Pie Birds Pattern now a top

 Good day, and welcome to my blog.  I have progress to report.

A few weeks ago I started a pattern by Kim Diehl called Pie Birds.  The start of the project is described in this Blog Post.  Continuing the project is described in this Blog Post.

I persevered and sewed 30 blocks, for a set of 5 blocks by 6 blocks.  I added an inner border (making the most of a narrow piece of fabric) and a wider outer border, using the black fabric in the flying geese part of the blocks.  Here it is, finally:

About 70" by 60" now.  And a closer view of one corner:

It's almost too busy and bright to look at.  I used 1800's reproduction fabrics, in browns but also the bright colors that have been reproduced.

Careful piecing is needed for this block.  If all is well, the points of the flying geese pattern (made from 2 half square triangles) meet nicely. 

In other cases. my points are chopped off.

And there may be misalignment.

But in the overall view of the quilt top, you can't see these 'mistakes'.

I am pleased with the result.  I will take this top to my long arm quilter in the new year.

Next week:  A new project with an interesting pattern.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Diamond Pops in different colors; other updates

 Good day, and welcome to my blog, on a very cold day in the American Midwest.

As mentioned in a previous post, the quilt guild I belong to has smaller interest groups, including one group interested in working with pre-cuts.  2 months ago we were issued a challenge: work with a jelly roll of fabric, and the pattern Diamond Pops by Jordan fabrics.

Three of us had finished tops or quilts, and one lady had some blocks done (out of an initial group of 23).  It was interesting to see how the pattern looked so different done up in different fabrics.  Here is mine, in greens:

How about in pastels?

PS. the green thingy in the photo is a small sculpture on our hostess's coffee table.

And another, in batiks:

The group concluded the meeting with another jelly roll pattern to try, and we will meet again in February 2026.

Other updates:

The pie birds blocks (30) are done, and I am trimming them to 10.5 inches unfinished.  They are slightly too large and some points will be cut off I am sorry to say.  My later blocks are better than my early blocks.

I shared in a previous post that my sewing machine was chewing points of fabric as I was sewing squares on a fabric rectangle for flipped corners.

I received lots of advice but the best came from Roberta, who suggested I start sewing not at the corner, but from the other end of the seam.

How I was sewing, and having trouble with about 10% of the seams:

The beginning would get pulled down into the machine, some of the time.  Roberta's suggestion:  start this way:

And I had no problems at all!  Thank you Roberta!

Rest of this week plans:  Bring Pie Birds blocks to a top.  Maybe start new jelly roll project.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Some progress this week

 Helo, and welcome to my blog.

I have a little bit of progress to report, mostly to keep account to myself.

I bound a quilt destined to a ministry of our church.  But I forgot to take a picture of it!  And I made more pie birds blocks, but I have blogged about this project twice already.  I have 20 blocks now (up from my original thought of nine).  I could stop now and make a quilt that is 40 by 50 inches plus borders, but this is pretty small.  I have more cut fabric strips, so I am going to keep on going.

No link ups this week, and all I have to show is a pile of blocks that I have shown before.

Viridian

Almost a top: Diamond Pops

 Good day, and welcome to my blog.  It's a cold December morning in the American Midwest.

The quilt guild I belong to has smaller interest groups that meet every other month.  The one I recently joined is a group of quilters exploring patterns for pre-cuts, such a jelly rolls, layer cakes, etc.  The challenge put out two months ago is to use jelly rolls (rolls of 2.5 inch fabric strips) to make the pattern Diamond Pops, a free pattern available on the Jordan fabrics website.

I picked up a pack of Hoffman batik strips, called Bellingham Bay, thinking of a quilt that would be OK for a guy.  Plus white batik yardage and blue-green batik yardage for the pattern and borders.

You sew up jelly roll strips to make the inside block:

The temptation is to trim these down to 12.5 inches - Don't!  

Then work with your yardage and build these blocks out to a larger size:

Assemble blocks, alternating blocks with light color on the outside edge, dark color on the outside edge:

This is where I am now.  Borders have yet to be added, which is why this post is called Almost a top.

Thoughts: It may be manly but the colors are a little dull and muddy.  At the quilt store where I purchased the Hoffman Bali pop and the yardage, I think I asked for 2 yards of the white batik, and 2 yards of the blue green batik.  The clerk misheard me and measured out 2.5 yards of each.  This is actually a good thing, as 2 yards would not be enough for the blocks, borders, and binding.

The quilt group is meeting next week, and we are showing off our tops (or finished quilts).  It will be interesting to see how different the pattern looks, done up in different fabrics. 

Edited to add:

I have now added the borders.  A picture of the whole quilt, on the floor:

Hard to see the dark outer border, so here is a close up of a corner:

------ ------- ------------ ------------ -------- ------------ ----------------- ----------------

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Triple Star quilt is bound and finished

 Hello and welcome to my blog.

I visited relatives last week, but found a little time for a finish.  I set aside my complicated pie birds blocks and pulled out a top from a while ago that I had quilted by the long arm quilter that I use.

It is a pattern by Kim Brackett and in looking back on my blog entries, I found that I started this project in February 2020, when whispers of the mysterious Covid virus were in the air.  I finished the top during Covid lockdown in late April 2020.  And there the top sat.

It is quilted in a design of stars and swirls.  And it is 65 inches square, a bit of an odd size.  The fabrics are 1930's - 1940's reproduction fabrics.  It's a great pattern, don't you think?

A close up of one block:

The points are made by the flipped corner square method.  Lots of them.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty,  Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Pie birds project continues

 Welcome to my blog!

My project that I described last week continues.  It involves many pieces sewn together in a 10 inch block.

It's a challenge, but I have blocks in the style of Jane Stickle, many small pieces paper pieced to make a 4.5 inch block.

And I finished a smaller version of the Nearly Insane quilt.  Many pieces in a 6 inch block, finished.

So 65 pieces in a 10 inch block should take time, but shouldn't be that bad.

Here are seven blocks on the table.  Colors are about right.

And nine blocks together on the floor.  My camera on my phone makes the colors more vibrant here.

One challenge is that in sewing the flipped corners to make the black geese, about one in ten pieces gets pulled down the hole in my plate on my sewing machine.  This is user error.

I have to rip out the snarled stitches and partially restitch.  This slows me down, and is why I have done only 5 blocks this past week.  I will go until I run out of fabric strips that I have pre-cut for this project.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

New block called Pie birds: a challenge

 Good day, and welcome to my blog.

I was looking at a pattern book by Kim Diehl that I got out of the library.  I tried a sample block of her Pie Birds block from her Simple Charm book.

It was not simple.

                             

Not for the beginner quilter.  No inset or Y seams, but many flipped corners, and 65 pieces by my count in the block. But what a great look!  Even though it took a long time to sew.  And I have done Dear Jane blocks, and Nearly Insane blocks, why am I complaining about 65 pieces of fabric in a 10 inch block?

I have already cut fabric for more blocks.  But I may make only 9 blocks - we'll see.  Think of the work involved in making log cabin blocks with tiny logs seen in some antique quilts.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty,  Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

New start: it's a Kim Brackett pattern!

 Good day and welcome to my blog.

I saw a quilt finish on the Colorful Fabricolic's page.  I emailed her about it and she was kind enough to send an image of her notes, and that her source was a quilt with this pattern on Pinterest.

Well at quilt guild the next week, we were sharing books of quilt patterns, and I saw this pattern in this book by Kin Brackett!

So no notes here on sizes, units, etc.  Get the book, and support our quilt designers/authors.

The pattern is called 3 patch, and is shown in the book here:

(Taken at guild meeting, and the shine is the reflection off the shiny paper).

Here is mine, in 1800's reproduction fabrics, not quite done:

But I want the quilt to be 60 by 80 inches, for charity giving.  This top needs to be a little bit longer (add more blocks) and a bit wider (add some strips) and bordered.

The border fabric I found in my stash was not quite 2 yards in length.  I had to add a few inches to it for the side borders, and given the print, if it didn't match it would be very obvious. I carefully pattern matched the two pieces of fabric.  A picture is below.  The point of the scissors is at the join.

Pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I will quilt this one myself.  Binding has been made and set aside.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Tidepools project now quilted and bound

 Hello and welcome to my blog.

I have a finish to report - Tidepools, based on a pattern by Scott Flangan.  He calls the pattern Plateau.

The start of the project is described HERE.

A finished top is described HERE.

The top looks like this:

I bound the quilt with binding that's the same fabric as the outer border, and top stitched it with olive green thread, which looks kind of gray:

Here is a corner:

As for my last post and last project, I am a bit disappointed in the long arm quilting.  The top tension is off, and the bottom thread is pulled up, especially where the quilting changes directions.  See the blue arrows in the picture below (I know, hard to make out - click on the picture to enlarge).

But it is done and it's on my bed.  I love the teal and green colors.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Quilt done: Contessa pattern in bright batiks, for Mom

 Good day, and welcome to my blog.

I am a reporting a finish from this year, a project I started in August and blogged about HERE.

It is a pattern called Contessa and I chose it and the fabrics in consultation with my mom, as the quilt is for her.

The overall quilt, after washing:

I washed it with 5 color catchers and it's a good thing too, as the catchers were bright pink when they came out of the washer.

A view of the backing:

I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the long arm quilting.  The top thread over all the quilt is too tight and is pulling the bottom thread up to the top.  On the points of the leaves in the quilting pattern, it's pulling the bottom thread way up.

Look at the leaf shape nearest the center of the picture.

There is not much to be done about it now.  I have added the binding (same eggplant batik as the outer border) by machine.  Then washed it as noted above.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss (she featured by Over and Down Under top - thank you!), Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Frederique at Quilting, Patchwork, Applique, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Top done: Over and Down Under in batiks

 Good day and welcome to my blog.

I have a top finished, soon to go to a local long arm quilter that I like.  When you are retired, there is plenty of time to move projects forward.

I used a purchased pattern called Over and Down Under, and a roll up of bright batiks 2.5 inch strips:

My start on the project is described in this Blog Post.

You have to keep close track of the squares you are sewing together, and their order.  For example:  this set of squares is sewn together in the wrong order:

I had to rip this unit down to the individual squares and resew.  But, hurrah, I got the center section finished!

And then added borders:

The background fabric is a Kona solid called Charcoal.  A close up of one corner:

I really like this roll of batik fabrics.  Unfortunately, I don't think it's available anymore.

I am getting back from my long arm quilter 2 quilts today.  I'll blog about them next week.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Little Crazy quilt finish

 Hello and welcome to my blog.

I was busy this weekend working on my Over and Down Under project, but it's not finished and not at a place to show the world.

Instead I will show a small finish.  In cleaning my upstairs sewing space, I uncovered a small experimental piece that must date back to before 2009.  I didn't discuss it on this blog, which I started in 2009.  I sewed bits and pieces of 1930's reproduction fabric together in a crazy quilt fashion.  I then embroidered the seam lines with the special stitches on my trusty old Kenmore.  This imitated a style seen in the 1930's, where a crazy block would be embroidered by hand with 'chicken scratch' embroidery.

The quiltlet is 15 by 14.5 inches.  I layered it, machine sewed a few lines of quilting to hold it together, and bound it on Sunday.

And a close up of the fabrics and stitching:

It's not to everyone's taste but it was a neat experiment.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery (she featured my last blog post, thank you!), Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

New start: Over and Down Under in bright batik fabrics

 Hello and welcome to my blog.

For National Sew a Jelly roll day (Sept.20) I started a new project using the pattern Over and Down Under, which I have used before.  On the 20th I just cut and prepped fabric, and started sewing on the 21st, continuing into yesterday.

The pattern and the jelly roll/roll-up I used:

The fabric is cut according to the directions, & laid out:

The gray squares on the upper right are my background fabric. There are doubles of most the colors.  I decided to have a rainbow gradient running sideways and up and down.

I pulled out a table to lay out my borders, so I wouldn't have to stoop down to the floor.

Starting on the upper left corner, I laid out the fabric squares on my sewing table and sewed them together, paying close attention to keeping them in order.

Here is one fourth (upper left quadrant) sewn together, not attached to the border yet.

The interwoven pattern is clear, but there is a bit of a mish mash in the middle where like colored squares come together.  I wonder if I should have set warm colors (dark red, red, orange, yellow) going sideways and cool colors (green, blue, purple) going up and down.  Well, it's too late for that now.  I will continue sewing this up this week.  When the center is done, the borders will be added.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Contessa pattern (again), in 30's repro prints

 Good day, and welcome to my quilting blog.

Today I am hemming corduroy slacks I just purchased, but I have been busy this last week, working on a new iteration of the Contessa pattern.  I used this pattern in making a top for my mom, shown in This Post.

I enjoyed the process, so started cutting into my 1930's to 1940's scraps and fat quarters, for another version.  This does not always happen to me.  I cut fabric with wild abandon, not counting.  So I now have enough strips to make two quilts!  And I bought more Kona Snow for the background fabric needed.  

Here are some blocks, laid out on the design floor:

The slight creaminess of the Kona Snow fabric makes a nice background.  Many of my reproduction fabrics have leaves, flowers, or geometric patterns.

But I made an effort to include novelty fabrics with dogs, cats, kids playing, children's toys, etc. for fun.

As soon as I am done with hemming, I will get back to this project.

Oh! but later this week (Sept. 20) it's National Sew a Jelly Roll Day!  Of course I have a new project lined up for this too.  I'll be using the Over and Down Under pattern and some bright batik fabric strips.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian