Mama Chicken - FGV

A new Farm Girl Vintage block has been added to my collection of FGV blocks. As always, I made both sizes. I've been looking forward to making this one because I think she is so cute. And just maybe I'll make her little chick next.

Easter Sunrise #1 is done

I bought the pattern for this table runner a couple of years ago at a quilt show.  The same booth was also selling the gradient fabric for the background and I bought a large enough piece to make 3 of these table runners.

And then I put it away and forgot I had it until this winter. No surprise there.  Then I stumbled across that bag and realized how easy this UFO would be to finish.  I cut and appliqued 2 of the 3 runners. And this week I got one of those quilted and bound.

I decided to keep the quilting very simple and used black thread to machine quilt just a few rays extending from the center cross. I also quilted a simple line against the black silhouettes.  Now the next step is to get the second one quilted and then decide if I'm actually going to make the 3rd one or not.

Easter Sunrise

A quick look at my current project. I made 2 identical table runners with an Easter design and I managed to add just a little quilting to one of them. A full view tomorrow - if I get the binding stitched on. 

Meet Samson

This is Samson - the newest grand-puppy.

My older daughter's family lost their beloved dog Bailey in February but they knew they didn't want to wait very long to get another dog. They've been "shopping" around - checking at the Humane Society and checking into area breeders. After a couple of months of searching, they found this little guy. Samson came home today and the kids fell in love with him immediately.  It was mutual. 

I got to FaceTime with them for about 15 minutes while they all played in the yard. That poor puppy was worn out by the time they went in for supper. 

Circa 2016 is up-to-date

Last Friday's block for Temecula Circa 2016 is the bowtie - again 3" square. And I made 8 more of the 2" HST blocks too.  I can't wait to see what we are doing with all of the blocks we've been making the past few weeks. I love the center section that we made already, but have no clues about how these next blocks will go together. 

This is the center section using the first 3 weeks' blocks. I love it.

Garlic Knots

I've become quite fond of Bonnie Hunter's ideas for using up scraps. She writes a column called Addicted to Scraps for Quiltmaker magazine.  This block from a past column in 2014 has been quite popular online lately and I just had to try it out.

I made 2 different sizes - one using 2.5" squares and the other using 1.5" squares. (And there are a couple of rectangles in there too.)  The big one ended up finishing at 8" and the little one is 4" finished. This block was a 6" block in the original column. But I just decided to use the sizes of squares I frequently cut. The purple and yellow ones came out of the tin box holding my postage stamp cuts (from my scraps). The red and blue ones came from some strips in my scrap bin. And I always have lots of white scraps left over from other projects because I like white backgrounds.

Check out Bonnie's Addicted to Scraps links.  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/addicted-to-scraps.html   The links with the block titles will take you to the Quiltmaker magazine site although the patterns are not online.   

These only took 15 minutes including the cutting time.  More of these are undoubtedly in my future. 

Auditioning borders

I finished the last 3 missing blocks last night for this UFO project. My husband is away again this week for work - that is 6 weeks in a row! So I have sewing time in the evenings.  It's a Saturday Sampler from 2007 and I am still thinking about how this will all go together. Any ideas for me?

Right now I'm leaning toward a very narrow black sashing between blocks and a slightly wider inner border around that center. The narrow sashing would separate the blocks and also give it kind of a stained glass look.  Then I found this gorgeous batik in my stash. It has some purples, green, pink, and orange. The blocks are all batiks so I thought this might work. But that blue block sticks out like a sore thumb, even after moving it into the middle. 

So I need to keep digging in the stash to see if I have anything else that is more multi-colored. Or I may need to go shopping for that border. That would be a shame.