Sunday Quilting

 I have started hand quilting the border for my Springtime Album quilt. I purchased a ‘half hoop’ from Ebay. I got a really good price. With shipping it came to $31. I had looked at others, one on Amazon for $90 and another on Etsy for $85. I am really happy with it! It is very comfortable to quilt with. I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday as soon as I can.

It had never been used.

I also got all four borders prepped for applique for my Cassandra's Circle top. So if I get tired of hand quilting today I will work on these borders. They are not sewn on to the top yet for easier stitching, but once they are I will fine tune those corner vines. I will probably add more flowers and leaves in the two corners that don't have the plumes.

I also finished my grandson's quilt top. I don't know why I find borders such a pain, but they are on finally. It measures about 78"x 94". A big thank you to Chantal of At the Corner of Scraps and Quilts blog for making me aware of a mistake in the piecing, all taken care of now I hope. You can read her blog HERE. She always has some wonderful scrappiness going on over there!

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Now that that top is done I will move on to the next grandson's quilt.  I have been collecting fabric for it and I think I have all I will need now. I just need to wash and press it all. It is made from 2 1/2" strips so I will be able to use my Accuquilt Go cutter. That will certainly speed things up!

I will be making the quilt from this book.

This is the one I have chosen.

I think I have plenty of black on white fabrics and black on black fabrics.

A tub of colorful batiks for the color blocks.

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

New England Quilt Museum - Hospital Sketches Exhibit

 In 2019 Barbara Brackman organized a BOM called Hospital Sketches. The purpose was to commemorate the brave women who left their homes and loved ones to help wounded Civil War soldiers. Each month we had a new applique block and there was a story of  another Civil War era hospital and the women who helped care for the soldiers there. One of the most famous women was Louisa May Alcott.  There was to be an exhibit of some of the finished quilts at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA in 2020, but because of the pandemic it was put of until 2022. That gave me time to finish my quilt, I still had the borders to do.  I had the quilt professionally quilted by a local quilter, Rose Edgren. She did an amazing job! It was the first time I had a quilt quilted by someone else.  My quilt was chosen to be part of the exhibit along with 14 others. The exhibit will run from July 20,2022 to October 1, 2022. I am thrilled beyond words to be part of this exhibit!

Rose Edgren a local quilter did the quilting for me. She did an amazing job! This is the first time I have had a quilt professionally quilted.

Happy Quilting! Rebecca

Prepping for Applique

 I will start off with a recent visit by Mama Moose and Baby.  She comes up to drink out of our rain barrel. We caught them on our security camera, but I couldn't figure out how to download from there so took a video of the video. So I apologize for the quality.

So not much actual sewing going on here. I have been spending my days painting the exterior of the house. I started last summer and I am back at now. I wanted to start sooner, but had all that firewood to deal with first. So my evenings have been spent prepping (hopefully) all the applique pieces I need for the borders of my Cassandra's Circle quilt. I used Karen K Buckley's Perfect Circles and her Bigger Perfect Leaves this time. The leaves will definitely be quicker to sew this way. I also made a template for the flowers and used it to press the edges of the flowers shapes. I am hoping this will speed up the flower applique too.

All the pieces are prepped, now just to position them on to the next three borders

The template I made for the flower pieces

This is the first border. I just need to sew down all the pieces. Two corners will have the plumes, two will not. The plumes will be "kitty-corner" from each other.

I finished block 4 for the Freedom's Friend's BOM I am doing. You can find out more about it on Barbara Brackman's blog HERE and HERE.

Block 4, the Dove

Happy Quilting! Rebecca