A finish for April 2024...............

Brown Bear Paw is finished.  I made the decision to use the border fabric for the binding and it is all finished by machine.  It is 68" x 82".

This will be a raffle quilt to raise money for Prader-Willi syndrome  which my youngest granddaughter's first child was born with.  It is very rare and most of us had never heard of it.  She is organizing a fund raising walk in mid-May and is including several raffles.

Here is the spectacular back.  Having a stash is so wonderful.  I had all 3 of these fabrics, no shopping required.

Cable crashed last night a few minutes before 9 p.m., no internet, no TV.  It didn't come back on until 10:20 so I started sewing the little 3" nine patches.  I don't think I'll make a lot of them so they will either be a small project or go into the batik orphan block box and someday get used as filler blocks to make everything fit together.

Sorting..............

I didn't have anything lined up to sew last night so I sorted 1.5" batik squares instead.  I sorted into colors and into light value.  Then I went through the light squares and pulled all of the ones that had at least 4 alike or 4 similar.  I have over 30 light groups ready now to pair with 5 darker squares for 3" finished 9 patches.  This will be TV night sewing.

I was going through a closet to find my father-in-law's slides to give to my son.  In there was a box of nostalgia.  In the 1940s and early 50s we got award certificates for certain things.  I had perfect attendance 4 out of 8 grade school years.  We didn't have kindergarten at our one room schools so I started with 1st grade.

There are perfect spelling certificates for grade 2 - 8.  I'm assuming we didn't have spelling in first grade since it was our first year in school.  We were only learning to write the alphabet.  What a change from then to now.  Kids nowadays are probably learning to write the alphabet in pre-school. 

I still haven't made a decision on the binding for the Bear Paw quilt.  This is what the sashing fabric would look like.  The border fabric (my other choice) would just continue black out to the edge.

I spent a lot of time outside yesterday with garden and yard clean up.  It was 68 degrees on Saturday and 83 yesterday.  I was actually too tired to do much inside after that.

A finished top and garden walk.................

It made sense to go with 16 blocks instead of 15 to use up as many of the die cut pieces as possible.  It ended up at 39.5" square.  Square quilts are nice floor mats for little ones or this could be a wall hanging for someone who likes graphic designs on the wall.  Meanwhile the best part is that I emptied the box that held these pieces in an area that I am reorganizing.  

Last October I bought a sad looking Flare Hydrangea on sale for $8.50.  I planted it right away and hoped for the best.  It has new growth on it so I guess it had a good root system. The tag on it says it is a compact bush and the blooms will be white aging to bright pink. It also says to water it once a week and maybe more often in really hot weather. 

In the back garden the Brunnera is up and blooming.  The flowers are tiny, about like Forget-me-nots.  This is the largest plant; there are a few small plants too.

The Columbine in the back garden is getting big.  Behind it the Lily of the Valley is making its presence known.  It has totally invaded this area.

The earliest Peonies are getting tall.  I have about 20 Peony plants in total, most in the back garden.

This Hosta needs to be dug up.  It looks like the center might be dead.  I will probably get about 6 plants out of this.

Last week I showed this Hosta and it had just started growing.  It  is near the Sedum plants and my mailbox post in the front garden.  I'm not sure of the name of the variety but it is a compact plant that only gets about 10" tall,

 

Trimming and sewing..............

Yesterday afternoon I trimmed the next quilt to finish.

Here is a peek at the back.  I had quite a bit of the border fabric left to use for a backing but not quite enough.  I had 2 other prints that looked good with it.  My longarm quilter pieced this backing for me because I didn't have it ready for her when she dropped of my Charley quilt.

This close shot shows the center fabric better.

I haven't decided on binding yet.  There is enough of the border fabric to use but I also have enough of the sashing fabric to use for binding.  Both look good so I just have to make a decision.

I started sewing these blocks together around noon and finished while watching TV at night.  There was one more block to sew and I decided to check the 3 parts that were left over and see if there were any 2 pieces left to sew a 4th quarter of a block.

This is what I came up with.  That 4th quarter that isn't sewn yet is pretty boring.

Now I have to decide if a 16 block square quilt would be as useful as a 15 block rectangular one.  Size comparison is 40" x 40" or 30" x 50".

While I was trying to decide what to do I started 2 dishcloths.  The one on the left is a denim blue, not quite as dark as it appears here.

The last bud on my white cactus decided to bloom.  It was touch and go whether it was drying up or planning to bloom.  I expect this to be the very end of the cactus blooming season.

 

Easy way out..............

There were enough pieces in that stack I showed yesterday to make 15 blocks.  I could spend hours trying to make something more spectacular but I think I'll take the easy way out and use this layout.  I think the blocks will be10" so this would be 30" x 50".  It would be a nice play mat size for a small child.  I have to move a few pieces to new locations so I'm not sure when I'll sew it together....quick decision and quick sewing or a couple days of moving pieces around.  The wall hanging I made 13 years ago from the rest of the pieces is on this post.  That post also tells about the fabric selection.  There are 36 blocks in that wall hanging so I used more than half of the die cut pieces in it.

First quilt top for April 2024...........

The quilt top was pressed and posed for its portrait.  It is 40" x 49".  The blocks are 4.5" finished and there are 99 of them so there are 198 different fabrics in this quilt top.  There are high contrast blocks and low contrast blocks in the mix.  I think it has softer contrast in person. 

I sewed 100 combinations of 2 fabrics and two 2" strips of batik was enough for 4 blocks.  This is the other 301 blocks.

This is the only block I didn't use.  It is in the early layouts that I showed on some of the days but I removed it because it doesn't have enough contrast and was just a dark blob in with the other blocks. 

I found some die cut pieces in the basement in my organizing.  I paid someone to cut them for me before I had a die cutter so they precede June 2011.  I have made one wallhanging from some of pieces and sold it in one of my pop-up shops.  Last night I decided to just go ahead and sew all of the rest of the pieces.  They may become table runners rather than a wallhanging or small quilt.  I have most of them sewn so today I'll finish that and press them.  Then it will be design wall time.

I trimmed all of the dead flower stalks from my 6 Sedum plants in the 2 front gardens.  There are 4 more plants in the back garden but we are expecting some rain today so they will wait a couple days to be cleaned up. 

Charley is home...................

Charley in the Forest came home yesterday, quilted and ready to be trimmed and bound.  The trees are upside down in this photo.

I got this Charley Harper fabric, enough or a backing, on sale at a good price and I just love it.  You will see the whole quilt in a week or so, depending on when I'm ready to do some hand stitching.

In last night's sewing session I got this top sewn together but it isn't pressed yet so I'll do that today and post its photo tomorrow.

Most corners matched pretty well and a few were a tiny bit off but not enough to take out and re-do.

I have some odds and ends to stitch tomorrow night, not a project but just pieces and parts.

Next I need to get the needle changed in my longarm and then quilt a few small to medium size quilt tops.