“On Track” Winners!

I know this post is late --- at least for those on the East Coast! I had a phone emergency today. As in ---not quite dead as a doornail but going there quickly. You remember last week when it wouldn’t hold a charge?

Well, last Sunday morning on my way home from Florida it was also doing this thing where I could hear the person on the other end, but they couldn’t hear me at all. Then it seemed to be fine mostly, but sometimes the conversations, especially on the receiving end were crackly – meaning I could hear them, they heard me from the fizz, fuzz and crackle of a bad connection.

Today when I was trying to talk to my friend Karen, I could hear her fine, she could not hear me – and we resorted to text. I tried to call DH –--- he couldn’t hear me at all, though I could hear him, so we resorted to Tango, which is a video chat app.

My phone was going belly up and fast, and so he met me at the AT&T store to see what we could do, who’s account was available for an upgrade, and I replaced my phone. We decided that the little cute and slim case I had on the phone just wasn’t durable enough for the likes of me! I need a case that can BOUNCE. Literally. I am the biggest clutz, I am always dropping this phone --- so now it is in an “Otter” some what indestructible case – and we’ll see how it goes.

So now as I type this, the new phone is synching with the old one and hopefully everything transfers over before the other one is completely gone. Technology we love to hate, and hate to love, you know?

So let’s get on with it:

Our three winners of the “On Track” magazine are:

Lynn who wrote:

Would love to win a copy of this magazine. Besides your article the cover art features the beautiful Nebraska State Quilt Guild 2012 raffle quilt, Magic of the Rose,that will be drawn for the end of July.

Chatty Kathy who wrote:

I just saw this quilt at the Mid-atlantic Quilt Festival and would love to read more information about how it was created (plus, i ALWAYS like to read your articles, Bonnie!).

And finally:

Jennifer who wrote:

I didn't even know this magazine was out there! Love having as many idea's and tips for quilting as possible. Also, love spreading the word about leaders and enders - everyone is always so amazed by how many quilts I complete and it's all due to this system. Thanks for the giveaway!

These ladies have all been contacted by email and I’ll be mailing their copies off to them as soon as I have snail mail addresses to send them to.

Thanks everyone for participating in a great giveaway! And thanks to the International Machine Quilters Association for including me in their issue and giving me the opportunity to spread their wonderful publication around --- this was lots of fun!

And tomorrow? On to Yard Sale Saturday! I’m ready!

Looking For ----

I’m getting my items ready for Yard Sale Saturday tomorrow.

One or more of our participants last time did something neat and listed their items on etsy and linked to the etsy items in their blog post so that when that item was sold, it was sold, the shopper could go ahead and check out, and the seller didn’t have to wade through emails upon emails of all the wanters and inquirers to find out who was buying what.

I’m thinking this might be a good way to proceed ---

If you had your Yard Sale Saturday connected to your etsy, can you contact me by EMAIL please? I have some questions for you!

Thanks Bunches!

To Bee or Not to BEE!

I got a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday.

I had been complaining about the foot pedal to my featherweight, about how I hate that “one toe” button ---- how it would slow down and speed up and slow down, and it’s just not fun to sew with.

Randy picked me up a new “gas pedal” foot pedal for my featherweight when she was at a show last week! Yeeeehawww! I had to plug it in and see if it worked….like a charm, baby, like a charm!

Tomorrow my bee is having a Sew Day at Leann’s barn. I’m hankering to go. I haven’t spent time with these ladies much since we went to Camp Dogwood in January. I also know that Saturdays at home with my family are few and far between, so I’m kind of on the fence between what I want to do – and what I should do, when both are things I want to do, you know?

The last Saturday I was home, before going to Florida, DH and I had a lovely afternoon driving over to Welcome, NC to check out a new burger joint that had just come in. I love visiting small independent restaurants and places that are not “chain”. And this place was very well worth the drive it took to get there. We talked as we drove and caught up and just relaxed into normality for the afternoon drive there and back.

So I guess I’m waiting to find out what HIS plans for the weekend are – before I go running off to sew with the ladies. I can’t choose both – but I’m weighing my choice on his! I don’t leave for Virginia Beach/Norfolk until Monday morning, so we would have Sunday as an option to spend together too, depending on what he has already lined up.

And in the back of my mind I hear the voice saying “But I really want to go!”

I’ve even decided that I need to pull out those “Nearly Insane” blocks and start working on them again. Paper piecing small blocks on the featherweight is perfect as a “to-go” project. I can try out my new foot pedal! What do you think?

So off to the drawer I went --I had to go pull this stuff out and see if it was all there --- I thought I was half way done with this project. I know why it got way-laid---we moved to NC 4 years ago and I haven’t worked on it since!

The bag of pulled scraps separated by color family is still in tact. As far as I can tell, EVERTYTHING I need is already in here.

((What did we ever do without ziplock bags?!))

The sashing fabric is here. The cornerstone fabric is here ----I’ve got it all ---

I’ve got my binder with my foundation papers, I’ve got the half blocks that finish the edge already done waiting in page protectors. My book is right here – I had it spiral bound so it would lay flat – love that! But wait – I’ve got WAY more done than I thought!

Look at this diagram:

There is an X through each block that is complete?! I’ve ONLY got 14 blocks to go! How come I thought it was more than that?

Here is the whole thing laid out on my floor. I’ve been assembling the rows as I make them. I like to see progress, and it inspires me more to KEEP GOING than just a binder full of page protectors filled with blocks. But how come I thought this was only HALF way done?? Holy Moly!

I have been in love with this quilt long before it was called “Nearly Insane’. Back then it was just the “Salinda Rupp” quilt, and I first saw it in Robert Bishop’s book “New Discoveries in American Quilts.” The book was published in 1975. I bought my copy from a guild “for sale” table for $2.00 around 1992. I’ve poured over the quilts in this book….this page has the most wear:

Can you tell why? It’s even got a binder clip to hold my page open! I’ve taken magnifying glasses of different strengths to study the fabrics up close in each and every block until I was driving myself crazy ---and then I finally let go and decided to go with my own choices.

One year for Christmas, DH gifted me with this huge coffee table book. It’s also so worn out that the pages started falling out ---so, it’s probably against all the “book rules” but I took the page out and kept it in my binder where I could refer to it:

Which photo from which book shows the “TRUE” colors in the original quilt? Who knows. The colors are all so different between the different photographs that I just gave up and again went with my gut. After all, this is MY quilt. My interpretation of Salinda Rupp’s beautiful work of art.

This book is also a favorite: The Ultimate Quilting Book by Maggie McCormick Gordon. Gorgeous antiques in here….can you see where I got my love of Cheddar, Red, Purple, and all things “Pennsylvania Dutch” era? Bring on the color!

There is not a picture of the full quilt in here…but look at the close ups we do get of the actual blocks! While the “Nearly Insane” book gives good diagrams for the blocks, the colors in the photos and the fabrics used in the “modern remakes” don’t capture the feel of the original quilt to me, so I’m glad to have these other sources to show me the quilt as close as possible since the quilt is owned by a private party and is not view-able to the public anywhere to date.

I look at these blocks and get excited all over again!

I think that I need to take those last 14 blocks and get them DONE, don’t you?

I started this in 2003—can it really be that it’s coming upon it’s 10th year UFO-anniversary?

Bee Sew Day? Home Day with DH? How can a decision be so hard?

Late Night Binding Adventures ---

Last night I was “Home Alone” --- DH is in Hickory for meetings for two days, and he’ll be home tonight. Jeff was off visiting with friends. ((Hanging OUT as he would prefer me to say --- get with the lingo, Mom!))

And I don’t know what hit me about 9pm, but I got this burst of energy to get the Winston Ways quilt trimmed up, and put some binding on it. It quilted up wonderfully, no problems at all with this one. No jammed bobbins, no broken needles with all those seam intersections ---my muse must have been with me with this one!

Here we are, all in the machine, quilting away! Maybe it was the brightness of the colors that kept me from being able to go to bed at a decent hour? Who knows?

I couldn’t decide what to bind it in, so I started pulling yardage. I thought black? No….there’s already a black inner border and it just didn’t look right. Blue or aqua? No…..not very often will I bind a quilt in the same fabric as the border, I didn’t have any more of that border fabric, and every blue or aqua that I tried didn’t look right either. There is obviously already ENOUGH Yellow/Gold in the quilt as it is, I didn't want that to define the edge as well.

The checkerboard units in the quilt are all scrappy reds…EVERY kind of red, even Christmas fabrics are in there. Hey, when there is only 1” of fabric showing, you can really push the limits on what can go in a quilt – because all you are going to see is COLOR! So --- Out came the trusty bag of 2.5” red strips.

Boy, have I LOVED having my strip stash divided by size AND by color family! I have to re-train myself to get in the habit of putting things away in the same way that I pulled them out of there – meaning it takes more time to wind things back up and put them in the bag before putting them in the drawer – but the effort is time and frustration saved in the long run. For instance --- I didn’t have to dig, sort and iron all the red strips as I would have had to if I were pulling them out of a messy “everything under the sun” drawer.

This morning’s back deck photo shoot was a bit chillier than yesterday! It’s not supposed to be as nice, and it looks like rain maybe – so glad I got this when I did, AND glad I took advantage of being out on the beautiful day yesterday! I think the scrappy red binding is going to be fun!

Here you can see the quilting a bit better. I used “Deb’s Swirls” by Deb Geissler. And my Kansas girls might remember gifting me with THIS fabric! Do you see Dorothy, part of the cowardly lion, the wicked witch, and the tin man’s hat?

I used most of these strips gifted with the “Welcome to Kansas” sign in this quilt! Dorothy said “There’s no place like home” And Winston-Salem has been my home for 4 years now, so working these scraps into this quilt was fun on many levels! Wanna see where they ended up?

There are Dorothy’s shoes, on the black background! It is so fun to put really crazy fabrics together!

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Here is the block with the “Yellow Brick Road” fabric!

Here are Dorothy’s shoes again on yellow!

There was a strip of witches on purple background in the poster above too --- I used THAT in the Midnight Flight quilt. Great memories, ladies! Thanks for the fabric momento! I’ll think about my September Kansas Adventure every time I see them!

Another close up of quilting detail. I DO LIKE! My only problem is --- there are now FOUR quilts on my sofa ready for me to do the hand stitching. Guess what I’ll be doing for the next while?

For those wanting to make this quilt, the block pattern is from Quiltmaker Magazine's 100 blocks by 100 designers, Vol 3. I'll be teaching this as a workshop during Quiltmaker's Block Party in Williamsburg, VA in August, and again in Portland, Oregon in March of 2013.

Today I’ve GOT to get the rest of my stuff ready for Yard Sale Saturday. It goes live tomorrow morning. Be watching for that post, and come link up with me if you have things you want to unload find a new loving home for! If you are new to participating, remember these are gently used “Yard sale” type quilty items. You can sell FQs, charms, fabric –strips, strings, UFOs, kits you don’t want, notions, books, sewing machines, ANYTHING quilting/sewing related, but they must be yard sale kind of things --- please no “new” retail or “made for the craft show and sold at full price” type items. More info in tomorrow morning’s post!

PS – I know this is a late post this morning, but that late night sewing, and a night with benedryl thanks to the SPRING POLLEN going around has me in a bit of a fog this morning --- it will get better as the day goes on, I’m sure!

Leap Day Drawing Time!!

Are you ready? This evening is drawing time for the winner of the Quiltmaker Magazine issue, and the Moda Summer Breeze charm pack from me in my joint Give-Away with Pat Sloan!

I hope I’m not jumping the gun on her –when we discussed drawing for winners she said “Thursday Evening” And by my watch – that’s any time after 6pm!

478+ Entries! This was SO unexpected! This whole Leap Day thing kind of snuck in and when she emailed saying “Wouldn’t it be fun if ----Why don’t we ---“ I said “Why not – lets!” and here we are. WOW!

So here we go:

The winner of the charm pack and the Magazine is JAN! She wrote:

I am a faithful follower of both you and Pat Sloan and remembered listening to her podcast interview with you while I was on the treadmill.

I also had the priviledge of attending one of your workshops a couple years ago in Indiana. You will also be at my guild in Plainfield, Illinois in May where I get to take the Night Flight class with you.

This is a great giveaway as I have done many of your quilts as well as Pats!!! Thank you!

Congrats Jan! I've sent you an email asking you to send me your snail mail address so I can send these off to you.

Tomorrow I’ll be drawing for the winner of the “On Track!” magazine from the International Machine Quilter’s Association. Those of you who attended Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival this past weekend – this cover quilt was on display at the show! Did you see it? I would have loved to have seen it in person, the quilting looks AMAZING! Head on over to the post, leave your comment, and I’ll draw for that tomorrow evening.

And just because I can ((HA!! I wasn’t going to, but can’t let this one pass me by!)) Here is tonight’s kindle freebie:

May Day ,the first title in the Murder-by-Month Mysteries series by Jess Lourey, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of Midnight Ink.

Book Description:

Minneapolitan Mira James has been taking it easy since college graduation--too easy. Due to a dead-end job and a cheating boyfriend, the Twin Cities have lost their charm, and Mira decides to begin a new life in rural Battle Lake.

Right away she is offered jobs as an assistant librarian and part-time reporter, and falls into an unexpected romance with a guy who seems to be the perfect man until he turns up dead between the reference stacks her tenth day on the job.

Anxious to learn more about the man who had briefly stolen her heart, Mira delves into the hidden mysteries of Battle Lake, including a old land deed with ancient Ojibwe secrets, an obscure octogenarian crowd with freaky social lives, and a handful of thirty-something high school buddies who hold bitter, decades-old grudges.

Mira soon discovers that unknown dangers are concealed under the polite exterior of this quirky small town, and revenge is a tater-tot hotdish best served cold.

A hip, humorous, and gripping account of small-town murder, this novel is the first in a series of cozies featuring Mira James, an urban woman with rural Minnesota roots.

I had to post it! I had to! You can take the girl out of Minnesota, but you can’t take the Minnesota out of the girl, and once it mentioned Tater-tot hot-dish, I knew I was going to grab it and post it. Pass it by if you want, but if you want it, grab it while it’s still free.

Happy Thursday Evening!

((Smiling brightly with clean and shiny pearly whites and NO CAVITIES!))

Afternoon Edition….Questions, Answers and a Very Pink Tree!

My afternoon of miscellaneous appointments is flying by.

What a LOVELY day! I was talking to my friend Randy on the phone while driving --- and I stopped her mid sentence and said “Gotta go! I need to stop the car! I need a picture of this tree—I’ll call you right back!”

Can you see why this tree stopped me dead in my tracks? Oh I love pink trees even more than white ones! They just don’t last very long, so I’m happy to be out and about in the sunshine where I can ooooh and ahhh and get giddy over each one I see.

I’ve had a couple emails with questions and I think the answers might be helpful to others out there.

The first one is from Paul, he writes:

Bonnie,

I have read on your blog that you are a tea drinker. Do you drink hot tea while you are on the road? And if so, how do you heat your water in your hotel room? No matter how clean they are, the coffee makers always leave a taste of coffee... Just wondering if you have a secret...

I am an avid tea drinker. I definitely have my favorite kinds, and I travel with it – or risk being faced with the ghastly lipton in hotel rooms, if that! I use a immersion water heater, in my aluminum travel mug. It looks like this:

You can find it on Amazon HERE.

This little coil will boil water right in the cup. You have to be careful though, I’m on my second one of these because I killed the first one by not paying attention, getting distracted, and letting the water boil away leaving the coil exposed --- at which time it decided that it was “HOT” and killed itself never to be hot again. In other words, as a safety feature they are programmed to self destruct if you ignore it.

You just have to read the directions, don’t leave it unattended, and use it carefully. I’ve had the one that has been traveling with me for about a year now, and if and when it dies, as all electronic gizmos tend to do—I’ll get another one. I love my tea time!

Several have asked about the Easy Angle and the Companion Angle Rulers:

Depending on where you live, these could be found in quilt shops near you, at larger chain stores like Hancocks Fabrics or Joanns, but if you need a place to get them from the internet, I suggest Soft Expressions. Anything that I’ve ever ordered from them has always been in stock, and they are listed at 10% below retail, which helps cover your shipping costs. These tools are worth every penny --- I wouldn’t be caught dead without these rulers.

The Easy Angle comes in 3 different sizes. I find the 6.5” one to be the most versatile for me ---- the 10.5” one is too big, unweildy, and the markings stop at 2.5” so you can’t use it for really small stuff.

The Companion Angle comes in one size, and I use it for all my quarter square triangle units – Flying Geese, Hour Glass Blocks, etc.

Tonight I’ll be drawing the winner of the Leap Day Give-Away with Pat Sloan, so be watching for that! Tomorrow is also the drawing for the “On Track” magazine issue.

Saturday is Yard Sale Saturday! Get those items cleaned up, tagged, and ready to be listed and linked up on Saturday’s post!

And I think that catches us up for now…I’m off to the dentist!

Sunshine ---Pure Sunshine!

Certain colors just lift my spirit!

The yellow in this one has certainly done the trick ---I spent time last night getting the rest of the top sewn together. It was dark by the time I was done, and no great spot for a good photo op so I thought I would wait until morning.

9am, the rain had dried --- I went out to my usual “over the rail” spot on the back deck and – Yep! It must be MARCH – the winds are blowing! And it’s a VERY WARM WIND!

I was out in short shirt sleeves --- I checked the temp, it was already 65 degrees. It’s supposed to hit 75 today! Happy March, indeed!

I am so NOT wanting to be inside today. I think today I may go out-and-about just to soak up some of this beautiful weather. The one thing stopping me from really planning something wonderful is the fact that my day is to be interrupted by two appointments --- one Chiropractor for the sciatica at 2pm ((Which is working wonders!)) and a dentist appointment, I’ll be all clean and shiny after my 4pm with them! But with a 2pm appt and a 4 pm appt –there isn’t a lot of time to get out and do.

Do you SEE the green coming back into my lawn? I had to walk down by the creek – even the peeper frogs are making a happy racket this morning along with the birds.

Welcome Spring! Welcome in the sounds of the south ---love my noisy critter-filled out doors! In a few weeks, all of these trees will be fully leafed out and you’ll hardly be able to even SEE the house. ((And I wish the trees could hide the trailer, but hey, this is life in the country!))

I moved my photo op to the “other” railing because the wind kept fluffing the quilt top off of the rail and onto the deck. There’s a lot of shadow on this thanks to all the SUN out there, but I am not complaining! I like it – I really do! The lighter blocks just dance between the darker ones….It has the feel of the original antique quilt I was trying to capture.

But the true test is if it will fit the guestroom bed where it is going to live. I LOVE how the yellow adds such a happy warm feeling to the room.

But --- Nope. Definitely going to need borders of some sort. It's not quite wide enough to cover the bed like I want it to. Put PEOPLE in the bed with the quilt on top, and there will really be a draft of air along the sides if it isn’t wide enough to go down the mattress a bit farther! ((That drives me nuts when I’m sleeping, to have the quilt short on the sides to where I’m catching a breeze!)) So I’m brain storming on what to do for borders.

A simple checkerboard would be nice…but I just did that on the Winston Ways. Oh well—not everything has to be something new, right? What gets the job done gets the job done, and I’ve got no shortage of fabric to continue using up!

This is a view of the room from the side…see that BRIGHT SUN coming through the blinds and the sheer curtains? Oh Happy Day! I love that old little 1941 Singer 99 with the godzilla finish…it came in that cabinet, I picked it up a thrift shop for $50.00. There are 3 machines in this room, crazy I know! The date is special, 1941 is when my mom was born.

Anyone wanna join me for a walk around the neighborhood? I just don’t think I can stay inside one minute longer!

iPhone-o-Gram! Walk with me!

This pic, taken right now. What a glorious morning in North Carolina!

Happy March for Sure & Definitely!!

Princess Crown! Free Pattern!

Click Here for Printer-Friendly Version!

I have had this on the drawing board for a long time ---waiting a certain number of months until the copyright reverts back to me so that I can post it here for you!

If you’ve followed along on my journeys over the past year, you’ll remember that it was suggested to me by DH that “We make a baby quilt” ((Emphasis on the word WE – uhhuh!)) for our friends Michael and Harriet and for Baby Michelle that was soon on the way. It quickly became a global project with African fabrics being gifted to me from all over the world.

I wrote more about it HERE and more HERE.

These blocks were so fast and so fun, that an extra block from this quilt went to Quiltmaker for my Addicted to Scraps Column. You can see the layout they did with it HERE.

I’ve had a lot of requests for the pattern as I did it, and I explained that I needed to wait a certain amount of time before posting it --- and here we are!

This quilt requires 25 Princess Crown blocks measuring 6” finished. The blocks are completely made from my 2” strip bins, with the addition of a 3.5” square for the center. I used my easy angle ruler along with the companion angle ruler and the 2” strips to make the flying geese unit in this block, but you can use any method that gives you flying geese units that finish at 1.5” X 3” in the block.

For each block cut:

1- 3.5” center square

4- 2” corner squares

8 half square “Wing” triangles cut from background fabric using 2” strips and the 2” marking on the easy angle ruler.

4 quarter square triangles cut from the color of your choice using 2” strips and the 2” marking down the center of the companion angle ruler.

Cutting Large “Goose” Triangles:

I prefer to cut through 2 to 4 layers of fabric, no more, no less! 2 layers seem to adhere to each other and keeps things from shifting LESS than if you were cutting through just one layer. Try it! Using the 2” line that is marked on the center of the ruler, cut 4 goose triangles from a 2” strip.

If you are not using the Companion Angle Ruler, you can do this by cutting a 4-1/4” square, and then slicing it on both diagonals with an X to give you the 4 triangles required. I don’t keep 4-1/4” squares readily at hand, and I’d have to cut them from charms or fat quarters – not so convenient! But I “DO” keep 2” strips on hand…it was so easy to pull the strips I needed to cut the pieces for this block!

Cutting Wing Triangles:

Sometimes when using this ruler I go out of my way to AVOID cutting pieces in mirror image. But when making flying geese units, I WANT my pieces in mirror image so that every cut gives me one right hand wing triangle and one left hand wing triangle. Do the thinking BEFORE cutting – and everything will fit together swimmingly!

To create mirror image, simply fold your strip in half with right sides together. Use the 2” line on the ruler to cut 4 pairs of wing triangles, giving you 4 right hand ones and 4 left! If I were doing this the “Normal” rotary cutting way, I’d have to cut 2-3/8 squares. Not such a common size! I don’t save those. But I do save 2” strips! ALL the pieces for this block came right out of my Scrap User’s System in ready to use sizes.

Place your large goose triangles and arrange your right hand and left hand wing triangles as shown. See those notches on top? Those are placement guides! Invaluable for getting a flying goose unit that is flat across the top! If your notch is at the bottom end instead of the top, never fear, you can just use your easy angle ruler to nip off the OTHER corner as well.

Take a right hand wing triangle and place it against a goose triangle with right sides together. See how the notches match at the top? I align the bottom and bias edges –the top should already be even. If there is a problem, I take my piece, and my ruler and double check to be sure I cut right ---if I am off anywhere at all, it is usually operator error in the cutting department.

Feed all of the pieces through attaching the right hand wing triangles. If you look closely you’ll see my Cheddar Bow-Tie leader/ender at the back end!

Press the seam out toward the wing triangle just added and snip OFF that dog ear! That is the one thing I am really picky about – dog ears don’t need to be in your patchwork, and can make it hard to know how/where to line things up, and make your seam junctions REALLY bulky and a bear to quilt through. Get them out of there! Now take the left hand wing triangles and put them right sides together with the goose unit, matching the bottom edge and the bias edge. The blunted top of the triangle should be even with the top of the goose unit.

Sew all the left hand goose wing triangles into place --- and follow it up with more parts from another cheddar bow-tie! Two projects at once—I love it!

Here is what we are looking for! The crucial point!

You need to be sure your seam allowance will give you a 1/4” distance between the top edge of the goose unit and the top of that goose triangle. If it is wider than that, your seam allowance is TOO WIDE and your unit won’t measure 2” X 3.5” before sewing it into the block. If you have LESS than 1/4” here at the top of the goose triangle – your seam may be too skimpy and you will lose the nose of your goose when you sew the blocks into the quilt. Your unit may also measure LARGER than the 2” X 3.5” we are shooting for. Be careful with your cutting, careful with your seaming, and all will turn out right! I took this pic BEFORE snipping the dog ears off…gotta get them off of there!

Block Assembly!

I’m a little haphazardly messy and way thready, but this is how we roll around here!

Lay out your units the way they will appear in the block. We are going to chain this together 9-patch fashion. If you can imagine this block has 3 rows across and 3 columns from side to side…

Sew the second column to the first column with right sides together. You will notice there are chaining threads left between the rows! Leave those there. Now flip the units in column 3 over onto column 2 ---

Chain from row 1 to row 2 and directly onto row 3. Now there is no way that you can get things turned around in the wrong way!

Your block now looks like this….3 rows held together by chaining stitches between the rows. Now all you have to do is quickly press your rows to get the seams going the way you want --- I press toward the outer 4 corners and toward the center unpieced square ---and sew the rows together! One block done!

1 block completed! Make 25!

Here is a selection of blocks that went into my Princess Crown quilt! Blacks, Whites, Brights, and African fabrics!

I had a lot of fun pulling scraps for this quilt. Many of the African fabrics came from my friend Karol-Ann in the UK!

Setting the quilt:

I cut 60 2” X 6.5” Rectangles from assorted brights for the sashing pieces. Between them are 36 black-on-white cornerstones cut 2” square. Lay the quilt out as you want the colors to fall, cornerstones, sashing and all.

Join the quilt into rows ((I assemble the whole quilt with the whole top webbed together just as I showed in the block assembly above….think columns and rows and chain, baby, chain!)) Join the rows to complete the quilt center. Press seams toward the sashings.

Inner border: I used a 1.5” strip of several purple fabrics joined on the diagonal for the inner border.

The outer border is a collection of left over fabrics from the block assembly ----what was left of the African fabrics that Karol-Ann had gifted me and some others. I included this special fabric that was also gifted to me by another quilter:

It was PERFECT! Michael is from Kenya, and his wife, Harriet, is from Uganda. Michelle is 100% AMERICAN. :c) The Swahili words of love, unity and family brought tears to my friends’ eyes when they received the gifted quilt!

Stitch random 5” wide scraps together end to end until the border is large enough to fit the circumference of the quilt. Cut 4 borders to fit the quilt sides, and four 5" cornerstones for the border corners.

For more info on adding borders to a quilt click HERE.

I quilted the quilt with an edge to edge design called Moon Flower by Keryn Emmerson. I bound the quilt in purple ---washed the quilt to give it that home loved softness, and gifted it to our friends.

Is there anything as precious as a sleeping pink bundle on top of her very own quilt?