Work on Wed 6th Sept

Hi Everyone
Spring is here or its meant to be, having mixed weather with sunny periods but lots of showers and a few days that are just perfect for the sewing room as wet and miserable outside.
Decided it was time to make some more blocks for my purple pieced quilt but my heart wasn't it cutting up more of one of the purple fabrics as just love it, had bought more of it for the borders but if I made this quilt queen size as I planned would have none left and the local shop had sold out (to me) so decided to make it a single quilt which will also fit our dining table.

By putting half blocks all the way around have ended up with a center that looks balanced and finished and didn't have to cut into anymore of my purple fabric.These were very simple blocks to make but the half blocks were like putting a jigsaw together as to which square and rectangle went where and even when I thought I had stitched correctly, unpicking and turning edges around was a regular occurence.

Very happy with how the border looks but sun streaming in this morning, darker purple on the left is closest to the true shade and this the fabric I don't want to use up.  Now just need to buy batting and backing.

With this done I still had a 10 days till part eight of Secret Garden was released and I didn't feel like quilting DHill so what to do. There has been a quilt / wallhanging I have wanted to make for several years, in fact from when I first found Esther's BOM group. I bought the pattern a couple of years ago and it seemed like what better time to start as I can just make the blocks as I have time and have the right fabrics. The pattern is Red Delicious which is the first BOM that Esther shared back in 2008
One block has always intrigued me so that is the one I started with.

Forest Reds

The reason I had never started this was I don't have many red fabrics in my stash except in batiks for applique but a few weeks ago I purchased a fat quarter pack from Craftsy hoping they would be suitable for Red Delicious. The three florals and the narrow border are from the pack and have worked well for this block.

The Lady Bird was my first problem as could not find a red with black spots that was suitable any where. Remembered I had an old red silk blouse that I had cut up for the fabric so tried using a permanent marker for the spots and it worked. Rinsed the fabric afterwards and the spots didn't run so used it along with a shiny black for the body.

Both the Lady Bird and the toadstools are lightly padded

The magic mushroom is my first time using the chennile technique.

Still need to mist and brush it a bit more I think.

Back in my comfort zone with these.

By the time I had finished this block I was hooked, no wonder Esther got so many followers of her blog with this pattern. The fun thing making it now is I can choose which order to make the blocks in. Next for me was the Cherry Basket which I knew would be a challenge fabric wise, especially as this is the central block and it needed to be right, but what a mess I made of the start

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

Found this basket weave amongst my oriental fabrics so traced and cut my basket. Overthought it and cut the base on the vertical thinking it would make the rim look flat on the table. Was then that I realised I had traced the pattern from the right side so the basket was the wrong way round, to make it worse I had cut my tablecloth fabric away from behind the basket as well.

Basket the right way round and with a slight change in the position of the righthand leaf it covers my tablecloth so disaster avaerted.

This was fiddly getting all the cherriers in place plus their tiny stems, not sure whether my medium and dark cherry fabric would work but really wanted something mottled and this was what I had.

Felt the red leaves needed something to lift them so there is a touch of colour with my varigated thread,  variegated thread on the mottled cherries as well.

Cherries Finished.

Time for the top of the basket and the bow and couldn't find the right redsso my love of purple comes back into play.

May be too dark but I really like it.

Cherry Basket.

Only the 31st at this stage so time to prep one more block. This time something simple so time to make the three Give and Take Swirly blocks.

Another fat quarter from the Craftsy pack was ideal for these. only have the longest one stitched so far because 1st Sept arrived and so did part eight of Secret Garden.

Printed pattern at 75% and it matched perfectly to my 21 inche calculation for the long side of the triangle but was hesitant to start as no mention of using the contrast fabric listed in materials. Do I or don't I, someone else was wondering the same and Esther quickly answered the question so time to get underway with the little applique blocks first. And gosh they were little.

Used the same fabrics as last months triangles, again stitching the leaves and stems before adding the centers.

Trimmed to size these blocks are two and seven eight inches square with seam allowance.

Had problems with the 40 little blocks not stitching square so decided to foundation piece the three parts of the block center and it worked a treat with my block going together quickly and everything matching perfectly.

Soooo love my butterfly contrast fabric.

Pleased I had started using my second background fabric as it is let me use my blocks background for the lighter stripe. Wish I had started using it earlier as just hope I don't need to remake my 40 little blocks at the end.

Rearranged my design board to include the corner blocks.

This has to be one of the most beautiful patterns I have made, Thankyou Esther

With the four corner finished should have gone back to stitching my swirlies but couldn't resist starting another block, this time Cherry Blossom.

This is as far as I have got at the moment with only the frame and the first flower completed though my other flower petals are stitched down.  Can't put the bottom leaf on until I decide on my sashing fabric as the leaf extends over it.

Hope you have all been having as much enjoyment from your stitching as I have. Once I link to Esther's WOW will be doing some more stitching on this block as having another day of rain.

Cheers Jenny