Spring Happenings

 I'm well along on my Instagram sew-a-long with Taryn (Repro Quilt Lover) called "Scrappy Meets Thrift Challenge". Lots of little square in a square blocks made from tiny scrids of fabrics grabbed from one of my many scrap drawers and baskets. The scraps never seem to end! 

 

 

I'm making mine in the potholder method (surprise 😉) and having lots of fun choosing the cheater fabrics (of which I have many) for the backs of each block. I used this marvelous Mary Koval Lancaster blue print for the sashing and binding. The thread count is super high so it makes for a nice crisp edge. 

 

I've also finished my first block in Barbara Brackman's "Liberty Birds" sew-a-long on her Civil War Quilts blog. With only one block per month, I feel like I might even be able to keep up with this one! 

 

Bluebirds are beginning to nest here in Maine. 

Happy Spring!

 

A Few Finishes

 I finally finished hand quilting my 2023 Quiltmania Mystery quilt designed by Susan Smith. This one will be at our "Maine Quilts 2025" show this July in Augusta, Maine. Hope to see a few of you there!! 

 

 

I wanted to make a strippy quilt in the potholder method so I grabbed some vintage feedsack scraps and started appliqueing. I hand quilted the applique strips and machine stitched the strips directly onto the batting and backing for the pieced strips. I love how the back came out! I'm calling it "Rock Candy".

 

I liked this so much I decided to try another one with this marvelous Christopher Wilson Tate giraffe fabric. It all went well until I washed it and one of the reds ran! I prewash all my fabrics and usually wash reds twice before using, but this one must have slipped by me. I switched out the red circle and tried my solution of baking soda and Dawn and most of it came out. Lesson learned! I've named this one "Nonpareil". 

 

 

I love the slightly pink toile of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Since my name is Wendy, it seemed appropriate.

 

I've just started Taryn Falkner's (@reproquiltlover) "Scrappy Meets Thrift" challenge on Instagram. And, I'm starting Barbara Brackman's Liberty Bird's on her "Civil War Quilts" blog today. That should keep me busy for a while! 

Enjoy the day! 

A Big Stitch in Time

 I wanted to start the new year off mastering something new. I had tried big stitch once before and was not happy with my results, so I whipped up a little top made entirely of vintage feedsack scraps for a practice piece. I used Barb Vedder's (Fun With Barb) Baptist Fan stencil which was so easy to mark. This is the first time I had marked an entire top before sandwiching it. I am a lazy quilter and do not baste for hand quilting except for around the edges to keep the batting from getting in my way. I simply start in the middle and work my way out to the edge. I tried my normal quilting thread for the first arch, but it was a bit thin looking so I switched to #8 pearl cotton. When teaching hand quilting, I like to tell my students not to worry about size as your stitches will get smaller with practice. Guess that rings true for the big stitch too because I started out with nice big stitches and they got smaller and smaller! 😂 So in conclusion, the jury is still out, but either way I need more practice!! 

 

 

May all your stitches be happy ones!

Another year of Quilty Fun!

 First finish for 2025. This is my little offering for the Instagram 2025 Doll Quilt Swap hosted by Linda Collins (Quilts in the Barn). All it needs now is a label and it will zoom off to its new owner. 

The center consists of simple random shapes using this fabric for the bird in the center and then surrounded by four corner circles. I just love throwing pieces down on fabric and stitching them in place. 

The outer borders were a bit more fiddly so I backbasted them to make sure of the proper placement. All in all, it was a really fun little quilt to make. Hope my swap partner likes it as well. 

 

I have also been hand quilting along on my Quiltmania Mystery quilt designed (with a few changes by me) by Susan Smith. I started it last January but abandoned it for nearly a full year before picking it up again. 

Off to the sewing room! I hope 2025 will be full of quilty goodness. Let's spread the joy!