Here comes the sun!

 And the big reveal: I have completed finished this wall quilt!   

And I love it, even more after it has been quilted by my long armer. 

The pattern is from a book by Karen K Stone whom I also took a workshop with after I had finished the top.  It was great to meet her in person and see some of her new creations. 

My objective was to use 5 colors for each block: red, gold, tan, background and black. I did use paper piecing for the border arcs as well as the pieced arcs. The rest was just pieced by machine using traditional methods. 

I started it in January of 2021 as an online challenge. It was abandoned for a time, and finished piecing last year.  My quilter returned it recently as I did not need it until my guild's show in March. She did a custom job. 

And maybe you can find my mistake that I did not recognize until I got it back. I just had to laugh!  

"Here comes the sun!" is my title.

The rays of the sun

 I am so happy to show you a finished top.  One which has taken a few years to finish.  

In January of 2021, I started this New York Beauty quilt of Karen K Stone's for a challenge online. 

And with the distractions of so many projects going on as well as the recovery of Covid, it was set aside with a beautiful box of assembled fabrics. And I finished all the curved blocks last year.

At the beginning of the year I tackled it again, although I have not blogged about it. And after finishing the top to my Blockheads, I was on a roll to finish this one.  Only then I found out, I had not completed all the border blocks.  I got pretty good at paper piecing. 

But pushing ahead, I then got productive and completed the assembly:

Center;

Border decisions:

And the top ALL sewn together:

YEAH for me! And all those willy nilly seams went together easily.

2nd Place finish

 Hooray! My triangle quilt ( Ocean Waves) won a 2nd place finish at the Wisconsin State Fair!  YEAH!  And although I went to see the judging; I goofed AGAIN and went on the wrong day.  But I will get to see it at the fair in August! 

So I had better get working on next year's entries. 

Dear Jane block A 12

Paper pieced on newsprint

Back of Block

Finished block  ( 5 inches)

y

If you are interested, Susan Gatewood has a EQ version of it for free 

Link to her A blocks

                                                                                                                                                                        I also have added more blocks to my New York Beauty:  

Bitcoin flimsy and more

 Several days of progress on different projects. It feels good to get things going.

This is my bitcoin flimsy.  Bonnie Hunter released the pattern in 2021 and I really liked the arrangement and the ability to use up the bag of 1 1/2 inch strips I had.   But I didn't want to keep making more and more, and saw a modified arrangement using long strips of a background in between the vertical rows by Nann of With Strings Attached.  It made for a great combination.  I found a nice red small print which accentuated my color combination.  I do like the Thimbleberries and Kansas Troubles.   But I have added some brighteners to increase the contrast. This is a twin sized quilt top, but no destined recipient yet. 

And as a new month comes, so does a new block for my Stash Bee.

This one had lots of 2 inch squares. 

And lastly, I have a few blocks to show for my New York Beauty: They are a fun detour from the other blocks and require different skills with paper piecing and curves. 

Keep on quilting. 

End of the month

I have been laid back after the retreat not really motivated to sew. It was good to be home in my own bed eating my own food. And I was especially glad to have a settled stomach. I still need to be aware of what I eat as pizza set it off yesterday. 

Anyway, my daughter had come home to be near humans. Without having work and now that her semester is over, she was getting a little bored on her own. We are always grateful to have our kids here. But it does change things a little for us. Her cat is here as well and we will cat sit this weekend.  She does cook good food. 

In the evenings I have been able to finish up bindings on my 2 flag wall hangings. And I have been doing counted cross stitch on perforated paper.

Today, I finally set up the sewing machine and did some stitching on blocks:

A)   10 more blocks to add to the chandelier  design are going to be added to make it a little longer. ( I had 15 extra centers anyway.) I did unsew the setting triangles.

B)   I am sewing up the New York Beauty Blocks I started at retreat. They are a nice challenge. This is another old UFO and all the paper pieced borders were completed. I have a box of collected fabrics and patterns ready to go. I think I need 36 total blocks. 3 DONE and 1 cut out!

We have had 2 tornado sirens this weekend. Watching the Doppler Radar is kind of scary knowing others are in harms way. We are fortunate.