English Paper Pieced Quilt

After more than 10 years, this English paper pieced quilt is finished! In 2014 I wrote a blog post about this quilt. At the time I figured I was 50% done (more like 30%). The post states that I had been working on this project for about 5 years. That means I started this in 2009...13 years ago! Wow! That's a long UFO!

The hand quilting was finished a few weeks ago and the binding was attached and sewn down this week. Now it's off to my daughter. She was promised this quilt as her wedding quilt (she was married about 6 years ago). Better late than never!

A finish!

The toddler I-Spy quilt I was making for my great-neice, Della, is finished. The one for her brother Lewis, was finished up a while ago so they are both being packed up and mailed. Della's quilt, like her brother's quilt, is made with shirting I-Spy blocks. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see a quick little block tutorial under my highlights. I'm @northerndebquilts

I used a bit brighter and lighter shirtings (and other fabrics) to surround her I-Spy, novelty centers. The I-Spy fabrics were animals, toys, household objects, bugs, book characters...etc. I tried to use at least two of the same type of item (like two different balls, two different bugs, etc) so that the quilt could be a learning tool also. How many balls can you find? How many animals or bugs? It should be fun! My hope is that it will be well used... dragged through the house, used for fort building, taken to the beach and on picnics, and tossed on the floor for tea parties and lego building. This is how we use my quilts at our house. Use them and use them up! I have VERY FEW "precious" quilts. But on that topic, here's one:

I guess I would classify this EPP quilt as precious, or an heirloom quilt. It was completely hand pieced, took 7 years to complete the top and then almost 3 months to hand quilt. I'm putting the binding on now. I used quite a few vintage fabrics in it...some are quite delicate. My daughter Lisa will be the owner of it when it's finished. She's a quilter and knows the value of this one. I'm sure it will be well cared for and passed down through the family in the future.

Besides finishing up the two quilts, I've been taking this #tumblingblocks quilt with me on car trips and dentist/doctor appointments. I'm making progress on it. It definitely wont take 7 years to complete like the 6-point star quilt did!

Little I-Spies in everything

I love to tuck little "surprises" into my quilts...unexpected characters or animals peeking out of a block. This TUMBLING BLOCK quilt is no exception.... Can you find the surprise character I added for the grandsons to find?

Clue: I was going to wait until the 4th of May to put him in.

I was able to get quite a few tumbling blocks made this morning. We went out to breakfast and stopped to get groceries...lots of sewing time as Al drove. And now, I have a chicken roasting in the oven so I think I can get a bit more stitching in. Have a nice Sunday all! I-spy: Darth Vader (may the force be with you)

Saturday night sewing

We have a quick spring snowstorm that's moving into northern Michigan for a few hours this evening so instead of taking a walk, I'm sewing.

The Tumbling Blocks are coming along... About a 1/6 of the way done. When we're out for a drive, I bring this along so I'm not bored. Al likes to hit resale shops here and there and a lot of the time I wait in the car. Its nice to have something to do. Although, this week I went into one with him and found a lot of cute fabrics. They were mostly darker ones but they'll be perfect to add into my Pyramid quilt and my log cabin quilt. I also found a couple of cute plaid shirts that I cut up. They were only 50 cents...not bad for almost a yard of fabric.

The other great find was a stool

It opens up to hold my hand sewing. I needed an ottoman by my chair and this one works perfectly.

I'm keeping my fabric scraps for the tumbling blocks quilt in it and my thread basted diamonds. When I have a few minutes to spare, everything is there ready to piece another section.

And this hand quilting project is just about done. Im finishing up the last few stars then I'll pull it off the frame and doquilt the edge triangles. I haven't decided what design I'm doing there yet. Probably something simple.