Quilted a customer's split 9-patch

I had the pleasure of quilting this modern grey quilt with highlights of red.  The blocks are a split nine patch block.  Last year it was a block of the month, for our guild, and my customer was fortunate enough to win them.  How great is that!!

There were enough blocks to make a fair sized table topper.  From what I saw, there was a nice variety of grey/black fabrics with cornerstones of red.  I didn't see any duplicates.

It turned out lovely.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get any close up pictures of the quilting.  The backing is the same fabric as the border.

Finished a pretty customer quilt

Wow!  It is the 1st of June already!  I can't believe it!  I've been so busy with my regular job and working overtime, with my business quilting and during the last few weekends in my backyard, hauling out clay, hauling in crushed stones and putting in walkways with drainage.  Today will be more of the same, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this particular path.

Once that is done I have to work at finishing the patio at the back of the house, the curbs along the side of the house, not to mention the weeding of the whole garden, distributing plants that have been put in a spot to hold until their garden was set up.  To say the least, there is still too much to do.

I thought I would share this beautiful quilt from a customer.  Teresa won all the fabrics (10 yards worth) as a door prize at her guilt.  What a treat!

She picked a lovely pattern to showcase all the lovely fabrics.  The pictures don't do the fabrics justice.  In person, the colours vibrate with brightness.  It was so cheerful working with this quilt.

To finish off the fabrics, Teresa decided to piece the backing.  Down the middle she pieced a lot of the smaller stripes that were left from making the blocks.  That's the way to be frugal.  She is now only left with very small pieces/scraps and other than the background and batting, this whole quilt was free to make for her.

I personally like pieced backing.  I get a kick out of it.  After admiring the front of the quilt, the anticipation builds, just to see what was done for the backing.  To me, a pieced backing, is like having a second choice for what goes upside on the bed.  Sometimes you may want the quilt and other times you may feel like you want the back instead.

The whole quilt turned out beautiful.  When she showed it at the guild, the other day, there were a lot of ahhhh and ohhhs.  Great job Teresa!!! 

The last three blocks of Summertime Sampler

So, these are the last three blocks of the Summer Sampler wool applique wall hanging.  These were left for last, as they had the smallest pieces, the most colour and would be the most forgiving.  After all they are flowers and flowers could be any combination of colours.  I still stayed close to the original pattern for this first one, with the two tone leaves and white and red flowers.

With this next bouquet of flowers I changed it up some, to suit the colour pieces I had left.  I changed the pink bow for a turquoise one, to spread out my turquoise across the quilt. I am liking the change in direction that I achieved with the fabric weave of the turquoise.  It actually looks like the ribbon is twirling into a bow.  I am also liking the colourful flowers.

This next one, I did my own thing.  For the vase, I used turquoise, to spread out the colour and the leaves on the vase were done as singles, not halves.  For the leaves in the vase I decided that I didn't want the colourful half purple and half fuchsia and other colours.  Instead, the shape if the leaves reminded me of fall leaves, so I went with that theme.  I used various shades of orange, gold, brown and greens.  I think it turned out great.

There you have it!  All twelve blocks set up and ready to be hand stitched.  Doesn't it look gorgeous?  I really love it.  This is so different than anything that I've done before.  I like all of them, some maybe more than others, but I couldn't pick an absolute favourite.  It would be too hard.

Today, other than a customer quilt drop off, later in the afternoon, I have nothing pressing to do.  So with the rain poring down outside, I think I am going to just stay inside and try to work on my So Many Strings quilt units.

I finished all of the 252 neutral/light units a few days ago and I have 150 dark units done, with 270 dark units left to do.  I'm getting there......

Enjoy the day!!!  Keep warm and dry!

Two more NICU quilts

I am still working away at getting these orphan blocks into NICU quilts.  Here are the latest two.

This one started out as just three pinwheels and a bunch of half square triangle blocks (HST).  The pinwheels only measure 4" finished, so I needed a way to use them, that would expand them.  An easy way to make your blocks into a bigger quilt is to use plain alternating squares.  I made the remaining HST into pinwheels, which gave me five in total.  I treated them as part of a nine-patch with the plain blocks between.  After that was done, I felt that the block was still too small to start adding borders, so I turn the block on a diagonal.

To make the pinwheels stand out a bit more, I added a small matching border, creating a floating affect.  After that I added the darker corner blocks to square it off.  I added another matching border, followed by the last dark border.  A simple little quilt, for a little boy's incubator.

Next we have this NICU quilt.  Also for a little boy (there is more of a demand right now for boy quilts).  This quilt started out with the leftover pieces of a quilt I made for my niece and her husband.  All the blue and green four patches, plus all the green and blue 2" blocks were part of the leftovers  The four units in the middle, with the dark blue HSTs were also left over from their quilt.  

I can't really explain how this one came about.  I just sort of put the pieces down on the floor by my feet and sat there moving them around.  This little quilt was born from my playing around with shapes.

This weekend, I found time to quilt six of these small little NICU quilts, however these two did not make this round of quilting.  These two will be in the next batch of five waiting to be quilted.  As soon as I bind the others, I'll post about them. 

Stay safe and enjoy the sunshine.

Three more blocks done of Summertime Sampler

Today I thought I would show you another three wool appliqué blocks that the pieces are cut out and secured to the background fabric, waiting for me to do the handwork on them.  Mostly the handwork will be the button hole stitch, some French knots and back stitch for all the stems, vines and other details.

The first one, above, is the birdhouse, with two birds standing on top of it, while the vines are twirling up and around the birdhouse.  It really does not look like much right now, but once the details are added it will be pretty.

This second one, below, is a cottage house, with the light on, in the one room.  Flowers grow in a planter and a large flower vine arching over the cottage.

This last one is potted plants, with a shovel and a frog perched on one of the terracotta pots.

These blocks were fun to watch transform into colourful pictures.  I can't wait to see how pretty they will look, once I am done with all the handwork.  They are so pretty, with their bright colourful pieces.

Today, I have given myself until noon to play some more in my quilt room, but after that, I have to get in the garden to start the cleanup.  This morning I plan to play with all my strings on my So Many Strings quilt. Still have too many units and blocks to do, but I am having fun while sewing these mindless blocks.

Enjoy your day and take some time to play.

What's on my design wall today (May/2019)

This morning I got up and thought I would get out into the garden.......however while I was sitting in my quilt room having my morning tea, I thought about how nice it would be to get these quilt tops done.

Five quilts sitting there, all in partial state of completion.  All but one were started from leftover orphan blocks.  The one is going to be a class sampler.  

It was a mistake to go into my quilt room, if I really had intentions to get into the garden.  I should know better.  It looked too cold out there for me.....and that was enough of an excuse to stay in and quilt....lol.

By the end of the day, or should I say, the end of my energy, the design wall looked like this.

I'll speak more of the quilts in a later post, as I quilt them.  For now, it's 6:30 pm and I still have to get dinner on the table.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Victoria day long weekend.  Me, I plan to take advantage of it.

Finished quilting mom's charity quilt

My mom is at the stage where she realizes she has a lot of fabric and may not be able to use it up in her lifetime.  So she is challenging herself to only use her stash, or at least the majority from her stash.  This quilt was completely from her stash and used a bunch of her scraps too!

She did a whole lot of four-patches from her already cut blocks a while ago and is still trying to use them up.  These four-patches were put on a diagonal with alternating light blue blocks.  The perimeter half blocks and the corner blocks were done in a darker blue colour than the centre blocks.  I think this effect is nice, it kind of frames the centre blocks and created the first border.

The last border is hard to make out, but it has mini daisies all over it, so I quilted this quilt with an edge-to-edge Apricot Daisies pantograph.

It turned out lovely.

Gathering flowers quilt last block for this batch

During the Christmas holidays I made a lot of progress on my Gathering Flowers appliqué blocks.  Throughout the time since, I've shared them on my blog.  This month, the month of May, is the #4 for the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO challenge.  For me, that is my Gathering Flowers quilt.

I've not taken it back out yet, as I feel I need to get some other things done first, but I do want to find time to work on it, as it is a quilt that lately I've wanted to have finished.  There is still a lot of work to be done on it and it will not happen in a month, that is for sure.  So....since I am not ready to take it out just yet, let me share with you the last block in the batch, that I worked on, during the Christmas holidays.

This is called blooming buds from page 70 of Mini Dietrich's Baltimore Basics book.  I've changed up the colours a bit, but essentially it's the same block.

It's different from most of the other blocks with that middle piece.  I'm not sure what that blue piece is to represent.  Maybe I vase?  I'm not sure, but I am doing it anyways.

I am thinking that later in the month, I may take at least one other block out, to play with the quilt and move it along just that little bit more.  We shall see....

In the meantime, I have many other things that I am trying to complete, to reduce my list to a more manageable number.  My list has gotten a bit out of hand lately.

Finished the drunkard's path quilt

The drunkard's path quilt was my American Patchworks & Quilting UFO challenge quilt for September/2018.  I did manage to complete the top in September, but it had to sit and wait in line to get quilted.

I finished quilting it in the beginning of October.  The year 2018 was a very good year productivity wise for me. Many quilts got done.  Many of the quilts were long time UFOs, lingering around for years, for some reason or another.  Last year was the year for me to get things together.  I had determination, focus and the desire necessary to see things through.  I am proud of that year.

I call this my spring quilt.  It's cheerful, soft pastel colours, with the majority of the fabrics being floral.

I continued with the feminine theme of the quilt and quilted this quilt using a feathered pantograph.  I love how it turned out.  It's a traditional quilt, done in your basic 40s style fabrics in a traditional layout.  Nothing fancy, new or modern about it, but I love it.  Don't get me wrong, because I also like modern quilts and anything in between, but I guess I am partial to traditional older looking quilts.

To celebrate this quilt finish, that I started in 2004, I decided to make a special label.  This label, is made with a doily that came to me as a gift with a pretty vase, from a dear aunt, many years ago.

My aunt Alice was very special to me.  Now I get to remember her and how special she was to me, every time I take out my spring quilt.  She was definitely loved by many.  She had that special bright and positive outlook and went out of her way to make you feel good.  I know on this day especially, Mother's Day, that her children miss her.  God bless.

To everyone out there in bloggerville, Happy Mother's Day.  If you are still fortunate to have your mother around, don't forget to hug her and tell her you appreciate everything she has done for you.

Finished my Xmas solstice star quilt

Christmas in May anyone?  I know I am late, but finally got some pictures of this quilt.  This is a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt pattern, called Celtic Solstice. I finished it back in November/2018.

This is my Christmas quilt, for my bed.  I am calling it Christmas solstice.  I quilted holly leaves edge to edge across the quilt in a green thread.

The back of the quilt was fabric I picked up years ago, when I initially thought of making myself a Christmas quilt.  I got 9 meters from the bolt as it was on sale.  The tag was still on and I gasped when I saw it.  Can you believe that I bought this bolt for only $2.49/meter.  Wow!!!  Can't get those kind of sales now a days.  It is good quality fabric too!

It was not a wide back, so I did have to piece it.  I decided to use up all the leftover units from the front, to make a strip going side to side horizontally.  Note that the small fist size dot above the strip, is not a defect.  It's the spot that touched the ground, while I was trying to get it out of the car and into the house.  That was the corner while it was folded up.  At the time it was raining.

You may not see it in the picture, but the binding is stripped candy canes, sewn on a diagonal.  I love using strips for binding.  They add a bit of fun.

A couple more NICU tops done

Just last week I wanted to work on getting some more NICU quilts done.  I while back, I went through my sewing room and gathered up a bunch of orphan blocks.  Blocks that did not make it into the main quilt and/or stuff customers gave me to make something out of.

I gathered up enough pieces and parts to make 20 NICU quilts.  Since, I have been making them and have dwindled it down to thirteen, minus the ones that I have since added.  So, I figure that if I do two per month, I will be done all of them by November.  These next two are my goal for May, so I am ahead of the game.  Just have to quilt, bind and label them.

The quilt above I am calling it the checkerboard quilt, for obvious reasons.  I could have added any colour for the first border, and went with blue, as there is a greater need for boy NICU quilts than for girls.  I get that.  As a whole, I find I tend to make more girl quilts.  I have to make an effort to think about colours suitable for a boy instead.

Below is a girl quilt.  These were four log cabin blocks that a friend had given me, when she cleaned out her quilt room.  I have one more like these, but the size is 10 1/2" instead of these, which are 6 1/2".  I couldn't figure out a way to fit the larger block in, so I think I will just keep it to make another separate NICU quilt.  Maybe I'll put it on a diagonal and add corners to make it bigger.  We'll see.

Here, below, I have a pattern that was left on the free table at the HHQG.  I was cleaning up and putting the chairs and tables away, this somehow got left behind.  The pattern is paper piece and it was started, with some fabric cut out and paper patterns ready but that is where it stopped.  I am thinking someone already made it and had left over parts.  Since they put it on the free table, I guess they decided they didn't want to do another one.

The pattern says the size is 14 1/2" X 14 1/2", so that tells me it is a miniature.  I checked if anyone that was still there wanted it, and when they all said no, I brought it home with me.  Couldn't just throw it away.  I'll make another NICU quilt with it!  I can add some borders and such to make it bigger.

I'll finish up this post here, as I have given myself until 10:00 am, before heading downstairs to work on customer quilts.  I have a few I need to get done, and if all goes well, tomorrow I can be working on quilting some of my own.  Wish me luck!  I am needing a few very productive days to get to a point where I feel caught up.

So many strings quilt

I have been busy with all sorts of stuff lately, finding myself spinning my wheels and going nowhere, but now we are May, and I have decided to just take a break from what I feel I have to do, to doing something that I want to do.

I am having fun playing in my scraps.  It was a few days before May when I had some time before American Patchwork & Quilting UFO challenge would announce the number for May, so I decided it was time for me and some mindless sewing.

I took out a few handfuls of strings from my light and my dark drawers and started to sew them together.  I am working from the piles on the table.  When the strings get too small, like less than 7", they go into the purple baskets, to be used for the second round, and when they are less than 3 1/2" they go into the single black basket to be sorted into my crumbs.  The last two black baskets are my completed units.

Right now I am just concentrating on the units. String after string.  So far I have just over 70 units of dark strings and 40 of lights.  To complete the centre of the quilt I need 420 dark units and 252 light units. So.....lol I have a ways to go.

Later on as I get a bunch of units done, if I get tired of sewing strings together, I can start assembling the blocks.  Below is what the block is going to look like.

I've shown this block a little while ago, when AP&Q magazine came out with a quilt-a-long challenge, both in their magazine and on Facebook.  This is my version of their quilt.  The block will basically have a light half and a dark half, which can be used in any layout that you can do with a log cabin block.  For my chosen layout, I have to make 42 of these blocks for a queen sized quilt.  The individual units finish at 3", which makes a finished 12" block.

Between making these units, I do still plan to work on other things, like all the quilting I have to do, the NICU quilt pieces ready to assemble, plus other UFOs, but right now, I am just enjoying the mindless sewing.  

Enjoy your day, and don't forget to take some time for yourself!

Inspiration on Pinterest (QW)

I was browsing through Pinterest the other day and came across some inspiration.  I am always looking for some quilting designs or scrap quilt designs to use up my bits and pieces.

I wasn't disappointed with what I saw.  I can get lost in time while on Pinterest, but I do try to keep it to a minimum.  Especially recently, while I am trying to get as much as I can done.

This first picture I want to keep a record of.  The waves are very nice and can be easily set up on my tablet to be quilted out on the longarm. I like the optical illusion that you get when the waves curve in together really close and back out again.  It almost makes the waves look 3D.

This next picture, is to use up some of my 2" strips.  While I am cutting up the scraps I could be cutting sets for these blocks.  I like the chain effect.  You could even set these on a diagonal to have the chains going up and down the quilt, for a different look.

I also saved this picture, as I am really into zig zags.  I love the scrappiness of this one, and with the scraps being contained by the grey separating the rows of scraps.

There was a lot more stuff I saved on Pinterest to refer to later.  But these ones I want to keep in the forefront of my thoughts.  I may need them soon.

Hope you like the inspiration.

Finished quilting the NICU scrappy strips quilt

It's Friday, yay!  But really, where has the time gone......

I feel that the time keeps speeding up.  The older I get the faster it goes.  I try my hardest to take advantage of my time, but there are not enough hours in the day, unless I go without sleep.... I love my sleep too much to forgo it, but people keep teasing that I am getting closer to the time of sleepless nights with hormones and the change of life....lol.  I'll be fighting it off!

 Last week some time I decided to work on another NICU quilt.  I think I posted about the starting orphan block that makes up this centre.  The centre block is my daughter's leftover block from Bonnie Hunter's Fair and Square quilt that she made.  So I had to come up with a design to enlarge it to make a NICU quilt.

It's a bit bright, but my daughter likes it, so maybe it would be more appealing to a younger audience.  To start off,  to enlarge it, I decided to use a grey small border to separate the block from the rest of the quilt.  It was a toss up whether I was going to put the block on a diagonal or not, but in the end no matter how I tried, I could not think of what to do next.  The problem was once you put the block on a diagonal, you are left with little room to add much more as borders, because the length diagonally is larger and adding the corner pieces to square it off again takes a lot of room.

So, in the end I went with adding a small strip border, followed by another small grey border, topped off with a wider strip border, all with mitered corners to add a bit of interest.  It is a bit bright, but there are a lot of kid type fabrics, that they could play I Spy with it.  There are horses, skating dogs and cats, toys, and some other stuff that I don't recall right at the moment.

Above is a closeup of the quilting. And below is the finished quilt.  I like the movement of the circles. It's a nice pattern and will be suitable for modern quilts or for children and young adults.  I like it so much, I am wondering if I have a quilt that I am making for myself, that I can use this pattern on.

This weekend I may not have much time for quilting, it's getting close to the end of tax session here and I almost forgot to schedule it.  So, Saturday I have an appointment with the accountant and I come home to do my mom's for her.

The weather is supposed to be nice, but I doubt nice enough to get out in the garden.  If not, you know where to find me....lol.

I still have to try and get some things done before the end of the month (my own imposed deadline).

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Simply Arranged wool appliqué wall hanging

I am flipping through all my pictures of stuff I was going to share on my blog and realized that I forgot to show you something that I recently started.

Started!!!  Who me?!  Of coarse I did, but with good justification, or so I keep telling myself....lol.

I bought a kit, back in the summer, last year at a quilt show.  It was a wool booth with wools, threads, beads and kits.  I have been wanting to try something in wool for a long time, so when I saw this cute little wall hanging for 50% I had to have it.

So.......when I signed up for the Summertime Sampler wool quilt wall hanging, I had forgotten that I had this kit.  It wasn't until I was on my way home from the first class that I remembered.

I started rationalizing, that this wall hanging is much smaller than Summertime Sample, and that maybe I should do it first, to practice, before I get into the real thing.  Well.....that's all it took!  Didn't need to come up with any other excuses.  What can I say, sometimes I'm easy....lol

I cut out and pieced all the flannel pieces to make the centre of the wall hanging, including sashings and the first border.  I moved on to sorting the wool pieces in the kit.

I used the fusible web called Barely There to trace the pieces.  The picture above is how far I got with the blocks. 

Throughout the week I traced the pieces and fused them to the selected wool colours.  The picture below shows all my pieces ready to go, when I get a chance to get back to it.

I know what you are probably thinking, why start another wool project.  Well.....here comes more rationalizing.  You see.......I have another class coming up the first weekend of May.  Though I was doing well with this wall hanging, I figured since I took the class, I should at least show them something that I completed or at least started.  The rest of the story is obvious.  Hence I started Summertime Sampler...... 

Do I feel guilty for starting something else when I have already many other things on the go....NO!!

I work at everything as time goes on.  A bit here and a bit there.  Lots of things get done and given away to charities, some to family and a few for myself.  I feel that it is the many things that iI do that keeps me from getting bored and because I have so many that is what keeps me motivated to get them done, before I acquire an even larger amount of UFOs.

Either way, I feel no guilt or shame, as this is my happy place and people benefit from what I do!

Finished quilting the second Mountain Majesty quilt

So, here is the second mountain majesties quilt.  I had the blocks done for a bit, but it took me a while to find time to assemble the quilt.  This one is pretty much the same as the last post's quilt, only the placement of the blocks are different and the small border.

I also quilted it differently.  I made a wave design on my tablet with deep waves.  It looks modern.  I think it may be versatile for younger kids, modern quilts and anywhere that you are just looking for some texture.

Here is a picture of the back of the quilt, where you see the quilting better against the cream.

Here is the finished quilt.  Like I said earlier, not much different than the first one.

Finished quilting the first Mountain Majesty quilt

This month I started this quilt.  Initially it was going to be a large double size quilt to use up all the odd large print fabric chunks that I was given over time.  It started out well, as the blocks are very easy to make.

I just kept making the blocks required.  I thought to myself that the quilt is getting pretty big and I didn't have a backing fabric the size needed.  But I did have a fabric that was 56" wide and I had many meters of it.  So, I broke down the quilt into two.  The two quilts are the same size and used every block I had.  It just felt like it was meant to be.  Now I have two lap size quilts for donation.

I like the zig zag layout.  It seems to be one of my favourites at this present time.  This pattern also looks great in specific colourways, like all blue and white for example.  Mine is scrappy, because I am trying to use up what I have.  Trying to clear out some older fabrics.

Here is a close up.  As you can tell, I used everything!  But as a whole, it still works.

Pattern is from Bonnie Hunter's free patterns on Quiltville blog.  At the top she has tabs.  You will find it under the free pattern tab called Mountain Majesties.

Have fun!

Progress on summertime sampler

On Sunday after a lovely dinner/family gathering at my mom's, I took another "me" day.  That's a day where I take on no responsibilities and do what my heart desires.  I spent the whole day in my happy place.....my quilting room.

I made some more blocks for the summer sampler quilt/wall hanging.  Here is the watermelon block. There are no hand stitches yet, as I am just taking the time to set the blocks up.

I have laid out the blocks on my sewing table and I am sorting colours, to distribute them across the quilt, and fuse them in place with Barely There fusible webbing.  Once I am done all the blocks, I can at my leisure, do the handwork.

This is the potted flower block.  So far, my mom says this is her favourite.

There is the tea pot and tea cups block.  On this block, hand stitched swirls will make a huge difference to the overall feel of this block.  Most of the blocks are the same.  The handwork will set them off, give them more definition and detail.

Followed by the fish block.  I am truly not in love with the fish.  Not liking how the very bright green fins stand out against the pink fish and distract your eyes from looking at the whole block, as one.  I also find the light blue fins of the red fish a bit blinding.  It almost looks like white in the picture.

I am going to have to give this block a bit more thought, once I am done setting the others.

Next we have the house block.  This block will also benefit from some handwork.  In the original block the house is a perky yellow, however I have found it difficult to find wool in yellow.  In the whole store there was only one yellow piece, and that yellow piece was a very bright yellow.  So, I've gone with a more traditional colour for the house.  My thought being that the house colour will balance out the watering can on the other side of the quilt.

Purple is another difficult colour to find.  Hence the green for the roof of the house, instead of purple.  If all else fails, I tend to go with traditional.  It doesn't make for an exciting block, but not every block needs to be eye catching.  Some of them, just need to be pretty.

So, there you have it!!!  I am halfway there, with six out of the twelve blocks, set and the next two are already drawn out.

I can already see a very big difference in my blocks from the ones in the original pattern.  Though there are many blocks very similar to the original blocks, mine look a bit more subdued.  The original pattern of Summertime Sampler is very bright and beautiful!  It uses all solids, whereas mine uses mostly patterned wool fabric with some solids and the ones I am using are not quite so bright.

I feel that it is just as pretty, but in a different way.  I was initially drawn to the brightness of the original pattern, however I am still very much liking my version of the pattern.  Hope you like it too!

Summertime sampler progress

Back on March 30th, I did a class for wool appliqué.  We didn't even open the pattern in the class.  Instead the instructor had us making a coaster.  The coaster was of a wool circle with a flower and a couple of leaves.  It was a good starter kit, to get a handle on how to make the buttonhole stitch and just in general working with wool.

Our next meeting is on May 4th, and I up until this point, haven't even opened my pattern.  I hope she is not expecting us to have it done....lol

Making the coaster, taught me that I like working with the soft texture of wool, and how easy it is to appliqué without having to turn under the seam allowance.

I cleaned the piles up a bit for the picture, but earlier, it looked like colour just threw up all over my cutting table....lol   Don't those piles of colour look yummy!

This next table is across from the cutting table pictured above.  It's my sewing table, where I set up all the black background blocks, with each of the paper patterns of the individual blocks.  I've basically lay out some of the major colours, dispersing them across the quilt.  Minus all the green leaves.

I am currently working on the tea pot and tea cups block.  That is where the hole is, on the table with no block.  The pattern book lays on my machine edge, at the top righthand corner of the picture, and my ironing pad is just to the right of that.

The way I work is, I take the background block to my wool ironing pad, which sits beside my machine.  I staple the plastic see through drawing, of the block design I made, to the top edge of the block.  From there I have the placement pattern and flip it up and down as I need it.  My wool ironing pad is large enough to hold my block, some space for my iron and a corner for ironing the pieces to the Barely There fusible web.  I cut the pieces out, place them on the block, according to the plastic placement sheet and iron them in place.

I will continue this for each piece until I complete the block, layering all the different elements, and moving on to the next block, until all the blocks are done.  The whole process is very soothing.  Playing with colours, drawing the shapes, ironing, cutting , ironing some more, repeat.  I could do this all day.  In fact, until I had to get ready for Easter dinner at my mom's, that is exactly what I did all day.  I felt so peaceful in my happy place.

After all the colour play, I got down to business and completed this block.  My first block of twelve.  This is the watering can full of sunflowers.  I am really loving the texture you get from the different layers of wool and the different shades of yellow with their different fabric patterns.  

I am loving it!!  Can you guess what I will be doing all day today! Lol