It's a Finish! Sunflowers

 Sunflowers

74 x 98

Hand quilted

This one is for me.

 Pattern is from 19th Century Patchwork Divas' Treasury of Quilts by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle. This is the second quilt from this book I have made and I have another in the works (aka UFO). 

 A long time ago I saw a Sunflower quilt. I can't remember where now. I loved it. I really really loved it. It was one of those quilts I thought I would never be able to make. Never. Ever. Never ever in a million years. 

 

 But here we are today.  I do like a challenge. The instructions for making this quilt were excellent and very easy to follow. The blocks were machine pieced and not paper pieced. And that's a good thing because I'm not so much a fan of paper piecing. 

And speaking of challenges...I hand quilted it too. Lots of curves with the tiniest stitches I could take. It is so very difficult to take photos of texture but it is there. And it's a funny thing about hand quilting...you can feel the fabrics soften with each stitch you take.  Well, maybe not with each stitch but you get my drift- you can actually feel the "comfy" getting quilted into the quilt as you go. You can feel the transformation of fabrics into quilt. 

 With the hand quilting the Sunflowers look three dimensional. 

 Sometimes the hand quilting doesn't show up in the corners of the Sunflower blocks but I know it's there and I'm glad I went ahead and did that quilting in the corners of each block. I had decided to do it, then decided it would be too much work, then decided I had to do it so I did it. That was the right decision and I would have regretted it if I hadn't done all that quilting in the corner of each block. That was a lot of curves and twisting and turning of the hoop but...it was the right thing for me to do!

 I used stencils and a pounce pad for marking some of the quilt. 

 But I just eyeballed the quilting and tried to stay 1/4 inside the seams in the Sunflower diamonds, sashing squares and Flying Geese. 

 Have I mentioned that I made this?? 

I made this quilt. 

And now that it is getting colder I will probably be wearing it around the house; dancing around the house in it.   Isn't that what quilts are for? 

Have I mentioned I made this?? Never say never ever!! 

This was my goal #10

for

Q4 Finish-Along

And now on to the next "never say never" quilt...

But first let's visit: 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia's Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Hand Quilting Sunflowers

 I've almost finished hand quilting 17 out of 18 Sunflowers. 

 And I've almost finished hand quilting 1/4 inch inside all the triangles in the Flying Geese sashing. 

I've been using a stencil and pounce pad with chalk to mark the Sunflower centers and after I finish one more Sunflower then...

 ...I'm thinking I will use another stencil to mark this design in the four corners of the Sunflower blocks. (I guess after I mark them I'll have to also hand quilt the design). 

Then I'm thinking I'll stitch the top corner design in the side setting triangles. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

What's in the Hoop? Sunflowers!

Sunflowers in the hoop. 

 I'm leaving tomorrow to meet up with five of my husband's siblings and spouses for a few days of camping. My house doesn't have air conditioning but our camper does so I thought this would be the perfect time to get something basted and in the hoop to take along. 

Last night I just had to give a stencil I won long ago a try in the center of the Sunflower. It fit perfectly (although I didn't center it perfectly) so I pounced it and started on the stitching.  We'll see how much I actually get done while I'm camping. There will be lots of games of Scrabble and Euchre and Hearts and Poker and singing and guitar playing around the campfire. Usually there are three generations at the camp outs but no one could get together until now this year and a lot of the grandkids are in school now. I'll miss all the kidoos and new babies I haven't yet seen. 

 The Sunflowers in the flower gardens were my inspiration. Lately I've seen a Goldfinch  perched on some old Sunflowers pecking away at the seeds. They should be full by now. They pecked away most of my Purple Coneflower seeds. You would think they would be grateful and pose and peck when I am out in the garden with a camera. But no!

Catch you later! 

A Flimsy of Sunflowers

 Sunflowers

It's a flimsy!

74 3/4 x 98

I love Sunflowers.  I've grown Sunflower houses out in the garden. 

 Once upon a time I saw a Sunflower quilt that I loved.  But I figured I'd never be able to make one.  The blocks looked way too complex for my skill set. 

Then I found a pattern. And then I tried.  Surprise! 

I have to highly recommend the book Treasury of Quilts by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle.  Thanks to their pattern and well written instructions I now have a Sunflower quilt. Well, it's almost a Sunflower quilt. I still have to quilt it but the difficult part is finished. 

 I used fabric from stash. And since I usually buy 1/2 yard pieces of fabric I kind of had a difficult time coming up with backgrounds for the 14 inch blocks but I managed. When it came to the side setting triangles I wasn't so lucky to have enough of any one fabric. I started out thinking I could make all the side setting triangles scrappy but I didn't have enough pieces big enough to do so.  I used the only two remaining civil war repro type fabrics I had that I could stretch enough to use for the side setting triangles.  

I'm not sure I'm really in love with that option since there is such a contrast between those two side setting triangle fabrics but I'm keeping it that way and it will probably grow on me (hopefully not like a fungus). It's for a bed, for Pete's sake and not for a wall. The most important thing is that I DID IT! And I almost have that Sunflower quilt I've always wanted! I'm excited to get it quilted. 

I'm going to hand quilt it.   I still have to cut away the backgrounds behind the Sunflowers and trim up the sides but I'll wait to do that until I'm ready to hand quilt. 

Getting this to flimsy stage was my OMG (One Monthly Goal) .   At the end of the month I will link up to OMG at Elm Street Quilts. 

OMG (One Monthly Goal)

 I have all 18 Sunflower blocks made and they just need to be trimmed. 

I have 438 Flying Geese made and have started sewing them into sashing strips. 

I need to make some little four patches for corner stones. 

My OMG (One Monthly Goal) for March is to have a top assembled similar to the one above except the side pieces will be scrappy and not all one color.  I have a few small pieces I can use but nothing big enough to go all the way around. I think that will be just fine since the block backgrounds are all scrappy.  

One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts

The Last Five Sunflowers #15-#18

I've finished the final five Sunflowers.  They will be set on point with Flying Geese sashing.  Now I just need to trim up the blocks to 14 inches, make over 400 Flying Geese and figure out what to use for setting triangles. 

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Sunflowers #11, #12 and #13

Only five more left to go. 

My One Monthly Goal (OMG) was to make two Sunflower blocks this month.  I've made five - these three and Sunflowers #9 and #10. 

One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts

Sunflowers #9 and #10

Sunflowers #9 and #10

My machine was in the shop because it quit sewing. I picked it up Saturday.  Friction ring, feed dogs and thread guides were replaced.  Then it was cleaned, oiled, tuned up.  Now it's almost like a new machine.  Since the month seems like it's about half over I thought I better work on my One Monthly Goal  (OMG) and make two Sunflowers. Now I can mark that off the list. 

While the machine was in the shop I did a lot of fabric cutting both with scissors and with rotary cutter and also did some hand quilting which seemed to cause some problems with my fine motor skills.  So I laid around and read and browsed seed catalogs. 

My sewing machine and fingers are working now. 

I THINK life is pretty much back to normal.

One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts

Sunflowers #7 and #8

I just finished Sunflowers # 7 and #8 

My November goal is to finish at least two more Sunflower blocks. 

OMG (One Monthly Goal) at Elm Street Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching Sunflowers

 I have six out of eighteen Sunflowers made and have been at a standstill for awhile on this quilt. I have been embroidering a little each evening on my chicken scratch sashings but ran out of white embroidery thread.  I haven't been in the mood to pin baste anything for hand quilting so decided to applique my Sunflowers to some backgrounds.  I don't really pull fabrics at the start of a project and I don't buy a lot of large pieces of fabrics (usually a yard or less) so first had to hunt around for pieces I could use for backgrounds in my reproduction stash.  I found enough so far for 10 backgrounds so have those ready.  I still have to hunt for 8 more backgrounds and decide what to do for side background pieces since this will be set on point.  That's a task for another time. 

So the last couple of evenings I've been appliqueing Sunflowers to backgrounds.  I know there are lots of magic and other ways to add circles to a background but for this one I decided with all those points I would applique by hand because that seams to leave my circles a little less wonky than doing it by machine.

So far I have three down and three more to go. That's what I'll work on the next couple of evenings. 

Sunflowers #7 and #8 are in the works. I cut the pieces out by hand since I'm not good at cutting odd shaped pieces with a rotary cutter. Then I machine piece them. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts