Monday Musings

Waiting to tempt me in my Inbox Sunday morning was this email.  Anthropologie joining forces with Liberty London spells trouble for my pocket book!

I walk by this stack of books (some new, some not so new) several times a day, each time telling myself I really should take a minute to sit and peruse them.

Wideback fabric designs have improved since I began quilting.  As much as I love a pieced quilt back, having the option of Kaffe 108" wide fabric, for example, to put on the back of a quilt is so nice!

I am growing my collection of EPP Happy Flower Blocks. Love this picture of a few I pieced out by the pool.

The move to SquareSpace is still in transition.  If you have an extra minute, please click here to take a look and tell me what you think.  Thanks in advance.  Have a wonderful Monday!  Happy stitching,

EPP-ing

I am back to making my english paper pieced/applique Happy Flower Blocks.  I purchased Deborah's adorable thread pooping unicorn which conveniently arrived in time for hexie making!

Day 1 - notice the thread pooping unicorn?!

For our guild's Cre-active Club Challenge I need to have 75 of these blocks made by September's meeting; that's #4 on my list.  I love these blocks so I am happy to have an excuse a reason to work on them.

Day 2

My friend Stephanie offered EPP thread advice at our retreat. Now the stitches that connect the hexies to the black center square are less visible.

Day 3

Mary Sorensen, needle turn appliqué expert and lucky for me OrlandoMQG member, helped with tips on stitching the EPP block onto my background squares. I was embarrassed hesitant to show her my blocks, but her advice was worth the risk...ha! Now those stitches are less visible.

Day 4

When making my list, I thought one a day would be doable.  However, the month of July got away from me which means I pretty much need to make two a day to reach my goal. Yikes!

Day 5

Over the weekend, my daughter and I went away for a girls' getaway.  Hard to believe my baby will head off to college in less than a month! While away I did find time to whip up some blocks.  

Day 6

Stitching them onto the background squares will have to wait for another day. 

Day 7

If I am going to reach my goal, I need to pick up the pace!  

Thanks for stopping by,

Hitting the Reset Button

Well, I am WAY out of practice with blogging, and I am WAY behind on posting what's been going on in my world, but here I am ready to hit the reset button and began again...

Instead of starting with getting everyone (is anyone still out here reading?!) caught up on the last six months, let me tell you about one of my favorite ongoing projects at the moment.

I call these Happy Flower Blocks.  I love making them and have turned quite a few into pincushions, but I am now saving them all for a throw size quilt.  

A while back I made a hexie flower for Eleni and loved how Jodi stitched them all onto background squares.   I really enjoyed making that hexie block, but I am not a big fan of stitching all the hexies together.   Later I ran across this block on Amy Sinibaldi's Instagram feed and knew that was the EPP block I wanted to use.  I could not find reference to this block anywhere else, so I started calling it the Happy Flower Block.

 Stitching these blocks make me happy.  It's nice to just sit, slow down, and stitch for a bit.  Having a project that I can work on and hang out with my family is a bonus.

Sometimes I'll just sit and whip up a bunch of hexies, other times I will sew the four hexies onto the black square until I have a few, but my favorite part is stitching the flower onto the background square.  

I now have 28 blocks made for my throw quilt....only a hundred or so more to go!

If you are still here, please leave a comment and say hi!  I sure have missed being here.  Thanks and happy stitching,