Erica's Stitches

My bright quilt was finished in June but I wanted to wait until both were done before sharing the pictures.  Quilting the blue quilt didn't take long but finishing the binding sure did.  I did procrastinate a bit as it was too warm to have a huge quilt on my lap for most of the summer.  After this, I'll probably do all the binding on my sewing machine (and stick to smaller quilts). Notice the cut-out corners?  That was a challenge.  I found instructions here and it looked easy enough but I wished I had practiced some.  After a lot of finessing I finally got good miters but I could have done much better. The cut-out corners allow the quilt to hang nicely over the edges of the mattress and it's a perfect match for a full sized mattress.  But, the top edge isn't even close to the pillows.  I wonder how the quilt fit on the bed it was made for. Here, at last, is the original quilt that I was copying.   I just...

A few weeks ago I was at the Local Quilt store basting my bright sampler. It's been ready to go for a while.  I've been working on a baby quilt and it's now done.  It's been a while since I've quilted so I'm glad I had a quilt to warm up on. Next I need to pull a folding table out of the garage and re-arrange my quilting space.  This quilt will have a lot more drag than the baby quilt. I've also been looking at pictures of similar quilts looking for quilting pattern inspiration.  I'm thinking of taking the easy way out and u se wavy lines like this quilt . I should start quilting next weekend!

I needed 2 more blocks to finish the gray version of the quilt.  I ended up making simple 9 patch/half square triangle blocks.  One is the yellow block in the lower left. Here it is closer up.  When I made the half square triangles I had the red fabric going the wrong way so you are seeing the backside of the fabric.  So the red in the triangles is a little lighter than the red in the center.  It wasn't worth redoing. The other corner has a blue block and I managed to get the front of all the fabrics showing. So, here's what it looks like almost complete. And here's the blue version of the quilt. I've got the backing and the batting for the gray quilt (the backing is in the washer now) and I'm working on the thread to use for quilting and how to quilt it. They are too big for me to free-motion quilt.  I don't have the space.  As it is, quilting with the walking foot will be a challenge.  These ...

This is the block I made up to replace the appliqued diamond block. It didn't have a name until I saw it in the camera viewfinder.  It looks like an earring so its the Earring block. Another section added and the quilt gets a bit bigger.  It's another bad day to get indoor photographs. Just the side panels to go!

I've got the sashing laid out for the last 2 side panels.  Different lengths and widths make preparing it time consuming but it's finally ready to go.  I'll have to be careful to keep all the blocks in the correct order and I'm enjoying simple piecing again. The bottom panel looks good - I got that sewn on earlier today. For the other version of the quilt, I'm not going to be doing the diamonds.  I've made up another block in the same size: 9 x 17 but I haven't even picked out the fabric for it yet.  I'll do that once I get the blue quilt together. Both quilts are getting bigger.  I'm running out of space to lay them down and I'm having a difficult time getting a picture without my shadow and without chopping off blocks. I'm looking forward to being able to take them outside.  But for now I'm stuck inside.

OK, this is what I was supposed to make and was planning to make until a few days ago: the dreaded sunflower block. I drafted it out and started thinking about all those small triangles.  I could make the block but I decided that I really don't want to.  Even if I paper pieced it's still very intimidating. I've been working on these quilts for almost a year now and I really want to get back to fun piecing and finish the quilt. This is what I made instead.  It's called Grecian Square and I found pictures of it in several vintage quilts so it should go nicely with the other blocks.  I used the blue background fabric for the corner squared to give the feel of a circle.  For the rest of the fabrics, I matched as closely as I could.  It was easy to put together and I really enjoyed it after working on the Lone Stars. For my more modern quilt I chose a Delectable Flower block.  I've admired it since I've seen it on a few quilts....

I finally finished the last Lone Star - this is the medallion for the center of the quilt.  I'm hoping that this is the last Lone Star I'll ever have to make. The block needs to finish at 33 1/2 inches so each quadrant has to be 17 inches square. I have a 16 inch square ruler so by using 3 rulers I can tell it's really close to the right size!  Big sigh of relief. I'm even happy with the way that the back looks. What's next?  I have the blocks to add the side strip on the right but I need one more block for the left side.  That will be the last block for this quilt but the fact that I've put it off for this long tells you how much I'm looking forward to it.  The good news is that I've discovered a book that should help me with it and it's on order.   The bad news is that the block is probably the wrong size so I won't be able to use the templates. For the more modern version of this quilt I still need to mak...