FREE FORM CURVED BLOCKS

My Wisteria Wall is completely done, all the quilt show boutique items are finished.  I now can play with anything I want in the sewing room and do some fun things just because I want to.  My quilt guild offers classes several times a year.  Some are with professional quilters which we pay $40 to take, and twice a year two classes are offered free for guild members.  These are usually taught by a guild member and are always great fun and good classes.  I took one of them last week and by far one of the best ones I have ever taken.

The block pattern you make is all free form, on a 18" square of freezer paper you draw four circles starting from the middle and out, then you  cut the 18"square into four 9"squares.  Cut out each quarter circles pattern, iron them onto fabric and zig zag down onto stabilizer.

Then bias strips are made and sewn down to cover the zig zag.

I have three complete, two that need bias strips, and one more to

make a complete  table runner at 16" by 24".  Fun class and every one got one or two done.

This is a sample quilt that was shown to us of things one could do with the blocks.

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THE WISTERIA WALL

I finished a project this past week that I started in July of 2015.  It was something I realized when I got into it that I had no idea what I was doing or the skills to really make it happen.

When I got to this point I realized each and every one of the petals on the blossom had to be quilted.  Not being a free motion quilter, I knew I was in real trouble.  So I stashed it away until 2019 and began to work on it off and on through 2022.  

By that time I had all the blossoms, leaves, stems and vines fused on.  I now had to quilt them down.  

Between 2022 and this past week I picked it up off and on continuing to work on quilting down the blossom petals, leaves, stems, and vines.  Often months between working on them.  It was the hardest thing I have ever tried to do.  

This past week I finally finished quilting down the last blossom on it.  I have a sleeve sewn on the back and I am just finishing off the binding by hand.  It is not perfect, there are a few wrinkles in between some of the pieces.  Once I give it a good pressing I hope to eliminate some of those.  However, I told my husband that brick walls, that the red fabric is supposed to represent are not smooth, and the red batik fabric does have some dark shading and splotches, hopefully will  hide the wrinkles.  This piece has sentimental memories for me.  I just could not give up.

My husband's parents had a wisteria that hung over the top of their garage, which I found just so beautiful.  When we moved into our home we planted this wisteria, which reminded me of theirs.  I had been primarily raised by my grandmother without much of a mother or father in my life.  My husband parents were wonderful people and I loved them very much. They truly became my parents.  When our wisteria got to the point that it was completely tearing the fence down we had to remove it.  It made me very sad as both of my husband's parents had passed away and it was such a remind of them for me.  Thus the labor of love over making the wisteria wall hanging. 

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JUST COULD NOT RESIST ONE LAST JOANN'S SHOPPING SPREE

 Our JoAnn's is closing for good on the 17th of this month.  I did make a trip early last month when the closure began and purchased a few pieces of fabric.  Last Friday with them advertising 60% to 80% I decided I would make another trip in and see what was left.  Actually a good deal of fabric was still on the shelves.  Did I need more fabric no, but who could resist that sort of savings.

This unit was the real bargain.  Normally $120 at 60% off right out the door with me for $48.  I do have a wonderful sewing room but there never seems to be enough storage.

They did still require 2 yard cuts, but at 60% off it was pretty hard to resist.  I considered most of them pretty much staple colors that one will find useful, and for some reason despite lots of scissors I am constantly searching for one when I need one.  Of course ran into at least one friend with the same idea I had.  Still a little bit thinking I have a few more days, one could still manage to squeeze in one more shopping trip.  

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A WEEK OF ALL SORTS OF ODDS AND ENDS

 After weeks of working on my guild's quilt show boutique items I am finally back to working on my own projects.

I finished a runner with the Tulip & Vine pattern, now just to hand sew the binding down.

Last week I posted on my blog this finished scrap quilt top.  I just did not like it at all.  After a couple of days I took it off the design wall and cut the blocks into 2.5" squares and strips.

The results are this quilt top with all the rescued 2.5" pieces.  Now I really like this one.  

I had this wonky blocks ruler stashed away in a drawer and decided to try it out and see what would happen.  I am really happy with the results.  

I saw a pattern on line by Cotton Street Commons, but was reluctant to purchase yet another pattern.  I have more patterns and books than anyone should have.  So decided to give it a try on my own.  Not really unhappy with the results, but decided to purchase the pattern after all.  

Going at it on my own looked more complicated than I figured, so waiting for the pattern to arrive and getting to work on it.

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