Stonefields Part 3

Time for an update on my progress with Stonefields. I am still quite smitten with this quilt and love having these little blocks prepped for a little stitching whenever I have a moment. Perfect to fit in between my machine sewing bouts with the mystery quilt or holiday festivities. Outside decorating was done today, once again a new house means trying to figure out how to use what we have in a new arrangement. And we are still trying to figure out how to fit a Christmas tree in here! I have located one Christmas quilt, hmm where are the others?

So here are some more Stonefields blocks. The pattern shows all of these blocks with the inner cross but I decided to highlight a fabric in the center circle in two of them.

Here are a few flower blocks. I just love these little posies throughout the quilt.

I am not sure what these half circle blocks are supposed to be but they do offer an opportunity to use some large prints.

A couple 4 patch blocks set on point. I know the script is upside down in this photo but I think the flowers look better this way. Not sure how I will put it in the final quilt.

This flower is probably the most time consuming block I have done so far. I have one more of these still to stitch.

And this block is actually from part 4. I had a few minutes this week that I needed to stay up in my studio and hide out and this is what I did. Why hide out? Well, my DH forgot to tell me that we had a termite inspection early one morning and when the guy arrived I was still in my pjs (though truth be told I love my pjs and you might find me in them anytime of day). I was glad that my sewing room was upstairs! Anyway back to this block. There are no measurements for rotary cutting, instead templates are provided which would be perfect for hand piecing. But I decided to machine piece this one and spent a little time doing the math to make it work out. There are two more of these to make, a perfect chance to look for some fabric to highlight in the center square.

A few more hexagons done.

And finally all the finished blocks so far. I apologize for my poor photography but these big shots are really difficult. My temporary design wall must lean against cabinets behind it so it is on a slant which makes focusing very tricky!

 

 

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Let the mystery begin!

After a lovely Thanksgiving break filled with family and food, it is back to the sewing room for the start of Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt. This is my second year doing this quilt and my SIL and I are keeping track of each other along the way. Last year I really changed up Bonnie's colors and loved the result. But this year I am sticking closer to her inspiration with only a few minor changes and I am already second guessing myself. I chose bright modern fabrics but am not sure how they are going to play in what will most probably be a traditional pattern. Not sure why this didn't really occur to be before but once I started putting things together the doubts began.

Here are all 280 of my HST units.

And the first 10 of 100 broken dish units. If you are following the Grand Illusion Mystery you might notice that I have changed the yellow for orange and it is scrappy not a constant. The only other change I am making is that my neutrals will be a constant of a solid white. Hope I like the result as much as last year but even if I don't it is fun to be part of the excitement. It isn't to late to join in, check out Bonnie Hunter's blog Quiltville Quips and Snips for all the details for the free mystery quilt.

 

 

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Di Ford mystery Part 5

I finally caught up with the Di Ford mystery quilt in Quiltmania. Part 5 is now complete and now I must wait for the arrival of the next issue at my LQS. So happy to be caught up with this as the Bonnie Hunter mystery Grand a Illusion starts on Friday!

I am still working away on Stonefields but since I am loving it so much, I am trying not to rush it so I can enjoy the process. Here is the last block sewn from Part 2.

And a few more hexagons. I am really trying to use up some fabric that I had precut for hexagons from another project while injecting some of the newer Stonefields fabric for continuity. Slowly I hope to be able to add more fussy cutting too. 43 done, about 130 to go!

 

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Quilt Doodles BOM 2014

I finally was able to take a photo of my finished Quilt Doodles BOM today. While it is not yet quilted, I have completed most of the embellishments and assembly of the top. I do have one other embellishment idea that need to be added after quilting but that will just have to wait.

If you have been following along with this BOM you will see that I did stray from the designers pattern. One thing about a mystery, you never know what is coming next and in this case I started having a vision for the quilt about 1/2 way in. We started with the snowman heads and I decided to use bright colors thinking this would be a fun winter or Christmas quilt for one of the grandkids. I was happy with the stars, trees and house and had decided to add some snowflakes and little snowmen early on. The ice skates threw me for a loop but I thought they were cute and decided that my little grandson would like them so I happily sewed them together. June's row was steaming cups, adorable but not what I wanted in a quilt for a little guy so I decided to draft some mitten blocks instead and the idea of dressing a snowman was born.

I skipped the next two rows, candy and Christmas lights, and instead made some woolen hats, (toques in Canada where I grew up) with yoyos for the pompons.

I had such fun creating borders to look like striped scarves and adding snowflakes in the corners.

My snowflakes, snowmen and deer were cut from wool felt on a die cut machine and appliqued by had with a tiny whip stitch. I love the bit of texture that they add but I am not sure how well they will stand up to machine washing so for now, the quilt will stay at Grammie's house. A fun Christmas quilt for the guest room.

 

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Trying to catch up

With my excitement over Stonefields and a few other projects, I have fallen behind on my Di Ford mystery quilt. I suddenly realized that the next issue of Quiltmania will be arriving at my LQS any day and I made a start on part 4. After working on Stonefields these colors seem so dark and muddy but I am enjoying the variety.

I have also been working on finishing up my Quilt Doodles BOM. I made several changes to the design. Here is a bit of a preview of the work in progress.

The snowflakes, snowmen and little deer are thanks to my son who cut them on his die cutter and shipped them to me. They are wool felt and after fusing I ended up doing the stitching by hand, a little too detailed to machine appliqué as I had planned. But it was worth the effort. I will share the finished top soon, it is just a bit too large to get a good photo!

 

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Stonefields part 2 continues and more

First up a few more blocks from Part 2 of the Stonefields quilt. The two little star blocks together.

The three cross blocks.

And the first of two Occilating blocks.

The second one is prepped but not yet sewn as I wanted to check out my situation with the hexagon rosettes that go on the final border. Most of these are left over from a pervious project and I wanted to make sure I could use them in Stonefields. I have many more already cut but none are fussy cut which means I want to make sure to add as many details as possible with the ones I cut out now. So I did cut and make a few and think I can work these in. I have a couple with blue and I am thinking I may want to add a few blue bits to the Stonefields quilt blocks. Either that or eliminate the blue hexagons. Any thoughts?

I also finally added the last pieced border to my Sampler Magic quilt. Just one more border of the focus fabric and this one will be a finished top!

Finally, I did a wee bit of sewing for my granddaughter who turned a year old this week. Her mom asked if I would make a new mattress cover and bumper pad for her old doll cradle and selected fabrics from my stash but sadly I forgot to take a photo. However I did remember to take one of the doll quilt and pillow I made to match. Though I am not thrilled with my quilting, it was fun to just play in my scraps one afternoon and actually complete something.

 

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Stonefields, Part 2

Here are a few blocks from the Stonefields quilt Part 2. I have decided that I will try to just show the blocks as they are completed, hopefully you won't get sick of seeing them as there are lots of blocks in this quilt! First up are these blocks with little hexagon rosettes. These hexagons were just 3/8 " each and I had fun trying to find fabrics that I could use for fussy cutting. Then 2 square in a circle blocks. I hope the background on these blocks is not too strong.

This star is so pretty but sadly my inner star got out of alignment while stitching. I thought about removing it but decided that I can live with the slight wonkyness (I don't think that is a word but you know what I mean). I love the little lady in the middle. These are the little surprises that make working on this quilt so fun!

And here are 2 more that I have stitched. I love the little circle and cross block. Fun finding a stripe fabric for the cross. Those little star blocks were a touch tricky to keep in alignment but I am happy with them. I added a touch of "dark" in the star block and some of a mushroom neutral color, I think it adds a bit of spark.

So here is how it is all coming along.

 

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