More Pattern Testing

Back in February this year I started pattern testing for Berene of Happy Sew Lucky. This lady is productive, and already in April I have completed testing of my third pattern for her.

This is her third pattern of the Tattoo Series, the first one is LOVE (which I haven't tested,  yet). COURAGE is tested by me here .

I am definitely not an expert in foundation paper piecing, actually the first time I paper pieced a block was during the Splendid Sampler quilt along last year. Since then paper piecing has become one of my favorites.

Berene's patterns are easy to follow, the instructions are very clear, even Y-seams are no problem anymore.

I love this shot of my blue swallows on my deck with my purple  Little Birdy pincushion keeping it in place in the wind.

The latest pattern is FURY, and above are my fabric choices. I had the perfect orange and yellow fabric, Marblehead by Ro Gregg for Paintbrush studios, the two leftmost fabrics. There's a lot of life in this fabric, especially the orange one.

The first item I did was the text banner. Here is an in-progress shot of the heart with the banner. The heart fabric is also perfect, the golden lines and the darker red patches give a lot of life to the heart.

Here all the flame pieces are done and ready to be assembled. The ruler I received as a gift from Berene has come in very handy working with paper piecing.

The flames are slowly coming together. You can almost feel the heat!

...and the flames are done! There's so much life in this picture!

And here the quilt top is all assembled. The burning heart on the cold, almost snowy background.

This is how the backside looks before the paper is removed, lots of tiny pieces!

The FURY is burning in the sunlight!

Thanks to Berene of Happy Sew Lucky for letting me test her patterns, this is a real skill builder for me!

Keep on sewing and paper piecing!

2017 Finish A Long - Goals for Second Quarter

Today is the last day to link up goals for 2017 FAL Q2. Last quarter I finished 2 projects on my list out of four, a 50% completion rate is not too bad! There are always popping up other projects that pushes their way through!

For this quarter I will continue trying to finish the last two projects on my list from Q1 and add a few more.

My first goal is continued from the first quarter, and is to assemble the 24 blocks of the Modern HST Sampler, add sashing and quilt it.

Last year I joined a Quilting Bee, and these are the resulting bee blocks I have for my quilt. I will make a few more Houndstooth Blocks to make a decent quilt size. The backing fabric is already chosen, and I look forward to finishing the quilt. This is my second goal.

My third goal is to assemble all the blocks I made for the Splendid Sampler into one (or two) quilts. The picture shows my first 65 blocks, more blocks have been made. 

The fourth and last goal on my Q2 list is this skinny/table runner. This is a project from the Moda All Stars All in a Row book, and the row is designed by Brenda Riddle. The row is actually too long to fit on my table, so I think it will end up as a skinny on the wall.

My proposed goals are linked up to one the official 2017 FAL host blogs here .

Keep on quilting!

2017 Auril BOM Block for March

This is my version of the block Scraptastic Stars designed by Melissa Corry. I dug into my scrap bins of green and blue, and that resulted in this beauty of a 12.5" unfinished block.

Simply Helixed Table Runner

This turned out to be a perfect Stained Glass Window photo shoot of the Simply Helixed Table Runner designed by Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts. The binding was not completely stitched on to the back, but the sun was low and shone in the correct angle so I got my husband to

Hexie Tote for Spring

During the last few months I have taken a hand-sewing project with me to quilt guild meetings. I have only sewn on this English Paper Piecing hexagon project during these meetings.

These 2 inch hexies are made from leftover strips of fabric. I didn't have a specific plan when I started, but when five were done I decided to make a spring bag out of them. I appliqued the hexies on linen and started looking for a bag pattern. I chose a tutorial from Jedi Craft Girl, and modified it a little bit.

SquareOne Quilt in Sun and Snow

This spring I have been fortunate to be able to test patterns for two talented designers, and I have posted about the process in earlier blog posts, like this from Happy Sew Lucky.

The first one I tested for was Krystal from @sewshaped on Instagram.

Now I have completed all my 20 blocks of glorious scrappyness, assembled them into a