Blue English Paper Piecing

Since I can't seem to get away from English Paper Piecing, I started a little piece that's the same pattern as the one I mentioned last week ...

I love the design, and I love the big size of the pieces (2 inches per side, which is big compared to my diamond project), and I love the blues and grays ...

If I like the way this turns out, it might end up being a quilt for my newest nephew, who's due this summer. He doesn't read my blog, so I guess it's OK to mention it here ...

 I'm linking this post to this week's Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life ...

More Vintage-Inspired English Paper Piecing

I'm still having fun with vintage-inspired diamond English Paper Piecing. 

Here's how my quilt was looking last week.

I've mentioned the fact that I started out with a few awesome vintage fabrics, decided to add some reproduction fabrics, and then came up with a few of my own fabrics to throw in. 

I'm having fun with the organized scrappy-ness, the vintage look & feel, the colorfulness. And I love the chance to sew something amazing, while sitting in my comfy rocking chair relaxing.

Here's what my quilt top looks like right now. If you compare it with the first picture in this post, you'll see that, in addition to adding three more stars, I also added another row of white-and-cream on one side this week. I'm thinking about making the border that wide all around, and then adding a row of colored diamonds, and then a few more rows of white-and-cream border. We shall see.

Right now, this is 34 inches long and 29 inches wide. After I make the border even all the way around, I'm thinking about adding a row of colored diamonds, and then a few more rows of white-and-cream border. We shall see. I'm also brainstorming some other border options ... 

I'll keep you posted ...

Carolina Panthers Jeans Quilt: Progress

Progress is happening on the Carolina Panthers Jeans Quilt (that I mentioned previously here). I got the appliqué edges all stitched with a tight zig-zag. 

As I was debating what to do with the remaining bits of raggedy-appliqué edges, my older son came to the rescue with his pocketknife-scissors.

He was happy to help me by snipping some of the most glaring random-threads that were sticking out.

I had a stack of a bunch of pairs of black jeans, so I spent some time cutting and sewing this week. 

I decided to cut 10-inch squares this time, which is bigger than my usual for jeans quilts. But for this quilt, I like the size.

I was delighted to find a pair of thrift-store jeans that were already color-coordinated for this project! Black jeans, teal and white accents: perfect!

 

Details are always fun. Beaded jeans!

I've got half of the quilt pieced, and the other half partially done. 

Here, the Panther is just laid on top of the quilt in the area where it belongs.

I've got some plush fleecy black backing for this quilt that's going to be really nice. 

More details coming when I get more progress made!

I'm linking this post to

this week's Work In Progress Wednesday

at Freshly Pieced.

Check out the links there

for more great works in progress.

Embellished Towels

I've been finding some fun things to do with my Very Tiny Hexagons (see previous posts here and here. You might also remember this post, where I embellished my now-favorite pot holders.)

Recently, I found another spot where I didn't realize I needed tiny hexagons: cotton towels. The kind of towels I use to line a bread basket, or to cover rising bread dough.

These towels started life as a tablecloth. I found the tablecloth for a couple dollars, and loved it: Plain white cotton with simple blue stripes in a big round tablecloth that I have no use for. But for a couple dollars, I knew I could find a use for it!

I cut four towels in my favorite size & serged the edges. (The remainder of the tablecloth is waiting to see if the rest of the towels need to be that size, or another size.) 

The addition of a very tiny hexagon was just what each towel needed.

So, now I have adorable towels with tiny hexagon flowers that make me smile.

And, oddly, with my new favorite towels and my new favorite pot holders, I've been getting more inspired to bake awesome things.

In fact, I think I've baked more in the past couple weeks than in the previous few months combined! Haven't heard any complaints about that, though, so it must be a good thing!

 

The fun thing about these tiny hexagons, is that when I wash the towels, the tiny hexagons crinkle up like real quilts do, which I think is adorable. (It's the little things ...)

Round English Paper Piecing (sort of)

A few weeks ago, I mentioned starting on a new piece of English Paper Piecing. 

It's been fun. This went together really quickly ... The pieces felt huge, since most of my English Paper Piecing uses much smaller pieces. 

To me, this looks like the centerpiece for a baby quilt gift, but I'm still not sure what I'll do with it. Did I mention how much I love the "round" look it's got, with only straight seams? Love it!

This is as big as this piece gets, because I don't have more of this exact white fabric ... I was using up leftover white fabric from another project. For size reference, here it is on my cutting mat that has 1-inch-grids.

And, here's the back of it, since I think it's nifty that the back of English Paper Piecing stays all neat and tidy ...

My mind is always racing to "the next" English Paper Piecing project, since I love having bits of handsewing to do when I'm relaxing ... 

~ I'm thinking of doing something similar to this with the cute boyish fabric I got to make a baby gift ...

~ I'll update soon on my Vintage Diamonds and my Very Tiny Hexagons ...

~ I think I've found another style to try: Have you heard of the one called Sprocket? Love the look of that ...

I'm linking this post to this week's Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life - check the link party there for some really cute, really little quilt projects. Have a great week!

Pink Impatiens

For some reason, I love the little pink flower called Impatiens.

I planted some recently in my new shady flowerbed.

Impatiens come in lots of colors, but this particular variety is my favorite. It's probably my favorite because, when I was a kid, I got to pick a houseplant to take care of. Even though it's not strictly a houseplant, this kind of pink Impatiens is what I chose.

I love the way the little buds look like rosebuds. Especially in this sweet pink color.

I'm hoping these Impatiens will thrive in my new flowerbed. We shall see. Maybe someday, I'll be like the lady I once met who had mounds of Impatiens all over her back yard ... apparently, she took cuttings inside every winter, so she'd have plenty to plant outside every spring! 

In the meantime, I'm enjoying even short-lived flowers, and I'm especially grateful for the eternal things that last for ever.

~ * ~

The grass withereth,

the flower fadeth:

but the word

of our God

shall stand for ever.

Isaiah 40:8

~ * ~

Black Jeans Quilt Progress

The Panthers Jeans Quilt (that I mentioned recently) is in progress ...

I spent some time with my iron, getting all those pieces ironed onto some black jeans background ...

All those little edges are getting sewn down ...

Then it'll be time for some jeans-squares to make the rest of the quilt ...

More Flowers!

This year, I'm enjoying some flowers that are new to my gardens ... "Sweet Williams" - a type of Dianthus ...

Last year, I looked online for a place to buy cheap seeds, and I found, of all things, a website called cheapseeds.com - They had a few basic kinds of flower seeds, and they sold them cheap, by the thousands. Since I wanted lots of seeds, but only a few kinds, this was a great option.

Last year, I planted lots of flowers, so it didn't really matter that my Sweet Williams got lots of leaves but no flowers. I thought they were an annual flower, but it turns out, these must be more like a biennial: they're blooming profusely this year! (Oh. Wait. Just read more details on this variety: looks like it's a perennial in some locations. Works for me!)

These are tall, and bright, and I've got lots of them! All kinds of colors, too!

I'm definitely planning on planting more of these this year, so I'll have blooms like this early next spring, too! (Just in case these like to be biennials here. After all, I think my seed package of over 2,000 still has plenty left ...) 

Something else I did not expect: I've got multi-colored clumps of flowers. 

Multi-colored! 

Who knew these could do that? Not I.

Fascinating. Love these!

I'm especially enjoying the multi-colored blooms. 

~ * ~ 

He hath made
every thing
 beautiful
in his time ...

Ecclesiastes 3:11a

~ * ~

New Kaledoscopes finished!

A couple of months ago, I mentioned working on some layouts for some Kaleidoscopes I'd been working on. This week, I got the quilt top finished! This is a bigger quilt top; full size, actually - it measures 76" x 90".

There are a lot of things I love about this kind of kaleidoscope ... 

One thing I love is the circular look of the design, even though this is all straight seams ...

I really like the extra detail the little square kaleidoscopes give at the ends of this quilt top ...

And I love the fact that all the kaleidoscopes are made from the same print! 

When I can, I like to border my kaleidoscopes with an uncut piece of the same fabric ...

It's a great thing when the plan/sketch/penciled-pattern comes together into something I like!

I've had fun putting this quilt top together, and I'll be listing it on eBay or Etsy soon, so that somebody can have fun quilting it! 

It's always nice to get things finished up - and it's fun to see things that others have been finishing this week, too ~ so I'll be linking this post to a couple of my favorite link parties:

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

and

Sew and Tell Friday at AmyLouWho