English Floral Checkerboard Quilt

Finished Checkerboard quilt

     I bought this fabric and pattern while I was still working at Libertyville Sewing Center back in 2000.  I bought the other fabrics in 2001.  Twenty years later I got it cut before going to quilt retreat in October of 2022.  Finished piecing it at retreat in March of 2023.  That summer I put on the borders at home.  I finally got it quilted in June of 2024 and the labels and binding done in October of 2024.  Only twenty four years from buying to being finished.

Block detail

Borders

     I love the soft colors in the quilt.  It was difficult to cut the floral bouquet fabric as it needed to be fussy cut to get the dense floral parts of the fabric for the center of the block.

Label 1

Label 2

Quilting detail

     I used a design from Embroidery Library for the quilt label.  I liked the pretty flowers that went with the overall time of soft and floral of the quilt.  Barb, the quilter, and I chose this floral quilting design and did it in a soft mauve color.  I used white flannel for the backing and also white batting so it would keep the true white of the flannel.  

English Floral Checkerboard Quilt

     Supposedly this was a queen sized quilt, but as you can see on this queen sized edit hangs almost to the floor.  It is HUGE!

Badminton T-shirt Quilt

 

Finished large t-shirt quilt

     My daughter-in-law brought me a couple of bags of t-shirts from her uncle.  He played badminton and was in many tournaments.  We spent an afternoon sorting through the shirts and deciding which ones to use.  She wanted it for a queen sized bed so we went with 6' x 7'.  

Pile of t-shirts

     The first step was taking apart the t-shirts so I could then iron on the stabilizer.  I use 911-F by Pellon to give the shirts enough body and prevent them from stretching while cutting and stitching.  Some of the t-shirts needed to be cut a little differently than my usual cutting.  One had a logo very near the sleeve so I had to include some of the sleeve in the block.  One was a polo shirt so I needed to consider where the buttons were so they didn't wind up in a seam allowance.  There were a few that had just small chest logos so we opted to use four shirts in one square.  Some had patches that I removed and added to another square with just a small logo.  

Initial layout

Sleeve in the quilt square

Polo shirt

Four patch block

Patches block

     After I got all the squares cut to size I did the layout.  I wound up with four extra shirts.  When I looked at what I had extra and some of the squares I had in the layout, I realized there were several that had short designs.  I cut those down and then added part of the extra shirts.  Now I had just one extra square.  I decided to add that to the back of the quilt, almost like a label.

Two together

Two more together

     After getting the front pieced, I had to piece the fleece for the back as the quilt was rather large.  Before pinning the front to the back, I sewed the extra square to the front, right sides together, with the two loose edges pressed under.

Adding the extra square for on the back

Pinned to the backing

      I sewed all around, leaving an opening for turning.  I then turned it right side out and stitched close to the edge to closed the opening and also keep the backing from rolling forward.  I then hand stitched the two loose edges of the square on the back.  The last step was tacking in the corners of the t-shirts to keep it all together.  

Quilt 'label'

The tacking cross from the back

     I do hope Uncle Bill likes it.  

Violet's Easter Bucket

Finished Easter bucket

      I did my granddaughter's Easter bucket this past week.  Since I had so many problems with her Halloween one I was considering doing the smaller design.  Then I realized when I opened the design on my machine it showed it in the extra large hoop.  So instead of rotating it so I could use just the large hoop I just rotated it 180 degrees so it was upside down.

Hooped stabilizer

Detail of the stabilizer

Window drawn for cutting

     I hooped a piece of sturdy stabilizer, the kind that has a grid of nylon threads.  I then cut a 5 x 7 opening in it and pinned the opened up bucket underneath.  That meant the bucket went around the bobbin arm of the machine instead of how it was side to side last time.  So much easier to take on and off to do the trimming for the appliqués.  

Pinned under the hoop

     This bucket was also a little easier to pin in place since it was cloth instead of the vinyl.  Then I just had to sew it back together.

Putting it back together

Plain bucket

    From a plain bucket to a fun Easter bucket with help from Designs by JuJu and MasterWorks for the lettering.

Finished bucket

Embroidery detail

Violet's Halloween Bucket

 

Halloween bucket

     I got the Halloween bucket done for our youngest grandchild.  This one took more effort than I remember with the others.  I chose the 5"x7" design which meant I had to hoop the bucket sideways.  Maybe I used the 4"x4" designs before????

Taking it apart

This meant I had to take part the bucket almost completely as it is vinyl and stiff.

Hooped

     I used the under the hoop method of hooping, pinning it securely in place.  At least I thought it was secure but some of the sating stitching was off at the end so it must have shifted as I took it off and on the machine to trim the appliqué pieces.

Putting it back together

    

      Then I had to sew it all back together.  I couldn't get real close to the top because of the 'wire' they have in there to keep the shape.

Embroidery detail

     I like these designs from Designs by JuJu.  They stitch out great (except with operator error).  The split design is fun because you can add a name.