I made progress in the string challenge department. I got my Daylilies quilt into a top… (retreats can give a girl just the boost she needs!!)
This is all batik fabrics. Several of the girls had commented at the retreat that it wasn’t their first choice of quilts to do from Bonnie Hunter’s book String Fling but now that they had seen it to the top stage, they like it. That often happens to me….I see a quilt from a book, I’m not particularly excited about it, then I see someone else make it and I’m loving it. I don’t think it has a think to do with the designer…sometimes it’s just different fabrics or maybe even my tastes have changed a little bit. Who knows?! All I know is that I am super happy to have it this far.
I came to retreat with this all in units. I just needed to assemble them…and I DID!! This was my Friday and Saturday morning project.
After that was finished I started working on this….I got it as far as I could. Right now it is 85″ x 85″.
I think my plan is to put another row all the way around it. That would bring it to 95″ x 95″. I like that size a little better. We have a queen sized bed and I am a “covers hogger” so…I need to make it as big as I can. I didn’t have more pieces to make it bigger so the good news is that I get to make this bigger….some might laugh and say that’s not good news but honestly, for me it is. I love making those little churn dash blocks!!
Here is the link to make the blocks if you are interested.
After that I moved on to work on my Tulip Fields quilt. As some of you know I’m trying to make all of the quilts in Bonnie Hunter’s String Fling book before the new String Frenzy book comes out. Tulip Fields is my last quilt. I do need to machine quilt two but…I’m getting close.
I’ll be here next week to tell you if I made any progress. Right now all my things for the retreat are still piled up so who knows!?!?!?
Both quilts are gorgeous Jo but especially the day lilies quilt! Love the batiks! You got a lot done at the retreat!
What I truly love about Bonnie Hunter (other than her gift of all the free patterns and her books) is that she tells us that a pattern is a “recipe” and that we are free to add our own “spices”—color choices, fabric choices,–batiks, shirtings, flannels, and the list goes on. Sometimes I add ALL fabric choices if the “colors” are right :-)
I’m not fond of string quilts, mainly because I dont keep anything smaller than 1.5″ strip. My philosophy is I have bigger fish to fry so why waste time on the bitty ones. I do like the look of them. I gifted my String Fling book to a friend. Kind of wish I had kept it as you can always use a stripe to make it.
Wow, Jo! You had some good projects ready for retreat sewing. Love both of these quilts! Daylilies glows with color. As you were appliquéing the stems I thought I would have figured a way to piece that part too. Ha! Now I really love the grace of those curves amid the angles and geometry. So pretty!
Congrats on getting so much accomplished at your retreat. I just love the daylilies in batiks. Just gorgeous! The little churn dash blocks are so cute. They would make good leader/enders for me!
The batiks made this quilt beautiful!
Both of the quilts are gorgeous! Hope they are keepers for you!!
I love that you used plaids to put all those little churn dash blocks together. I have a whole bag of plaids that I wasn’t sure what to do with. Maybe I’ll try this. Or maybe I’ll just send it off to you to use.
Congratulations on two great quilts, Jo! I love the Daylilies quilt..the batiks really make it sing! And all the plaids in the little churn dash blocks are great. This just makes me think of snuggling under a quilt with a good book to read! But not today…it is 92 degrees and very humid!!
Thanks for sharing!!
I love the little churn dash blocks. If I didn’t have so many UFO’s I would start that one!! Maybe one day.
So glad that you went to retreat and got a lot done, I love the daylilies quilt made in Batiks! Wow! and who doesn’t love those cute churn dash blocks made with all those shirting’s?