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.

First quilt top for April 2026...................

Kaleidoscope 1 top is sewn.  I'm thinking of 2 and 3 so this could be a series.  I won't use Marcia Derse fabric for the next 2.  This one is 51.5" x 72".  I ended up with the 35 blocks like I originally planned.  I usually don't use the same background fabrics all through a quilt but this time I had 2 nice light ones, also Marcia Derse fabric.  There are over 70 different fabrics in this quilt top.

Here are 2 of the worst matches of points.  They are both about 1/16" off and I'm not going to fix them.  Once it is quilted and washed, they won't be noticeable.

I noticed yesterday the start of the pink buds on the Redbud trees.  It will take a couple weeks for full blooms.

  

Final layout, time to sew...................

This is the final layout for this quilt top.  I could move pieces forever trying to not have the same fabrics near each other, but I decided this is good enough.

I started webbing it last night and got the 4 long seams top to bottom sewn and am now sewing cross rows.  Three done, 3 to go.  I need to finish this top today so I can get back to the other one and get the last 3 fabrics chosen for it.

Most points are matching well but there are a few to go back and take in a tiny bit. 

Another warm day yesterday with windows open to air out the house.  Today and tomorrow are going to be a little cooler, in the mid 50s.