It's my turn on the Blocks From the Past Quilt Along again!  Check out my previous post HERE.  Check out the schedule and intro post HERE.

We are getting close to the end!  Only a few more weeks to go!

This week I am in charge of the Lemoyne Star block (page 55), the Oak Leaves block (page 84), and the Crossed Canoes (page 92).  Just like last time, I made each block twice so that I could try two different methods for each block.


First up is the Lemoyne Star:
This block is made using set in seams (y-seams) - yikes!  I was a little nervous, but excited to try a new technique.  Of course, for my first attempt, I just jumped right in and followed the limited instructions in my book.  But the pieces are just so darn tiny!  After awhile my block was looking so horrible that I had to scrap it.  And then I went to the internet for some more in-depth tutorials.  :)

I found a set of AMAZING video tutorials featuring Edyta Sitar on the Fat Quarter Shop Youtube page HERE and HERE.   Seriously - I learned a ton from these videos.  The block came out super flat and my center points came out perfectly!  Of course, my block somehow still ended up too small, so I had to add a little bit to the top and side...
For my second version of the block I decided to try paper piecing.  I found a free pattern HERE, which I sized down to six inches and it worked GREAT!  The points didn't turn out quite as wonderfully, but the block ended up the perfect size - yay!


Block #2 is the Oak Leaves.  It's an applique block and I knew I wasn't going to try needle-turn applique again.  Fortunately, I know lots of different applique methods, so I was still able to try two new ones on this block.  :)

For the first block, I simply applied Heat N Bond to the back of my fabric and fused it onto the background.  Then I stitched around the raw edges using a fun veriegated thread and a fancy stitch on my machine.
For the second block, I followed THIS tutorial to make my block using reverse applique.


The last block for this week is Crossed Canoes.  It's a paper pieced block.  Normally I'm a huge fan of freezer paper piecing (tutorial HERE).  But for this one, I decided to go the normal route with normal paper since the pieces are so tiny.

Now, I've done paper piecing a fair amount of times (check out my Storm at Sea quilt HERE), but this one was a little different.  It took some real practice in precision to get the little sections to line up correctly.  You can probably tell which sections I completed first...
For my second version, I decided to throw caution to the wind a completely reverse my solids and prints.  I like it, but I'm not really sure where it's going to fit with all the rest of my blocks.  :D

Now I just need to make a few more filler blocks and decide how to pu them together!  This quilt-along has really been a good challenge for me.  I'm learning (or rather, realizing that I need to learn) a lot about piecing tiny units, and about contrast.  Usually the biggest issue I have with my blocks is that the prints get lost in the tiny pieces and I end up with a block that reads all muddled together.  Hopefully I figure it out soon! 

Thanks for stopping by!

The past few months around here have been all about baby!

Meet Baby Noah.  He arrived on April 28th and he's the sweetest baby. 

And in case anyone was wondering, having one baby at a time is WAY easier than having two. ;)  Of course, I love my twins and I wouldn't trade them for anything (well, most of the time - wink, wink).

Before Noah arrived, there were a few other baby things happening around here.
First of all, the sweet ladies in my Do.Good Stitches Charity Bee all got together and made me this super awesome plus quilt!  I had NO IDEA they were doing it and I am so touched!  And the quilting on this one is so cool.

And THEN a bunch of local guild friends got together and made me this log cabin quilt!   Once again, I was totally surprised and floored by the awesome gift.  Aren't quilty friends the best?  Noah is definitely spoiled.  :)

But before even any of that, I had a burst of creative baby-stuff-making (for some women, "nesting" means "clean all the things."  For me, it's "sew all the things").  I cleared out my shop quite a bit so that I could take a few months off Etsy orders to focus on baby and it has left me with some glorious free sewing time.  It's been so nice making whatever I want to make lately, without having to finish priority projects first.

So I made Noah a few new bibs/burp cloths, and a onesie.

And then I couldn't stop myself and I made a whole slew more to add to my shop.  :)  Bibs are so fun and easy to make.  I love adding little bits of quilting to mine for added character. 

Up until a few weeks before Noah was born, I was watching my friend's little girl twice a week.  We really loved having Adele with us and miss her so much already.  She turned one right around the time we stopped taking care of her, so I made her this fun quiet book.  I've been wanting to try a book that is more appropriate for really little kids - everything is fully attached so that there are no choking hazards for little ones.  There are also lots of different textures and things for little fingers to play with.  And since I can't seem to make anything without following some sort of theme, I went with colors again (and shapes, actually.  I just realized you can't see it in any of these pictures, but every page has a different shape hiding behind the felt square flaps).  I was so excited to give this to sweet little Adele!






Noah is already a month old and I can hardly believe it!  I'm already back in the swing of sewing as much as I can - hopefully I'll have some awesome quilty things to show you soon!  Thanks for visiting!

P.S. The bibs and quiet book just happened to be part of my Finish Along Goals (#2 and #12 - original list HERE).  Wahoo!

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