Seeing the light!

"My Corona Flowers" is getting closer and closer to finishing .... just the top floral section to finish appliqueing and the outer borders to be decided.  The bottom three sections have already been sewn together.

Oh decisions, decisions about borders!  I'll try some blue fabrics next.

I would like to have this top ready for sending out to the LAer next week.  Guess what I'll be working on today?  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

First finish of the year!

Finally, I have a finish.

This is a quilt that I designed called "Spring Ahead".  This quilt was designed to teach applique to guild ladies.  Each month, we worked through the different blocks using a different method of applique.  What is good for me may not be good for another person.  They were taught that you could use different methods on the same project.  They were also taught to change the pattern if they were not happy with it.  Heck, I do that all the time!  At the end of the guild year, they were asked what was their favourite method.  Needle turn applique.  I'm just so happy that the ladies learned how to tackle applique and not to be afraid of it.

Now, let's look at the blocks.

Here is one corner.  They could do this border or they could just have straight strips of borders.  A few actually did this border.  Bravo to them!

I loved designing this block.  Simple, but effective.  Circles were interesting to teach.

This was fun to design also with a bit of embroidery.  Heck, all the blocks were fun to design.

Stars were interesting.  They were shown how to round out the inward points to make it easier to applique.

The circle with the loops .... they could embroider the loops instead of appliqueing bias strips.  This one was a bit tricky for newbies.  For the star, they could make just a regular star or be adventurous and follow my design.  A few did.

Just something a bit different for this flower.

More fun blocks!

Now, call me quirky but I do a bit of machine quilting after I get my quilt back from the LAer.  The main blocks have been stitched in the ditch around the perimeter of the background blocks.    Also, all my applique pieces have been hand quilted around the outside of each piece.  I do like my applique to look grounded.  See next photo.

  

Can you see what I mean in this photo?  So, a tad quirky, am I!  LOL

What in the world in that string doing hanging from the end?  My quilt was doing the wave at the bottom and by stringing a piece of knitting yarn through the binding, it helped to straighten out the wave and it is now nice and even.  That bit of black was just snipped carefully away and viola, no more wave!

Some outdoor photos.

So, now my quilt is finally done and now I can enjoy it even more.

Quilt details:

Top designed and made by:  Rose Marie Castonguay (me!)

Machine quilted by:  Kathy at Kat's Quilts using Gothic Vine quilting design

Quilt started:  September 2016

Quilt finished:  June 2020

Quilt size:  56-1/2" x 71-1/4" (size before quilting, washing and drying:  58-1/2" x 74")

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly

With all the doom and gloom news about Covid-19, I thought you would enjoy a bit of eye candy.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Happy Canada Day!

Different celebrations this year ...... but if you are reading this ..... yeah, you are alive and not a victim to covid.

Seeing all these quilts together has prompted me to look at my other red/white ufo's.  There are a few and it is time to bring them out in the open.

This one, I'm not sure about and it may be open for discarding into the scrap bin (the keep scraps, not toss bin).

This was a project started to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.  It got shelved not too long after starting.  

A few years ago, I took a course and started on this quilt.  Time to bring it out and finish it.

I may be starting a new project!  LOL

These printed blocks have been hiding from me for a very long time, but I finally found them.  My plan is to applique them to hexagons.  Stay tuned for a post on them.

Looking over my stash of reds ..... there are a lot of them ..... and it is time to think about whittling down those bins into quilts.  Oh goody, more projects, more quilts!  

Cherish your day, cherish your life!