Finish # 2 for April 2026.................

This quilt wasn't even on the radar for this year.  When I discovered the drawer with 2.5" and 4.5" strips (cut many years ago), I started sorting them and realized I had almost enough in these 2 colors for a quilt.  I think I cut a few new strips to get to a nice number of blocks.

The backing is one of my favorite purple batiks, and I must have gotten it on sale because I had 5 yards of it.  The binding is a purple batik irregular stripe.  It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and was longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.  It is 55" x 78.5".

It was a beautiful day yesterday, sunny and nice blue sky.  The Redbuds are fully blooming ahead of schedule because of so many 80 degrees days in a row.  I expect to see a lot of petals on the ground this morning because we were in a severe storm area for several hours last night starting a little after 7.  Regular programs were stopped and weather people were on the air for over 3 1/2 hours because there were several tornado watches and warnings.  I'll have to catch the shows I normally watch on one of my streaming channels.

Violets are plentiful in the grass this year.  They have been in my backyard for many years so I was surprised how many of the white ones showed up in my front garden this year.  Last year it was a Lungwort that mysteriously showed up in the front, now this year it is violets.  Once again, my nature photo matches the quilt in the post.

Purple/green Double 4 Patch.................

While in the basement doing laundry I trimmed the purple and green batik Double 4 Patch quilt.  I searched for a binding and cut the 7 strips I needed.

I chose the binding that looked best with the backing fabric since there were many shades of purple on the front and fewer in this batik fabric.

Machine finishing the binding was my choice for this quilt.  I have 19 needle positions on my Pfaff so I moved the needle 2 to the right and I lead the folded edge of the binding through the center opening of the presser foot.  I usually change to a 3 length for the topstitching.

And....it was finished at 10:45 last night.  Photos today.

 

First finish for April 2026..............

I finally stopped avoiding the last 54" of hand stitching and finished the binding on this quilt last night.

It's hard to see the beauty of this quilt in a photo.  I think the colors are prettier in person.  The fabric is Wishwell's Weather Report, a line from several years ago.

The quilt ended up at 47" x 71" and I think it will be my recliner quilt.

I only had a couple pieces long enough to use for the back, also from the same line of fabric.

Storms rolled through around 10 last night.  Chicago had over 5" of rain already in April but some of the storms missed us and I have had a total of  3.1" so far in my rain gauge.  It sounded like fairly heavy rain for a little while so I'll check this morning and see how much more we got.  

Sewing and garden.....................

I made the third block (not pressed) and added it to the other two for a table runner top.

I changed to 60 weight 2 ply thread and put the single hole plate on my machine to make a couple of the tiny bowties.  I didn't turn on the iron yesterday.

I will need to cut some more pieces to make some more blocks.  I was happy they really came out to the right size.  Sometimes with tiny pieces the blocks come out a bit smaller than they are supposed to.

After 3 days near or above 80, everything is growing fast.  This is the Columbine in the back garden.  I have 2 in the front garden that are good sized also.

There are a lot of Lungwort plants here and there all over the back garden.

Three days ago I didn't see any Hosta plants when looking out my kitchen window.  Now they are about 5" tall.

The three Lenten Rose plants have grown a lot in the last few days too.  All of those other plants are the invasive Bellflowers.  Between them and the million Lily of the Valley, they are choking out a lot of other plants.

The Redbud trees might bloom quicker than normal too because we have a couple more warm days coming up.  I'm still getting used to the white fence backdrop to my nature photos.

 

More about the new die..................

I made several test blocks, using a layer cake 10" squares.  On the first two I didn't keep the small pieces in the right place a couple times.  If they were right, there wouldn't have been bias on the edge in a couple places.  Once I realized that, the next 2 blocks were better....except the center pinwheel is spinning the opposite direction (2 blocks on the right).  I should have known better but somehow it slipped past me.    Look at the 2 blue blocks, darks shouldn't be touching darks when the 2 blocks are next to each other.  The 5th and 6th blocks went together really well.

I have one more block ready to sew and I'll have the pinwheel center matching the 2 that are wrong and those 3 can become a table runner.

Now I need to decide what fabric I will use to make a quilt with this block.

Some die cutting...............

I took my pile of small batik scraps and cut some pieces for the 2" bowtie blocks.  I have pieces laying out for one block but I haven't sewn any yet.  I need to change to a lighter weight thread on my machine.

I have always been intrigued with this traditional block and the die was 57% off and free shipping so I bought it. It is a 12" block so the largest pieces will work nicely with larger prints.

I sewed a sample block but haven't pressed it yet so I'll have more to show tomorrow.

Sewing yesterday was the hand stitching on the binding of the diamond quilt.  I have about 54" left to stitch. 

Not much............

 My mind yesterday was busy with new project ideas and thoughts of what I should be finishing but all I accomplished was a little more stitching on the diamond quilt.  I have about 2 1/4 sides finished now.

I was looking at the dies for my tiniest bow tie blocks.  This one is the little corners that sew onto the pieces in the next photo.

There are 4 pieces on the die on the left.  After I took this photo I marked them with a black permanent pen.  This bow tie will finish at 2".  I have some tiny batik scraps to make my test blocks with.