Sweet River Studios

  Our second BOM for On Wander Lane is for the month of April titled Bunny Knoll.  We had a slight hiccup with our applique pieces but it was pointed out and the provider got corrections sent to us. Which means, I couldn't do the main block first and so I worked on the three border blocks first.  Tulip Block This block went together fairly easily. The background fabric squares were sewn on the diagonal on the tulip fabric and trimmed, while the green leaf fabric was placed on the background fabric. Sew the pieces together and you get a tulip flower.  Block on Block This block was made using a 3.5" square piece with a picture of a house and flower on it. Some background pieces was added using two different fabrics and sewed together.  Flower Basket Block This block was made using half square triangle (HST). I've never done HST's this way before but I've seen it done. The instructions were clear and I didn't have any trouble. It's difficult to see but I'v...

Well, I bit the bullet. I joined a block of the month through Stitchin' Heaven . I have never signed up for a BOM simply because of the cost. I figured I can cut out my own stuff. Well, after several years of starting and never finishing sewing projects, I realized something. I don't have the patience, time or energy to do everything. If it's a simple cut fabric and sew together quilt, that's fine but if there's a lot of applique involved, forget it. I will buy all the fabric, because let's face it that's the fun part, pet it for a while and be all excited about the quilt project, get started then realize that making the thing is going to take at least a year and roughly 462 months.  And let's face it,  life gets in the way and then I spend less and less time with my project and the excitement wanes. Then I've got pieces and parts laying around and no energy to figure out where I left off. Sounds familiar, right? Don't lie it totally does. I cann...

I finished piecing together the individual pieces and started putting a few together to make bigger pieces. Now, to sew those together to make 1/8th of the center medallion. Just remember to make sure your registration points all line up or at least get pretty close. This will keep all your pieces lined up as you put the top together and believe me, you will need it. This quilt top is probably the hardest one I've had to sew. Although, I didn't enjoy sewing the Y seams (3 sections meeting together) in the Amazon Star quilt either. This one is just awkward. Here's a picture of all 8 of my quilt pieces. Think large crescent shape about 3' long. I laid them out on my bed to see how it would look. Below is some more pictures of them spread out but not sewn together. After the medallion center part is put together, I'll add the applique pieces then the 8 appliqued baskets to the outside. I've also ordered some metallic thread. I've never worked with...

The next unit to sew together is pieces G, H and background B. I admit, I'm not really sure I did a real good sewing these pieces together. Background B points rarely lined up well with the registration points on the units but I did the best I could. Here is my background B pinned to the unit. I figured I just marked the RP dots a little off on the piece. This piece is very important to get right. I apparently didn't get one of them right and when I went to sew the whole thing together it didn't fit right. Like, not even close...   Units G and H registration points lined up fairly closely. The last picture is G, H and background B all sewn together. I'll put together all the separate pieces into the main panel of the quilt, which each one is 1/8th of the quilt.

I'm putting some more units together for the Paradise in Bloom Quilt and below are units D and E. I pinned the two pieces together at the registration points and sewed them together. Then I added background piece A (the dark brown section).      Next was sections G and H. These two are dark brown with lighter fabrics. I pieced these the same way. I lined up the RP dots, pinned them and sewed the pieces together.     The fabrics for the flower on these two units are different. I wanted brighter/darker colors for the lighter background and lighter flower parts on the dark brown background, hoping they would pop a bit more.

I've got the baskets done, so now I'm ready to start putting some of the units together. Starting in the center of the quilt, which are units A, B and C. Remember to line up the registration points (RP) and pin them together as best as you can and remember to watch out for any seams that need to line up as well. This will help keep your pieces where they need to be. Part B is sewn onto A.          Part C is sewn onto A/B.   These 3 pieces form the center medallion. Now to sew the rest of the medallion together.

I took a small break (maybe a year or so but whatever, don't judge) from this quilt but now I'm back at it. Seriously, I just need to clean my sewing room and so some projects must get finished and out the door, right? Right. So here's the basket pieces. The entire thing is paper pieced with some applique pieces to finish. This quilt comes with 4 baskets unless you buy the extension and get 4 more.  So I did. I'm making 4 lighter colored and 4 darker(ish) colored ones. The difference is the background fabric, the stems and colored buds. There's still more applique work to do for the center medallion part but one step at a time.    I decided to hand stitch embroidery floss along the edges of the greenery.    I'll be able to finish the rest of the stitching after these pieces are sewn onto the rest of the quilt. Now, I need to make 3 more of each color.