a little pile of four patch corner blocks
I’m very sad to see the month of April come to an end, as I truly missed out on at least three quarters of the month due to illness and now feel completely off schedule. Not much major stitching has happened in the past week but I fiddled around here and there, off and on, with the project I started in Red Deer. Believe it or not, those little four patch units gave me the most trouble I’ve had in a long time… not with the actual construction, but with design choices. I ended up creating four entire blocks using different fabric in a darker colour for those cornerstones and then spent an entire afternoon seam ripping them apart to remake them. Sometimes you must make a big mistake to know how to proceed correctly.
one sewn and one partially sewn
My progress report is as follows: all eight of the large star blocks complete, all twelve of the small star blocks complete, all five basket blocks completely pieced but only two appliqued, and half of the partial small star blocks that make up the border are pieced. I’m planning to kit up the three remaining basket blocks by prepping the stems and wool pieces, making the handwork really convenient to work on in my ‘down’ times. Hopefully I can finish all three blocks in May and begin putting the quilt top together.
cheese baskets mini quilt
My final ‘big’ (little) finish for this month was my Humble doll quilt for the swap hosted by Lori of Humble Quilts. I was working on this little 17″ x 17″ reproduction quilt when she announced her annual exchange. I hadn’t taken part in the past but what really appealed to me was the idea of connecting with quilters from around the world. One of the main criteria on Lori’s list of guidelines was to ‘make a quilt that you’d like to receive’ and since I was already making this quilt for myself, I thought why not make a second one for the swap. Those sweet little cheddar cheese baskets are only four inches square, and the little inner border is mitered at the corners, which was no easy task at only half an inch wide. I did some quilting by machine to stabilize the whole thing and then hand quilted around each basket and filled the center square with a simple grid of hand quilting. My little mini was sent out to the U.S.A. about a week ago but I haven’t heard if it’s arrived yet, and at this point in time I haven’t received one in the mail. I will certainly be posting photos when it gets here though… so stay tuned…
and in the meantime… happy stitching! love carol
Your mini quilt looks awesome! I do love the mitered inner border too. I have been very sick too and have been in bed for over 4 days straight!
Thanks for noticing that little mitered border, Tammy. I sure hope Terrie likes it as much as we do. So sorry to hear that you’re sick – Get well soon!