April Monthly Color Challenge

The bird for April's Monthly Color Challenge is the Purple Honeycreeper - I love that name! This post is linked to Patterns by Jen Color Challenge 2020.

Jen created this pretty Square in a Square pattern which you can download (free only for the month of April) right here. All of the patterns are for 12-1/2 inch blocks, so at the end of the year I should have a nice sized quilt.

I used part of my Kate Spain Honey Honey collection from stash. I really like this block pattern and would like to see it as a quilt.

Re-done January and February blocks

I don't know about you, but sometimes I make a quilty decision that I regret down the road. You might recall I decided to make the January and February blocks 8-1/2 inches instead of 12-1/2 inches, in order to accommodate the size of my scraps. You may read about that decision here. Then I forgot to do that for the March block. I didn't want to redo the March block, so I added borders to bring the two previous blocks up to 12-1/2 inches, and that riveting post is here. Although I liked my do-over blocks, every time I looked at them they just didn't look quite right to me, and it finally drove me crazy enough to remake the blocks again! It's all good though, because I can still use the smaller blocks as part of the backing.

Be sure to go check out all the lovely birdie blocks here!

RSC Blues, Picket Star Block, and Other Quilty Happenings

The RSC color for April is light and bright blue. With last month's challenge being teal and aqua, my blue scrap bin has had a workout but still seems full of blue. I love the way blues pop on my design wall!

Scraptastic Star pattern by Melissa Corey

Geese Migration pattern by Cynthia Brunz at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Cynthia Brunz Irish Chain

Strings

I had help on my strings from Julierose at Julierose Quilts, who took the time to send me instructions on how she makes her beautiful "Ojos" - thank you Julierose!

Now that my "scrap chores" are over for the month I get to concentrate on other projects, such as this Picket Star block from Preeti's blog. She has generously created an excellent tutorial for it right here. Preeti has a perfectly lovely and appropriate name for it, but to me it is simply "Preeti's Block". It makes a big 17-1/2 inch block!

I love this block so much that I ordered more of these luscious fabrics by Jinny Beyer to make several blocks into a quilt.

One of the online stores where I found my fabric was Lone Star Quiltworks, a store I had visited in December when we took our grandson and his girlfriend to lunch in their college town. I talked my husband into going early so we could check out the store before we met them. It is a quilter's dream - clean and bright and full of beautiful fabrics! For some reason I migrated toward the long arm machines they had set up. I gave the Hand-Quilter Simply Sixteen a test drive, and oh my goodness! What a fun time I had easily maneuvering that piece of metal around. We asked the friendly demonstrator several questions before I finally asked "how much is it?" Well at $5995.95, and even with a payment plan, I decided maybe I'd just stick with my domestic Janome. And even if we could afford it, we would have to add on a room for it somewhere - lol! But oh it is fun to dream about it, especially when I'm wrestling a quilt through Miss Janome.

I am adding this post to the other fabulous blogs linking up to Cynthia's Oh Scrap! and Angela's Scrap Happy Saturday.

Gooseberry Garden Quilt Finish

This quilt is the result of a pattern test last year for "Eternally Yours" quilt pattern by Julie at Running Stitch Quilts. It was a fun "X's and O's" pattern, and I love the final look! I finished and sandwiched the flimsy last March (you may read about it here), put it in my closet, and there it stayed until last week. Because it had been folded for so long, the backing was no longer taut, so I had to re-sandwich it. That was fun (not!).

The majority of the blocks were made with Gooseberry, a 2015 collection from Lella Boutique

I quilted with an unmarked double cross hatch in a basting stitch.

Unmarked translates to "not perfect", so I shall call it "organic".

During the 2-1/2 day quilting marathon, one needle was broken, excess backing got caught in the stitching several times and had to be ripped out, and Rosie insisted on lying on the quilt almost every time I wrestled with it. Fun times!

This happy quilt which will reside on the guest bed used by our granddaughter when she comes to visit. I'm pretty sure she will love it as much as Jack does!

Quilt details:
Finished size: 60 x 70 inches
Pattern: Eternally Yours by Running Stitch Quilts

Front:
Gooseberry by Lella Boutique for Moda
Cupcake Cafe from Studio E
Vintage Holiday by Bonnie and Camille for Moda
Aqua with white dots from Hobby Lobby
White embossed from Hobby Lobby

Backing:
Gooseberry by Lella Boutique for Moda
Peach-Gold-Mint diamond print from Hobby Lobby
White fabric from stash

Binding:
Aqua with white dots from Hobby Lobby

Superior Thread:
Piecing: #50 So Fine in 502 Genoa Gray
Quilting: #50 So Fine in 519 Barely Mint

I'm hooking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?"

Beverly's Quilt Finish

What was begun as a quilt for me evolved into a quilt for a childhood friend. Beverly is the older sister of my best friend from childhood. She is in assisted living in my hometown and according to my friend, still leads an active life in her wheelchair. However, due to some complications from diabetes, she is currently in a physical rehab facility and hoping to get back to her home soon. In February I read about a wheelchair quilt on Louise's blog and began thinking about Beverly, and I couldn't stop thinking about her. Now that I know she is experiencing health issues, I'm glad I made the decision to gift her the quilt instead of keeping it for myself.

Inspiration vintage quilt from Instagram

This "pattern" was my attempt to recreate a vintage quilt I saw on Instagram. It was scrappy and composed of nine-patch blocks made anchored by cornerstones and separated by sashing rectangles.

This was a fun quilt for me, from doing the quilt math to picking fabrics. Most of the fabrics came from scraps or stash, but I did purchase the cornerstone and binding fabrics. My husband (and occasional quilt model) has become a surprisingly good consultant in choosing fabrics for bindings and backings, and he picked out the binding at my local quilt shop.

My quilting was a combination of a wide zig-zag stitch and grid quilting. The inspiration for zig-zag came from this pretty quilt on Preeti's blog. If you squint, it looks a little like hand-stitching. I employed the same zig-zag on the binding. Zig-zagging is fast but it really eats bobbin thread!

Backing is the same as the cornerstones

Quilt model Jack

Beverly's Quilt details:
Finished size: 42 x 60 inches
Pattern: Nine-patch blocks made with 2-1/2 inch squares; 3-1/2 inch cornerstones; 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 inch sashing strips

Fabrics
Front: Scraps and stash
Backing and cornerstones: Geraniums by Edyta Sitar for Andover
Binding: Heartfelt by Kansas Troubles Quilters for Moda

Superior Threads
Piecing: #50 So Fine 502 Genoa Gray
Quilting: #50 So Fine in 492 Pale Yellow

I'm linking again to Myra's Stress-Free QAL on Busy Hands Quilts.