Psalm 139 block

Finished Psalm 139's block called God's Eye. I had it completely finished, pressed it, trimmed it to 6 1/2", put it on the design wall to take a picture when I thought...."Hmmmm, there's something not right here..." Amazing how you can get that far without seeing a mistake!

Someone posted a note on the list that they liked it that way as well...that it looks like someone extending their arms up to heaven! That's the great thing about quilting....you make a mistake, give it some great interpretation and you have a new design :-). I did take it apart and fixed it so it is now finished! This week was a catch up week so next week we go on to the next one.

Circle Play--Old UFO finished!

I started this wall hanging two or maybe even three years ago! It is a pattern from a Fons & Porter magazine. I order their template set to make the quilt. I had a lot of fun playing with the colours and then playing with the order of the blocks until I was happy with the layout. It really helped to take pictures with a digital camera when the blocks were on the design wall. I got the top finished in record time, but then it sat because I just couldn't decide how I wanted to quilt it.

This week I decided that it was high time and I just picked it up and started stitching about half an inch away from the circles and around one square after stitching in the ditch around them first.

I had a great feather stencil and decided that it would be nice in the borders. It's a little hard to see on the busy border fabric.

The quilting doesn't show up that well in the picture of the back. If you click on the picture it may show up better:

The corners:

I used Glad Press 'n Seal to quilt the borders of this quilt as it was too hard to see the white Clover marker on it. This worked very well. I spread the Press 'n Seal on my Olfa cutting mat and traced the stencil design on it with a fine Sharpie marker. Then I just smoothed it onto the border and it adhered beautifully! No shifting at all. I stitched right through the plastic and then removed it like you would remove paper . There were comments on the internet that it was hard to remove especially when stitching lines crossed, but this design has no crossing lines. I had to use tweezers on a few spots, but overall I was very happy with this method. I prefer doing the feathers free motion (no marking!), but this quilt just seemed to be asking for a perfectly symmetrical feather :-).



I am very happy with the way this quilt turned out. A friend of mine called the quilt, Circle Play and I think this name may stick. On to more UFO's :-).

Joshua P's Quilt

I'm on an "I spy" quilt roll :-). This quilt is for Micah's older brother Joshua. This quilt is a little bigger than Micah's and to make it a little different, I did a piano key border around it using 1 1/2" strips that were leftover from cutting my I spy fabrics down. My Dutch frugal heritage just wouldn't let me throw those precious scraps away LOL. It does make a striking border, but I did wonder if they would ever be long enough for the four borders!

Here you can see the quilting in the center which is an all over loop pattern. The quilt is pieced on my trusty 15-88 Singer treadle, but was quilted on the vintage Bernina 807. My treadle just doesn't appreciate polyester thread! I used the same wonderful variegated thread as on Micah's quilt.

Some of the fabrics in the piano key border:

I just love this computer fabric. I bought a FQ of it once in Michigan I believe in a little shop located in someone's house! Another one of those fabrics that I should have stocked up on...computer fabric is not very common.

Another memory fabric for me...it has the words of "What a Friend we have in Jesus" printed on it. I bought that in 1998 when we went to Florida and stopped by Mary Jo's Fabrics in North Carolina.

Block of the Week done

Finished the block of the week today, K 6 Ann's Folly. This was a fun block to paper piece. I couldn't get at my Dear Jane hand crank machine today and my treadle is having some issues and wouldn't make a proper stitch, so this block was done on my vintage Bernina 807 :-). This is block #34 of 169.

33 Blocks finished

Handpieced E 4 Buffalo Tree Hopper:
This is M 8 Enchanted Square which I paper pieced using my hand crank machine for the sections and using the treadle to put the sections together:

That makes 33 blocks with 428 pieces. I need to do more paper pieced blocks to increase my pieces :-). Some of the applique blocks only have a few pieces.

Psalm blocks

Last week's Psalm block is based on Psalm 85 and called "Cornucopia". There were lots of inset seams on this one which work up great with hand piecing.


This week's Psalm block is "Hard Times" based on Psalm 142. It was great to have a block with only 12 pieces :-).


Here are the first 17 blocks (we're at about the half way mark!):

I'm at 31 DJ blocks!

I've been working away at my Dear Jane blocks in the last couple weeks . It's amazing how much you can get accomplished at doctor's offices and other waiting rooms if you have a few blocks prepared! This one is paper pieced:

The next two I hand pieced:


Another paper pieced one using my Dutch fabrics:

Had to put a quick and easy one in there :-):

Hand pieced the next two. Linda Franz of Quilted Diamonds, who first inspired me to try hand piecing, claims that once you try hand piecing a basket handle, you'd never appliqué one again. Well, I must say I enjoyed doing the basket handle by hand! It works very nicely. I do need to trim the seam yet so it doesn't show through the white.

Three more Psalms blocks

Every three weeks we have a catch up week for our Psalms online study and quilt block project. I sure needed the catch up week as I got behind due to Christmas sewing. This block has 52 pieces! It's called Hill and Crag based on Psalm 121. It took quite awhile to finish this one.

Then it was full steam ahead...only 16 pieces on this one :-). This one is based on Psalm 42 and called Day and Night:

This one is on Psalm 25 and called Paths to Peace:

The blocks are all hand pieced.