What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Can you believe that Willyne Hammerstein has produced enough Millefiori Quilts to fill 5 different books now?

Yes, volume 5 of Millefiori Quilts has just been released by QuiltMania and I'm lucky enough to have my own copy here in front of me.

I've already bookmarked some favourites and I'm tossing up ...

According to Wikipedia, a Dear John letter is a letter written to a man by his wife or romantic partner to inform him that their relationship is over.  

I've called this quilt Dear John because my relationship with the Dear Jen pattern is over.  Although the fully finished quilt looks beautiful, (see below) I just don't have the energy or dedication to make all the templates required and then hand piece all the blocks.    

link to the pattern at Amitie Textiles

So I've turned my blocks into a cute wall hanging, table mat, sampler quilt.  

Next weekend ...

On Sunday I went digging in my quilting cupboard to find a WIP I wanted to work on.  But before I could find that WIP, I came across my Dear Jen blocks from the quilt along in 2019.  

Jen Kingwell ran the Dear Jen programme and she issued patterns for 6" hand pieced or hand appliqued blocks each week or month.  The blocks were very intricate and making my own templates for every block added to time each block took too.  

In a sign of how my thinking has changed, I went from, "I'll make some more of those ...

This, the beginning of the Capriccioso quilt from Millefiori Quilts 3 that I now think of as the Candy Cane quilt, was one of the projects I looked at and was ambivalent about. Until, that is, I mentioned it to a friend and showed her this picture. She persuaded me that I didn’t want to toss this one.

Particularly since all the little stars for it are done and nestled in this box.

And all the pieces for what I think of as the bow-tie unit are all ready to sew.

So I decided to sew one of the ...

Where have I been – again? Among other things, this time I was taking stock, so to speak, and assessing what projects I have in varying states of completion and — well, it was a bit scary!! There are a LOT of them! I was opening project box after project box and finding ones I had conveniently forgotten.

I hadn’t forgotten this one, though. Who could forget a project in a project box like this?

When I opened it, it wasn’t quite as full as it is now as there were still 11 blocks to be made. I completed the ...

Remember these – the box full of batik sunflowers last seen here in 2017? They have been my focus for a week or so because I decided that I needed to make a few more.

A few? Famous last words. Because this was the result.

Thanks to a blogging friend who had sent me a lovely selection of batiks from her stash, which I had set aside for this project, I have a few really interesting sunflowers to be made. A few? Try 90+. I got carried away and any batik I had that I hadn’t used already for a ...

I chose to use some gorgeous fabrics called "Neptune and the Mermaid" by Tokyo Milk for Free Spirit Fabrics.  And some Tula Pink too as required.  

I finished the ...

My Ruby Star quilt is finished! 

I used the Raindrops are Falling on My Head pattern by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4. 

I've called it Ruby Star because the fabrics are all from Ruby Star Society.  I had a lot of fun fussy cutting ice creams, rainbows and birds.

I chose to hand piece my quilt, but there are English Paper Piecing papers available. 

Last year I used the same Raindrops pattern to make my Bollywood quilt. 

I had a bundle of Ruby Star Society fabrics that I wanted to fussy cut, so I decided to make the ...

I know, I know – it has been a very long time since I blogged. I don’t even want to think about how long it has been. Lots has been going on, but I just haven’t blogged. I’m going to try, once again, to get back to blogging on a somewhat regular basis.

At Christmas a friend gave me a huge set of markers and an adult colouring book. I was hooked immediately! Since then I’ve progressed to coloured pencils and have found that I’m drawn mostly to colouring books that involve floral designs. Big surprise ...

I've been enjoying a return to what started as my 100 day project, hand piecing my Merrow Croft quilt (pattern by Margaret Mew). If you haven't done any hand piecing before, I have a how-to with lots of tips in my hand piecing tutorial. Using some of my treasured hand printed fabrics by Karen Lewis and Lucy Engels, I'm enjoying the neutral cool vibe of these pieces.

So I'm using up my stash but I'm also adding to it...

I fell for the Merrow Croft pattern at the Festival of Quilts in 2019, where I met Margaret Mew and was enchanted by her work. My wonderful friend Michelle very kindly (and sneakily) bought me the pattern and gifted it to me later, just when I really needed something to smile about. It's taken me some time to start working on it but my plan was to finish a couple of other things first - they're getting there! With everything that's going on though I decided I really needed something that was no pressure, that I would enjoy ...

I'm pleased to present "Bollywood" - another finished quilt from Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein. 

I love the vibrant colours in this quilt.  I started with a piece of the Legendary fabric by Pat Bravo as my inspiration fabric, and chose the other fabrics from that.  The hot pinks, the rich golds, and the sparkling teals.  I love them all together in this fabric.  

Bollywood is made from the Raindrops Are Falling on my Head pattern that is in Millefiori Quilts 4 by Willyne Hammerstein.  I chose to hand piece my quilt, but it can also be paper pieced ...

No change in the numbers, but quilting has begun on the challenge quilt. It’s just a matter of time.

The top hasn’t changed much from last week. Instead of showing it again, another valentine-ish quilt gets the honors today.

This was the 2019 hand pieced QAL quilt hosted by Simple.Handmade.Everyday and Elm Street Quilts. I might have switched out a block or two, and I bailed on hand piecing it. But I finished it timely and I like it.

Fabric In: 0.5yards

Fabric Out: 0 yards

Net Fabric In: 0.5 yards

How did you ...

My Ruby Star quilt is coming along nicely.  I like hand piecing because it's very portable.  I keep a few of the joining star pieces in a little bag and I take them with me when I know I'm going to be sitting still for an hour or so.  

This pattern is Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4.  I almost wish some raindrops were falling on my head right now - it's been so hot in Wellington and Auckland this summer.  

Here's one of my favourite blocks in this quilt ...

I know I should have blogged last week but I have an excuse – I got my booster shot and it packed a bit of a punch! I’m glad it did as that means my immune system was busily making antibodies to help fight COVID but still – I wasn’t expecting to feel like I’d been hit by a bus!

However, two more Christmas Fireworks blocks are done, both the off kilter or not centred stars. First this one, which I think may be one of my favourites – so far, that is.

And then this one:

Today I’ll ...

I actually thought that by the middle of January I’d be finished making these blocks? Ha! Not a hope. It took me most of the week to make two blocks.

This one with the star straight up and down.

And this one, also with the straight star. Now I have 16 of the 35 blocks done. If I continue at this rate of two blocks a week, it will be at least another 10 weeks, if not more, before the blocks are done which puts this into mid-February at the earliest. I think. If I don’t get distracted ...

I decided to get all the red diamonds pieced into pairs for the remaining 21 blocks of the Christmas Fireworks top. There were stacks and stacks of the diamonds like this one.

Each group in the stacks contained 16 of the diamonds.

So I loaded up the needle case with needles threaded with red thread.

Then it took just a few minutes to get each stack pieced into pairs like this.

Each stack turned into stacks and stacks of pieced pairs of red diamonds. Now all the piecing left to do is either continuous piecing or curved piecing or both ...