithmetic.   I put a numbered pin in the first block of each diagonal row and stacked them up.  I had a piece of block fabric for the setting triangles and binding so added that to the stack and took them to Monday sewing last week.  I got all the rows assembled and brought them home to press

I've looked at the Cherrywood Challenges every year for the last three years but hadn't purchased a kit until the 2019 challenge was announced.  In fact, to keep myself from backing out again, I pre-ordered the kit before the theme was announced.  Then it came out that the theme was Bob Ross and we'd be getting fabrics hand dyed in the colours he used most in his paintings.  The kit came in November and I had until July 1st at 11:59 pm CST to complete a 20 inch square wall hanging.   I knew at the time I was retiring and so there would be lots of time to work on a 20 inch wall hanging.  Or Not.  I managed to procrastinate until June then having missed both Quilt Canada challenges, I got busy and came up with a design for the Cherrywood Challenge.   Initially I was going to use one of my Iceland Photos as inspiration but didn't feel I had enough time to go there and solve some problems (no white fabric, where's the bleach to make snow).  Anyway, I ended up with

I'm making good progress on this quilt and I'd like to continue.  There is more applique to do on the triangle blocks I put together last month.  When I looked at the first few blocks I pressed,  I've miss positioned the big leaves.  I need to assess how many blocks have a mis-placed leaf and whether I'll move the leaves or leave them.  The two large lower leaves should have the stem pointed down more to make room for a medium sized leaf that overlaps the seam.  If all the blocks have the problem, The medium leaf won't make it on the block.  A third small leaf goes near the top covering the end of a missing stem.  The little leaf is similar to the small green one and batik on at the top of each triangle.  I have an appointment to go quilt a top later this month so I'm making progress on my goal of getting some tops finished.  My goal this month is to assess whether I'm ripping and re-positioning the big leaves or going ahead and starting to add the