Quilt News, More 'Easter' Basket Blocks, Quilt Blocks in Green, Improv Design Notebook and Happy Spring! And That Orange Thing.

Happy Easter (almost) !

                                                          More baskets pieced, just in time for Easter!

Green Hour Glass blocks in my 'parts department.'

Diagonal strip blocks in the green section of my 'parts department.

My planning/design notebook.

 

Sawtooth borders being arranged.

Sixteen Patch blocks in green, pieced together, adding to my 'parts department.'

Quilt news from the valley and happy spring!

It's almost Easter so I'm calling the baskets I've been piecing, Easter Baskets, good timing.

More baskets have been added to the collection this week. See my previous post on where to find the basket block tutorial.

I also had time to piece together my Sixteen Patch blocks to add to my 'parts department' section of greens. I added some Paprika and Espresso patches  (Kona Cotton Solids by Robert Kaufman) for contrast. 

 

Also I started piecing together saw tooth borders that will be added to a medallion style quilt I'm making of spare parts and fabric pieces I found while organizing my fabric stash a few weeks ago. I've drawn out a plan and am now making sure there is enough contrast to bring out the piecing design.

This quilt majors in orange, saw tooth borders, three big stars, 'X blocks' also called by me 'four patch butterflys.' 

I have no idea what to name it.

I figure it's best not to be in a hurry anyway. Maybe I'll call it 'That Orange Thing.'

Svetlana @ Sotak Handmade has a super tutorial on making a Classic Bag using french seams.

Stop by and check it out.

And that's the news here in the valley where birds are happy about spring and progress is being made.

I'll be by to visit!

Quilt News, Green for March, Sixteen Patch Blocks, A Finish!, New Basket Blocks

I brought out my sixteen patch blocks to celebrate green!

We had a hail/thunder storm last week, impressive.

Stack of blocks and pieces I've been adding to this week.

Townsend's Warbler outside our window, looking for bugs.

Green, color for March, 'Refreshing, generous, healing...'.

New basket blocks, with zig-zag handles hand stitched on.

My daughter-in-law's quilt finished, I sewed on the binding, she did everything else.

 

Quilt News from the valley, spring is just around the corner!

We had a hail/thunder storm, last week, everything was dusted with hail. The thunder was loud as was the hail beating on the roof. And afterwards there were still cherry blossoms left on the trees, surprising.

Flocks of little birds enjoy the cherry trees as much as we do. They're looking for bugs to eat, we enjoy the blossoms and leaves too, but for the color not the bugs!

This last week my daughter-in-law finished the crib size quilt she had been working on for the little grand muffin. She pieced it and quilted it and I helped by sewing on the binding. Looks like spring!

I've also been cutting out and piecing blocks for various projects and to keep my 'parts department full.'

If I loose steam on designing a project, I start piecing more blocks and parts that I think might work and before long the 'log jam' breaks apart and the design moves forward.

And speaking of design, visit Audrey to see her new quilt project, Wing and a Prayer, it's a beauty and a great example of clever improv at its best.

Mieko of Mieko Happytime has many fun tutorials on You Tube, her tutorials are for quilts, hand stitching, making cute bags and pouches, etc. Recently she posted a tutorial on making Basket Blocks. I had to give it a try, the instructions were easy to understand and the blocks turned out super cute. 

She made a bag with her basket blocks, which is a cute idea I might try.

And that, Quilt Friends is the quilt news from the valley, where projects are getting finished and 

I'm enjoying the sunshine today.

I'll be by to visit.