The 40" African 16 patch wallhanging is done, the first finish for April.
The binding is sewn onto the Kaffe zig zag and I have started the hand sewing.
Here are 4 of the 5 quilts that went home with relatives on Sunday after the wedding shower. They are left to right for a 20 year old great-nephew, wedding present for nephew and wife, shower gift for nephew and wife and last one for a 4 year old great nephew. I also gave one to my sister in law but don't have a photo of it. It was made before digital cameras so I may have a real photograph of it, maybe not.
Many people requested the recipe for the frosted creams so here it is: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream 3/4 c. Crisco and 3/4 c. sugar Add 2 egg yolks and 3/4 c. molasses Add alternately 1 1/8 c. cold water with 3 c. flour, 3/4 t.baking soda, 3/4 t. cinnamon, 3/4 t. salt. (I do 1/3 of flour and other dry ingredients first, then half of the water, another third of flour, other half water, then remaining flour) beating well after each. Spread in a 11.25" x 17.25" greased pan. Bake 30 min. or until edges are browned and pulling away from pan. Frost with your favorite butter cream frosting. Yield, about 40 pieces.
Since there are so many colors in this quilt I wasn't sure what I wanted to use for a binding. In the end I chose a purple because purple really goes with everything.
I also cut the binding for the African 16 patch wallhanging. I got it sewn on and have 1 2/3 sides hand stitched.
I picked my bouquet of tulips. i decided two of the yellow ones were newer blooms and included them.
I got three more columns sewn onto the 4 that were already sewn. I'm a little past the half way point if I'm going to stop at 96". I'm building it sideways on the design wall. The left edge right now is either the top or the bottom edge of the finished top. I sewed 3 cross seams leaving the last inch unsewn so I can add on the next columns. I figured it would have more stability so I can move it when the art quilters come next Monday.
First stop on the garden tour is the inside garden. When I moved the cacti last week I found a bud on this plant and it bloomed in time for the shower.
I can see 2 batches of tulips from my front windows. The yellow ones were just a little past their prime so I didn't take a photo of them. I think I will cut some of these for a bouquet today.
This is one of 2 batches of purple tulips around the side of my house. I only see them if I walk around the yard. I will cut these for my bouquet too.
This is the last group around the side of the house. Only one has opened a little so I can tell what color they are. These tulips were here when I moved her 43 years ago and some years I have one flower and other years, lots of flowers.
The bridal shower was a huge success and it was so nice to see family at a joyful occasion instead of a funeral. There were 21 attending and my huge living/dining room was a perfect setting.
After they all left I went down to the basement and decided that purple was the choice for the edge pieces and sewed the last triangle unit to fill the second row. I then chose the next color for the bottom of the third row but haven't cut it yet. It is a Martha Negley grape print in a hot pink.
I also may switch out that blue print and put the purple grapes with the purple fern print as a 4 patch. I was too tired to make any decision on that last night. Today is church sewing circle in the afternoon so I'll make some decisions tonight.
I sewed this group of triangle squares and then went down to the basement.
I had seven of these blocks to sew together to prepare the next two columns to be added to the first sewn group.
After sewing those blocks I'm off to the next decision. You can see I have one more triangle unit to sew before I can sew those 2 rows together. I need to decide whether to use 2 of the 3 pink/red fabrics next or switch those with those darker purple ones to their right. After all of the company leaves I'll make the decision.
My sister-in-law brought over the floral centerpiece that she had ordered.
I baked my last batch of sweets for the shower. They are frosted creams, a molasses based sheet cake. It is a family favorite.
Company should start arriving a little after one. I'm looking forward to seeing the family members that I haven't seen for several years.
I baked the other 2 batches of Spritz cookies, ironed the 55 year old pink damask tablecloth (that was one of my wedding gifts in 1959), and washed all of the serving plates for the cookies. My little great grandson came to visit yesterday morning and he tested a cookie for me too.
I cut one fabric for the triangle project and sewed a few triangle units. After washing floors today I hope to get in a couple hours of sewing. It feels so good to have a clean house.
Here are the triangle units from the piles of triangles I showed yesterday.
They are up on the design wall as well as some more choices for future large squares. If I have time tomorrow I will be working on the bottom section so I can sew more columns together.
My inspiration quilt is the one done by Jenny Bowker. She is the person who has the pattern for Shimmering Triangles on Craftsy. I am not trying to imitate hers, just studying it to see how some of the fabrics work together. I am just past the half way point with my designing now so many, many more fabrics will be added. I'm trying not to repeat any fabrics but I may end up repeating some outside edge fabrics before I am done.
I walked out to the backyard to see how my garden is growing. Some of the hostas are getting big, others are barely peeking out of the ground.
The earliest blooming peonies are getting tall.
The first batch of Spritz are baked. They are so yummy. Yes, I did have to test a few......to be sure they would be OK to serve on Sunday. They passed the test.
I did the last 2 rows of machine quilting on the zig zag quilt and trimmed it and pulled out the basting threads. I probably won't do the binding until after the bridal shower at my house on Sunday.
Last night I did a little cutting and then matched up the next batches of triangle units.
Today I will start cleaning the kitchen and baking Spritz cookies for Sunday. I get to eat all of the reject shapes though.
I added the two missing triangle units from the last time I showed this and then sewed the first 4 columns together with vertical seams. I was so into my cleaning and putting away things yesterday that I didn't get to the basement until 9 p.m. to work on this. There are over 20 people coming to the bridal shower on Sunday so lots of things needed to be removed from the living/dining room.
Dear No Reply, you ask me a question, there is no way to respond to you unless you enable your email address in your blogger account (and be sure to scroll down and SAVE) or insert your email address in your comment using AT instead of @ and DOT instead of .
I worked on cleaning the living room most of the day yesterday. Moving 30 cactus plants took some time. I also boxed some quilts I sold from my blogshop and got them mailed. I never made it down to the basement yesterday to cut any triangles. Last night I did 3 more rows of quilting on this quilt and have just 2 more rows to go and it will be done. I should be able to finish the living/dining room cleaning today.
I am finally getting the bottom row figured out and sewn (click to enlarge to see the bottom pieces which are laying on the floor). After I make two more triangle units I will be able to sew the first 4 rows together. I have misplaced one group of triangles so I'll be looking for them tomorrow. I need to do some clean up of the fabrics I have been cutting too.
I bought a package of 16 Super Sliders to add to my collection so I can put them under the legs of all of the furniture in the living room and slide it all to the dining room area and start vacuuming. The bridal shower at my home is one week away. We have a cool week predicted so it is perfect timing for the vacuuming.
povertybayquilter--please leave me a comment with your email address in it (use AT instead of @ and DOT instead of a period). You are a no reply so I can't get back to you.
It was another beautiful day to work outside yesterday. I dug out about a dozen big Burdock plants behind my bushes in the front garden. I call them weeds but when I looked them up on the internet they say they are edible. I also mowed the front yard for the first time this spring. The grass in the backyard is much shorter so it can wait until next week. I broke all of the dead branches off my Barberry bushes too and have the scratches to prove it.
I only sewed those 4 little triangle units. I have had a lot of inquiries lately where my quilts and quilt tops can be purchased so I spent some time loading items for sale to my blogshop Wandaful Quilts. Hopefully I will be adding some fabrics to the shop next week too.
No there isn't a photo of me playing outside! I could have taken a picture of the blister I got from raking leaves. I got the front flower beds looking pretty respectable but I still have a few big weeds to dig out behind my bushes. It sounds like another nice day to work outside today. I didn't take any new photos yesterday so I'll just give you the straight on view of the same shot I showed yesterday at an angle. I have some more triangles cut and ready to sew but instead I did another row of quilting on the Kaffe zig zag quilt last night.
On previous posts I have been showing cropped photos of my triangle project. Here is what the whole design wall looks like as I approach it. I got a little more done at the bottom left. While I was down there working on it yesterday morning I quilted two more colors on the lantern quilt; two more to go and some light background to quilt.
Last night while I watched Netflix I quilted for almost 3 hours on this quilt. I am ditch quilting every other row and there are 20 rows to quilt; 11 are done in 3 nights of quilting, 9 to go.
Since it is dry outside and warm, I have been cleaning up the front flower beds so the approach to my front door will look decent on the day of the bridal shower. I have one more morning to work on it. Here is the rest of the garden walk from Wednesday. The Sedum is doing well.
This is one of the varieties of Cranesbill that I have. No buds yet on it although this is usually the earliest one to bloom.
If you look closely there are two purple violets here.
There are a few white violets too. The leaves are small here but they will get huge by the beginning of summer.
All of the previous photos were taken in the back garden. This Hosta is in the front garden. I noticed a little Columbine right next to it. My big plant didn't come up last year so I'm happy to see this one.
Most of the Hostas are just peeking out of the ground. I haven't seen any Jack in the Pulpit yet but I'm sure it won't be long and they will be up.
I made a change of one fabric in this quilt. The yellow block was one large square of the fern fabric and I thought it was too dull so I made it into a 4 patch.
Since I had already made the triangle blocks to go with it I now had 4 that won't be used. Never fear though, they will be used with the 4 patches left over from another quilt since they are the same size blocks.
Spring is really here when the robins visit looking for worms.
This dove also visited. It has a partial ring on its neck. I was thinking that the ring went all the way around but not on this one anyway.
The Brunnera is blooming.
Pulmonaria also known as Lungwort is also blooming. I had several renegades that jumped out of the flower bed so I dug them up and will share them with friends.
The forsythia is in the final stage of blooming since the leaves are popping out now. I'll show some more garden walk tomorrow.
My two sewing pals came over yesterday and I worked on my triangle project. I'm auditioning colors for several areas. I need to add another row to the bottom yet so I will need to move the whole thing up the wall soon. The bottom half row will still be laying on the floor because there won't be room on the wall for it. At this point I'm thinking about making it 80" x 96".
When we came up from the basement to go out for lunch we saw 2 mourning doves being lovey dovey! They actually looked like they were kissing but I couldn't catch that in a photo.
I was too tired to do any sewing after I got home from church sewing circle so I did laundry and picked up some of my mess in the basement. I decided to put the best 24 blocks of this 4 patch posy group on the design wall and maybe I can decide how to finish them into a top. The blocks will finish at 11".
