Thimbleberries Jewel Box II - a February finish

Too late for Finish it up Friday, my usual linkup, but I did have a finish in February which I thought I should show you now, before I get distracted by something else!

I mentioned that I was very good in January about focusing exclusively on quilting: this virtuous resolution carried over into February in that I layered several more tops in readiness, but I only actually managed to quilt one of them.  My excuse is that we had the plumber in, refurbishing our bathroom, which is a different sort of finish for which I cannot take credit.

Yes, it may look familiar to readers of this blog: I made another Jewel Box quilt from old Thimbleberries collections - probably 15-20 years old - and blogged about that one here.  Amazed to see it is almost exactly a year ago.  How serendipitous: I couldn't have told you if you had asked me when it was, so it's great to have this blog as a record.

As I said in the previous post, I had quite a few blocks left over, as one inevitably does, and once again I trawled through all my tucked away stash fabrics, chopping up anything which looked as though it might fit in with the country palette into 5" or 2 1/2" squares.  

This is a great scrapbuster quilt and there are lots of favourite old fabrics so for me it's something of a walk down memory lane.  It's also a great one for clearing out odds and ends of neutrals from other projects as variation in the neutrals adds interest.  As ever with a scrap quilt, the more different fabrics the better, as it is surprisingly hard to get a layout which doesn't repeat the same fabric in too close proximity.  Laying out the blocks satisfactorily always seems to take longer than actually stitching them together!

Don't you think the old patterns are sometimes the best?  Quilts like this one are really easy to live with; undemanding and comfortable, they just fit in with family life.  No-one minds if something gets spilled on them or they drag on the floor.  I guess that's why I keep coming back to this palette of colour and traditional blocks, even though I love the bright fabrics and modern aesthetic too.

At some point during 2017 I must have put the blocks together, and then had a pause till I found a suitable backing fabric in the Cowslip Workshops sale last summer.  I love this backing: it is from Moda's Collection for a Cause 'Nurture' line, and it has just the right country look.  Also the colour was perfect as it gives the quilt a warm and cosy  feeling.  So good to get the perfect fabric at a discount - who doesn't love a bargain without the need to compromise on artistic standards?!

I found enough of an old red Thimbleberries fabric (a useful favourite, also used in other quilts) for the binding.  Job done!  I do love shopping my stash and feeling thrifty: the fact that at some time I had to buy all of the fabric to be able to have a stash to shop is beside the point....

The quilting I did the same as for the first version: crosshatching through the diagonals and then a curving quatrefoil shape in the diamonds.  Easy to do with a walking foot and not too many ends to tie in, especially as this large quilt didn't need a border.

Quilt stats: 80" x 88".  One hundred and ten 8" blocks set 10 x 11.  The blocks are each made up of two 4" HSTs and two 4" four-patches (all measurements are for finished sizes).  I think I have now used up all my made blocks with this quilt, though the few fabric leftovers have gone into the makings of another scrappy quilt which still has some way to go...  Carry on quilting!

Friday - Finished up Leftovers

Another week gone and I have a finish to share.  

This little quilt expresses all I love best about patchwork and quilting.  It is made with the nine- patches and fabrics I had left over from making the Wedding Stars quilt (see this post), a quilt I loved making for two special young people, so my leftover quilt will always have particular meaning for me as a reminder of them and their wonderful wedding day.

It is a double nine patch - who doesn't love a nine-patch, and more of them has to be even better? And I used a number of stash fabrics, which I also love doing, to enlarge and enrich, even the plain teal binding came from stash (I've got a large stash...).  The country colours are easy to live with and the blocks are all extremely scrappy: the only constants are that I have separated the blues and reds, as I did for the original quilt. 

I did take a bit of trouble over the seam allowances to help the blocks lie flat.  Here's a shot of the back of the blocks.  It is a little harder to spin the seam allowances with a nine patch block compared with a four patch, but so worth doing. 

I now pretty much do it as a matter of course whenever it is possible, as it does help to avoid that lumpy bump or ridge on the front of the quilt.  It makes it less likely the needle will jump or drag when you are machine quilting across the blocks too.

The quilt measures  61" x 78". The nine patches are 4 1/2" finished, so the twenty large double nine-patch blocks measure 13 1/2" finished, sashed with 1 1/2" strips and cornerstones.  

The quilt is backed with brushed cotton plaid for extra snuggle appeal. I have kept the quilting fairly minimal, just in the ditch beside the sashing and across the diagonals of the nine-patch blocks, so the quilt is soft and cosy.  I felt an allover crosshatch would be too strong, and I wanted the fabrics to be the stars of this modest quilt.

Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoy your leftovers too!  Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

Project roundup

Working on lots of bits and pieces this past couple of weeks.  Never seemed the right time to blog; husband hogging the computer or I didn't have the right photo and the light was dreadful.  We are still quite grey and chilly here, with only the occasional stunning blue and sunny day interspersed.  But Spring has been sighted, and the mornings and evenings are not so dark when I take my daughter to/pick her up from the train station.



I managed a small finish, having put together a baby quilt from squares left over from this quilt top, pieced in May 2011, nearly its third fourth anniversary, and still waiting to be quilted.

Would you believe I've just seen the same quilt design/block made by Lee of Freshly Pieced which she blogged about yesterday - that's happenstance!





It's the classic Jewel Box block and Lee has a tutorial or you can look at the pattern I used which was a free one from Moda Bakeshop called Sunkissed Jewel Box by Mary Lane Brown (here).


The fabrics I used were Verna and Hunky Dory from Moda and Lizzie by Anna Griffin, plus an assortment of neutral just-off-whites.  I like mixing collections for a speedy quilt which isn't too predictable.










I love being able to make something from 'nothing' and the little squares had been sitting around in a bag for far too long.

I was inspired by the huge Checkerboard quilt in Sunday Morning Quilts and quilted  it just like Amanda Jean, to one side of the seam lines in two directions.  Just enough quilting as the squares are 2 1/4" unfinished, 1 3/4" finished.

You may just be able to see the large pink spot on the back - not quite long enough so I pieced in a strip of plain white.  Stripy binding from stash - it was by Heather Bailey from an old collection. Quilt measures 28 1/2" x 44 1/2".

I also quilted the fresh and fruity Not-quite Bargello top from here - I stopped because I was waiting for the border fabric and then was waylaid by other projects.  I haven't had a chance to sit and hand sew the binding - I like to save this sort of job for when I am not able to use my sewing machine - maybe a finish by the end of the week.  I don't have a photo so that will have to wait till next time.

Plugging on with my EPP Lozenge quilt.  At the last minute I decided I needed the quilt to be slightly longer than it is wide so had to make a few more lozenges.  It is almost square - but I couldn't bear it being wider than it was tall, it just didn't feel right.  Again, I will save the reveal on this one till I have squared off the top.

What I will claim as my WIP for the link up today is that I have finished hand piecing all 16 of the Rose Chain blocks which I started back on last November.  I am ready to join the blocks and then tackle the applique borders, so it's not going to be really finished for a while yet.  However it is satisfying to have got this far after a 10-year lay off....

Now for confession: today I went shopping for a white cotton wadding, full of resolve to quilt the Jewel Box quilt top mentioned above, having dug it out of the cupboard, and equal resolve not to buy any fabric, having been inspired by Crazy Mom Quilts' 6 month fabric fast.  I can do that, I thought...

Maybe not.

I don't feel too bad though as I didn't buy any fabric when I wasn't well - hah!- and didn't go to the sale at Farnham Maltings or the Ardingly Quilt Show in January, so this was my first splurge in a while.  I LOVE what I bought, the 'plains' are Peppered Cottons and have a real depth of colour, and the spots are so subtle I couldn't pass them by.

The musical instrument fabric is by Fabric Freedom (no name on the selvage, I'm afraid) and I couldn't resist: my younger son plays bass trombone in a brass ensemble so I have to make him something with this!

Linking to Lee at Freshly Pieced today - always great to see what she is up to, and all the other link ups.  There's so much making going on out there - what are you busy with?