Buttons and Blooms & Butterflies Too!

There are lots of terrific quilts in the weekly contest at Quilting Gallery.  One of them is mine. 

Buttons and Blooms and Butterflies Too!  was a BOM by Appleblossom Quilts in 2006  I believe.  Connie has wonderful applique patterns and has a yearly BOM for those who sign up to receive her free newsletter. 

I added the three dimensional butterflies  as my own touch.

I love the texture of this quilt

 If you like it too, please hop over to Quilting Gallery and vote.  Thanks!

Finished!

Last stitch in the binding this afternoon.  So happy to have this one finished. 

Orange County Baltimore  pattern by Lyn Brown

82 X 90"

Needleturn applique, machine quilted

Final Border Left

Only the final border remains to be quilted. Hopefully that will happen today after church. 

Progress

Still have at least a full day of quilting left to do on the Orange Co. Baltimore. 
Here are some preview pics.  It's hard to get the quilting to show.

Happy Saturday!

Where Did I Go?

It seems odd not to have Dutch Treat blocks to work on.  So what have I been doing?  I've taken a few days to decide what batting and backing I want to use on the DT quilt.  I think I've settled on a wool bat this time.  That may make the hand quilting even easier. 

I've spent this week machine quilting my Orange Co. Baltimore top.

All of the individual blocks are quilted.  I'm working on the sashings and then I have to decide on border quilting.

In the evenings I've been working on the embroidery in the last three Raggedy Ann and Andy blocks. 

I have to admit I'm missing my DT blocks!

Happy Weekend everyone.

Row 9

More progress on Dutch Treat #3

Partridge

Pea Pod

Phazer

Piazza

Picture Frames

Pineapple

Pinwheels

Plantaganet

 

Here's row 9

And here's all 9 rows draped over a quilt rack (but not all joined together).  It's become quite colorful!

I've also been machine quilting one of the tops I had basted last week.  This one was made in 2006, if you can believe it.  It was a BOM at my local quilt shop using Thangles .  There would have only been 12 blocks but I wanted a bigger quilt, so I bought 3 of the strip sets each month and browsed a block encyclopedia to find more blocks that were composed entirely of HSTs and squares.  I can't say I'm a fan of Thangles because I'm not.  I still prefer to use oversized squares to make HSTs and then trim them to the perfect size.

Here I am working on the quilt.

But I ran into a problem..or as I prefer to call it..a design opportunity. The friend who basted my quilts on her long arm, lined up the top and batting EXACTLY with the edge of the backing  when she started, rather than centering both on the backing as I had expected and do myself.  I didn't realize that and started quilting in the center as I always do.  The top also wasn't as taut as when I pin baste and moved as I quilted towards the outer edges.  And then I realized I was going to be short of both batting and backing.   Ugh...................I was heartsick. 

I could think of a couple of solutions....one being to sew more backing along the short edge and then baste more batting butted up against the other.  But the top  had pieced cornerstones  like this

And the way the top had shifted I was afraid I might run short of backing and batting at all four corners and with pieced blocks such as this I couldn't just trim  them to fit.
So I removed them, added plain squares of the same fabric I used for cornerstones in the body of the quilt (a green print) and spent a couple of days appliquing flowers in each of them.



 Now I'm ready to quilt the borders.  I may even end up liking it better than the original design....maybe.

I'm trying not to think about the other (and much bigger) tops that were probably basted in the same manner. 

Orange County Baltimore Album

I added the last appliqued border to my quilt top this morning. 
It's hard to get a picture of the whole top. This is the best I could do at this point

Many thanks to Lyn Brown for her wonderful pattern.  It's still available for free on her site if you'd like to make your own.

Now I wish it was quilted.

I'm a Winner!

I was thrilled to discover I'd won a giveaway on Tea Mahone's blog a couple of days ago. Yesterday she posted a picture of what I'd won

and my package just arrived!  Thank you Tea!!!!  50 Moda Marbles charm squares in a collector tin and 26 Moda Shimmer charm squares.  Both of these collections will make an awesome addition to my applique stash and I've been doing a lot of that in recent months as you all know!  How lucky am I?

I realized last night I forgot to take a picture of the baby quilt that Tom pieced last week and I quilted over the weekend.  We gave it to one of the guys that works for my oxygen provider.  He's been so helpful to me over the years and he and his wife are expecting a baby boy on the 28th of this month.  Maybe we'll get to see the baby and take a picture of him with his quilt sometime.    Tom did a great job piecing it and we used fleece on the back for a really cuddly quilt.

Yesterday I finished the Irvine Bell Brand block from Lyn Brown's BOM. That is Saddleback Mountain in the background and Irvine Lake tucked into the hills. 

I'm still behind a week and need to make the background to start work on the Orange Co. Courthouse block.  Wow..40 windows!  How long are those going to take me?

I also finished another Dutch Treat block.

This one is called Coat of Arms.

Off to help Tom with another little quilt. Collaborations are fun!

Mission San Juan Capistrano

I finished Block Nine of Lyn Brown's California  inspired Baltimore Album.  This one is the Mission at San Juan Capistrano.

This one was particularly challenging for me as I've been struggling with an infection in my right hand since pricking it on a rose bush four weeks ago.  The first antibiotic took the initial swelling down and almost eliminated the pain. Then it got worse once I was off the antibiotic.  I had too much going on to go back to the doctor so waited until last Wednesday when I already had an appointment.  That resulted in antibiotic number two.  Follow-up appointment today and not only is it not getting better, but it is hurting more all the time.  So tomorrow I see an orthopedist and see what he recommends.  Apparently I've picked up a nasty bug that is resistant.    I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to keep up the pace with my Dutch Treat blocks but am happy that I did manage to get 30 blocks done  this month, even with a swollen hand. 

Here are the first nine block's of Lynn's BOM.  Only three more to go.

Dogwoods & Tall Ships

Our one and only dogwood is in full bloom this week and so pretty.

I've spent the last two days working on the latest block for Lyn Brown's Baltimore Album BOM. This week's block is the Tall Ship Pilgrim and it took a little bit of time since I'm doing needleturn on all of these blocks rather than fusing them.

I also used embroidery to indicate the simplified rigging instead of inking as suggested in the pattern.

Seven blocks are now complete and I can't wait to see what the remaining five will be.

You can read the story about the ship Pilgrim on Lyn's site.

Anna's Tulips

Block Seven of Lyn Brown's Baltimore Album BOM was posted on Saturday and I couldn't wait to dig right in.  It's called Anna's Tulips.  She says that Anna's hummingbirds are seen year round in California.  I'm not sure tulips grow in California, but maybe in the northern part of the state?  It was another fun block to make.  Needleturn as always.  

Now I have to be patient for a week and a half.  No block this Saturday because of the holiday.

I'm happy Blogger/Google resolved the issue with images displaying.

Lots to Love

I finished this block today and I have to say it's my favorite so far. It's called Orange Tree Topiary. I love everything about it!

I love the stuffed oranges and the three dimensional orange blossoms. I love the little bird.

I wish I knew how a piece of this scrumptious orange mottle ended up in my applique fabric stash. I know I didn't buy it as yardage or a fat quarter. It must have been in a bag of scraps I bought somewhere. I found it when I was working on one of the last blocks of the Baltimore Album top I finished a couple months ago. And there was just enough left to use for the oranges on this block. I love the shadings. If I could find this fabric I'd love to use it to make another Dutch Treat quilt. (yep..I'm nuts, I know!).

Here are the first six blocks of this BOM. Be sure to hop over to Lyn Brown's website to read about the significance of each block. Tomorrow she'll be posting a 7th block..can't wait!