Bee Happy QAL Progress • June 2019

June 13, 2019June 7, 2020 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

The wheeled devices in the So Very Cute Project I ~~lost my mind and~~ decided to do are completed. It’s nice to see it before it goes to a Time Out in my closet, so I can get some Real Quilting Work done.

But before I tell you about the basket of flowers in the back of the truck, you need this chart from Whip Stitch:

Head to her website to read all about it, or download it here. Trust me, you’ll want this, as the weensy little instructions with the Clover bias tape makers will drive you batty.

This is Lori Holt’s logo for this delightful project. Notice the dog in the back of the truck.

Notice how the people who live in my quilt realized that they needed the space in the back of the truck for hauling baskets of flowers.

Make 1/2″ mini-hexies for the flowers, fussy-cutting a couple. Cover some triangles, sized in relation to the flowers, then give each a pleat in the lower edge before sewing them on. I used three “leaves” and five flowers. I used the lower edge of piece D8 as a pattern for the basket, then turned it upside-down to get the wider edge at the top.

It is really dense in that section, with the layering of fabric. I’m one who cuts away from the back whatever I can to lighten it up for quilting:

BeeHappy_June_6 — one more wheel to cut out

The Guidesheet for this week can be found in the tab above, Bee Happy Tutorial Sheets, under Projects for 2020.
See you later, Bee Happy-Sew-Along-gator!

I’m still working on this quilt, which I call Ladybird, because it reminds me of a ladybird beetle (sometimes called a Ladybug).

I finished the first book (long, but good) and am now onto another:

And this happened. Yes, no more PT. Now I’m getting ready for my project for tomorrow, Flag Day, the day when we find our rolled up flags in the front hall closet, and hang them out front, a prelude to the month of July, when it’s all red-white-blue all the time.

Okay, my wannabe flag quilt morphed into this flag-like wall hanging. I say flag-like, because I read one Instagrammer say that she had to make another less flag-looking quilt because her family didn’t want to lay hers on the ground for picnics.

I opened up my QuiltPro program, guessed out the proportions and figured it out. There is no pattern in my worksheet, because I do assume that you’ll figure out how to make this, if you really want to. Again, if either of my arrangements bother you, make one that you like. I was inspired by a lot of what I saw on this post from Quilt Inspiration, where you can find lots of free flag and flag-like quilts for your patriotric needs.

Here’s my worksheet, with all the dimensions, in a downloadable PDF file:
Betsy’s Creation_OPQuilt I named it after the original creator of the flag: Betsy Ross.

Happy Flag Day!!

Free Quilt Pattern · Gridsters

Scrappy Radiant Star

June 3, 2019August 17, 2025 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Mary, of NeedledMom, chose this block for her June turn as Queen Bee of the Gridsters. Originally found on Wombat Quilts website as a free illustration, I redrew the block to Mary’s specified 6-inch (finished) size. Four of these blocks are put together to make Mary’s larger 12-inch block.

Click on the download PDF file here:

Scrappy Radiant Star

You’ll need four copies to make one 12-inch block, as shown below:

Notice there are FIVE colors per Mary’s larger block. Four corners have the same color, which when sewn together make that center star. But in looking at the way she designed it, the colors are to be distributed throughout the quilt. You can see her initial thinking about this version on this blog post (where you’ll also get a glimpse into her gardens and cooking. I love reading her blog).

Peek Marys Chart — *Just a peek–download below.*

Mary gave me permission to post the chart she drew up to keep her ideas straight. You can download this as a PDF:Mary’s Chart_ June Gridster Bee

You can see that she’s diagrammed the main stars (in the center), and the secondary stars in the corners. We Gridsters each chose two blocks, identifying our choices using her coding on the sides and are now sending them to her.

To further my tributes to Mary today, I’m making her bread recipe to go with my version of Italian Wedding Soup.

Have fun making these blocks!

Free Quilt Pattern · Tiny Quilts

Bluebird of Quiltiness

May 24, 2019December 1, 2024 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Another Tiny Quilt was hatched today, and its this Bluebird of Quiltiness. Based on a 1-1/2″ block size, I figured it out and made it up, finishing it with the perfect faceted black bead for the eye. There are multiple patterns out there for pieced birds, but here’s mine: LIttle Bird_OPQuilt.com

Here’s another one, in case you want to make a bird on a nest for your next Tiny Quilt. Grab the PDF file here: Nested Bird pattern and have fun making another little Tiny Quilt. (I have a listing of all the Tiny Quilts on this blog, in case you’re interested.)

After you create the bird (with, or without nest), then you sew on borders until it’s large enough. See the first Tiny Quilt for more instructions.

Wanting to finish this today made me leave the house, avoid the parking lot also known as our Memorial Day freeway gridlock, just to get over to WalMart to buy a landscape-oriented frame. It’s those cheesy plastic frames, nothing fancy. To modify this one, I laid the frame down on my quilt, traced around it, and used those lines to create the backing and put the binding on.

I also finished this bird-themed stitchery, purchase eons ago at Primitive Gatherings. I took it with me to Berlin, but finished it up here. Now to find a frame for this.

The other day I pin-basted three wall-sized quilts, and started stitching on the first one: Quilting with no direction

Right. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m having fun. I ~~think~~ am hoping it will make more sense when I get the whole thing done. Stay tuned; it will be long while, as I still limit my daily quilting minutes.

And the three quilts came back from Cathy of CJ Designs, my quilter. One is in Active Binding Mode downstairs by the TV, and two (above) are waiting for binding. The whirly-gig backed quilt is also waiting for more quilting along the borders. The fun thing was that I’ve had a number quilts done by her, and so I hit the magic number and the last one was done for free. It’s her way of saying thank you to her customers. (Thank you, Cathy!)

But I’m leaving all this behind this next week, as I head up to my Mother’s to help celebrate her 91st birthday. (I do like to remind her that if you turn the numbers upside down, she’s a girl of 16.) She’s shown above with about the only quilt I can remember her making: a cross-stitched top which was sent out to be hand-quilted.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom on young birthday SM — Mom, around age 12, holding her birthday cake

EPP · Free Quilt Pattern · Quilts

EPPing again with French General

April 8, 2019April 8, 2019 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Sometime ago, I glimpsed this quilt in an Instagram feed:

The description says it’s from the North Country of England, so I’ve taken to calling it the North Country Patchwork Quilt. The more I looked at it, the more I liked how those red squares just kind of blended into the background on the outer rings, but floated over the foreground in the middle.

I tried to convince my husband to buy it. That was funny, as he made some comment about didn’t we have enough quilts? Seriously, he’s nearly perfect, but in the end, I decided to go ahead and make it.

too much to do.jpeg

Because I sure need another project.

But the project I need is a hand project, really–one that can be toted around in the car. I finished my hexies project, and I finished (thankfully) my millefiore quilt, so now what am I going to do on long car rides? Just sit there?

Car from the past.jpg

So I drew up the block, working between two different pieces of software: QuiltPro and Affinity Designer, and have created this pattern (click on the following link for free PDF file): North Country Patchwork Quilt

This quilt has 624 pieces in it, and if you divide that by four, you’d have to print out gazillions of the pattern page. So here are my tips for making that go more quickly:

Print off several of the free North Country Patchwork Quilt page. Like 10.

Stack each printed page with about 4-5 plain pieces of paper. Staple them together inside the pieces, as shown on the left.

Cut them apart in chunks, like the image on the right, using an old rotary cutter that you’ve dedicated to paper; or, a guillotine paper cutter; or, your paper scissors.

Then further cut them into the individual shapes: a honeycomb and a square. Remove the staples.

That ought to get you started. No, I didn’t use cardstock, but I had some 24 lb printing paper that I used. And yes, I’m gluing the fabric to these pieces of paper. I used this paper when I did my Shine EPP quilt (most blocks are free on this blog) and it worked out just fine. Repeat this process as you need to.

I’m going to vary from the fabrics in the original quilt, as I fell in love with this Vive La France line of fabrics from French General. I’m over the moon for those dusky blues and strong reds.

I worked out some variations of this quilt in QuiltPro software, and they vary by how much of a border is around the central rectangle. Here they are:

I also had some fun with putting the blocks in more contemporary colors (lower left), but decided I didn’t like that version. The top three are sort of in the colors of the original quilt and it looks like to me, it was someone who was making do with cast-offs from her household clothing, as well as men’s shirtings. But I’m anxious to get going and trying this out in the Vive La France fabrics.

I have no idea how I’m going to sew this together, but I will be concentrating on those arms that come into an X, and somehow I’ll do the red square.

Lastly, a reminder to pre-wash your fabrics: working with reds can be tricky.