Bridal Sampler, Blocks 3 - 5

Progress on the Bridal Sampler has been stalled by work on the Blissful Sampler, so these blocks have been finished for quite a while now. The top row is my scrap box pieces, and the second row is my Breakfast at Tiffany's bundle.

By far, the funnest block was the "posies" block in the middle. The flowers at each corner are machine appliqued using fusible web with the edges raw. I'm sure this might make some quilters gasp, but applique is definitely not my favorite. The third block, the star one, had alternate construction methods. The first one was paper piecing. I liked the preciseness of paper piecing, but I wasn't too fond of the center seams. The second method was method was just piecing. Although the streams do not have that nice crisp look, I do like how the center block is uninterrupted.

Scrappy Hunter's Star -- almost finished!

I thought I would go ahead and post the almost-finished quilt top, as I think I am running out of steam on this one. I might have to put it away for a while before taking it up again. It lacks a final border, which is in a dark green floral. I say that I might put it away for a while because I am not liking how the two inner borders came together. Plus, I really stretched out one of the sides while piecing it and am thinking of ripping both borders out to start again.


The details: the fabric is Origins by Basic Gray for Moda. The pattern is from "A Baker's Dozen," from the staff of That Patchwork Place. The pattern is kinda neat in that the entire quilt is made from a combined layer cake and jelly roll and measures about 85" x 85" when finished. Almost all the fabric with a few odds and ends are used. I'll post the directions for the blocks at a later date. As you can see, most but not all my points and corners matched up. But, the various prints are interesting enough that I think I can get away with it. One of these days I will have a precisely pieced top. :)

Sneak Peak

This is what I am currently working on. The fabric is Bonnie and Camille's Bliss for Moda. Can you tell by now that I love Moda? I especially love this line of prints and colorways. The big dilemma is which ones to buy, lots of turquoise, red, pink, brown, and green in this collection.

The Hunky Dory Snowballs

This is another quilt top I pieced over the summer. I love, love, love, the prints -- they're from Chez Moi's Hunky Dory for Moda. I bought it as a kit from Fabric Depot, but the pattern is available for free on Moda's website. It's just difficult for me to find the full range of prints called for in the pattern.

The construction itself was simple. It starts as an 8" x 8" square, fitted with 2" squares sewed into the corners into triangles, and then cut in half for the snowball. I do like the effect of the center panel. Interestingly, the center panel was the most difficult to cut, because I just couldn't get the fabric and pattern to form a straight line for cutting. Plus, the dimensions called for were bigger than any ruler I owned. I ended up making a paper pattern measuring 25" x 25". Each block is then surrounded by 2" sashing.

Here's a close up of one of the blocks, with my favorite print out of the line. For the backing, I bought the same print, but in a tan colorway.


PS. I should have ironed the quilt top before the photo shoot!

Crazy Pinwheels for #2

This is the quilt top I pieced for #2. It's been finished for awhile, but I'm still working out in my head how I want to quilt it -- and figuring out the logistics of the execution given my rather small Necchi.


Just a few comments on the construction. I did not use a pattern, but started with 5" squares that I made into HST (half-square triangles) and then trimmed to 4.5". The final quilt top measures about 50" x 80".
As you can see from this image below, I did get most (but not all) of the points to align.